Any Interest in Imported Sleepers?

M

MilesTheGOAT

New member
Hey all,

I currently have a VW Passat sleeper that im looking to import to the US for personal use or to sell and was wondering if there would be any market if I brought a few over?

We start with just a standard VW Passat, Golf, Audi A4 etc and build them up from 130/150 HP and take them up to around 330/340. As they are from the U.K. they would all be manual and right hand drive but will still do around 50-70MPG around the city.

I’m just trying to get a bit of info on if it is something people may be interested in as I can build and send a few of these across.
 
Probably depends on the cost, and epa approval. But I take it your pretty knowledgeable on the TDI'S? I've got a Jetta with the 2.0 tdi engine, definitely not the same since they "fixed" them.

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J-Pipes said:
Probably depends on the cost, and epa approval. But I take it your pretty knowledgeable on the TDI'S? I've got a Jetta with the 2.0 tdi engine, definitely not the same since they "fixed" them.

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I could probably do it for a fairly low price compared to what you guys currently get out there. I’m currently trying to move to the states so looked up some prices, the cheapest 2005 Passat 1.9 I could find within 100 miles of where I’m looking at in Washington State was $5000, I could easily beat that price including shipping for a standard car as it is, it probably wouldn’t cost much more than that for a sleeper, I could build them to specs people needed too though for example if they have to keep the cat, EGR and DPF we could do so.
 
I think you'll have a pretty hard time selling right hand drive cars here. For me that's a deal breaker.
 
J-Pipes said:
Probably depends on the cost, and epa approval. But I take it your pretty knowledgeable on the TDI'S? I've got a Jetta with the 2.0 tdi engine, definitely not the same since they "fixed" them.

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There are "repairs" available that return them to pre-neutered state. No trace.
 
fatty said:
I think you'll have a pretty hard time selling right hand drive cars here. For me that's a deal breaker.
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Would it be that much of a deal breaker that you still wouldn’t be interested if you were able to get the car for thousands of dollars less than if it was a left hand drive?
 
Man, if I wasn’t working so much closer to home I would be all over this. Sounds cheap enough and I don’t make enough left turns for the right hand drive to bother me haha.

I wonder if my girl would drive a right hand car..
 
I would be interested, just have to make sure all the titling/legal mumbo jumbo is in line....I looked at importing an R34 Skyline but that was a nightmare...Since these cars were at least sold here it should be easier, but I dont know if it passes state/federal minimums.
 
sootie said:
There are "repairs" available that return them to pre-neutered state. No trace.
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Yeah, just been enough little issues with this one so far that I'd like to keep the warranty.

Sounds good to me, right hand drive might be kinda neat even.

Funny the skyline gets mentioned, I just listened to a podcast about a company getting into a bunch of trouble importing them back in the early 2000's or so. Was what I was thinking about emissions and whatever else the government wants changed.
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J-Pipes said:
Yeah, just been enough little issues with this one so far that I'd like to keep the warranty.

Sounds good to me, right hand drive might be kinda neat even.

Funny the skyline gets mentioned, I just listened to a podcast about a company getting into a bunch of trouble importing them back in the early 2000's or so. Was what I was thinking about emissions and whatever else the government wants changed.
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Yea I would almost bet they are built different over there because all the safety and emissions stuff is big $$$ they dont have to spend in Europe.

Im not sure if it is even legal to have RHD on a road car, tho I do see a lot of R32's, but some of those have "Classic car" titling.

I really don't know to much about the rules, I do know that I wouldn't pay even $1000 for a street car I can't drive on the street. $.02
 
R32’s passed the 20 year limitation or whatever and can be legally obtained. Had a friend do it. RHD is perfectly legal. Mail jeeps often get turned into crawlers and sold legally as well.

R34’s are federal illegal still. Not going to have anything in common with these VW’s which can be imported legally.
 
J-Pipes said:
Yeah, just been enough little issues with this one so far that I'd like to keep the warranty.

Sounds good to me, right hand drive might be kinda neat even.

Funny the skyline gets mentioned, I just listened to a podcast about a company getting into a bunch of trouble importing them back in the early 2000's or so. Was what I was thinking about emissions and whatever else the government wants changed.
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Pm me if you want details. The dealer won't be able to tell...just ask them politely not to flash it.
 
Do you have a website that shows your work? How is payment handled? You get paid when the car is delivered in person?
 
12valve95 said:
I would be interested, just have to make sure all the titling/legal mumbo jumbo is in line....I looked at importing an R34 Skyline but that was a nightmare...Since these cars were at least sold here it should be easier, but I dont know if it passes state/federal minimums.
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What state are you in currently? I’ll have a look at their laws etc and find out what we would be able to do.

zstroken said:
Do you have a website that shows your work? How is payment handled? You get paid when the car is delivered in person?
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I should be able to get you some pictures and videos of some of the work over the next couple of days, we have a 1.9 2002 Golf that’s running around 320 at the wheels, the only issue with that one is I definitely don’t think it would be able to be run on the street in the US as it shoots out a tonne of black smoke, over in the U.K. a lot of the cars from around then don’t actually have to have catalytic converters and anything really to reduce emissions for them to pass inspections so you can run a decat with no EGR and DPF without issues. In regards to payment I think this would have to be worked out but a contract would definitely be out in place to keep both parties safe.
 
MilesTheGOAT said:
What state are you in currently? I’ll have a look at their laws etc and find out what we would be able to do.



I should be able to get you some pictures and videos of some of the work over the next couple of days, we have a 1.9 2002 Golf that’s running around 320 at the wheels, the only issue with that one is I definitely don’t think it would be able to be run on the street in the US as it shoots out a tonne of black smoke, over in the U.K. a lot of the cars from around then don’t actually have to have catalytic converters and anything really to reduce emissions for them to pass inspections so you can run a decat with no EGR and DPF without issues. In regards to payment I think this would have to be worked out but a contract would definitely be out in place to keep both parties safe.
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I'm in Ohio. non-Echeck county.
 
12valve95 said:
I'm in Ohio. non-Echeck county.
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Ah ok sweet that would make things much easier. I will try and get some of those videos posted today of one of the builds. Apologies for the very delayed response too had some issues with my internet and didn't have much time to fix it but back online now!
 
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