Federal vs. State Registration
According to Sean Morris, one of the foremost experts on JDM vehicle importation, most people can not grasp the difference between vehicle legalization and vehicle registration.

# Legalization – a vehicle in full compliance with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, and Environmental Protection Agency standards.

# Registration - registration is the responsibility of the individual states and localities. Most states do not check to see wether a vehicle is federally legal. If they see the vehicle, and are paid the registration fees, they will give registration for the vehicle.


Many people seem to get confused that if a vehicle is registered, that it is legal or "legalized". A registered vehicle is just a registered vehicle. Registration could still be revoked by the DOT, EPA, or customs service, if the vehicle was found to have entered into the country fraudulently.

99% of the time "State Titled" and "State Registered" translates to "Illegally imported and titled as kit car". Cars that appear "legal" (to a state) can be impounded by the Feds. Likely, no. Possible, yes. It has happened before (in AZ, in particular) and may be stepped up if the Feds decide they're "fed up" (no pun intended) with the flouting of the law. Many illegally-imported Skylines roam the streets unmolested on a regular basis. However, there's always the chance that something goes wrong (usually due to an accident, a vandalism / theft, or simply an "anonymous call") that brings the car to "official" attention.

Evolution Imports thought they had it all figured out, utilizing an apparent "loophole" by acting as a "broker" and coordinating purchase of parts to be reassembled as a complete running vehicle. However, their six different addresses, unsatisfactory BBB rating and a revoked Florida FOREIGN business license speaks volumes as to their credibility. They're registered as an LLC in "Nevis", a small island in the Caribbean. A former Nico Club member, who asked to not be identified, worked in a contract capacity for EI for a period of time doing reassembly of their cars. He indicated that for every satisfied customer, there were ten others who'd been misled and swindled. A representative for EI was interviewed for this article, but his inability to address simple questions about their violation of EPA prohibitions against disassembly of a motor vehicle for the purposes of evading the Clean Air Act or the Import regulations led us to discount most of his contributions as irrelevant. It should be noted that he now claims to no longer be involved with EI.