Here Are 9 Cars You Can Finally Import in 2024 (2024)

Yes, you too can finally look like John Travolta in the very regrettable early 2000s docudrama Swordfish. The TVR Tuscan Speed Six is indeed the car that the soul-patched villain drove while spraying bystanders with gunfire for some reason, and the car in which pre-Wolverine Hugh Jackman had to learn to drive a stick in the span of 20 seconds. We can't argue that the Tuscan is not a unique car in which one can be forced to learn to drive a manual, especially on the fly, and judging by Mr. Jackman's performance in the film it looks like an easy-peasy task.

What the Tuscan offered buyers, aside from a requirement to own a soul patch, was 350 hp courtesy of a 4.0-liter inline-six, 0-to-60-mph launches in under four seconds, and the option of a psychedelic paint job. And in 2024, it's no longer prohibitively expensive, though existing examples might certainly need a clutch replacement by now.

But will it become famous for its appearance in the film, in the same way the DMC-12 did after the Back to the Future films, especially if you can get Travolta or Jackman to autograph it? That's perhaps a taller order, but it's certainly a window into that particular time in pop culture, and also a ticket into British car shows and road tours.

Audi's second aluminum car after the first-gen A8 of 1994, the A2 was a vision of the future that never quite arrived, at least not in any meaningful way outside of European cities. The compact mini-MPV offered seating for five and tiny engines, from a 1.2-liter inline-three TDI diesel to a 1.6-liter gasoline inline-four if you wanted "performance" in a small package along with city-friendly dimensions. The aluminum skin, meanwhile, saved plenty of weight, with the A2 tipping the scales at well under 900 kilos (1984 pounds).

With concept car looks, the A2 duked it out with other small MPVs of the time, some of them French and some of them wearing Mercedes badges, including the first-gen A-Class and the Vaneo.

But the small A2 was also so far ahead of its time that... not that many examples remain in working condition today, because (surprise!) it's a 25-year old Audi. Finding a running one in great condition and few miles will take some effort, but it will be a small price to pay for having the only Audi A2 in your time zone.

You may have seen one of Pablo Picasso's paintings, but have you really experienced the man's art if you haven't driven a Picasso? We'd argue that you have not. But thankfully, in 2024 you can import a car that was definitely not painted by Picasso, but could have been were he alive in the 1990s.

This very French mini MPV paired a compact footprint with a very spacious interior that looked vaguely similar from the front and from the back. About the size of the Ford Focus of the era, but taller, the Xsara Picasso offered a 1.6-liter inline-four to kick things off, with under 100 hp on tap. But you could also be fancy and get a 1.8- or a 2.0-liter gasoline engine underhood to school the Audi A2s around you. The two diesels on offer, including a 1.6- and 2.0-liter units, were also popular but hardly what you'd call performance-oriented.

This car was very popular in Europe at the time, so there should be plenty of choice even from the first model year, which is always tough when it comes to condition and mileage if we're being honest here. It helps that the car itself is quite unique on the outside to North American eyes, so you'll certainly be noticed on the road, especially if you steer clear of boring colors.

This is easily the crowd-pleaser star of this list, many will argue, and a car that already had its own cult following despite being officially unavailable here this whole time. Collectors have already been buying them in Japan and keeping them there while paying the storage fees, waiting for the floodgates to open in 2024. (If this reality doesn't illustrate the deeply depressing and arbitrary nature of the 25-year rule, then we're not sure what will).

With a twin-turbo inline-six paired with a six-speed manual and all-wheel drive, the GT-R ticked all the right boxes, complete with a brash exterior that didn't quite try to be a sleek coupe, preferring an angular shape that is a perfect window into that era. With a nominal 276 hp on tap (the real output is perhaps far north of this number) paired with a relatively light chassis, the Skyline GT-R delivered plenty of thrills in 1999, and still does.

In the span of the last quarter century the GT-R's specs have certainly aged, to the point where its pure performance specs have become moot and more of a taste issue for automotive connoisseurs, rather than a pure weapon for the track or the street. There are certainly faster cars out there today, even from the same general era, and ones that don't require filling out customs forms.

The R34 Skyline, on the other hand, is now a time machine in which older millennials will be able to meet their heroes, for better or worse.

This is one of the more practical cars to import on this list, and it's easy to see why. It's the sporty version of the A3 hatchback, which we never got here for the first generation, and it's kind of rare as well for those in the know. It's also effectively Audi's version of a performance two-door Golf, which you have to admit sounds kind of cool on paper.

