Mitsubishi pickup?

I have the opportunity to buy a 2017 Mitsubishi L200 pickup.  The truck has only 2000 Km on it.  That's right, kilometers.  Guy bought it in Mexico and must have tried to bring something with him and the truck got seized at the border.  The dealer had it checked out and there was no damage history but they put a rebuilt title on it.  So, this is, for all intents and purposes a brand new 2017 truck, 2.4L gas, 5 speed for $16K... and a rebuilt title.  Of course, since Mitsu didn't sell the L200 in the US or Canada there is little information about them.  Opinions?

In reply to triumph7 :

How is it street legal here if never imported?

If it isn't certified for the US or Canada, you are looking at off road only.

If it wasn't sold in the US, eventually the feds may it around to confiscating it and crushing it. It has to be 25 years old to legally be imported into the USA.

Without a VIN you're probably not even going to be able to get it registered. So, if you own a farm or something and you never need to drive it on the street, you might be able to use it. If you're planning to use it for transportation, it's not going to work.

Nice looking rig but unless you have some powerful strings to pull, and even then its prob no, you wont be able to legally run it here until its 25 years old and even then since it came in “illegally” it might not even qualify. Then there is parts availability. 

If it was 500$, sure.  Heck no at 16k

How does the certification process actually work anyhow?  Obviously crash testing.  I'll presume that's paid for by the person seeking the cert. otherwise it would be more common.  Crash testing an exotic is painful to watch but a Mitsu p/u so we'd have another cheaper new option on the market would be nice.  

Even the emissions, lights and bumpers are going to be a huge hassle, since none of it us US certified.

Buy it. Take it back to Mexico and sell it. Use the profits to buy something you can own/drive in the US

I also can't believe that it has a legal US rebuilt title.

Could be a Salvage title but not legally rebuilt US title. 

Well, State of Kentucky issued the rebuilt title so, in theory at least, I should be good to go.  I wonder if it is similar enough to the Outlander?

There is some scam-ola going on there. 

Next hurdle...try to get the vehicle insured.  

In reply to triumph7 :

Im gonna guess outside of some nuts n bolts, nothing from that truck has anything in common with the outlander.  

Yeah, something about that is screaming scam. If it's not rebuilt, why on earth would they issue a rebuilt title? A seized vehicle is being sold by a dealer? How'd they get it? 

I suspect what's going on is that the dealer bought it at auction for pennies, ran some quick and dirty paperwork shuffle to get a rebuilt title for something that is in no way legal here. Now they're selling it to Joe Unsuspecting to make a quick buck and if the fecal matter hits the oscillator they will disappear faster than a toupee in a fan factory.

And for $17k? Don't walk, run away. 

triumph7 said:

Well, State of Kentucky issued the rebuilt title so, in theory at least, I should be good to go.  I wonder if it is similar enough to the Outlander?

Doesn't make it legal whatsoever. If you look around online, you can find totally-federally-illegal R34 Nissan Skyline GT-Rs randomly registered and titled in Florida.

Just because a DMV clerk was able to issue a title for something doesn't mean the vehicle is suddenly legit. Unless there are DOT and NHTSA exemptions on file (and yes, there is a publicly available list of these) you are breaking federal law by operating it on US roads.

Ultimately, you need to ask yourself: if you're breaking federal law, and the US Marshals aren't around to catch you, are you comfortable doing it anyway?

Some people say "yes" to that question and are comfortable tooling around in their R34 GT-Rs and what not; lots of people never get caught, and law enforcement typically targets volume importers (see Black Ops Performance, Rivsu Imports, Motorex, etc) over individual owners, but there are also some cases of the latter.

It's not a risk I'd take (and definitely not for a damn Mitsubishi pickup at $17k, that is just silly) but only you can answer for yourself.

Jalopnik ran a good article a while ago about how this kind of thing makes it here and the shady tricks used to get a title.

triumph7 said:

I have the opportunity to buy a 2017 Mitsubishi L200 pickup.  The truck has only 2000 Km on it.  That's right, kilometers.  Guy bought it in Mexico and must have tried to bring something with him and the truck got seized at the border.  The dealer had it checked out and there was no damage history but they put a rebuilt title on it.  So, this is, for all intents and purposes a brand new 2017 truck, 2.4L gas, 5 speed for $16K... and a rebuilt title.  Of course, since Mitsu didn't sell the L200 in the US or Canada there is little information about them.  Opinions?

Yeah the guy probably just tried to bring in the truck and found out you can’t import any it in for 25 years.

For <$5k Id be interested as an organ donor for something legal and old enough to be emissions exempt.  For real car $ it's a hard pass.

I can't believe this is even a question. Run, don't walk away from this "deal"!!

I love this country. Like I REALLY love this country. But sometimes I don’t like it very much.