Beating a dead horse(questions about importing a vehicle)

Hello everyone!
My 360 needs a stable mate that I'm not afraid to put miles on. I have considered many cars in the sub 50k range,but one keeps me up at night. I would do bad things to be able to own a 2002 Mazda Rx-7 Spirit R. My very first car was a 93 Rx-7 and i just want to have the ultimate version. I know,it is younger than 25 years and thus "impossible". I think I may have a few things that make my ordeal different though. 1) I have legal access to dealer and Repair towing plates 2) I have a Florida address.

Am I in any better of a position of pulling this off?

 

Thank you for sharing!

 

From what I understand,It's legal to casually drive around with dealer plates(thus insurance),if you are the owner or immediate family of the owner(me). I've googled this topic to high heaven,have not found a thing regarding imports and the magical dealer plate. I think it is important to note that I will be able to use these plates the entire time i own the vehicle. I also do not ever plan on selling the vehicle.

 

True.The family business is a european focused collision repair service that in recent years has begun selling cars. As a result,we deal with every insurance company on a daily basis and are particularly good friends with the adjusters(they decide what we make more or less). So I don't perceive that to be an issue.

 

I suppose I'm looking for someone to spell out for me why I'm an idiot. If i never have to get the car registered because of the plate? Who is actually going to stop me/where are there still to be problems? I'm very aware the feds crush illegal cars,I just don't see how it would be an issue. I have read every piece of state legislature on the dealer plate and don't see how I'd be breaking the rules. One can own a less than 25 year car import here,they are just titled for offroad use only. You could technically put a dealer plate on an f1 car in my state and it becomes road legal with that plate. I have no idea how this is possible,but from what I understand it's been done.Have I found a loophole? Or am I a damned fool?

 

Oh the humanity! This is what I want to avoid-legally.

 

You're preaching to the choir man. The worst part is they sold this exact body style here for 3 years too. I actually refuse to buy benz because of this. When I was in the market for an uber sedan,the M3 and RS4 were the only ones I cared about. I really wouldn't mind if Benz went under.

 

At some point people were taking advantage of exchange rates and buying their cars over seas and getting them cheaper. Benz responded by coercing the United States Government to put in place the laws we deal with today regarding imported cars. I don't understand why they had to screw us so badly. The law should be 5-10 years at most,not the 25 Benz stuck us with.

 

If i could find the specific one I let go of years ago,I would consider it. Otherwise,I'm really drawn to the Spirit R because of it's rarity(1500 made). It also would probably be cheaper to just buy a Spirit R and put the pieces on an American chassis. The seats alone are worth 4-5k when an entire car can be had over seas for 30ish.. I would rather give up than rip one of those apart for no reason. American Rx-7s also tend to be heavily modified and very beat up. A car that I would want to start with would cost 25k before I even get into spending tons of time and money upgrading it.I would also have to live with myself after ripping apart 2 cherry examples.Not to mention it would probably end up being more exspensive than going through this process and I would only have a clone at the end of the day. I'm gonna give a japanese importer a call this week and hopefully start to get some more answers.

 

Thank you!

 

I agree.What kills me about the ordeal is how 99% of benz drivers only want the newest benz possible at the moment. This is reflected in the horid resale values of just about all Benz. For instance,My father had a S55 AMG for a bit. He bought it for 27k off the original owner who had paid close to 155k maybe 5 years earlier. My point being- A 5 year ban on imported cars would have certainly fixed the problem and not screwed everyone else.

 

I see your point. I'll take my questions elsewhere then. Thank you for all those that helped me. Don't want to ruffle any feathers here,I enjoy/value everyones insight here too much to do that. I am sorry if my line of questioning has offended anyone and a mod can close the thread if that is the consensus.