UK Brabus Roadster owner gives up..

[aaronxr]

Hi Chaps,

I own a Roaster Brabus which I intended to ship over to the US (Girlfriend lives in Wisconsin).

I was horrified to see on your sites that you cannot import Roadsters into the US, this is just crazy talk.

We manage to import Hummers into teh UK, so why can't you get a Smart into the US. My model is 2006 and it has so many safety features it is certainly uber safe, 60mpg+ and green-green-green.

Ironically our second choice is to buy an El Camino (1969) for nostalgia reasons, but it is crazy to have 40 year old cars circulating and stopping 3 year old Mercedes/Smarts.
Anyways, happy driving (on the right )

[fpage77]

I wish you luck on your issue. I wish they would start building the roadster again. I read somewhere someone posted that the rights to the roadster were sold to another company that went bust.

[jimvw57]

Sadly it has to do with all the government regulations for what they consider 'safety reasons' and enviromental concerns. I would LOVE to have a roadster. but I have had a few problems lately car wise so my quest has been put on hold. The toughest part would be the specifications from the manufacturer as they are no longer being built.

What I have found out so far is you can bring them into the country if they go to an importer that will then bring it up to US code. No idea how much that can cost or what that will take. Just that it could cost more than the car. There is a list of foriegn made cars that can be brought in and will pass but they are mostly high end Mercedes and BMW's.

[zolileo]

Hi,
If your car is from the UK it has to be right-handed, hasn't it? However in the USA are driven on the left side of the road.
I have the same problem. My roadster from Europe (left-hand-drived) but I'm living in Australia And here are driven on the right side.
Maybe we shoud exchange our car. What is your opinion about it?

[jimvw57]

The latest ifo I have gotten about the Roadster is that it was dropped because there are a bunch of cars in Europe the same size and price as the Roadster. Smart decided to kill it and avoid the competition with a car that didn't do as well in sales because of that reason. they decided to stick to the 4-2 and 4-4 models. Which in my book says the Roadster will most likely be gone forever. A sad story indeed!!

However, maybe an electric version?????

The USA seems to be the toughest place on Earth to get a car in to that was not manufactured here.

[briansmart]

I have heard that if you are willing to disassemble the car (not completely, but separate the engine from the car, maybe the exhaust from the engine) and ship it over as parts for a project car, that is one loophole to getting a vehichle into the USA. I imagine parts would have to go into different containers and could not be shipped all together.

I HAVE NOT confirmed that this is true, however, I imagine that if you could get it classified as what is called a "kit car" you would be able to even get it plated with a substitute for US VIN

[jimvw57]

Sounds like they closed that loophole. It would still have to meet bumper and smog specs

[forestacademy]

I wached a friend of mine who bought an Old Mini off e-bay from someone in Buffalo and drive it back to WI. Once here he couldn't get it registered here without taking the DMV to court because they didn't know how to clasify it and thier rules had conflicts.
Now the issues are different than the roadster being a newer car, but for the agrivation, I wouldn't think it would be worth the effort.