Remember when "Euro" was a term of derision?

Wasn't turf protecting.

Now, it doesn't matter, it is just another old car, back then, gray market cars may, or may not have been, in compliance with US emissions and safety requirements, and you could possibly have problems licensing them, and risked having them impounded until you made them meet requirements, it was buyer beware.

Sort of like Nissan Skylines are now (at least a few years ago), you can't import them complete, but you can import a body and import an engine, and make the two meet up, registration is a crap shoot.

Doug

 

Importation laws were not as strict in the '80s as they have been in the past 15 years or so.

 

Don't assume your values are shared by the world...it's usually just your small realm of associates.
IMHO Euro was always most desirable and Asian cars were, and are, the derision.

 

"Euro-" was also a term of Intrigue, of "Forbidden Fruit" for many of us, knowing that there were potentially pure, unstrangled, non-neutered, unbloated cars that others were allowed, but not us.
We were denied "for our own good", but we knew better. And we were right.

 

Importation laws actually have been STRICTER in the past than they are now. As for enforcement? Just ask the automotive columnist (for R+T) who as a youngster tried to make money with a friend by buying a new Alfa Montreal and bringing over the Canadian border to sell it. When the Feds showed up at the door, they were planning on arresting him.

Certain states have been tougher than others, and there have always been ways of cheating the system. Clean Air laws started complicating things in 1968.


Thanks to Bill Gates, the McCaws and others, though, a select list of true dream cars can now be imported legally. Also, the thirty (or 35-can't remember) year rolling exemption helps.

 

True. Actually, the big gripe in the '70s and '80s was always that U.S. car buyers always got stiffed: lower hp, no Ferrari Boxer, dorky federal bumpers on the 308 and Countach, motorized seat belts, etc.

The only problem with Euro 308/328s is that they're next to impossible to register in California, which is a huge Ferrari market. So, they're a bit of a liability there even today.

 

I agree with the op. I recall there was a time in the mid 90's when the USA car was priced higher, and the Euro car was looked at like a leeper. Can't trust the odometer, etc...
Some guys would "settle" for a euro car.

 

i always prefer the original version onfanything. the crap they had to tack on to the cars to meet the USA laws ruined the lines of the cars, and added weight. if i die in a old Ferrari because it does not have the "crash bars" in the doors, or the huge bumpers -- so what.

i have sought out euro cars as often as possible.

 

+100 When I take my Euro 308 to the track, my other 308 brethren all want to drive mine.

 

What I think is hilarious is how many people trust the odometer on them today!

General rule for Euro cars: If speedo reads in miles, the car has more miles than are recorded. Check how old it was when it was imported, guesstimate how many Km were put on it before it was brought here, and add that to the miles recorded on the current speedo. (Of course with the possibility of additional having had the clock rocked at some point in its life.)

I'm astonished at how many people with Euro cars with MPH speedometer/odometers take their mileage at face value . . .

- TK

 

Or, if the odo/speedo is in Km, it only takes 62K miles to make the odo roll over to Zero, like happened on mine.

Sure, the odo has never been touched, or fooled with, see, only 36K Km on it....

Doug