Homeland Security seizing Skylines down in the states

[EmOne]

Forget about terrorists and our economy, lets start seizing cars because our country would be safer without them!
LOL @ their government


http://ca.jalopnik.com/5775509/feds-...skyline-owners

The owner of one of the nation's largest forums for Nissan Skyline fans got a call three weeks ago from his wife, telling him that Homeland Security agents were on their doorstep looking to seize his Skylines. Their goal? "To get them off the road."

Since Nissan never legally sold the Skyline in the United States, those that are in the country had to pass a maze of federal standards for emissions and safety, including crash tests. Thanks to the failure of an importer who didn't perform the proper test, only a small run of Skylines from 1996 to 1998 can be legally brought to the United States, and many that were originally OK'd for import later had their papers pulled. Those cars are contraband as far as the U.S. government cares — even if they were considered legal when their current owners bought them — and there's nothing current owners can do to make them legal

The proprietor of the SkylineOwners USA says he was expecting the worst when he got home on Feb. 11, but found just two Immigrations and Customs agents. What was more confusing was the agent's info:

It was evident that someone somewhere had passed on some bum scoop, that I was running a business with the sole intent of trafficking illegal non-conforming vehicles into the U.S. by the dozens. In addition they were under the assumption that I possessed a warehouse where I kept all of the vehicles and also did all my automotive repair and modification work at.

The owner, known as Vandrel, had just two Skylines; one that's old enough to be exempt from vehicle import rules, and another for which he had extensive paperwork. After their visit, the customs agents called Vandrel back to say his second Skyline had been deemed illicit, and they would return to seize it on Tuesday.

But when they came back, Vandrel had a surprise for them:

I made it very clear that my intent was to retain ownership for the time being and export the vehicle from the country, and that I had already made arrangements for a sale to be conducted as well as export of the vehicle, which of course shocked them completely since all past Skylines seized were not owned by someone who carried the ability to execute an export on the spot. With no car and no material items left in my possession that would cause me to worry about being questioned or investigated by the federal government any further, I now have nothing to lose by challenging them and I intend to do so to the fullest of my abilities and resources.

The move has motivated the Skyline community, but also raised the eternal question of whether such pursuits are the best use of government resources. We've left a message with Homeland Security, but the answer to why agents are tracking down every last Skyline may be the ages-old one: Because they can.

[flagella]

What a fcking joke.

[Qmx323]

First Kinder surprise eggs, now skylines?

[FerrariEnzo]

its not all Skylines, only the ones that have not done the proper test to ensure its saftey on the road...

but to use taxpayers money to mobilize Homeland Security is ridiculous.. couldnt they have contracted a 3rd party company for cheaper?

[The_AK]

I'm not even shocked anymore that they waste money like this... aren't they just trying to use up their "budget"?

Slightly off-topic, I was at the barber yesterday and on tv they were showing how the police and fire dept. were involved in rescuing some ducklings that fell through a drainage vent under the granville street bridge. Like wtf? Go seize more drugs.

[Tegra_Devil]

its okay...id prefer the usa to overspend....and continue their fast track to EPIC DEBT!

[storms]

I wonder if Detroits Big 3 have something to do with this?
They have been after all trying to get the rule that the cars have to be 15 years old to import changed to 25, Stating that it hurts there business!!.....LMFAO!!

[dark0821]

i thought US always had the 25 year rule against canada's 15 ..

[CP.AR]

next up: seizing canadians

[Nechako87]

This isn't news, it's been happening for a few years now

[jpoon]

Wow I'd be pretty pissed if my cars were to be taken away from me..

What if those cars that haven't been tested for safety go for testing then..?

[FerrariEnzo]

Originally Posted by jdp

What if those cars that haven't been tested for safety go for testing then..?

article says its too late to do that... needs to be done within a certain time frame, i guess

[baggdis300]

well for one, who is willing to give there car up and let it get tested?

by tested i obviously mean crashed... lol

[ruthless]

Full Story here: http://www.nicoclub.com/archives/bre...ne-owners.html

It is 25 in the U.S.

