Wanting a 500 in Calif

[Kely X]

San Diego based and I travel to Italy as I am in the gourmet food business. I fell in love with the 500 on my last trip and would appreciate any inside info as to how I could get one in the USA, now, not in 2010 or so.
I read where Fiat is planning on doing a three city American tour sometime soon. That could be a good way to meet up with someone of importance within Fiat to help me acquire a 500.
I have some contacts in Italy with company CEO's, etc, but they are too busy to lend a hand.
Thanks, any help would be appreciated.

KX

[VilleV]

Hello Kely X! I quess you could visit a dealer on one of your journeys to Europe, buy a car and ship it to US. Wonder whar kind of customs fees or taxes you would have to pay?

[Cadbury]

I know someone who has imported a RV to the UK. Surely it is a reverse process? Mind you, the 'red tape' etc might cost !

I will contact my UK dealer tomorrow to see if they can help you.

[ewandougie]

It shoudnt be that hard, We can get US only cars over here no problem, I see the odd shelby mustang around :D . It should in theory be be able to work in the reverse. With the Fiat Chrysler being rumoured they may sell them officially in the US :-)

Woundnt it be better getting a LHD one for the United states and get a UK Dash pod fitted for the speed in mph or something

Edit 2 If you can be bothered to wait : http://www.500lovers.com/?q=node/6

[.Lefteris.]

Hello and :welcomeon500:
I hope you find the way to get one to US but am sure that it will not be an easy one!
It will be great for us to have the first new 500 owner in US as a member:icon_thumright:
All the best

[Cadbury]

Have no fear....... I have been on the case ! Try contacting these people...

http://www.shipmycar.co.uk/

Let us know how you get on

[Animo]

Have no fear....... I have been on the case ! Try contacting these people...

http://www.shipmycar.co.uk/

Let us know how you get on

Well done Cadbury! :icon_thumleft:

[Cadbury]

Why thank you:)

[wreckmaster]

I think Kely should buy her car in Italy or some country where they drive on the right side of the street:) Maybe Greece because of all the shipping from Greece to the US. The 500 should not have any major problems meeting californian regulations since it is so enviromental correct and has a euro NCAP score of 5 stars. I guess it wont be a problem to buy the car for export without any local taxes.... Take contact with a dealer somewhere and you should get all the info you need. Also contact the US customs to get a clear answer to what the taxes in to the US will be. Good luck:icon_thumleft:

[Cadbury]

Well you guys have posed some interesting and valuable questions. UK dealers can supply LHD if wanted

[wreckmaster]

''guest''[/I]]The job of "federalising" a Euro-spec car is not to be taken lightly; usually, this is done by a manufacturer and it includes major issues such as emissions certification or seemingly minor ones like side running lights or changing the remote key fob frequencies. To complicate matters, not all States view the matter in the same way.

My opinion is to wait for the federalised version that is coming anyway.


''guest'' is most likely right, so I guess I agree with him that you should wait for normal import starts. Then you wont get any trouble with guarantee because of side import etc.... I dont think you have to wait much more than a year anyway:icon_thumleft:

[minime911]

Hi,

As far as I know there are different ways of licensing a car in the US.
You can import quite easily a vehicle from Europe and if you buy it from a dealer you might even be able to get it without VAT paid in Europe as you will pay VAT in the US once it arrives over there. Provided that you buy a brand new car.
I suppose that you will have to pay VAT on the vehicle as well as on the shipping cost and maybe some special import toll as it is from outside US product. You better check on that point as it can be huge cost, it depends on your internal rules and I just know that people in the US as well as in France lately were scandalized as some French blue cheese, I think Rockford, the one with the rotten breadcrumbs inside was suddenly taxed 300% on import because US and France have some strange cold war going on.

I don't know if there is also a war with Italy but you better check first.lol

So please check about all additional taxes before importing.
For the crash homologation the 500 has as far as I know passed the US tests, but it would be up to Fiat to issue a certificate on that, and honestly, seen the way they work I think it could be considered a wonder if you can get such a certificate or even an answer from them.

This might also be caused by the fact that they plan to export these cars to the US and that they don't want to have private imports done in parallel to their organisation.

The emissions are probably not certified according to the EPA test, not saying that the car is not able to run that test but probably these tests are not done yet and you cannot simply convert a EURO4 or EURO5 emission test to US norms.

There are also other certifications on system diagnostics to be done to the car and it might well be that they need to add and modify some hardware on the car in order to bring it to US conformity.
So, it is not just as easy as packing now a ship full of 500's shipping them to the US and selling them through some Chrysler dealer network.

BUT... As far as I know you can import a car and you can get it licensed as some kind of show and demonstrator vehicle.
I think you are limited in mileage you are allowed to drive, but I don't know all f this ruling.

There are quite a few people that have done this before; the most famous one was Bill Gates with his Porsche 959. It took him ages to get that car out of customs but I think this was caused by something else.

I also have seen some of the last Classic Minis being licensed in the US so there must be a way.

Good luck...:icon_thumright:

Greetings:

minime911

[.Lefteris.]

The news from a friend of mine in US that doing this for a job!

''It is almost impossible to import a 500 to the US. DMV and federal regulations will kill his/her motivation to import this vehicle. as somebody already said, fiat is in cooperation with chrysler and the 500 is one of the cars that is scheduled to be on US roads soon. they have no interest in having them here anytime soon. even o try it, will cost you an arm and a leg and the shipping itself is he least of the cost. ''

[carolos]

Hi Kelly and :welcomeon500:.
Check with U.S laws if you can import a fiat 500 as in the states, they have many restrictions for small cars.
Good luck:icon_thumright:

[minime911]

To stay realistic,

This import would only make sense if someone is a total freak and if that car wasn't planned to be imported anyway.

In this specific case it would be a huge spending and also a big effort to win maybe a few months of delivery delay.

Ok, you would be the first one to drive that car over there but you wouldn't find a dealer to work on it, there is no warranty and probably also a problem with spare parts orders.

Bill Gates might be able to do such spending and for him and his mechanics it is not a matter of money to have things flown in by private plane if needed but for the simple folks that we are (apart if Bill Gates is subscribed with an undercover name in this forum) it makes no sense to do this.:(

So, you better be patient and become good friend with your local Chrysler dealer. Maybe he puts your name in first place of his waiting list.:icon_thumright:

Greetings:

minime911

[.Lefteris.]

simple folks, what simple folks???
We are all specials here! :)

[minime911]

Ok, sorry, le't say special folks with special wishes but with simple budget.lol

....Compared to Bill Gates....biggrin2

minime911

[.Lefteris.]

Ok, sorry, le't say special folks with special wishes but with simple budget.lol

....Compared to Bill Gates....biggrin2

minime911
lol

[.Lefteris.]

Now, Oh Mighty Administrator, what was so funny about that! Ah yes, that diet again...

Anyway, gloriously off topic again :hummerw:
:icon_thumright: