Importing a '92 EURO 928 GTS, by James Morrison

continued from above...

Duties are assessed based on valuation of the car. Since my duties were about $1000, and the value of my car was 1/10th that of a GT2 (they say you will be able to buy them in Germany for about $145k) then they will have $10,000 in duty alone. Add to that a minimum of $30,000 for conversion to US spec and you are looking at about the cost of a US car from the local dealer. The problem is that they say only 162 will come to the USA over the next two years. So maybe you will see some gray market GT2's in the USA. WETL has already done several Z8 BMW's, and Ferrari 355 Spider F1's, so for the high end cars there may be a little room to work out a EURO import.

When ever I tell this story folks say, "Well, I guess you won't be bringing in any more 928's from Germany." That is not necessarily true. There are two cars I am looking for in Germany. I believe both are 1995 models and one is Riviera Blue (kind of like the original Mazda Miata Blue) and the other is Speed Yellow. The pictures I have of these cars show a license plate that starts with "S" (indicating Stuttgart as the registered location) and it is my belief that these were likely Porsche AG executive cars. If either one comes on the market, expect to see my 1994 GTS for sale. The possible exception is if the owner in Houston would like to sell his 1995 928 GTS that is also speed yellow. Some of you may remember this car as a spectator at last years PorscheDillo concours event. If anyone has a picture of the car or knows the owner I would love to talk to them. It is yellow with yellow wheels, black interior with yellow piping and wood trim. I have never seen a picture of a US spec Riviera Blue GTS!

In closing, there are some spectacular deals on German cars, and with the benefit of a favorable exchange rate there are probably some deals to be made. However, if you are going to do this, be sure you go in with eyes wide open and expect the car to be more scratched when it arrives and for it to cost much more than anticipated when it is all done. If you buy wisely and choose a reputable RI you can possibly save a few dollars on a really nice car and maybe even go to Germany and enjoy it before you ship it back. Of course you might have to wait more than 10 months for the car to be finished. The easiest way to experience this however is to check the box for European delivery when you go down to Roger Beasley and place an order for a new Porsche. Then you can just sit back and let PCNA and PCAG take care of all the red tape!

J-Rod that works just fine!

Hope you enjoyed the article! Good times with that car! It is a real sweetheart to drive. Some of my cars just really speak to me and this is the main one that whispers in my ear. I think the '95 will be its undoing though... Faster and when/if Paul can get to some NICE interior upgrades for it that will be my go to beast I think!

BTW, if you guys with S4's and GTS's have not tried getting your front and rear tires close to the same width you REALLY ought to give that a shot. I am running PanAm take offs (the base 18" 5spoke wheel) on the '95 with 245 up front and 255 out back and MY GOD to I love the feel of this car! Better turn in b/c of the bigger front tires and less understeer (thus better balance) b/c of the nearly same width rears! If you have driven some OB's or S's w/o spacers then you already know what I am talking about...

Great story James but theres even more to be told of the Model year.

While it is accurate that Porsche did not have a GTS for the US market in 1992 they did for the Rest of world including Canada.......I know I own one.

Canadian 928s are essentially North American spec with a few interesting details; no rear air, heated seats are std spec, kilometer speedo as in ROW. My car was sold new in Montreal, Canada May 1992, is Polar silver and is a 5 speed.

Gotta wonder if our cars were brothers on the line James?

Malcolm did I SAY they didn't make any other '92's??? NOOOOOOOO.... You REALLY HATE that I have the only '92 VIN GTS in the US don't you Malcolm??? LOL! You should go buy one yourself man, then you can say you have one of a handful in N. America, because there are a few actual '92's (vs. your build date contention on your car) in Canada. I think they came from Japan for the most part.

What is the VIN on your car M? 10th digit in the VIN is a "P" I suspect so according to Porsche it actually is a '93. Oh, yea just like almost every Porsche built it was built the calendar year before its model year... '92 build, '93 model year. Remember only about HALF of any given model year are actually built in that calendar year and while they did start the '93 MY early, all the '92's were already built and since mine is 118 it was a VERY EARLY '92. They would not have even been close to each other on the line. Especially since mine was built in October of '91! OMG, I have a '91 GTS! $hit, I have the ONLY '91 GTS ever built I guess...other than the 117 built before it and whatever was built in NOV and DEC! ROTFLMAO!

M you crack me up with your MY argument every time you bring it up! Thanks for brightening my day man!

Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled program...There should be an edit on that too, as I had thought only 200-ish '92 GTS's were made but the number according to Erkka was 933 or something like that. Just a bit over 900 anyway, making it the most numerous MY of the GTS run.

HATE is a very strong word James and I for one would never use it in a conversation.

My point is nothing to do with you or your car............in fact I dont even care why Porsche US didnt import the GTS into your country in 1992.

The fact is that many other worldwide countries did import the 1992 GTS.

Your car is a Euro my car is not............what makes them a 1992..........when they sold. ( btw, yes I have components with '91 date stamps)

What makes a car a '92 is what it was registered as by the manufacturer Malcolm! If it was when they were sold, then I'll take that last US GTS which would then be the ONLY '97 928 GTS EVER (there was also one sold in '96 as well for the first time according to PCNA)! What year a car is has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with when it was sold... If it were when it was sold then my car WOULD BE a '91 GTS, but nope just look at the VIN... Yup VIN says '92!

You still crack me up dude! No idea where you get this bizarre idea that a car is the MY of the year it was sold in...maybe 50+ years ago that was the case, but it has never been the case in my lifetime.