Possible to import a 2002 318ti from Germany?

[pdxmotorhead]

I would call the european delivery guys from BMW and see if BMW can tell you if your car is missing any US DOT components.

Headlights, Taillights, cat converter, Engine ECU. Safety glass, air bags.

Dave

[ignitionmodule]

Thanks for the pertinent replies. The missing element was the right keyword for Google, "registered importer." Based on the typical costs I've seen, I may be bringing the car back. I believe it is the last or close to last model year of the 2-door compacts. The 1 series was introduced here last year and replaces it. You'lll see it in the U.S. next year.

For the record, most cars here are left hand drive. RHD cars are only commercially available in the countries that require it and appear to be a bit more difficult to import.

[pnosker]

The reason RHD exists is because back in the early history of the UK Colonies, they wanted horses + their carriages to drive on the right so that they could cross the London Bridge properly without collision or something like that. Only the UK and its former colonies (Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc.) drive on the left. (with few micronation exceptions). The only reason you would see a RHD vehicle in other parts of Europe would be because the car's from the UK or was bought from there. Look at the license plate. If it starts with GB inside the EU stars, it's from there.

[grayson]

You probably saw lots of RHD cars because Spain, Italy and France are very popular holiday destinations for Brits. But I can definitely say that of all the European countries I've been to (Russia, Czech, Austria, Germany, France, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Switzerland, UK) all are left-hand drive except for the UK.

Oh, and to the OP: you'll probably have a really hard time importing your E46 Compact into the US because such a model was never sold here. I'm not sure, but I think you need things like crash-test data and such before you could even think about importing it.

Originally Posted by jaimito79

You know, I went to th UK, Spain, Italy, and France and saw a lot of RH drive cars. I was only there for 10 days. Wether there are more standside to rightside make no difference to me. But like I was stating, if it happen to be RH drive, that would be cool to have in the States. The car could have came from another country, I don't know. Anyhow, thanks for the clarification.

[bullmand]

This is probably slightly off-topic, but did they sell the E46 Compact in Mexico? I know Canada didn't get it, but I know Mexico gets Opels and Ford Kas.

[grayson]

Could be; I don't remember. They do get the 1-series in Mexico, though.

Originally Posted by bullmand

This is probably slightly off-topic, but did they sell the E46 Compact in Mexico? I know Canada didn't get it, but I know Mexico gets Opels and Ford Kas.

[L84THSKY]

When I was stationed in Germany, I got reassigned to England. I drove my 1985 Scirocco (left hand drive) to England and registered it there. Got some funny looks while driving around.

I also was on Vacation in Spain, and drove my left hand drive car to Gibraltar. Can't remember if I switched sides of the road when entering, probably not.

Originally Posted by angel318ti

Most cars in Europe are right hand drive...................NOT!

I can only count two countries in Europe that have the right hand drive. Standard side countries: Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Poland, so on and so forth.

[m-technik_ti]

I've looked extensively into importing cars into Canada and from my research, somewhat similar rules apply to the U.S.

As far as I know, if a car was never imported into the U.S. by the manufacturer (i.e. e46 ti's) you cannot import it unless it is 25 years of age or older (15 years for Canada, although laws are changing to stop all those rhd Nissan skylines from coming in lately )

You can somehow bring them in under a collector’s status, but this severely limits the amount you can drive them.

Originally Posted by angel318ti

why do people think that cars are right hand drive in Germany. someone asked me the same question yesterday at the grocery store when I told them I got the car from Germany.

I remember some American guy on Bimmerforums saying that he wanted to import a car from Canada to the U.S., but was under the impression that Canadians all drove RHD and was concerned about the costs of having to convert it to LHD! Talk about ignorance….

[MN_318ti]

How about some pictures of your 2002 318ti?

[ignitionmodule]

Sorry about the poor lighting. It's been raining here for several days, basically since I washed my car. This was also available with a 2.0 turbo diesel and a 2.5 gas engine.

[pnosker]

Cool car man! The head lights are a bit odd for me though.

[grayson]

Originally Posted by pnosker

Cool car man! The head lights are a bit odd for me though.

Yeah, that was one of the reasons that the E46 Compact didn't do so well as the E36 compact--it looked quite a bit different from the other E46s. After a while, you get used to the front-end of the E46 Compact though.

[adamud]

It looks as if it still has its camouflage from testing.

Good luck bringing it back to the states. Looks like just as fun of a car as e36/5!

[ignitionmodule]

Actually, the headlights are what drew me to the car in the first place.
I may yet bring it home even though the conversion will be around $6k. I have to buy a daily driver anyway and I'll lose money on the deal either way.
The car is fairly common in Germany but certainly out of the ordinary in the U.S.

[Will'sBimmer]

I like the car alot! I think the headlights look fine but I really like the Hatch door. I like how it curves to the rear spoiler. I am diffentley a little jealous and wish I had a 2002 model to mod on.


P.s Post some pics of the interior. I would like to see how it differs from the other year models. thanks.