Suddenly, the owners of vehicles imported from Japan learned something interesting about how America’s laws work. ‘Off-road vehicle’ means a motor vehicle that, because of the vehicle’s design and, configuration, original manufacture or original intended use, does not meet the inspection standards of chapter 15, the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s pollutant requirements or the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration’s crash testing standards and that is not a moped or motorcycle.
On June 15, 2021, the state amended its 29-A MRSA 354 statute to define an off-road vehicle thusly: The state changed its statutes to indicate that anything that didn’t pass FMVSS and EPA requirements was now an off-road vehicle, which the state does not register for road use. The state later clarified to say that calling the Mitsubishi Delica a mini-truck was a mistake, but that misuse of terminology wasn’t going to change anything. So, what gives with this stuff about not meeting standards? Why You Can’t Register A Mitsubishi Delica In Maine Besides, these were vehicles that were older than 25 years old and thus were exempt from meeting Environmental Protection Agency and Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS). Initially, this caused a lot of confusion because the Mitsubishi Delica is far larger than the vehicles that fall under Japan’s adorable Kei class, and they certainly weren’t mini-trucks. Owners of Mitsubishi Delicas received letters from the state stating that owners’ beloved vans were “mini-trucks” that did not meet federal emissions and safety requirements and thus could not be driven on the state’s roads. As we head into 2023, there’s some good news, as there is now a bill in Maine’s legislature that seeks to undo the damage.īack in the summer of 2021, the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles kicked off an alarming trend. Those states were joined by New York, Georgia, and Pennsylvania, each imparting upon JDM vehicle-owners varying levels of difficulty. Maine and Rhode Island began revoking the registrations of vehicles that were legally imported and registered. For almost two years, many owners of Japanese Domestic Market cars have been living a nightmare.
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