sell it as siezed vehicle, or keep it as covert vehicle for police work.

 

I've seen tricked out Escalades, with signs on them proclaiming "this vehicle was seized from your local drug dealer." Why not do the same with illegally imported Defenders? At least you're not wrecking a perfectly good vehicle.

 

Officer said, for its year(05) its not safe(no aiirbag) for US roads.

 

The difference is the escalade is seized as fruits of the crime but itself is not illegal to own

That defender is contra ban it was seized because it is illegal to own like drugs so must be destroyed

 

My 46 jeep has no airbags or seabelts or roll bar it is my choice to decide if it is safe to drive due to the way it is equipped, and I do even after I was hit in it causing a rollover accident

I do not have to agree with the law just enforce it

 

OK, don't title it and don't allow it to be given a tag. Slap an orange triangle on the back, drive in "low" under 25 mph, and you are legal as a slow moving vehicle (like a tractor) in many states. Plenty of people would love it and use a trailer or flat tow it to the off road areas.

 

It is 100% true that laws must be enforced, even though all citizens might not agree with them. But, then, it's the right of the citizens to act to change the laws. I'd first like to read what the law actually says and understand its point.

As S.Buzz says, we have slow-moving farm equipment/trucks on roads in my town that often need to drive on modern/main roads for access/transport with the other vehicles with tags/inspections. Maybe there's a vehicle exemption if it's used only for work/farming, but it's still "unsafe" and bad for emissions. An argument could be made that work vehicles are in operation more than leisure vehicles, therefore, more unsafe driving and worse for emissions. So, why can't a Defender be owned for leisure-driving purposes?

Plus, if someone really wanted to spend the money, couldn't they install airbags and a catalytic converter on a Defender? There must be some patent or licensing rule from LR manufacturer blocking that approach.

And, Tom R, I understand that contraband must be destroyed, but that seems to apply when there is no good legal use for the contraband item. (I think illegal drugs are usually burned, but doing it publicly can put law enforcement officials at risk.) With a Defender, it seems to make more sense to disassemble the vehicle and allow the gov't to sell it as parts. I'm thinking that all the parts could've been sold/recycled, but instead were destroyed. There is a cost/harm to the environment to re-manufacture all the destroyed parts, if they could've been used in a legal vehicle somewhere. Plus, the harm to the environment to now properly dispose of all that metal and vehicle waste (glass, rubber, oil, battery, etc). Or, of course, the gov't could've found some good legal use for the whole working vehicle...

I don't pretend to understand the law, so I can only raise questions, not support breaking it. But...if/when I get more info, I'll definitely share . It just doesn't make logical sense.

My Firebird doesn't have airbags; it passes inspection, and it's not illegal to own or drive.

 

I seriously doubt the funds collected would cover the costs of people disassembling the vehicle, so higher taxes to pay their salaries.
You can legally import a 2013 defender if you're willing to make sure it meats all current DOT and EPA regs which includes destructive testing. So you'd have to modify at minimum two, destroy one to make sure it meets safety standards and pay the other costs of certification which can exceed $1,000,000 from what I've read.
I think that make your defender the most expensive one on record.

 

And if it were reasonable to make the defender meet the DOT standards, Land Rover would do it on their own.

 

The staffer that wrote the regs still drives home in a Pinto, and the crane operator is a sadistic Jeep owner. I know the law enforcement has no choice in the matter, and they are doing their job. But people can build sand rails and hot rods and get tags for them. Call it farm machinery scrap. Install a PTO like the old ones had. I dunno.

But it certainly shows that Defender flipping is not as profitable as people think. There must be some way that legal eagles could make this work. It would be a great college course project.