- There's been a ton of automotive news so far in 2022
from car releases to EPA crackdowns and the ever rising talk
about electric vehicles pretty much taking over.
It seems like every time a new piece
of media drops or news drops especially one
that could have a negative impact on what we know
and love of modifying our cars,
it seems that the whole internet just goes into a flat spin.
The end of everything we love and know is coming to an end.
Oh no, and typically, you know after a week,
everything just dies out and people are done trying
to cancel companies in the world just kind of seems
to go back to whatever normal that we now call normal.
One event that we recall not too long ago
was one that you were probably familiar with.
The headlines started hitting the internet
in the form of news articles, automotive blog pages,
and of course, Facebook groups and forums.
JDM Car Importers arrested
after Florida revokes 400 illegal titles.
Damn that's some crazy stuff.
Of course, instantly other news outlets
and other automotive media sources grabbed onto the news
and started reporting stories on what was actually going on.
And for the most part
you know, I think they did a pretty decent job
explaining what the hell was actually happening.
Like that's a pretty big headline
to just go out there with.
However, as the internet does
and what the internet does best people started losing
their (beep) minds.
(beep) They're going to crush all these cars,
how could they do this?
What the hell is wrong with our government?
Facebook groups and comments
in the articles were going crazy.
The story broke around the middle of March,
and one of the major articles that was circulating
at the time was from Rob's Stump, from The Drive.
Probably one of the most referenced
and shared articles out there
of the whole situation right now.
It included official statements
from the Florida highway patrol,
as well as the list of cars and VIN numbers
that were affected by all of this.
So what exactly happened?
What caused all these cars to have their titles revoked?
Well, the story starts
with a little vehicle importer based in Florida
known as Soho Imports started right about 12 years ago
in Pembroke Pines, Florida,
by a couple by the name of Andre's Diaz and Nicole Chung.
Most notably known for importing desirable
Japanese cars that were not available to the US market.
Now, I'm sure we're all familiar
with this little law that the United States has
for importing vehicles from outside the United States
known to most of us as the 25 year law.
"It states that any vehicle over 25 years old
is able to be legally imported to the US
without having to meet United States Vehicle Regulations."
So cars like R32 GTRs most recently
like the R33, Toyota Super FD RX-7, et cetera.
And as years go on, more and more vehicles start
to become available for import.
So what all went wrong here?
Well, on July 27th, 2021
the Florida State Department of Highway and Motor Vehicles
ordered an immediate suspension of the license
for Soho Imports,
pretty much immediately closing their doors,
taking their dealer license
and launching a full scale investigation into the company.
The investigation uncovered 348 vehicles
that had been imported and sold between November of 2014
and October of 2020 that were subject
to fraud title applications.
So just under six years of fraudulent import tactics.
On March 7th, 2022, Andres and Nicole were arrested
by Florida officials.
Real quick before we continue with the video,
I just wanted to announce
that we have our very own car show coming up next month.
That's right we're hosting a car show,
we want you guys there June 25th
at the Resch Center in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Come hang out with all of us,
look at some killer cars and explore
in the vast old Midwest a little bit.
I mean, Green Bay is kind of cool,
it's right across from Lambeau Field, which is pretty neat.
Anyway, check out the showcase event down
in the description below hope to see there.
The list of almost 400 imported Japanese cars
shows fraudulent titling for a ton of different platforms
from Honda Civics, R34 GTRs, 180, Chasers, 350z,
Mitshubishi Evos and you know, you might be thinking,
hold on, a lot of those cars are like a lot newer
than 25 years old, and yes, you would be correct.
Even though these cars aren't 25 years old
there's still a way for them to enter the United States
through the show or display exemption, which would be legal.
What this is
is a rule permitting entry of nonconforming motor vehicles
such as cars that are not 25 years old
for the purpose of show or display.
So let's say you're using this as a strict show car
or maybe a strict track car
that never really sees the streets.
This rule became effective actually back in 1999
which is why we do see cars like S15 and R34
and whatnot in Motorsport events.
And sometimes going up for auction,
you're like, how the hell is that even here?
However, this is something that you
or an importer must apply for.
Not only that you have to establish
that the car is either historical piece or has some sort
of technological significance basically saying
that the car is like really damn cool
because it's like really rare,
or it was really well known for something like a movie
or something like that.