When Motorex originally petitioned to the NHTSA to obtain approval to import Skylines they jumped through all the hoops the government required except one, crash testing. Most people did not learn of what Motorex did until the following of their shut down by the government and one would have to ask the question, WHY? Where Motorex screwed the pooch was the crash testing of Skylines to obtain a stamp of approval from the NHTSA on it’s safety compliance package to meet FMVSS. The law requires non-conforming vehicles not approved for import to be crash tested and have the subsequent data approved by the NHTSA before the vehicles can be cleared for import, sounds easy right? Motorex did in fact hire a company to conduct crash testing, however, they only crash tested one car, a R33, and the submitted data was then approved. All good and well? Not so much. The approval that Motorex pushed through the NHTSA was that R32’s, 33’s and 34’s were to be imported and the crash testing data from the R33 was used for all 3 models under a “substantially similar” clause that was later challenged in 2006 when the VCP-17 approval of Skyline imports for R32’s, 33’s and 34’s was reconsidered by the NHTSA. It was decided that the 3 models were far too different and the fact that there was no crash test data to support the R32’s and R34’s sealed their fate and got them removed from the non-conforming approval list at the NHTSA. The approval for import was later redesignated VCP-32 and only covered 1996-1998 R33’s both GTS and GTR varients. In a nutshell, only specific Skylines can be imported as of 2006 and there’s still a constant uphill battle over OBDII that still has yet to see the end of the tunnel.

[1exotic]

Well 3 more years before the first year of the R32's become legal in the US.

We will be seeing a lot of R34 conversions, that's for sure...

There's actually quite a bit of RHD JDM cars in the US, especially in the southern and eastern states, like Florida. With them not being 25 years old it can't be "federally" legal, but I know you can register them in some states making it "state legal"... that's why lots of these cars are found in the US. Too bad homeland is trying to track some of them down. They are only cars not like anyone is getting hurt. I know like with the RX7, Supra, 300ZX, etc it will be harder to track them down as they have USDM version's of those... so basically those should be safe from getting seized.

and some guy in Texas bought my old jdm Supra, and he got it registered... so it is do-able.

[ruthless]

^ you're right they can be registered in most states, its just the fukn feds

If only Motorex hadn't skipped some steps they would all be legal...
even the ones legally imported by moterex with all the paperwork are being seized

thing is with rx7's/supra's/300zx's they have all been crash tested and are compliant with the NHTSA safety standards, probably since their N/A counterparts had existed. Unlike the skylines which were not tested for safety, etc. except for that one r33 motorex crash tested, and are still not compliant..

I dont see why the government doesnt just test/crash-test some of the skylines they've seized to see if they meet safety standards instead of wasting tax payers money going after these "unsafe" skylines

There is a loop hole in the process though, if you export it out of the country it can be saved, but then your going to have to store it someplace, and wait til its 25 years or older to bring it back...I've heard of people exporting theirs to Canada and Puerto Rico...

[baggdis300]

well, now they can pull some fast n furious undercover BS

[Bouncing Bettys]

could the owner's of seized skylines turn around and sue Motorex for compensation?

[SumAznGuy]

Didn't Motorex file for bankruptcy a few years ago?

[Phil@rise]

First the Mexicans, Cubans the Taliban and now the Skylines. Jeez man there is some bored bureaucrats in the US.

[ruthless]

Originally Posted by Blaupunkt69

could the owner's of seized skylines turn around and sue Motorex for compensation?

the ones that had imported through them could possibly, but they've been gone for a few years now...

[originalhypa]

Originally Posted by Blaupunkt69

could the owner's of seized skylines turn around and sue Motorex for compensation?

Yup.
And the owner went to jail for kidnapping, extortion, assault, etc, etc, etc.

http://www.nissanforums.com/nissan-g...er-jailed.html

[Antwon]

Originally Posted by Phil@rise

First the Mexicans, Cubans the Taliban and now the Skylines. Jeez man there is some bored bureaucrats in the US.

+1

[felixy69]

they started doing that long time ago...it's not news

if u really wanna solve the situation....go donate some funds to SkylineOwnersUSA.com cuz they are putting together a lawsuit !!..goal is $2500usd a month