In practice the S3 got a familiar 1.8-liter from the VWAG parts bin, good for 207 hp, along with some unique exterior and interior items to make it more of an S model as Audi marketed them at the time, including the quite lovely Avus-style six-spokes.

The good news about S3 importation is that these are not too hard to find in running condition, and that parts will be common with a whole roster of Audis and VWs from this era. The bad news is that parts will be common with a whole roster of Audis and VWs from this era, which means these things and their siblings were infamous for electrical issues of every sort. So it helps if you're well versed in VWAG maintenance from this era.

This is honestly our top pick for 1999 cars to import on a modest budget and also the most part retrofit-friendly Golf Cinematic Universe car on this list. And we have a feeling a lot of Audi enthusiasts have already been searching out clean examples to import once the clock hits 25 years.

Let's face it: You could buy a lot of different Mitsubishi sedans in the US in the 1990s, but you couldn't get anything larger than a Diamante with a Mitsubishi badge. The Proudia was that forbidden fruit in 1999, playing the role of the range-topping sedan in Mitsubishi's Japanese-market lineup alongside the even more exclusive Dignity.

No expense was spared, including the option of a 4.5-liter V8 with 276 hp on tap, and the car was packed with tech that would be considered modern today, including a lidar-equipped adaptive cruise control system. That's how far ahead of its time the big Mitsubishi was.

But when it came to sales, the company managed to find buyers for just under 1300 examples over the course of three model years, which makes this a collector's item today—a somewhat anonymous item at that. It will require some effort to find a running example for sale, but you will be the center of attention at every Mitsubishi gathering.

This list wouldn't be complete without something big, French, and somewhat decadent, and in 1999 it was the turn of the Peugeot 607 to score a big chunk of its sales from French government fleets.

Featuring sleek styling and a generous footprint, the 607 was the replacement for the Peugeot 605 barge that debuted a decade prior and that we never got here, complete with the biggest engine Peugeot could reasonably stuff into its executive sedan, which was a 3.0-liter V6. Those in slightly less of a hurry could also opt for a 2.2-liter inline-four, but a lot of buyers who were not French government fleets opted for one of three diesel-flavored options, including a 2.7-liter V6.

You'd think the French ambassador to the US would have had one of these in DC in the 2000s, but the reality is far more disappointing and mundane: The ambassador had a Caddy DTS.

It certainly helps that the 607's design has aged pretty well and still looked fresh by the late 2000s. Owning one of these stateside would be equal parts anonymous, and equal parts hero-status among French car enthusiasts. The good news is, there are plenty of examples that can be picked up on the cheap, but the selection of clean examples from 1999 is perhaps far thinner.

We look forward to seeing one of these at the Citroen Rendezvous or at Carlisle in a few years, and shaking the owner's hand.

This is one of the two big stars of this list, and it's easy to see why. The rally legend got a fresh dose of upgrades and brash bodywork for 1999, while relying on a 2.0-liter inline-four turbo good for 276 hp and 274 lb-ft of torque, provided you have the skill to make the most of all of those horses.

The version you want if you are of the collector persuasion is the Tommi Mäkinen Edition, which arrived at the end of 1999. This variant featured several unique interior and exterior items, including white wheels, and also a number of further performance tweaks in honor of the winner of four WRC drivers championships for Mitsubishi.

But this also means that other people will want this special edition as well, as they probably bought one years ago and have been keeping it in storage in Europe this whole time. So you won't be able to get one on the cheap from some grandmother in Finland who's only been driving it to the grocery store once a week for the past 25 years. Unless by "driving" you mean sliding sideways.

Like a number of other JDM cars, the Evo VI is one of those floodgates cars whose values begin climbing even before the car sails into the 25-year window, and that's been true of many rally legend types. This means very clean examples will not be cheap or easily discoverable.

Ford had no shortage of small and anonymous sedans in the late 1990s, many of which we remember from car shopping in our high school years with a shudder. The Ikon was not one of those cars, because nothing like it was offered stateside, even though in traffic today it would be close to invisible.

The Ikon was a car for emerging markets—as the euphemism goes—primarily for South America, Mexico, India, and China, combining a tidy Focus-sized footprint with engines ranging in displacement from 1.3 liters to 1.8 liters. In fact, if you squint hard enough at this photo, you can kind of see where the Ford Focus got its looks. And most people in traffic will also think it's a Ford Focus.

The Ikon's interiors were pretty basic, with power windows and air con being options you had to pay for if you were feeling fancy, and by no means will surviving examples have that sort of thing in working order 25 years later.

But you will be guaranteed to win your class at every Ford show you enter if you import one.