andrea874

One more question for any of you people who have successfuly imported a car into the US. I got my letter from Ford in Canada, saying that the car is totally fine for importing into the US except for one little thing (my car has daytime running lights, which apparently need to be disabled in order for it to fit the standards). Now, disabling them is no big deal - its a matter of disconnecting one wire.A friend of mine is a mechanic at Ford and can very easilly do it for us. However, when I bring that letter to customs, am I going to have to prove that they've been disabled with some sort of documentation? Should I be seeing if our friend can get someone at Ford write a letter saying that the adjustment has been made? Thanks for any opinions...

inquisitive40

Are you referring to small side lights that are on all the time or your main headlights being on all the time? We have a Pontiac Gran Prix and it's headlights remain on all the time, no way of tunring them off as far as I know.
Patrick

andrea874

No idea, the letter just says that the only thing that makes the car non-compliant with the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards is the daytime running lights... showed that letter to a friend that works for Ford, and he said it would be easy to disconnect. What they are isn't really the issue. I'm just concerned about how to prove it gets fixed!

Rete

Ford is talking about the regulations at the time your car was manufactured. There should not be a problem with having daytime running lights on your vehicle simply because many of today's models do have them on vehicles sold in the US.

If your friend is willing to disable them, he will have to provide you with a letter stating they have been disconnected.

Does the letter stated unequivocably that the car cannot be brought into the US because it does not meet federal safety standards.

andrea874

Rete,

Here's the letter. Any help/opinions would be very much appreciated. Should I have them re-word the letter somehow? Should I be calling customs to ask THEM about it (I don't think they'd know tho since it has to do with some safety standards which they probably don't know the ins and outs of...)...
--
This is to advise that a 1998 Escort, VIN#3FALPl134WRI06991t
equipped with Engine Calibration Number 8-03E-R06, is certified to meet United States Environmental Protection Agency Exhaust Emission Regulations in effect for the 1998 model year.

We also advise that the above vehicle was originally manufactured to comply with The applicable United States Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards necessary to allow its importation into the United States from Canada, with the exception of daytime running lights. This vehicle is equipped With daytime running lights and they must be disabled in order to make this vehicle compliant to United States Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.
--

Rete

Isn't it strange that daytime lights are considered unsafe ;-) My Canadian drives an American vehicle and although it does not have daytime running lights, he puts on his lights the moment he starts his car in the morning and would not drive without them on. In fact in the state of New Hampshire it is a law that you have to have your lights on or you can be ticketed.

Oh well, have Ford disable the lights and give you either a letter or a bill attesting to the disablement and bring that with you to the Custom's Office.

Even if you had to pay for the service, it can't be much.

Rete

J Broz

andrea874 wrote:
    >
    > One more question for any of you people who have successfuly imported a
    > car into the US. I got my letter from Ford in Canada, saying that the
    > car is totally fine for importing into the US except for one little
    > thing (my car has daytime running lights, which apparently need to be
    > disabled in order for it to fit the standards). Now, disabling them is

Very strange. I bought a new car (Subaru) in 2003 in the US and day time
running lights are standard equipment. I wonder why yours have to be
disabled. Some other car makers in the US have them as standard as well
(I believe Saturn is one)

If yours must be disabled you may be able to find out how via a web
search

andrea874

Well bad news, I just got off the phone with Customs at JFK and now they are telling me that the car has to be physically present in order to do the paperwork. Thats not possible since its neither currently registered or insured. So right now I'm basically stuck with a car which I can't do ANYTHING with.

Just Jenney

Mark & I just bought a used 2003 Saturn L200 and it has daytime running lights. In fact, we get a tiny discount on our auto insurance for having them! How strange this feature would be considered "unsafe" for cars being imported, when it is on cars here already, and some insurance companies even reward you for having them.

~ Jenney

andrea874

Maybe the person in Canada writing the letter was drunk at the time. Who knows.

Rete

Can I make a suggestion? Call the DMV and confirm what we found out when we registered one Canadian car in 1999 but did not have custom's paperwork. We were able to register the car but not get the title.

If you can still do that, then you and hubby register the car in NYS without the custom's paperwork, when you have the license plates, you drive it to the JFK custom's office, get the paperwork done and then drive back to the DVM, turn in the paperwork and get the updated registration and title.

Rete

andrea874

Thanks for the suggestion... we can't do that though... the DMV needs to see a title certificate as proof of ownership in order to register it. So we actually have to get that before we register it. Also, we have to register it in his name to begin with, as I no longer have a valid drivers license, and can't get one until I get my EAD, and its not legal to transfer ownership at all until the customs paperwork has been finished.

I'm going to try calling Newark and seeing if they have the same policy for having to see the actual vehicle. The guy at JFK I spoke to today made no sense... he said they had to make sure the VIN's matched up... but logically, the VIN on my registration is the VIN on my car (obviously). Soo its kind of stupid. Anyway, if Newark won't do it, we're totally screwed. The only other thing I can think of is "giving" the car to my father, whos coming down to visit in August, and having him register/insure it for like a week in Canada so he can drive it to JFK for me, do the paperwork, and then transfer it back to my name. With my luck, there's probably a reason that wont work either though.

Hypertweeky

Our 1999 Cavalier has its headlights on all the time, so far so good.
Weirdos..

Hypertweeky

Ouch!!, can customs at JFK send you a ceritified letter stating the car needs to be there to do the paperwork?
You can't register a car if it isn't insured (right?).. in your case you can't register and get it insured because it doesn't have the right paperwork from customs, correct?
you could drive the car and use that letter in case you get pulled over?, am I being too naive?.
Hyper~

Rete

Didn't realize that you don't have a Canadian DL. Assumed you still had the one that allowed you to drive the car to NYS. Did it expire as well as the registration?