So So sad Poor skylines.

[ttknf]

Originally Posted by old greg

I have zero sympathy for anyone who gets a skyline confiscated/crushed in this country. It hasn't even been ten years since the Motorex fiasco went down for Christ's sake. It is common knowledge that the Feds are on a crusade against any and all modern Skylines. Anyone who drives one on the street in this country knowingly does so at their own peril. And anyone stupid enough to do so without realizing the implications, frankly, deserves what's coming to them.

Any vehicle, less than 25 years old and not originally sold in the United States, being driven on public roads in the United States mustbe brought over with the assistance of a Registered Importer and be individually approved by the NHTSA as meeting FMVSS and (if under 21 years old) by the EPA as being emissions compliant. And just because Motorex crash tested an R33 does not mean all R33's are approved by the NHTSA, it just means that when you go to the NHTSA to show them that you've done all of the necessary modifications to the car to bring it into compliance with FMVSS, you won't need to bring along a couple of spare Skylines to crash test. Getting a car titled/registered without these things, and the paperwork to go with them, does not make the car legal, it just makes you a criminal.



You'll note that he was selling two cars but only facing "one felony count of owning a vehicle without a vehicle identification number tag".

The crux of the issue is that the cars were almost certainly imported as shells with no VIN tags. There is absolutely no way in hell that those cars can ever, ever be legally titled for road use in the United States. Ever. To sneak them past the DMV and get them titled/registered anyway would be Fraud, and could very well get you sent to a Federal f***-me-in-the-ass prison. And the act of the seller suggesting to a potential buyer how one might commit such a crime is in itself a felony, and carries a similar penalty. That's what he was charged with; "two felony counts of conspiracy to commit fraud".

I'm not even going to touch this because you have quite a bit of misinformation in this post, both regarding the legality of registering Nissan Skylines in the US and with regard to the guy that got his cars taken.

[WingsofWar]

Originally Posted by old greg

I have zero sympathy for anyone who gets a skyline confiscated/crushed in this country. It hasn't even been ten years since the Motorex fiasco went down for Christ's sake. It is common knowledge that the Feds are on a crusade against any and all modern Skylines. Anyone who drives one on the street in this country knowingly does so at their own peril. And anyone stupid enough to do so without realizing the implications, frankly, deserves what's coming to them.

Any vehicle, less than 25 years old and not originally sold in the United States, being driven on public roads in the United States mustbe brought over with the assistance of a Registered Importer and be individually approved by the NHTSA as meeting FMVSS and (if under 21 years old) by the EPA as being emissions compliant. And just because Motorex crash tested an R33 does not mean all R33's are approved by the NHTSA, it just means that when you go to the NHTSA to show them that you've done all of the necessary modifications to the car to bring it into compliance with FMVSS, you won't need to bring along a couple of spare Skylines to crash test. Getting a car titled/registered without these things, and the paperwork to go with them, does not make the car legal, it just makes you a criminal.



You'll note that he was selling two cars but only facing "one felony count of owning a vehicle without a vehicle identification number tag".

The crux of the issue is that the cars were almost certainly imported as shells with no VIN tags. There is absolutely no way in hell that those cars can ever, ever be legally titled for road use in the United States. Ever. To sneak them past the DMV and get them titled/registered anyway would be Fraud, and could very well get you sent to a Federal f***-me-in-the-ass prison. And the act of the seller suggesting to a potential buyer how one might commit such a crime is in itself a felony, and carries a similar penalty. That's what he was charged with; "two felony counts of conspiracy to commit fraud".

Originally Posted by ttknf

I'm not even going to touch this because you have quite a bit of misinformation in this post, both regarding the legality of registering Nissan Skylines in the US and with regard to the guy that got his cars taken.

Im with Old Greg on this one, i was an active builder when i heard that Motorex got raided. And i was at the time building a clients GTR32. We scrambled to get his paperwork in order, but the trail never leaded back to Washington. We had several skylines 32-34s sold from Motorex in Seattle. and it was a nightmare for those guys not wanting their cars crushed. But apparently WADOT was not that interested in cracking down on grey market vehicles even today. I still see plenty of JDM R32, FD and S15s running about on public roads, but my guess is that many (not all) are illegally imported and unregistered.

