"Tohru" (tohrurokuno)
02/21/2015 at 15:11 • Filed to: None
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"Tohru" (tohrurokuno)
02/21/2015 at 15:11 • Filed to: None | 1
| 12 |
While I was looking on the Minneapolis Craigslist for a beater for HondasFordsVolvos, I came across a rare vehicle. One that made it to America using the method of importing an illegal vehicle that Doug DeMuro didn't mention: having it shipped home by a US military service member.
This vehicle is a 1993 Rover 200, and the seller claims that underneath it's pretty much all Honda Civic - right down to the D16A8 under the hood. Those 120 fast and furious horsepower are wrangled by Manuél Transmissioné and directed to the front wheels. It's a left-hand-drive car with a metric dash cluster, with 102,000 "keelomeeters" on it (roughly 63,000 miles for those of us that use a proper measurement system). The seller claims that because it was shipped over by the government for a member of the military and that it has a clean Minnesota title that it is a legal import - it is not, it's a "state-legal" car, not a federally-legal car.
If you don't want boring details, skip the next paragraph. When a member of the military ships a vehicle home, the form they have to fill out has a spot you have to check that says that the vehicle you are shipping back is US-legal. The military didn't have the manpower to double-check all this paperwork, so they took you at your word. This is how quite a few Skylines made it to the US. Since you lied on the form, that vehicle was brought over illegally. The military has been cracking down on this in recent years and working to stop cars from being sent over illegally in the first place.
So, is the thrill of driving a grey-market Rover worth $5000 to you? Because that's what it'll take for the seller to part with it.
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
> Tohru
02/21/2015 at 15:18 |
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Probably worth it provided it doesn't get crushed. They're getting pretty rare even in the UK.
djmt1
> Tohru
02/21/2015 at 15:20 |
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I forgot that the last Rovers and MGs were Hondas underneath. Probably explains why they were so reliable.
HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles
> Tohru
02/21/2015 at 15:22 |
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neat
MultiplaOrgasms
> djmt1
02/21/2015 at 15:23 |
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*Cough Rover 75 MGF*
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HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles
> Tohru
02/21/2015 at 15:24 |
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It looks like a Prelude, a EG coupe, and an E36 had a baby.
Textured Soy Protein
> djmt1
02/21/2015 at 15:28 |
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My dad had a Sterling 827 (sold as a Rover in the UK) which was mechanically similar to the original Acura Legend. It was a reliability nightmare, so he replaced it with an Acura Legend.
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djmt1
> Textured Soy Protein
02/21/2015 at 15:33 |
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The cars I'm talking about were about two decades later. They had two very specific markets. Pensioners and boy racers as a result those things could probably survive getting hit by a nuke.
Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen
> Tohru
02/21/2015 at 16:28 |
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Worth hanging out for the 2.0T version, if you're going to rock an illegal 200 coupe. They were genuinely quick for the day, unlike the 1.6 which is just a cooking Civic in a nice frock.
ranwhenparked
> Tohru
02/21/2015 at 18:00 |
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He's overstating the Honda commonality quite a bit. One of the dumber decisions Rover made over the years was insisting on re-doing much of Honda's engineering just for the sake of being different, which eliminated a lot of the economies of scale the platform sharing was supposed to create. The 600 and the Mk2 400 were almost straight rebadges though, since they were done at a time when BAE was refusing to spend money on new product and Rover had no choice but to take what Honda was giving them.
At any rate, I really hope whoever buys it has the good sense to leave it hidden in an underground garage for the next 3 years, or at least learn how to pretend it's a garden gnome in the even that anyone from Customs shows up.
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Tohru
> ranwhenparked
02/22/2015 at 00:42 |
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The thing is, is that this car will never be legal as long as it stays in the US. It doesn't get grandfathered in once 1993 cars are legal for import. It was brought in on fraudulent paperwork, plain and simple.
The only way it could be legal is if it was removed from the US and titled in... say, Canada. Then, in 3 years, it came back across with Canadian registration and all the import paperwork was done all over again.
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ranwhenparked
> Tohru
02/22/2015 at 01:09 |
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Yep, this was somebody deciding that they had too much money, but was afraid of breaking the toilet if they flushed it, and thought lottery tickets would take too long.
whiskeybusiness NOW A DANGER TO CROWDS NEAR YOU
> Tohru
02/22/2015 at 01:35 |
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Whenever someone refers to a manual transmission as Manuél I just think of