This is where the whole thing comes crashing down.
Soho Imports were forging all of these documents
from titles to names to addresses DOT certificates.
You name it, which is like a big no-no, all right,
not a good idea to go forging this type of paperwork.
The federal government gets a little upset
when they do that and then they find out which they more
than likely will find out the federal government after all.
And after six years, they finally got busted,
which led to hundreds of cars, having their titles revoked
in owners waking up to probably the worst email or letter
that you can ever receive about a car that you own.
So now what, what's happening to the cars?
Are they all getting crushed?
Are they all like getting impounded
what's exactly going on?
Well, like I said before
that's immediately what everyone thought weird, right,
unlike the internet to automatically resort
to the worst possible scenario.
Shout out to tommyfyeah on a video he released
in April talking about this and what he knew
from some of the people that he had actually talked
to that were actually being affected
by all of this happening,
he said a lot of the facts straight right away.
Some really good insight there,
and I'll link that video down
in the description if you wanna check it out.
But basically to make a long freaking story short
there is no true conclusion yet
as to what's going to happen.
Some of these cars could be written off as track use only
and the owners really don't have to worry about it
in other possible outcomes
that could come down the pipeline.
There are possibilities of the car having to be sent back
or sold back to the countries
that they were originally purchased from.
Or yes worst case scenario,
some of them might end up being seized
and possibly crushed, which yeah, sucks, right.
I mean, that's heartbreaking,
and could you imagine buying one
of your dream cars finally just to find out
that it was like a shady import deal
and now you have to like watch
that thing be taken or destroyed.
Now, am I saying all 400 or so of these cars
are going to meet their demise?
Absolutely not,
more than likely they're going to be just fine.
I could not imagine that really happening from all
of our research and outreach that we could have done,
we really couldn't get any real up to date information
as far as what was going on
with these cars right at this time
as there's not been a conclusion made
yet like really on this whole situation,
I actually reached out to the Deputy Communications Director
at the Florida Department of Highway Safety
and Motor Vehicle which is probably
the most scary email I've ever sent.
And since you know they were the ones handling this case
and they basically confirmed everything
that we had already found from reading the article
from the drive and other public documents
that were already made available to us.
However, they did say, quote unquote,
"The department's criminal investigation is not yet complete
but the full investigative report
and its contents will be made public as soon as it's over."
Basically saying that there's still a lot
of stuff that needs to be taken care of
before any conclusions are made which makes sense.
So one of the other things that sparked
from all this happening
is that people who do own an imported vehicle
maybe they just bought it from somewhere
or were looking at purchasing you know one
of these kind of cars were holding the breath a bit,
they were kind of like a little scared,
they were unsure if they were going to get a letter
any day now or they had to be worried
about purchasing some sort of imported car
because you know someone might be trying
to ditch one that is affected.
So here's the thing, I can pretty much confidently tell you
that no more vehicles will be added
to this list as they've already been made public.
These are the vehicles that they're looking at,
at least not from this specific importer.
And if you're looking at buying a vehicle
that's already imported
just cross reference that VIN to the cars on the list
that will tell you right away,
and if they're not willing to give you the VIN
for the car you're looking at
that's already a red flag that you should be looking at.
Unfortunately you know this isn't the first time something
like this has happened,
especially with a large scale such as this,
and I'm sure it won't be the last which sucks.
And as we hopefully find out more information here
with the next coming months,
we'll make sure to do an update video for you guys
but that's all we know so far it was very interesting
to take a look into,
I suggest that you guys go read some articles
for yourself get up to date on the sub
because it is really interesting,
and unfortunately it kind of sucks
because some people were really affected by this
and could possibly lose their cars, but only time will tell.
But like I said, as we get more information,
we'll possibly do an update video on this
who knows when that investigation is going to be completed,
but in the meantime, if you guys are looking
for any wheels, tires, or suspension,
feel free to check out fitmentindustries.com of course,
check out the articles
and other resources that we use to make this video
down in the description below.
I'm Jill thank you guys so much watching,
don't forget to subscribe it helps us out a ton,
so we can keep making videos just like this,
and we'll see you in the next one.
Peace.
(upbeat music)