Grey import vehicle

[citation needed] In order for the arbitrage to work, there must be some means to reduce, eliminate, or reverse whatever savings could be achieved by purchasing the car in the lower-priced territory.

Consequently, it is profitable to export them to other countries with left-hand traffic, such as Australia, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, Malta, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Mozambique, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Cyprus.

These trucks are also exported many countries include Japan due to Japanese domestic makers no longer officially selling them through authorized dealers there.

[13] During the Second World War American servicemen stationed in Europe experienced the benefits of light, nimble British sports cars (e.g., the MG T-type) and shipped them home on their return.

Some owners even acted as sales reps for manufacturers who were happy to help, leading to official imports and the British sports car craze in North America.

[4][18] Unavailability of certain foreign models encoouraged demand for grey market vehicles arose during the Malaise era in the late 1970s.

[19][20][21] Importing them into the US involved modifying or adding certain equipment, such as headlamps, sidemarker lights, bumpers, and a catalytic converter as required by the relevant regulations.

[25][19] Many otherwise unavailable vehicles entered the US via the grey market, like the Citroën CX,[23][26] Range Rover Classic, Renault 5 Turbo, and Mercedes-Benz G-Class.

[35] Those who import nonconforming motor vehicles sometimes bring in more than one car at a time to spread the substantial cost of the necessary destructive testing, modification, and safety certification.

[38][39] In 2021, Maine began deregistering third-generation Mitsubishi Delica vans that were legally imported through the dispensation by classifying it as an off-road all-terrain vehicle.

[40] Rhode Island also deregistered legally imported Kei cars (including non-van models) in October 2021, citing a best practices guideline (non-legally binding) issued by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.

Typically, modifications to meet Canadian standards include the installation of daytime running lights and tether anchors to permit secure attachment of infant car seats, documentation indicating that any repairs required in response to the original manufacturer's factory recalls are complete, and passenger cars assembled on or after September 1, 2007 are also required to have an immobilization system that meets the CMVSS 114 standard.

[53] The main impetus behind this proposal is the significant influx of Japanese-market vehicles in Canada in recent years, particularly in Western provinces such as British Columbia due to geographical proximity to Asian ports of departure.

[59] There are a smaller number of United States makes such as Chevrolet and Chrysler, which were built in right hand drive for the Japanese market.

[citation needed] Used vehicles must, with some exceptions, be right-hand drive, and they must comply with recognised European, Australian, Japanese, or American emission and safety standards, or they are ineligible for import to New Zealand.

Also, small commercial kei car models such as the Daihatsu Midget II and Nissan S-Cargo are used by some businesses as advertising aids, as they are quite distinctive and eye-catching on the roads in Ireland.

There are also some Japanese imported cars found in the UK, the most popular being the Mazda Eunos Roadster, Nissan Figaro and Mitsubishi Pajero as well as performance cars such as Nissan Skylines, Mitsubishi FTOs and highly tuned Subaru Impreza and Toyota Supra variants that were never officially imported into the UK.

[citation needed] These cars tend to be cheaper than official UK imports, but often have better Japanese domestic market specification levels by comparison.

[69] The allowed imports are limited to what are called special and enthusiast vehicles (SEVS), or cars manufactured 25 years ago and older (With the introduction of the [1]).

[79] In Russia, grey imports, both new and used, comprised, at certain points, up to 80% of all automobile fleets, because of domestic production being unable to meet the market demands, both in numbers and in quality, especially in the early to mid-1990s.

Even though Russia is a left hand drive country, RHD vehicles are nevertheless legal there, provided that some adjustments (e.g. retuning the headlights) are made, but these are cheap and easily done, thus making the cheap and well-built Japanese cars, trucks and tractors (which proved sturdy enough to withstand severe Russian climate, bad roads, often inadequate servicing and questionable quality of fuel/oil) particularly attractive to the customer.

Japanese manufacturers themselves have also stepped in, creating local assembly plants that produce new, left-hand drive models to try to compete with the grey imports.

For example, a Porsche Cayenne parallel imported from the United States are priced significantly cheaper, sometimes up to CNY 200,000 ($30,000) than the official version sold in Chinese markets due to heavy dealer markups.

If a Japanese used car is fitted with privacy windows, it must be converted to AS-2 standard clear glass in order to register in Hong Kong.

In Japan, the term used to refer to this scene is called Gyakuyunyū (逆輸入, literally "Reverse import", commonly shortened to "reimport"), and this mainly applies to Japanese-branded vehicles.

In Sweden, the main source of grey market vehicles is via Germany, which has more liberal laws and better tax deals on new imported cars.

The Express Tribune of Pakistan reported on the subject by stating; "...Earlier in the budget announcement for fiscal year 2018–19 at the end of April, the government had said that it would impose a flat duty of $5,000 on the import of vintage or classic cars and jeeps.

However, it clarified that vintage or classic cars and jeeps mean old and used automotive vehicles, falling under PCT Code 87.03 of the First Schedule to the Customs Act 1969 (IV of 1969), manufactured prior to January 1, 1968.

Used cars in Cambodia are mainly imported from Taiwan, United States, Russia, Japan, South Korea and the GCC countries (mostly UAE).

In spite of the change to driving on the right, most passenger cars in the country today are RHD, being second-hand vehicles imported from Japan, Thailand, and Singapore.