VIN Swapped Early Mini Ordered Crushed and Shredded by the Government

[scannon]

Not the easiest video to watch if you are a fan on the original Mini.

 

The instruction given the equipment operator was clear: No part of the car can be salvaged for any reason, meaning that nothing short of total destruction was permissible (though the same could have been accomplished, with far less ceremony, using a crusher).

 

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2014/12/16/score-this-department-of-homeland-security-1-previous-generation-mini-cooper-0/?refer=hsxweekly

[Croc]

I was monitoring this case as it worked up to this final point. For the last 3 years I have been working to bring some cars I collected in my previous life into the US. While they are all over 25 years old the regs for import are nowhere near as simple as you would expect. They are ill defined rules where you are totally at the mercy of some official who is defining things as they go. That is no way to run things but yet thats what I have had to deal with. Cases like this mini helped me learn what the real import rules as they are prosecuted and litigated. If you make a mistake you rack up huge fees, fine, storage, etc while you try to unravel it and if you do not sort it out then your options are immediate export or Federal destruction like this mini. This mini was not worth the money to re-export it.

 

The reason this mini was singled out is that there have been a number of people buying up late-production original body shell minis (say 1990-1996) and importing them as over 25 year old cars (when they are not) to avoid the prohibitively expensive NHTSA/EPA compliance regs for under 25 year old cars. It is fairly common to see this late model car for sale as a 1967 or 1971 car - EBay had 2 on last week and MiniMania had 1 car for sale all wrongly described. Bringing in a complete second hand car like this mini is a very different import process to bringing in a incomplete kit car or a roller on an MSO like Caterhams, Westfields or Birkins. I am acutely conscious during the import process for my cars that you do not make false statements as these are a Federal criminal offense. Given so many of these leaked into the US, the public display was clearly intended to send a warning to stop people. Earlier this year it was 40 something Land Rovers that were targeted and seized. Now import Minis are the target.

 

If you buy one of these grey market cars, no matter how innocent or uninformed you are, no matter how misled you were by the nice salesman, you are at risk that the Feds will one day discover the car and have it seized, likely when you go try to sell it. The owner is out of pocket at that point and good luck to them trying to recover their money out of the importer who will have long disappeared.

 

This red tape bureaucracy is just another illustration why the car import regs need to be simplified and clarified. A 1990-era mini with better seat belts, crash protection reinforcement, air bags, anti lock brakes, etc is far safer than a 1970 era Mini with none of that. Yet the US Government says you can import the 1970 mini, register it and drive it around on US roads but that it is not safe to legally do the same with a 1990-era mini. Absurd! :bs:

 

:rant:

 

Ok rant over! ...back in my box! :seeya:

[Anaximander]

Croc, That Mini looks like a job for Overhaulin'. If anybody can bring it back, Chip Foose and his gang are up for the task. As you well know, government types can at times capriciously make up their own rules and with the power of the government behind them, can enforce rather silly interpretations of those rules. I agree that the lack of uniformity in rule promulgation/enforcement is a likely culprit for some of the confusion. I am always a bit suspect of people trying to "protect" me. Where was NHTSA with the GM ignitions? How many years and lives did it take to get something done? Sheesh.

[NVP66S]

I bought a grey market Mercedes 280E many years ago. It was brought in by the previous owner and everything seemed to be legal. It was my insurance company that insisted on reviewing the paperwork. I didn't have that paperwork, but I did manage to hire a private individual who pulled copies out of the government records. Their reason was because a previous customer claimed his grey market car was stolen, when it had actually been seized.

 

That hurdle passed, they then insisted I change the speedo from Km/hr to mi/hr. That's when I changed insurance companies. I enjoyed that car for several years.

Edited December 17, 2014 by NVP66S

[a.moore]

I'm intrigued by the fact that there aren't that many classic Minis in the US yet there are at least two with "questionable" pedigree on Ebay right now.

 

"1963" Mini

"1969" Mini

 

Its funny how someone must have gone through a lot of time and effort to graft the less attractive later tail lights and interior onto a classic "1960s" car.

 

I don't really care what someone does to have fun but I feel kind of bad for the buyers if they don't know what they're getting into. As they say, caveat emptor.