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I am really looking forward to putting an order in for a ListerBell Stratos. I am trying to make sure I am not going to hit any roadblocks with us customs or the DOT. If anyone can give me any info on either import brokers or registering a ListerBell Stratos for road use in the U.S. I would love to hear from you. If you have horror stories I can't say I'd love to hear them, but I would like to know.
Hi, and welcome! I am in WA and put in my order with LB about a year ago. My kit is currently sitting in L.A. waiting to ship up here, so haven't gone through the full import process yet...
I will say this though it can be a bit frustrating hunting down a customs broker. I contacted probably 4 or 5 before I just asked LB to have their shipping co. Find me one. I would suggest going that route and save yourself somewhat of a headache.
As for prices, customs duties on "car parts" should be around 2.5% of the kit and a broker will be around $500. I can p.m. you a more accurate cost in a week or two once I actually pick up my kit.
Otherwise, Craig and Lydia are awesome to work with!! They are extremely helpful with everything and I can't say enough nice things on here, because I'd be here typing all night!
Congrats on deciding on an LB and get your order in soon as they are very busy and the waiting list is getting longer as I understand it.
Thanks for the info. I spent a fair amount of time looking for one on the web with pretty marginal result. Then I started asking the people I see when out walking my dogs. Turns out one of them is part owner in a company that imports parts from Japan. I'm going to talk to then in a couple weeks. I am still having a bit of trouble finding out what exactly, the DOT rules are. I thought that, as a replica, the kit doesn't have to meet the bumper and other NTSB regs. But I haven't been able to actually find that written anywhere. I'm fairly sure that my otherwise understanding wife would beat me in my sleep if I spent all the time and money to build one and then couldn't register it.
It vary's by state i think. Im writing this from my phone so I can't give you some good links, but start with NHTSA's website and.... there's one other that escapes me right now. Maybe try your states dol web page as well. Some other members may want chime in soon as I haven't gotten to this stage of my build yet.
http://www.stratosec.com/Forum/showt...=importing+kit - this thread is not very long, but it summarizes some of the questions you might have. Once you get a customs broker, its not hard at all. Just a lot of paperwork to fill out. I found my broker by cold calling a lot of local guys here in the port of detroit, eventually I found people who were willing to understand and or deal with this kind of thing. Of course, this is just based on my personal experience.
Importing to the US is straightforward and has been successfully done by a growing number of people on the forum now, so you should have no issues with customs or DOT once paperwork is done correctly. Also, Listerbell are quite familiar with what needs to be done their end to ensure proper paperwork, etc.
Registering for road use is a different story because every state has their own rules. The good news is that, as far as I know, it is possible in every state, you just need to look at your local DMV requirements. We can thank the hotrod crowd (SEMA) for pushing legislation on a state by state basis for this. See here:
http://www.semasan.com/page.asp?cont...olbox&g=SEMAGA
Or directly from Virginia DMV:
https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/vehicle...nstructed.html
Process seems pretty straightforward, the only part that caught my eye is that you need to pass your annual state safety inspection, so you'd better look up what that entails. I had to do the California safety inspection, but it was a bit of a joke - tested that the brakes can stop the car from 25mph in 25ft, checked that all the lights worked and were aligned, and the horn was working.
Regards
Paul
Thanks for all the help. Virginia seems to be pretty lenient about "replica" cars. So I guess it's time to make the deposit. Once again, thanks all. Now I guess I just wait, patiently of not, for them to make it.