Early warn, rambling causes this to wind up going over why I think the DOT is a stinker it is about importing cars, but maybe a way of getting around it.
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I was reading through some of this stuff and got kinda interested, looked at a few other documents as well. Couldn't one hypothetically buy whatever car abroad, dissasemble it to the point where it's "car parts" and not a "motor vehicle" to avoid all the nightmare of DOT/EPA regulations, and ship the pieces here to be reassembled and registered as an "assembled-from-parts" car?
The Florida title forms are a little confusing, boats and motor vehicles/mobile homes share the same form, and it expressly forbid registering a vessel that has been "rebuilt" as homemade. I think by that it means salvaged-and-refitted more than "taken apart and put together again", but it seems that "vessel" is referring to the boats only anyways.
http://www.actcfl.org/pdf/HSMV_87002.pdf
Obviously, the above doesn't mean shit if the gov'ment is finnicky about importing car parts (I don't know much about this and didn't see anything about it, but isn't there something about engines and emissions?), or if the DOT flips out over a non-US-compliant imported vehicle.
I don't really see why they should in the first place, the restrictions on a kit/assembled from parts car are really damn minimal, and if any of you have ever gotten curious and seen just how hard it is to import a GT-R or Peugot or whatever, you know how exhaustive the governments process is (crash testing, emissions, etc), not to mention those damn bonds. They seem to take the attitude that it's fine to take your chances in your own homebrew deathbox, but if you want a car made abroad (with actual safety standards, albeit foriegn), go fuck yourself or wade through a quagmire of paperwork and expensive modifications.
My best guess is that they figure homemade cars exist in such small numbers that they aren't a direct threat to mainstream automobilia (I don't think that's a word), but an influx of foriegn cars would deluge the DMV with all sorts of wild and crazy shit from other countries, making it damn near impossible to get any kind of standards for US vehicles. Since building a car takes more skill, time, and probably money than just ordering one on the internet or something and putting it on a boat, I can begin to see where they're coming from.
If you registered the reassembled foriegn car as homemade, it seems to me like you're willing to take all the liabilities that entails, while the DOT's process is more making it "official" and giving you the same basic gaurantees you'd get if you bought a car originally meant for the US market (i.e. the title being "HomeMadeGTRLookAlikePleaseDon'tBlowUp" versus "Nissan Skyline GTR, imported by Motorex and meeting all relevant US Saftey and Emissions Standards")
If Uncle Sam isn't willing to play ball with that, I suppose you could modify whatever it is you're importing enough to where it isn't enough like anything foriegn to raise any kind of suspicion. Make if faster, even.
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Anyhow, I've typed too much and I'll probably get flamed for this whole rambling affair. Other than what I was guessing, anyone else think of why this might not work?