Can I bring and drive a 1960ish Fiat Cinquecento in the US?

I am considering bringing one of these back with me as a trophy (the Navy will ship it free) and also as something to fix up. Will I need any special types of license to drive it in the states? What are the antique car laws and how do they protect owners? How about safety regulations?

I’m a pretty tall guy, so I’m considering taking out the front seats and just using the back seat. Would that be legal?

You can see some pretty good pictures here , if you’ve never seen the car. (Imagine a 6’2 guy crawling in and out ^_~)

You have actually ridden in one of those things, right?!
Plus, you’ll be just about at the exhaust level of most American cars…but each to their own :slight_smile:

Yeah I ride in a friends all the time its so fun! Good point about the exhaust though. I can imagine sucking the fumes out of an SUV lol. (probably healthier than breathing here though…)

Anyway, i don’t plan on using it as a main means of transportation, but I would like to scoot around downtown in it you know?

You should be good to go for importing it. From here;

Registering it? Not sure…

A few links from Google:

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/import/graymarket_RI_list01132004.html - basically, arrange for a registered importer to handle the vehicle, and stump up money upfront before the conversion to US standards is done

http://www.importexporthelp.com/importing-cars.htm - unfortunately, as the Fiat doesn’t seem to be a ‘conforming’ vehicle, you don’t get the military duty-exemption

Not sure where you are going to reside, but you might wnt to consider registering it as an antique. If you are going to live in an area that has mandatory vehicle emission inspections, it may help.

Found a link with pics
http://www.californiaclassix.com/archive/62_Fiat_500_c124.html

You can have 'most anything “approved”. I’ve seen obviously home-made vehicles on the road. I’d call your state’s DMV and find out how to do it.

Any news on this?

It looks like I might have found one, not sure yet. I’ll update the thread when I find out for sure.

According to mske’s link:

I guess I missed that last time. So it sounds as if there is nothing that needs to be changed on a 1960-ish car in order to bring it here.

FWIW, I’ve been thinking about getting a smaller car. Can you bring back two Giardinieras? :smiley:

lol wouldn’t that be great! actually as it turns out, i’m using an ‘opportunity lift’ to get my flown over once I find it. i.e. its going to be put on an empty cargo plane !!