legal?
Asked by Jeff Sep 21, 2008 at 11:27 PM about the 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution
Question type: General
A local used car lot/importer here in Canada says that they have a 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution coming up for sale soon.If it's not 25 years old yet,and was never street legal here in Canada,how can they legally put one up for sale?
11 Answers
You can sell anything , and by not putting it on the road, they havent broken any laws... and when you buy something its up to the consumer to find out about local laws before buying and trying to put it on the road. ... what this sounds like to me is they got it from japan, and with your countrys less harsh import laws they got it here pretty easily... its kinda like a canadian importer bringing a r-36 skyline into canada and selling it in the US... they are illeagal here... and some rich guy will buy it and stick it in his airplane hanger, with his viper and his ferrari, never to be actually driven on public roadways ... its not ileagal to own, just to drive it or register it....Joe
You mean R34? The current GT-R is R35, and the Skyline/G35/G37 is the V35...
with the recent change in canadian bumper laws, it's now easier to import and export vehicles between the two countries, so yes it's legal, there's actually a fair bit now driving around the country (mostly the 8's and 9's, but you'll see anything from the 1's to the 7's from time to time)
yes r 34 godzilla with the rb26dett... yes there are alot of conversions being done, i was just using it as an example as to the fact that you can sell anything to anyone ...but its up to the buyer to be sure its legal before they go and drive it.... but yes i meant BNR-34.... witch as far as i knew was still illegal to import and drive in this country...but can be shipped into canada and converted to DOT specifications then brought here and driven and registered....Joe
So in canada, it would be legal to drive a j-spec car? or would there be a conversion that had to be completed first? and yea ive seen japanese Market cars in the US... but wondered what was entailed in converting a car to US DOT spec.?
well, here in canada, our laws are different than the USA. if the car is RHD ( right hand drive ) its OK to drive it here but I don't know about the USA. I see a ton of RHD cars in the province I'm in. trust me, If people can drive RHD cars where I am, Then you can drive it here in Canada too. If it isn't RHD, I think it has to do with Certain Engine specifications that the car has and it probably doesn't meet the NHTSA Highway standards and the emissions standards. It is possible to get it converted to meet the those required specifications, it will just cost a lot of money.
another thing is crash testing, a car has to have been crash tested in the US in order to be considered street legal.. this is why the older mitsu evos arent street legal and prolly never will be, i mean, how many people in the US want older evos? probably just a handful of us car tuners the US doesnt really give a sht about tuners and will never go back a retest these cars, so it will probably never legalize these cars
actually you'd be surprised how many people want the old evos, especially the 1, 2 and VR-4 Galants (or as some call it the evo 0). I actually see these cars sell off quite quickly at the JDM dealerships because they're kind of a collector item and a novelty as well
its illegal in canada as well they have a 15 year law if im correct so you could get a r32 right now
lol im one of those tuners that wouldnt mind having an older evo the evo VI is probably the best model ever made if u didnt know....
i definilty agree that the us government doesnt give a shit about the tuners because they have had to worry about the whole "fast and the furious" scene since 2001. They dont want to put up with all the street racing bullshit. There are skylines they made it over from Motorex that are for sale. I saw one in mississippi the other day on ebay. That whole subject is a touchy one there are plenty of place on the web...www.batfa.com....www.japan-partner.com... just to name two that you can buy a lot of different imports i.e. skyline,gto,evo,sti,silvia,rx7,sprinter trueno,supra.