the other way to "get around the rule" is to buy two cars identical, one US spec'd and the other a diesel car brought in broken down to pieces for parts. .....then transplant the diesel's drive train into the US spec'd certified car.....wha-la you have a registered US legal diesel version of a particular car never sold here...
Now this works as long as you do not change too much stuff, below a certain % of the original car. As someone found out in eastern NC if you change too much it suddenly becomes the car that was never certified for US use so is confiscated....
by the way, I am not endorsing this,.... but I have seen the above used to get a drivetrain through the system....
^^ lol, I mean legally, those are the ways to LEGALLY import a car. By your logic, he could stick a vin # off a golf onto it and claim it's a modified golf.
And changing the vin's on frames, not a good idea....
I saw a guy get caught for doing that with a mexican spec'd old body style Beetle when I was in Hawaii.
On a yearly inspection required in Hawaii, the state somehow figured out it was not the car which it was registered as.
Hawaii immediately confiscated it, rendering a heavy fine on its owner... I believe it was exported back to mexico to be sold for proceeds for the state...
And that was essentially what got that clown who got caught in trouble with the import gods in eastern NC.....
From what he( eastern NC) was accused of.... he (his company took a much later model of late model diesel versions to pass as older cars for uncle. He took those much later model year frames which had diesel power installed in them from other parts of the world)....
He Made them appear, by some modifications appear to be the originally designed frames then hung the restored to new appearance US spec'd body's onto them......
He sold tens of these modified cars before Uncle found out, from his widely advertised car lot over years. Uncle found out what he was doing from a customer who reported him because of an unresolved issue on one of the modified sold vehicles.
Uncle then investigated what had been done by taking one of these apart. From what they found they believed they had enough to prove what was claimed so then confiscated all the cars that had been modified like this....
meaning....don't mess with uncle...