But those guys should know better being in that sort of illegitimate business transaction and know the consequences of not going through the proper government channels. So for me not a single fuck has been given for skyline owners cars getting crushed. Even if I absolutely am a fanboy of the car and will still help out a skyline owner with their endeavors.

[ttknf]

The Motorex cars that either did or did not receive FMVSS compliance AND received a bond release are safe from being confiscated and can be registered and legally titled in at least 49 state (the very few Motorex cars that also received CARB certification can also be registered in California). (6 people I know have legitimate, Motorex bond-released cars, so I know what I'm talking about.) DMV employees in some states are ignorant and therefore don't know what to do with the bond release paperwork; this causes problems for those that own the cars and try to get them titled/registered. The last few cars that Motorex had in its possession when things went downhill were bond-released by the NHTSA without the complete FMVSS certification (basically as a favor to the owners).

The cars in the Autoblog article (owned by Justin Beno) were not bond released. The yellow car was Motorex's first Skyline GT-R demo car back in 1998 and never actually went through compliance certification; it was allowed to stay in the US as their demo car. After Hiro ripped a bunch of people off and Motorex closed, the car fell through the cracks. Justin Beno acquired it with the intention of restoring it, as he appreciated its significance in the history of Skylines in the US (and Fast and the Furious).

The only shady thing he did was to mention the process of getting a state title to an apparent buyer who ended up being a Fed.

There are plenty of illegally imported JDM cars running around the US, and many of them don't ever seem to get caught. For those people, I have no sympathy because as they say "you gotta pay to play." However, I do find a big problem with the amount of government resources being wasted on these ridiculous sting operations.

No one can import Nissan Skylines into the US anymore; if they say they can, they're either completely ignorant or lying to you. The one listing "96 Skyline GT-R with airbags" does not allow for import because cars built for 1996 are required to have OBD-II. There are currently no working OBD-II options for the RB26 engine.

[eikond]

This whole thing blows!!! I've met Justin a few times.. friend of a friend.. He took me for a spin in the purple one.

It makes me sick to think of all the energy our government is putting into busting Skyline owners when they could be putting their time into something more useful.. So stupid!

[EmilGH]

Thank you Detroit, for legislating your way out of having to compete with great products from around the world.

Sincerely,

America

[EmilGH]

Also... I'm buying a Nissan Figaro in 4 years.

[Dimman]

Originally Posted by EmilGH

Also... I'm buying a Nissan Figaro in 4 years.

There are a couple of those here, look like a kid's version of some old 50s coupe. Tons of the stupid micro vans, a couple Alto Works, Beats, and more of the normal big cars (Aristos, Skylines, Supras, Cedrics, Celsiors, etc...) Once the novelty wears off they are just inconvenient. And potential death traps in the case of kei cars (Not so many Suburbans and F350s on the road in Japan).

[YukiHachiRoku]

and the GT-R is here anyways, gg...

[OrbitalEllipses]

Originally Posted by YukiHachiRoku

and the GT-R is here anyways, gg...

You got $90K + markups?

[SVTSHC]

Originally Posted by EmilGH

Thank you Detroit, for legislating your way out of having to compete with great products from around the world.

Sincerely,

America

More like they do it because America is rapidly becoming the land of the coddled and spoiled where people that should never be allowed within 50 feet of vehicle are given licenses.

[EmilGH]

Originally Posted by SVTSHC

More like they do it because America is rapidly becoming the land of the coddled and spoiled where people that should never be allowed within 50 feet of vehicle are given licenses.

Yeah, that, too…

I grew up without having seat belts in a car. And other than that one time where I hit my head on the windshield when my dad stopped short, turn out fine my brain good!

[YukiHachiRoku]

Originally Posted by OrbitalEllipses

You got $90K + markups?

weren't they going for like $75K~ish from MotorEx, back in the day when they first were getting them over here?

Kinda silly to me when I spent 10 years in the Nihon land and you could get a used R32/R33 for reasonable prices average middle class people could afford.

It always was a novelty item over here in the States.

[OrbitalEllipses]

New GT-R retails at $90K doesn't it?

[YukiHachiRoku]

Originally Posted by OrbitalEllipses

New GT-R retails at $90K doesn't it?

The new ones yeah (R35), but IIRC, the R34's MotoEx, wanted like $75K~ I think.