25 Year Import Ban [Action]

[overland_w_cruisers]

Good evening in everyone in the overland community.

I have decided to take action on something that was really bothering me and a lot of other people in the overland community here in the states. It hurts me so much so see many passionate people hit the big stumbling block we have here, and that is the law.

I'm not going to rant here, but everyone here probably knows what I am talking about, and if you look at any overlander or 4wd channel across the globe, in the Africa (4xoverland), Mr. Dahl in the land down under (G'Day to you guys), and almost all of South America, you would see that we are being heavily bottlenecked.

It's like entering a race with a broken leg and expecting to match the rest of the competition. I get it, some of you may like our giant pickups, and although there are high tariffs, you could spend big bucks (2x) and get that car of your dreams in Australia or Africa. The case is NOT the same in the land above as there is an outright ban. To those who don't care about foreign cars and are proud of the great GM trucks we have here, this wont affect you in any way, so please leave your opinion out of this and do not say "You don't need it because I don't need it" or " Just Import a 25 year old truck" or "Just swap axles and a diesel". This only targets those who want gems offered on the other side.

The overlanding community is growing exponentially, and I figured at some point in time, this needs to be addressed and fought for, not just talked about in the last few comments of a thread that is going to go away. We cannot let this continue.

I have created a congress petition. It probably is written with too much emotion, so feel free to recommend corrections, but I would expect this to go far. We need 100k signatures, and we need global support. This law is not one of free market capitalism and was placed single handily due to Mercedes bribing the US government.

Mercedes tried to do the same thing in Australia, and the Australian government said no to bribery. Let's learn something from our cousins.

http://chn.ge/2oBRPMy

 

[Arailt]

I would love a 70 Series, but I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish here. Allowing the import of a new foreign vehicle is one thing, but most foreign vehicles don't meet Federal requirements. At the end of the day, you'd still run into a wall registering the vehicle and meeting Fed safety/emissions requirements and be left with a legally imported three ton lawn ornament.

 

[overland_w_cruisers]

Emissions can be solved with a V8 Petrol.

Fed safety would be a hurdle, but I imagine doing what the wrangler does with the bullbar is fair. As for rollover, widening wheel track can get it 4 star rating. Nothing is impossible.

 

[DesertFox]

Toyota and Nissan can make all of the various Land Cruiser and Patrol models U.S. compliant, as they do with the myriad other vehicles they import. With the exception of the LC 200, they choose not to.

My only question is, why don't they?

There are more than 320 million people in the U.S., far more than Australia, South Africa and the gulf countries combined. We are an enormous auto market. Nissan and Toyota would rather sell these vehicles in small rather than a large market. It is a mystery to me.

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[overland_w_cruisers]

Australia has free trade agreement with Japan. Us has free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico.
Japan qnd China used to have TPP with US I believe but Trump took it down.

These are outright trade wars. Toyota has destroyed the australian car market with sales to the point where even Mercedez, Jeep, and Land Rover don't compete.

The trade agreements are used to bypass chicken tax tariff, so in theory if Trump removes NAFTA, which I hope he does, we have a solid chance at Toyota collapsing in on itself and bringing in domestic made Hilux. Tojo would get incredibly infuriated.

I don't think tojo wants to bring the rest forcible through because if they change the 70 series a lot, they won't be bought, but they can't be bought now due to the law or safety regulations.

Then again, tojo is strong enough to take down the law just as Mercedez brought it up.

With TPP shot down, I think JP needs to retaliate. Combine that with dropping NAFTA via Trump and you have severe tensions in trade war since at that point USAs chicken tax applies globally, making an indifference to where it produced.

 

[Sgt12XU]

In CA, there are ways around it. Since our fuel is unique here (terrible 91 oct and Diesel 2)...you can have the vehicle registered as an alternative fuel (exempted from ban). That's how tuners brought Nissan R34 Skyline GT-Rs here.

 

[Mgway1]

I signed the change.org petition. You should do a white house petition too

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[overland_w_cruisers]

We need to spread this on YouTube and get 100k. It can happen and will happen as overlanding expands. One upset citizen as myself can't change much, but many can. I just hope we don't resort to buying Jeep's.

Just taking a look at the 4wdaction Australian forums, there are 16k posts about tojos and 600 posts about Jeep. Not trying to bash anything, but if the reason behind this polar opposite difference is due to the ban, tthen that is something that needs to go.

 

[feetforbrains]

Yeah, as a driver of a formerly banned Mitsubishi I'd love to see some of these rigs make it to NA before their old as dirt. That said, I don't believe that this is the best way to change either the law or the regulations preventing many of these vehicles from making it here.

Let's start by finding the specific laws that exclude these awesome rigs, then look to change those.

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[Old Griz]

I grew up in the Detroit area and half my family was in the UAW.
I am no union fan myself, to independent minded. ..lol
I have never really considered an import or know much about them.
My question is this , instead of worrying about getting vehicles imported that don't meet safety standards here in the states, I think working with Japanese and European auto makers would be better.
I'm sure if you get with TRD or LR they would listen to how you and millions of others want to spend your money.

 

[overland_w_cruisers]

I think there are three options here.

