Looking to get my hands on a 360 GLT and ship it to the USA

[Fred Gwynne]

Hello folks,


I'm a United States citizen who has joined this forum because I have developed and interest in obtaining a 360 GLT from Europe and having it shipped here to the USA. Can anyone recommend to me a good way to obtain one in the U.K.? Here in the states we use a few big sites such as autotrader.com, craigslist.org and forums. Does the U.K. have anything like this?

Also, have any of you exported a car to the USA? Was it difficult? Who did you go through? I do believe that based on the years of the 360 I should have no trouble getting it imported and registered for street use legally.

And just as a quick introduction I'm living in upstate New York (not New York City) and I have my first and so far only Volvo. It is a 1987 245 with 239k miles on it. So far the only modifications have been a KG Trimning 004 camshaft which is equivalent to a b230 "K" cam installed, an adjustable cam timing gear, a thinner than stock headgasket and also the head was milled down 0.040" with a multiangle valve job. That bigger camshaft and higher compression ratio has made a dramatic improvement in power. The next step is to install a Chevrolet LS 5.7L motor into it with a T5 tranny...or buy a 360 GLT.

Alright thanks very much for reading this and any help/recommendations are greatly appreciated.

[Lincolnite]

Would a UK sourced car having the steering wheel on the wrong side not be an issue for you? The headlights will also dip the wrong way.

Why not buy a car from Europe, it will better suit what you want but does have a possible added complication of language issues.

Try eBay with a worldwide search & take it from there perhaps?

[Fred Gwynne]

Originally Posted by Lincolnite

Would a UK sourced car having the steering wheel on the wrong side not be an issue for you? The headlights will also dip the wrong way.

Why not buy a car from Europe, it will better suit what you want but does have a possible added complication of language issues.

Try eBay with a worldwide search & take it from there perhaps?

I actually like the idea of a right hand drive vehicle. I've rented them during my trips to Ireland and really enjoyed it. Shifting with my left hand took a few minutes before it didn't feel awkward. RHD is sort of novel thing for people like me in the USA. Yeah the language barrier with different countries has been in the back of my mind because unfortunately I can only speak English.

Thanks for your thoughts.

[svensktoppen]

The negative first...

For something like a 360 the costs of exporting and importing may exceed the value of the car.

Your best bet would be buying a LHD from Europe. .

A RHD car in America would be totally impractical and you'd never be able to sell it again. Going through the cost and effort for importing and shipping it just wouldn't make sense. It's not just the steering wheel either, it's everything from head lights to carpets, etc. And some parts will be different and may be hard to source.

That aside, if your heart is set on it then go for it!

If you've never done it before then go through an agent.

In Europe you could try these guys:

https://www.erclassics.com/classic-cars-europe/

Not the cheapest obviously but they buy and sell all over the world and can advice on the import/export and shipping. They could probably help source a car too, Holland is big on Volvo and they have a big network all over Europe.

To just get an idea of what is available in Europe try these sites:

https://www.mobile.de/?lang=en

https://classic-trader.com/

The first is basically the German Ebay but sellers from all over Europe use it. The site has an English version (click on the flag in the top banner), but most ads will be in German. You can just copy paste straight into Google translate though.

The second is aimed at "classic" cars. The selection is smaller but the site is in English and most ads are too. A lot of Dutch and UK traders seem to use it.

For the UK best bet would be the UK versions of Ebay or Autotrader.

There are other more leftfield options like sourcing a car from Japan if RHD is really your thing. But let's not go there, crazy enough project as it is

[reggit]

Have you checked with your dept of homeland securities that you could actually register a vehicle from another territory in the USA? Impact protection/emissions regulations etc are all barriers, unless the age of the car gets round some of the issues.
https://www.cbp.gov/trade/basic-impo.../importing-car

I briefly looked into importing a motorcycle for a friend in the US and decided it wasn’t a financially worthwhile exercise.

[Fred Gwynne]

Thank you both for your thoughts. I will use those links during my search. Personally I don't think selling a RHD car in the USA is all that difficult if you sell it in the right places like forums or bringatrailer.com. I'm not much of a buyer and seller anyway so I would hang onto it for a very long time.. There are plenty of RHD Land Rovers and Japanese cars here plus all of our mail vehicles are RHD. Heck I even test drove a 1973 Mercedes Benz that was RHD last year plus I parked next to a Suzuki Cappuccino that was RHD this past fall. Plenty of Unimogs puffing out smoke here as well. Heck even a really cool looking car drive by me with Skoda badges on it recently. It looked very new. I couldn't even find what looked to be like that car on the Skoda website.

I've heard of a clause stating something about how a car coming to the USA that is greater than 25 years old does not need to meet the EPA and DOT regulations as long as they were registered for street use in the country from which they originate. Of course I've never seen that on a federal website... I could be wrong.

I have also been looking for an Aprilia RS 250 that was imported to the USA for a little while. All I found available came from Japan and I had an importer tell me that the fees for exporting/importing from the U.K. are high and that's why most come from Japan.

I've also heard about some cars/motorcycles being imported here for "racing" and not for road use. We also have a few states that seem to have no problem registering a car w/o a title. Just fill out their two page form and hand them a some $$$.

But I hear what you guys are saying and you could be right. That's partially why I'm also hoping to find one from Europe cheaper than I would here. Finding a 240 with no rust here will cost you typically between 7k-9K USD.

If I go through with this then I will definitely use an commercial importer. I'll email one or two later today.

Thanks again for your help and the more I think about this, the more of a challenge it seems it could be. Starting the re-think it all...

[Lincolnite]

Hi,

Rather than trawl through eBay and autotrader.co.uk, you could use a buying service over here to source a vehicle - who would then deliver it to your chosen exporter.

I’ve recently used a company called Flipping Cars (flippingcars.co.uk) to buy a car through auction for me & it worked well. They normally source newer cars via auctions for people trying to save over dealer prices, but your requirement is just as good. If they can’t help then they can probably put you in touch with someone who can. Take a look at their site & drop them a line. There are, of course, other similar services available - I’m just speaking from experience.

Cheers

[tofufi]

Originally Posted by svensktoppen

There are other more leftfield options like sourcing a car from Japan if RHD is really your thing. But let's not go there, crazy enough project as it is

I'm only aware of one Volvo 300 series car in Japan

[eternal optimist]

Have a look at Autoscout24.com it’s a European site similar to Autotrader. There are six or seven 360’s listed.