
1. Set the import option to "single"
2. More important is the second thingie: You have to deactivate the Unify-Checkbox! Yeah i know, it's grayed and that Max should ignore this option but it doesn't. If you activate Normals, deactivate Unify and deactivate Normals after that, the import will be very fast.
I believe i know the problem. From programmers side: Such a checkbox is having some properties. One of them is "checked" (you can grab the state checked/unchecked) and an other one is "diabled". When Max just grab the state of the checked-property, then we have the problem described above.