i love the fiat cinquecinto and wondering how expensive it would be to ship one to the U.S… how do that calculate the shipping cost anyway?
Even if it were free, you could not bring it in as it is not a US spec car.
Technically, you could bring it here, and so long as you don’t plan on driving it in public you’d be fine. To get it on the road legally you’ll have to bring it up to spec for emissions & safety, then find an insurance company to write you a policy. Doable, but not easy.
Just out of interest, in what areas would the US be more stringent than Europe with regards safety, emissions etc?
The Fiat 500 was made for a lot of years. Is this true for cars made before, say, 1966 or 1967?
I don’t know the actual specs, but I remember hearing about ‘grey market’ cars in the 1980s. (I’m guessing there is still a ‘grey market’.) IIRC, there were safety issues such as crash protection not being built into Euro-spec cars that were required for NA/US-spec cars. The U.S. required different headlights, a third brake light, and that sort of thing. (Maybe different, shatter-resistant glass?) There was also concern about the expense of repairs after minor collisions, and bumper height. The beautiful chrome bumpers and crome grilles on MGBs were replaces with very large urethane units – ‘rubber baby buggy bumpers’. Worse, in order to meet the height requirement, the MGB was raised an inch. This was very detrimental to its handling.
As for emissions, the British car industry died, partly because of U.S. anti-pollution regulations. Unlike the Japanese and Germans, who created better, less-polluting designs while keeping a decent amount of power, British Leyland just kept piling pollution control devices on engines whose designs went back at least to the 1950s. The result was that the engines were rather anemic. For example, a 1966 MGB’s engine put out about 95 horsepower. The power was reduced during the 1970s, because of all of the additional anti-pollution accessories put onto the engine, until by 1980 (the last year for MGB in the U.S.) power was down to about 65 horsepower.
California probably has the strictest emissions laws. Check any new car or motorcycle, and you’ll see that there are ‘49-state models’ and (higher priced) ‘California models’. The difference is that the California models require extra equipment to reduce emissions.
The EPA page on importing cars. It’s not just a matter that the standards are different, with the US being stricter in some areas. It’s also that the non-US models have never been EPA tested, so even if the car meets the standards someone would have to get it certified.
Their position on the matter is pretty clear:
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- Look online/in your area (or as close as you can find) for “grey market importers”, which are businesses that import non-conforming cars and modify them to be licensable on US roads, and ask them for a guess as to how much it would cost to get the car shipped and converted. They may not know that particular car, but they will surely know the cost of others and that will give you an idea.
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- Sometimes the car has a feature that is superior, but it does not conform to US motor code and has to be replaced with something worse: I remember one “racing”-style car I read about that came (in Europe) with 5-point racing harnesses for both seats–but the US law now says a car has to have either airbags or automatic seatbelts. And airbags were not possible to obtain at the time (only OEM car companies could buy all the parts, and they wouldn’t install them in any cars except their own) so the importer took out the racing-legal 5-point harnesses and put in some cheap flimsy 3-point automatic seatbelts.
- Other common issues I have read about were window thickness (often Euro cars use glass too thin for US), bumpers (also too thin), running lights (not enough/not placed within required dimensional limits) and emissions systems (again, not according to US specs).
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One of the big Vespa shops used to import and restore 500s in the US. I thought it was Scooterworks USA but I can’t find anything on their web page…
I would love to get an Audi with quattro drive and a DOHC intercooled twin-turbo
TDI (diesel).
The same car is available in the US with a gasser engine.
As I read the EPA page, vehicles 21 years old and older are exempt from the requirements. Any one know different? It shouldn’t be too hard to find a clean '84 model.
(SNICKERING LOUDLY) A clean 21-yr-old Fiat?
Anyway, the Cinquecento wasn’t built earlier than 1991. And was built in Poland. So it’s it’s not just a Fiat, it’s a recently-ex-commie Fiat. You know, like a Yugo. :eek:
I was thinking of the model called a 500 in the US. Did they call them Topolinos in Europe? On researching, I find they stopped making them in '75. These have quite a cult following, so clean ones surely exist.
Sooo…just do a motor swap. Shouldn’t be hard, apart from emissions stuff, since I’m sure you’ll need a new ECU. But the car may pass anyway. How stringent are emissions test/inspections in NJ?
My family had a Fiat Cinquecento in 1971 in Italy.
Converting from diesel to gasoline involves a WHOLE lot more than “just a motor swap.” It wouldn’t surprise me if it were essentially impossible in this case.
Back to the OP: think about this. It’s a *Fiat[//i]. There are no dealers here. There are no parts here beyond near-universal things like spark plugs and drive belts – and the parts stores don’t even have listings for those. There are no service facilities with experience, special tools, and (most critical) repair information. And it’s a Fiat.
The two great tragedies in life are not getting what you want, and getting what you want. In this case, I’d be thankful for the latter.
Whoops! Properly coded:
Back to the OP: think about this. It’s a Fiat. There are no dealers here. There are no parts here beyond near-universal things like spark plugs and drive belts – and the parts stores don’t even have listings for those. There are no service facilities with experience, special tools, and (most critical) repair information. And it’s a Fiat.
The two great tragedies in life are not getting what you want, and getting what you want. In this case, I’d be thankful for the latter.
Geez! Brain is cutting out. To make the last sentence make sense:
In this case, I’d be thankful for the former.
to echo what Gary T said, I can’t say for sure on an Audi, but if this were a Volvo the swap is flat impossible, not diffcult but impossible. The onboard computer network cannot be modied in this manner. Same with trying to put a stick shift into an automatic car.
No, The Fiat Cinquecento (spelt out) was built between 1991 and 1998. Your family had a Fiat 500, which just happens to be pronounced the same way. 
Interesting. With many of the Japanese cars I work with, an automatic-to-stick swap isn’t any big deal, either. I definitely plead ignorance as to diesel-to-gas swaps, but I’d be surprised if it was essentially impossible. I mean, there are only so many things you can change, especially if the exact same car came in two configurations. Fuel tank, fuel pump and lines, ECU and main wiring harness, engine itself with fuel rail and injectors, etc.
I mean, it’s not going to be something you can do in half an hour, but engine swaps rarely are. Most involve a pretty reasonable amount of custom work and rewiring. Why would it be impossible to do in the case of a European car?