Business Law

Policy and Introduction to the 25 Year Exemption This commentary is the first in a series of articles which will discuss legal issues with the titling and importation of foreign cars into the United States of America as part of our growing focus on the legal issues affecting the automotive enthusiast community. In this article I flesh out some of the policy issues behind the importation rules. This commentary won’t have much relevance to most of our readers, not because of missing legal content or inapplicability to Montgomery County, Texas. No, its lack of relevance comes from the small number of people who actually care about this article. Like any aspiring, slightly masochistic expert of arcane knowledge, I’ll soldier on nonetheless. There is a little provision of federal law that allows for one to import a foreign (and non-Canadian) vehicle into the United States and register it as a road-going car without having to complete any emissions or safety testing as long as it is at least 25 years old, with exceptions (more on those another time, wouldn’t want to lose my reader just yet). Recently, someone with a bizarre enthusiasm for this topic similar to my own, but far […]