John,

Swapping the VIN may keep you under the federal radar, but if you get caught
you can forget about being able to explain it away as a mistake.  Just add
the local felony charge to federal felony charges.  Not worth it if you ask
me.

Cheers,

Jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM]On Behalf
Of jbange
Sent: Sunday, November 07, 2004 8:50 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Turbo diesel 5-speed DOKA on ebay

At 07:38 PM 11/7/2004, you wrote:
>WARNING, WARNING WILL ROBINSON!!!
>
>I'll bet you dollars against donuts that this doka was not legally imported
>into this country.  Most likely brought in as a "parts car" in a container.
>The poor fool that buys this vehicle and registers it has a good chance of
>getting a visit from the FBI in about 2 or 3 years.  There's a reason it's
>listed as a parts car, that removes all liability from the seller for
little
>things like DOT, EPA, Customs.

Yeah, I like this line in the auction description: "It is being listed in
the parts cars section as we have not got around to restoring it yet, with
too many projects on hand as well as the fact that it does not have a
Title. "  Uh huh. Too many other projects. That's why you didn't restore it
and sell it for ten times what you put into it. The lack of title is just a
nuisance.

How closely do they (the feds) watch these things anyway? What would happen
if the VIN plate got "accidentally" swapped with one from a different
vehicle? I personally wouldn't do it, but I was kinda under the impression
that this happened with some regularity, despite it carrying nasty
penalties for getting caught.

John Bange
'90 Vanagon "Geldsauger"