Rules for importing cars vary widely depending on where you live. In some countries, the UK included, it’s relatively easy: a matter of paying the relevant taxes, filling out the paperwork and ensuring everything is legal, as our guide to importing a classic car into the UK explains.
Others make things more difficult. One of the best-known restrictions is the 25-year rule applied by the United States, which restricts the import of cars less than 25 years old. In place since 1988, it has become a significant barrier to importing cars, but it also presents a significant opportunity for enthusiasts and businesses alike once cars reach the magic number.
What is the 25-year rule?
The 25-year rule lets any car at least 25 years old, counted from its date of manufacture, be imported into the US without having to meet federal safety standards.
Cars under 25 years old must conform to various standards for the US market in order to be sold there, from emissions to crash-test regulations. Cars not originally homologated for the market are, in all but a few rare cases, simply kept out, and there’s no routine equivalent of the Individual Vehicle Approval test that newer imports to the UK go through. A newer car can come in only through a registered importer, and only if regulators have ruled that model eligible, which is rare and expensive.
Two details are worth knowing. The 25 years run from the month the car was built, not from its model year, so a car built in November 2001 becomes eligible in November 2026. And the 25-year figure applies to safety standards only: emissions are handled separately by the Environmental Protection Agency, which exempts vehicles at least 21 years old in their original configuration. In practice, a car old enough for one is old enough for both.
The rule has become a prominent topic in the last decade or so, in part thanks to the massive swell of interest among US buyers in cars from Japan’s ‘golden era’ of the 1990s: think Skyline GT-Rs, Lancer Evolutions and Impreza WRX STIs. US enthusiasts have been importing Japanese modern classics, and to a lesser extent quirky European models, in enormous numbers, putting the 25-year rule in the spotlight.
Neighbouring Canada has a similar restriction but a shorter wait, allowing vehicles into the country once they pass 15 years old.
Why did the US introduce the 25-year rule?
Essentially, it’s protectionism. Before 1988, people could import more or less whatever they liked, provided the car was brought into line with the regulations laid out by the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966. By the mid-1980s this ‘grey market’ had become big business: around 67,000 cars arrived that way in 1985 alone, and more than a fifth of the Mercedes-Benzes sold in the US were grey imports.
Manufacturers and dealers weren’t happy about thousands of privately imported cars that made them no money. A campaign led by Mercedes-Benz of North America, with the backing of dealer bodies, saw the Imported Vehicle Safety Compliance Act passed in 1988.
The Act strangled private imports of newer cars, but it did leave one concession: any vehicle at least 25 years old was exempt from federal safety standards. A further exception followed in 1999, when the ‘Show or Display’ rule allowed a small number of historically or technically significant newer cars to be imported, on condition they cover no more than 2500 miles a year.
Which cars are eligible?
Provided the car was built 25 or more years ago, more or less anything goes with regards to importing a car into the US, though those wishing to import something will still have to provide evidence of its age to the three relevant US departments, the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This will require suitable documentation – a print-out of a Wikipedia entry won’t quite do the trick.
While it’s a long-established practice, it also isn’t immune from the meddling of local authorities or enthusiasts’ old friends, car dealers. There’s been plenty of wrangling over Japan’s tiny kei cars for instance, with their sub-660cc engines and 3.4-metre length. The surprising popularity of kei trucks, the colloquial name for the various commercial kei vehicles, has seen some states outlaw them entirely – reading between the lines, to protect demand for US-built commercial vehicles and recreational vehicles like quads and side-by-sides. As reported by automotive website Jalopnik in 2025, the list of states that have outright banned kei vehicles includes Georgia, Iowa, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, and Vermont.
There are also restrictions on kei vehicles in other states (some implementing incredibly pessimistic speed limits on them), though thankfully, this means most imports are still fine once they reach 25 years old. For the time being, anyway.
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