JDM Importers in Texas
18 hand-vetted JDM import specialists import Japanese-domestic vehicles into Texas. Multiple importers operate in San Antonio, Houston, Dallas.
Texas is one of the friendliest states in the country for a JDM import, and the paperwork got lighter in 2025. Under House Bill 3297, non-commercial vehicles no longer need an annual safety inspection before registration — the state dropped that requirement on January 1, 2025, replacing it with a small inspection program replacement fee collected at registration. That removes a step that used to trip up owners of right-hand-drive and grey-market cars.
Emissions testing still applies, but only in certain metro counties and only to newer cars. The programs cover the Dallas-Fort Worth counties, the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria counties around Harris County, El Paso, and Travis and Williamson in the Austin area, with Bexar County (San Antonio) joining in late 2026. Gasoline vehicles are inspected from their second through 24th model year, so any car old enough to clear the federal 25-year import rule is already past the emissions window and exempt.
It also helps that the cars can land close to home. The Port of Houston is one of the largest vehicle-handling ports on the Gulf, and importers cluster across the big metros — Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and Houston all have shops sourcing cars straight from Japanese auctions.
Registering a JDM import in Texas
Texas titles imported vehicles through the county tax assessor-collector, not a state counter. You file a completed Application for Texas Title and/or Registration (Form 130-U) along with the foreign ownership documents, and any document not written in English has to come with a certified English translation. Because the car came from outside the U.S., the state also wants the customs and federal-compliance paperwork — the U.S. Department of Transportation HS-7 form, or other documentation showing the vehicle cleared customs and meets or is exempt from the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. A 25-year-old car qualifies under the FMVSS age exemption, which is what most JDM imports rely on.
An imported vehicle also needs a law-enforcement VIN inspection before it can be titled. Texas uses Form VTR-68-A, and the inspection has to be done by a trained auto-theft investigator who is a Texas law-enforcement officer; the signed form goes in with your title application. If the car is registered in an emissions county and is less than 25 model years old, a passing emissions test is required first, but most import-eligible cars are old enough to be exempt.
The practical path is: get the VIN inspection done, gather the CBP/DOT and Japanese title paperwork with translations, then take Form 130-U and everything else to your county tax office to title and register. A local importer can usually point you to an investigator who handles out-of-country VIN checks, which is one reason buyers lean on shops in their own metro.