1) Impossible
2) Hopeless
3) Brute Force

Impossible) <- Big News
Toyota USA is never going to listen to its customers here in the states. We have great people looking to buy big, but poor US tensions with Japan has forced Toyota to either start cutting costs due to import tariffs (hence a cheap 4runner with no improvement), or NAFTA produced tacos/tundras. The news with this one is that Trump might target NAFTA with the steel tariff which would force production costs to go up by a lot, leaving car prices almost that of bringing in foreign imports without producing them here. The whole purpose of producing NAFTA cars was due to free trade, which Trump wants to disband. This is good news for Hilux boys and bad news for Taco moms. Australia is in TPP, hence they get all of the real Tojo's that we will never get. Their cars prices are jacked up, but they will never buy a new BMW that is bound to break -> cheaper to buy a expensive cruiser to last them forever.

Hopeless)
Drop the Import Ban. Keep the high tariff on imports, but there is no reason for an outright Ban. We can buy guns in the states that result in mass shootings but we can't bring in cars for "safety" reasons. This is hilarious. This itself, screams that US does not want its people to look outside and is forcing them to spend money locally. Take away competition from the world, and everyone is going to turn into a potato. This law is absolutely degrading of rights, but hey we can buy and shoot guns (because of $$$).

Brute Force)
Import Cheap 25+ Y/O cruisers and have a local overland shop make them like-new for a fair price. Same design, just imported parts, or even domestically crafted. Anything to avoid the poor quality of NAFTA cars. Not hating on US cars, but in general they dont have a worldly influence, with exception of a few (Jeep 4.0 Inline which is a beast).

 

[Old Griz]

Guns are protected by the Constitution.
No vehicle of any brand is....

What would be so bad about buying something older here and build it into what you want. You would end up with a perfect vehicle built to your specifications. I think that would be money better spent.

 

[overland_w_cruisers]

It's already built new from factory. We could buy an old one, import it, and build it as we want it, but I am sure there would be more replacing parts type of work being done as opposed to cleaning it up a bit. Also, a lot of us are not mechanically inclined as some others are. Perhaps I am just being lazy, but why reinvent the wheel when it's already there and the government law is stopping us.

 

[Arailt]

What does NAFTA have to do with importing vehicles that don't meet US DOT and EPA standards? Toyota is never going to sell the Hilux or a non US spec Cruiser regardless of trade agreements simply because they won't sell and they'll be competing with their own current North American offerings (4Runner, Tacoma, 200 Series, LX, and GX). Not to mention the US market for something like a 70 Series is so small that they would lose money selling them here.

 

[overland_w_cruisers]

NAFTA is the only reason why car companies choose to sell newly invented domestic trucks as opposed to selling modified already existing international trucks. If NAFTA was dropped and we had entered the TPP, the market would be flooded with hiluxe's and the safety and emissions laws would have been loopholed because that is what big corporations do, they lobby (bribe) for laws, just as Mercedes succeed in the US decades ago and failed in AU (gj Aussies) just recently.

 

[Arailt]

Why would Toyota lobby to bring the Hilux to North America when the Tacoma is cheaper to produce and has been the best selling mid-size pickup since it was introduced? Same with the 70 series. Who's going to buy an overpriced, over-engineered, bare bones mining truck with 30 year old technology and zero amenities, when a brand new full size Ford, GM, or Ram can out-haul, out-tow, out-tech, and out-perform it for a lower price.

 

[overland_w_cruisers]

It wont be cheaper when literally every part will have to be come from US and made in there, even though most Tojos are built domestically. At that point, it would be just as costly to buy a hilux with a nice 25% tax on it. Even though they cant tow, the mining trucks are extremely reliable, and would sell a bit better than the 200 here imo. Some people have more money than brain and would buy something of that sort in the overlanding community. The petrol 200 series cruiser is an embarrassment here, but Toyota decided to include it anyway. Surely their "marketing" didn't work out.

In any way, this is a drift of the original post. The 25 year import rule is hilariously out of place and very unsafe. You can buy get a 25 year old tanklike army volcano erupting soot vehicle and drive it legally, but a new 4 star ANCAP diesel is a nono. This law needs to go, as well as chicken tax.

 

[luchaDor]

This is not about EPA Regs (though it is one reason) or necessarily safety features, this is about protecting US Dealerships and US Manufacturers. It prevents you from importing a $12k brand new car meant for emerging markets (also lacking pollution controls & safety equip), thus robbing sales from US dealerships.

It just isn't gonna happen, too much money involved.

 

[overland_w_cruisers]

Why is this law even allowed? I'm sure Americans would buy big gm trucks over tiny foreign pickups even if they were half the price.

The law doesn't allow for free trade as we have with food, electronics, and even many other materials here. There is nothing free about this law and forces consumers to buy stuff they don't want to...

 

[feetforbrains]

This is not about EPA Regs (though it is one reason) or necessarily safety features, this is about protecting US Dealerships and US Manufacturers. It prevents you from importing a $12k brand new car meant for emerging markets (also lacking pollution controls & safety equip), thus robbing sales from US dealerships.

It just isn't gonna happen, too much money involved.

Spot on luchaDor,

The really good news is that for many Asian market vehicles 25 years isnt such a big problem. I bought my Delica with about 80k miles on it, compared to a NA market van like a VW that's amazingly low (but high for most from Japan). Parts so far have been easier to come by than expected too. Sure, it's not a D5, but they look like hacked mini vans anyway. I like driving a Martian Rover.

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