10 Amazing Vehicles We're Not Allowed To Have In America

There are some corners of the automotive world where you’ll hear incessant moaning over the best cars that have been banished from American shores. The decades of the Nissan Skyline’s absence, the 1970s Ford Capri, and the Mercedes 190e 2.5 16 Evo II all come to mind.

And even though that’s all in the past, some of the world's best cars are still unavailable to you unless you're willing to become an ex-pat. Check 'em out below.

1. Mercedes CLS 63 AMG Shooting Brake

Go ahead and pretend you don’t want a station wagon with a twin-turbo V8 under the hood. There's 557 hp waiting to snap your neck with the slightest twitch of your right foot. You can also fit everything you could possibly want for a weekend jaunt, and no cop is ever gonna give you a second thought. [See more]

2. Alfa Romeo Giulietta

This is a car that competes against the Ford Focus and VW Golf. And you can't get it with up to 237 hp and a dual clutch transmission, because it's not available in the US to purchase. Grrrrr. [See more]

3. Land Rover Defender

The unofficial word is that when Land Rover debuts the next-generation Defender, it’ll be ready to come back to the USA. It’ll be more luxurious, though, and less of a purely utilitarian go-anywhere vehicle. Honestly, that’s a damn shame. [See more]

4. BMW M135i

Remember those awesome BMW M Coupes that were based on the Z3 back in the day? This is basically that, but based on a 1-Series. There are those that think a rear wheel drive, 320 hp, two door hatchback wouldn’t sell in America. Those people apparently don’t remember Mustangs and Camaros from the 1980s and ‘90s very well. [See more]

5. Holden Maloo

Holden is basically GM of Australia, and its cars as so good that there’s even a precedent for directly importing them (hello, Pontiac GTO/Holden Monaro). This is clearly based on the El Camino, except with less mullet and sleeveless shirt in the driver's seat. [See more]

6. Troller T4

Troller is Ford’s Brazilian little 4x4. It’s a diesel, and virtually unstoppable. Despite Ford’s Bronco concept from a few years ago looking almost exactly like the Troller, there are no plans to put a Bronco nameplate on it and bring it over. We want this, Ford. [See more]

7. Lotus Elise S Cup

This doesn’t need to be just the S Cup. This could be any Lotus Elise or Exige. They’re all banished from our shores, and they’re all utterly amazing. [See more]

8. Toyota Hilux

The Hilux is used the world over as a laborer. It’s got nothing but the best history of reliability, easy fixes, and as any Top Gear watcher knows, it’s freaking indestructible. [See more]

9. Volkswagen Scirocco

In most functional ways, the Scirocco is a glorified Golf. Let’s not discount how important the “glorified” bit is, though. It’s a very sexy car that plenty of people would express interest in…just not enough to get VW’s beancounters to say “yes.” Yet. [See more]

10. Mercedes-Benz Unimog

If you want a cool, powerful, utilitarian truck that’s almost guaranteed to never get stuck, you want a Unimog. Just how cool is a Unimog? Even Schwarzenegger has one—an older one that was legal to import, naturally. [See more]


Aaron Miller is the Rides editor for Supercompressor, and can be found on Twitter. His dad owned an early Capri, but not in America. In all seriousness, he would've already bought one of these 10 vehicles if it were sold in the United States.