Since I know this forum is populated by collectors of all sorts, I'd like to get some useful input - I am considering importing vintage cars (25+ years old) from overseas, as a business.

I know a lot about importing.. widgets, but not cars. Was considering Porsches - it looks like it could be profitable. And I like cars.. and if it fails to be profitable and collapses, I may at least end up with a nice car or 2

Thoughts, tips, things to watch out for?

 

Have to make sure vehicle are American compliant (safety, emission, who know what else ) or you can't title or register them

 

I think these apply to younger than 25 year old cars.. except in California.

 

Yup, just read that. Sounds perilous. I guess you describe the car as a repaired precision timing device.

 

I think you would have a lot better luck exporting Porsches back to Germany.

 

Perilous it is, but fortune favors the brave

 

Brave, yes, Uninformed, no.

Very hard to import large items due to the availability of ocean-based transportation. With the shrinking supply of active ports in the US even securing a spot for a few shipping containers is near impossible or will take several months. Add to it inspection costs, storage costs (which can easily get into the thousands if you wait multiple months), insurance, etc. and the only thing you'd be left with is a vehicle that's cost you more than if you'd just asked an already established dealer to secure you a comparable example.

And vintage European vehicle prices have been skyrocketing the last five years, especially Porsche, Land Rover, and Ferrari. The only real market that's starting to heat up a bit is JDM, but that introduces the aforementioned obstacles but adds in even greater storage costs (see: Japan real estate prices) and the complication of passage through the Panama Canal.

Unless you have a friend who owns a barn full of pristine air-cooled 911s, Defender 90's and Dinos ( the car equivalent of the dead Uncle) you'd be hard pressed to not lose many zeros of personal wealth.

 

Don't forget USDA inspections similar to Quarantine inspections in Australia.
Have to go to a approved wash pad ( with pits ) for inspections, and cleaning. You have to pay for wash pad, cleaners ( you can't use your own cleaners at these facilities) port fees for extra time.
Also air con gas removal if not US compliant by authorised bodies

In my experience not many pass initial inspections

 

I'll take a 993 Targa...

 

Great stuff. I'll probably have to talk to my customs broker and see how different the process is for cars vs the stuff they usually handle for me. And on the seller's end, the customary shipping arrangements.

The comments about storage is useful, did not know that this was an issue. Now looking at services that handle this as well

 

I live in CA and have tried to import some Nissan R32-34 here and just gave up. Modified my STI to no end instead. Hopefully NY easier than CA.

I think I remember a recent post where you acquired a beautiful Mercedes E-class estate. A 993 is getting a little greedy . That being said, I'll make my request for a 930.

 

I am in CA now. I was thinking of opening a separate legal entity in Nevada, then registering the cars in the name of the business so it has Nevada plates (and drive in SD). No way will this be as fun if I can't drive them (if I go through with this)

I have to compile some pricing info to see whether or not there is a significant cost savings importing vs just sourcing locally.

 

IMHO, it's only worth the hassle to import cars that were not available on the US market. An example of such a car is the Porsche 964 RS, which was never sold new over here but is now old enough to be imported. Otherwise, I don't think there are foreign collector car markets significantly cheaper than the US.

 

The future of classic & vintage cars
.

 

The flow of Porsches seems to be from the US back to the Motherland. I'm not sure how much opportunity there is to make money bringing them over here due to the prices you will have to pay, but I guess you won't know until you try. FWIW an acquaintance got into this a few years ago and is doing okay, but he is only bringing over cars in the $150k+ range. He already is financially set, so this is more of a hobby for him and $10k here and $10k is pocket change (i.e., his cash outlay to buy the cars doesn't take food off his family's table)..

 

What do you want to know? I've got some experience in this. Generally it's not practical as the arbitrage is not high enough to turn a profit.

CA has its own issues with CARB, but 25 years is the DOT limit, diesel works a third way in CA also which will drive you insane.

I know some guys that make money on specific models from Europe like VW Dokas and Spanish built defenders/ series landy.

Not a huge profit in bringing JDM over.

Here's the issue for this idea. If your don't already have a buyer you have storage and sales costs. If you have a buyer then he or she most likely already knows how to source and import. In both cases you have the costs of finding the car with a local sourcer who also handes the financial aspects, then you have shipping and import costs.

 

^^ good write-up. There is probably a much better living to be earned serving just as a sourcer/ broker then as someone who imports on speculation.

 

This all sounds like excellent advice. Most cars will not be significantly cheaper elsewhere, but maybe niche cars could work. Worth noting that fixed costs will be similar for 50k cars as for 150k cars so high value might make more sense.

 

I completely disagree with this statement. If anything, the fee loss factor rises for more expensive vehicles as you're paying more for insurance as well as the parts and labor for ensuring vehicle compliance. More expensive vehicles with proprietary parts get WAY more expensive as you step up the ladder, in a similar vein to watches. Also, the buy-in for more expensive vehicles will ensure higher finance / capital outlay costs since you're most likely not able to have as much cash on hand.

Add in the final wrinkle of greed and you're on a one-way trip to ruin. Many "deals" for highly-desirable vehicles will probably have some sort of impropriety attached in the form of forged VINs, faulty compliance, or shady titles, and imported vehicles that aren't compliant don't get auctioned off or parted out, they get destroyed.

 

I was actually thinking about doing the same but from US to Europe, especially with EURUSD going up recently. The idea would be to source the renovation worthy cars (was thinking about late 60's Porsche Targa ), renovate it in my country where the labour is relatively cheap (and the quality is high) and then reexporting it back to US where the market for classics is huge.

Opinions on that business model?