4door93civic

my brother is looking into purchasing a rhd crx in the states that is not registered yet. will it be hard to register it in oregon? how do you register it?

itsJDMyo

hmm...never heard of anyone registering a RHD car in OR before...but good luck to you

TwistedSI

It can be done. Difficulty all depends on if it already has a VIN assigned to it. If it does and it is the correct one for the car, it will be no different than a LHD car, just don't say anything about it and they won't even know.

If it doesn't have a VIN yet you will have to have it inspected by OSP and they will run any numbers thay can find on it, make sure it is up to date on safety equipment for the model year, etc. etc. It can be a pain in the *** to get a VIN on a USDM LHD Honda from OSP so expect a fight if it doesn't have a VIN already.

4door93civic

help was appreciated. anyone else have any more information?

4door93civic

where would it be easiest to register this at

Simple

If you buy the car in the states... you will need the following:

DOT papers stating that the car conforms to all US spec regualtions. These regulations are listed here: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/....html

most of the time, all non-conforming vehicles (which JDM honda's always are) may ONLY be modified by a registered importer. Lucky for you, this car is listed as one of the imports that are eligable for import and modifacation, otherwise, you'd have to petiton for import (which is another $2500 or $5000, cant remember) if it passed that, you would then have to buy another one, and have it crash tested to even see if its eligable for modifacation.

So assuming you want to do it the legal way, you would have to have a contract with a registered importer for modifacation. The fee's for testing, and all total to about $5000, PLUS modifacation fee's. The only way to register it legally, is to have all the modifacations done to the car by a registered import, and a copy of the invoice after its completed.
Basic Modifacations are:
Glass
Lights and lenses
Odometer reading in KM and MPH
Tires, rims, and brake lines
Air bags, and shoulder belts
"objects in mirror are closer than they appear" on side mirrors
High mounted 3rd brake light
Steel door beems
Bumper supports

and im sure there are a hell of a lot more.

Now, that about settles it for DOT, the LEGAL way.

EPA-
is basically the same thing, gotta pass emissions. needs to have a cat and ODB-2 from what ive read... also needs to be put on by a registered importer, or factory dealership

NON legal way... Either know someone, or Swap VIN numbers.

Either way, its going to cost you a hell of a lot more than you think, and oregon is one of the easiest states to register stuff in... Im sure there is a lot more i missed, but thats just the basics of a small part of it. I will post up a thread on how in the hell to LEGALLY register a car so we wont have anymore re-posts on "How can i import a RHD and register it" threads.

going through customs is about 15x worse and more expensive.

My reccomendation: Find one in the US, already registered. Even if its like 10k, and its legally registered... its worth it.

5thgencivic

What amazes me is they don't even do yearly safety checks here(maybe portland with emissions) like other places I have lived. Pretty sweet though not having to worry about exhaust, car height, lights, etc