Lupo 3L for sale in USA (78 mpg)!!!
 

Hello, I saw an opportunity about a very rare and special car : the lupo 3L.
This car is made for a 78 mpg. In Europe, it's rare, in the USA, there is maybe 5 car like this one.

This is the link :
2005 Lupo 3L TDI - TDIClub Forums

Be fast!

Cool! You can buy it but you can't register it... so you can't legally drive it...

I'd drive up there tomorrow with the cash if I could get it titled in Va.

regards
Mech

Don't they do one-off's in the States ?

Basically, it means having a vehicle approved by proving it is essentially safe to operate (i.e. "as built" in the EU), complies with basic requirements (lights, brakes, ...), and conforms to at least some emission standards (the EU's) .

In some states, you can get registration for a 'kit car' or 'coach built one-off'. But in the case of a car that was manufactured by a recognized auto builder, but never imported to the States, is not a ' classic' (not 30 years old), I would not take that gamble with my $7500. A good place to check on 'what would it take?' is a classic car consignment showroom in your state. The guys who sell vintage Aston Martins, Ferarris, Colbra and Speedster kit cars and the like (I used to do some side work for a place like that in Pleasonton, CA) . Those guys usually know all the rules, the gray areas, even loopholes if they exist, and are often licensed by the state to do VIN certifications, etc.

Every state is different. In NoOh, classic is 20 years old. I disagree, but my 89 S10 Blazer was offered classic plates lol

And if one can prove that engine was legal emission wise, one should be fine. If I had the cash I would grab it, ask questions later. Worse case scenario, you sell it again and have an adventure. But that is in my view, surely others may disagree.

From Grey import vehicle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

and

This is not state-by-state, but at the federal level.

A few lines down it says this.
A vehicle not originally built to U.S. specifications can, under certain circumstances, be imported through a registered importer who modifies the vehicle to comply with US equipment and safety regulations and then certifies it as compliant, and an independent commercial importer who modifies the vehicle to comply with US emissions regulations and then certifies it as compliant.[3] Those who import nonconforming motor vehicles sometimes bring in more than one car at a time to spread the substantial cost of the necessary destructive testing, modification, and safety certification. Destructive crash testing is not always needed if the vehicle can be shown to be substantially similar to a model sold in the U.S. The Smart Fortwo was imported in this manner prior to its official U.S. release.

I didn't read it all, and I am not a professional. I will have to research before I take a stand at one point or another. But I am under the impression that it can be done, and not always with the thousands of dollars of testing.

Keep readin'. See what it says about the Nissan Skyline GTR. Importer put a few million into crash testing and upgrading those so they could be imported but didn't quite do it right. Ended up getting arrested and fined a million. Not very many importers that will touch importing cars that were not certified for the US anymore. And there is nothing sold within the US that is even close to being similar to the Lupo, so all the destructive testing, modification, and safety certification still has to be done.

Hey, go for it... It's only $7500. Let us know how it goes with the registration.

Basically, that. You'd need to buy several, crash the rest, and risk the possibility of still not being kosher. The Motorex Skyline fallout is still affecting enthusiasts and buyers who have the feds busting down their doors to take their precious... expensive... cars away.

In new York state you can register a home-built vehicle as long as you can show ownership for all major parts. Emmisions testing goes by year of the engine. So I could buy this car, cobble in an older tdi, (no emmisions regulations) get it inspected for safety, get issued a vin number for a homemade vehicle, then toss the original engine back in and viola! It's only illegal to replace the cars engine if it changes the registration class in nys. (like, 4cyl to 6 cyl, gas to diesel, etc) So 4cyl diesel to 4 cyl diesel doesn't warrant re-registration or a another inspection. Now if I only had $7500 lol

Crash and emissions tests were posted here a while ago for the Lupo, I wonder why they aren't good enough?

Because they weren't tested in the US to US standards.

While the European, Australian, Chinese (their crash testing speed has now officially been raised to the same level as Euro-NCAP) and now, the ASEAN market all accept the same NCAP standards for crash-testing, the US still has its own specific, bespoke, standards, that are different from everyone else's.

As seen with issues with BMW in the past... building a car to one set of crash standards does not ensure it will meet the same results when tested under another. This could be due to specific reinforcement needed for certain speeds, or airbag activation schemes, or any number of things.

Yes they were, or so I thought, why would the US government host and post these then?

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...htsa-4765.html

My bad.

The issue is, if this is specifically a non-US variant, you have to find a way to certify that it is built in the same manner as a US market variant. Makers don't always build cars to the same standards for every market. As an example, the Korean market Spark is not likely to score as high in NHTSA testing as the US market Spark. And sometimes, high mileage variants from outside the US will fail US Emissions... Specifically NOx, which VAG products using direct injection and stratified lean burn fall afoul of, in the US.

While the car should be able to pass US tests, given the regular Lupo does... It's up to you to convince the government it can... usually by providing them several cars for destructive testing.

rmay -

The reports you point to are only being hosted on the NHTSA site... if you open the reports, you will see right away that they are not actually reports of NHTSA crash testing the Lupo... instead, they are CMVSS (Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards) test results which would not be valid within the US... So no luck there either.

Now why the CMVSS results are on the NHTSA site is a bit of a mystery... unless they are just there for reference?

VW drove a lupo across the US back in the day, perhaps something was required by the NHTSA.

I would like to live through a crash.

You would do very well then to own a Geo Metro or VW lupo

Had a geo, commuted that for four semesters of school. I like my smidge safer Honda now.

One customer asked me to help import the Lupo 3L to US, Would it now be possible easily?

I said the Audi A2 would be better option for import for the user in the long term.

Once they hit 25 years old easy peasy

If it’s under 3000lbs a few states allow them imported as an NEV if you restrict the speed.

Empty weigth or gross vehicle weigth under 3000lbs?. Speed limitation is easy but what speed limit is then max permitted?
Arent NEV only for evs?

Google says 35 or 45 mph?

Lupo 3l has still 2 more years to 25 year mark.

For the 25 year old ones is there little to no limitations to modifications or condition? Or car has to be in oem fully spec

IIRC modded cars had been exported to the United States too, yet it becomes harder to ensure their compliance to the safety and emission standards they were meant to meet when new. But anyway, most of the time I had been asked by Americans to find them some engine from Brazilian or Argentinian trucks for them to adapt into some US-spec model, the emissions certification was the reason I pointed out to avoid such swaps, even though some Americans resort to off-road engines or stationary ones meant to be used on those refrigerated truck bodies.

Lupos are legal to import now, are there any in the North American market that would be cheaper to drive back rather than ship to the us from England?

Not sure if the Lupo was actually available in Mexico, even though the Brazilian VW Fox (not related to the US-spec Fox) was rebadged as Lupo due to political conotations of the Fox name there.