Dayton, Ohio - This video on YouTube is enough to bring tears to the eyes of any car enthusiast: It shows a pristine 1995 Nissan Skyline “Big Bird” R33 sports coupe being wrecked at an Ohio scrapyar d.
The iconic 1995 cult car was seized by police after a minor road crash in line with stringent US laws that make it almost impossible to import foreign cars less than 25 years old unless they satisfy a host of rules.
The laws are designed to prevent so-called grey imports of car models from abroad at lower prices than those charged by dealers in the United States.
The Skyline owner, Dayton real estate agent Billy Crider said he’d bought the Nissan from a reputable dealer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and drove it home to Ohio.
The car passed through roadworthy inspection and was legally registered in Crider’s name, although it was apparently missing the vital VIN (vehicle identification number) needed for an imported car in the United States.
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Crider obtained valid insurance cover from State Farm and used the car as his daily transport until May 2015, when it was involved in a minor collision. When State Farm’s insurance assessor inspected the car to verify the claim, however, he noted that the car was not legal under federal regulations and flagged it.
This prompted US federal authorities to send an undercover agent to inspect the car - and a few days later the car was seized and later sent to be crushed at a local scrapyard.
Crider wasn’t charged with any misdemeanour; neither the car’s engine or chassis number had been changed and no fraud was involved because it was legally registered in Ohio - although authorities were at a loss to explain how that could have happened.
In recent years several Skyline R33s have been impounded and destroyed by US police cracking down on illegal imports. One of the cars had featured in the cult 2001 crime action film The Fast and the Furious.
DPA