Hey Everyone, first post and first Toyota happy to be here. Please let me know if I break any unwritten rules.

I have been having a hell of a time getting my new baby registered. It is a 1994 Celsior in Jade Green Metallic, photos below. 38k Miles, Factory Air Replaced with Springs and cloth seats. Now living in CT

I took it to DMV to get it registered, there they said they couldnt verify the VIN (of course) so I took it to my local VIN Verification center. There they told me that since it doesnt have a VIN plate in the door sill that I would have to take it to the nearest DMV Hub in Wethersfield CT. After calling the Hub I was told that if it doesnt have the plate in the door sill I will have to get a Federal Certification Label from Toyota. Toyota US was absolutely no help with this and its currently 11PM in Japan, I'm going to try calling the Toyota HQ but doubt that will be very fruitful.

I imagine some of you have run into this same issue and I was wondering how you got around it. I bought the car through Japanese Classics LLC in Virginia and it does have a Virginia Inspection, Clean Title and Emissions exemption.

If anyone has any advice please let me know. Thanks

 

We don't use VIN numbers in Japan. JDM Celsiors were designed to use only in Japan and didn't have any VIN numbers at all. Those only have a 車台番号 （Shadai number = vehicle serial number) like UCFXX XXXXXXX at the fire wall.

 

Thank you, yes I am aware of the difference in the numbers. What I am concerned with is that I am unable to register the vehicle here in the US because it doesn't have a 'public' VIN, the plate in the engine bay is great but other cars here have a Serial Number visible on the outside of the car which is apparently a requirement. Usually they are at the bottom of the windshield on the drivers side but my car does not have one there.

So I will likely have to have a 'VIN Assignment' done. I was trying to avoid this and didnt know if anyone had any advice having done this before, I have seen many JDM celsiors registered here but haven't seen many people in this situation.

 

You have a title for the vehicle?

What number is on the title?

If someone wants a door sticker, then give them one...have one professionally screen printed to match title information.

Use an American tag as a template.

 

This is a good idea thanks there are places that do this online, I'm sure I could get one of the VIN Verification places to let it go through. I do have a Virginia Title that just has the Japanese Serial listed as the VIN.

That said I am a little concerned that its illegal and theyre going to impound the car or something. It looks like the law says they would only take the fake plate off but i'm worried nonetheless

 

Japanese classics is a pretty well known RI, contact them and they can help you get it registered. Your state may need some additional actions for vehicle imported under the 25 year exemption that regular DMV staff may not be aware of.

 

Beaurocrats will look for a way not to do their job, which is to serve you the taxpayer, instead of looking for a way to do their job...

Anyone have a .PDF copy of the 25 year exemption statute?

 

nice car and welcome!
every state differs in their car registration laws so you would have to do your research for CT. contacting toyota HQ in japan or US is a dead end.

in CA, it's very difficult to get a US vin number as we have the strictest smog laws in the nation (even if you have a smog exempt cert from the importer) - but it's possible as i've seen it done! laws just get convoluted as time passes so what worked last year may not necessarily work this year. in the end, you have to do your homework for your state. i recommend finding a person in your state who successfully registered their JDM vehicle and follow their footsteps. best of luck!

 

First off, nice car. I hope I see it cruising the streets here in Ct. What town you in?
I don't know exactly what you can do with DMV but I would either contact Japanese Classics LLC in Virginia, (place of purchase) I'm sure they've run into this before, or the Virginia DMV seeing how they issued the title.
Even though we don't need a title after 20 yrs here in Ct., (even with out of state vehicles) you probably will need that one cuz it only has the serial # on it. Also, no more inspections for out of state vehicles, except for emissions which doesn't concern you cuz it's over 25 yrs. I've always used the DMV in New Britain and never had any problems with out of state cars, but never had a non-US car.
Wethersfield DMV will always give you the run around, they think they are mightier then everyone else. Best of luck to ya.

 

Thanks for the compliments and advice guys! She's a beauty I agree if I can ever get her legal. I have reached out to Japanese Classics and they are going to help me out, good shout. They said every once and a while they get a DMV employee who doesn't know what's going on but they're going to have the VA DMV contact the CT DMV and sort it out. I do have the VA title and emissions/inspection so I was hoping they would let me skate with that. I'll definitely follow up with results if they are able to fix this.