Outlawed Suzuki seemingly slips through US legal loophole as the world’s most expensive Jimny

Such is the demand for the Jimny worldwide, that someone has risked potentially illegally importing it to the US to make some megabucks.

The owner of a Suzuki Jimny – not street legal in the US (United States) – may have found a loophole enabling the small off-road SUV to be driven on-road.

The rugged-looking SUV is not old enough to be imported and driven legally on US roads, being less than 25 years old, and has not been tested to US federal safety and emissions standards.

But that didn’t stop one Oklahoma City-based owner from snapping up this pristine, Sizzling Red five-door automatic Jimny to park under the star-spangled banner and offering it for a swag of cash.

The sale comes with a caveat that while the advertisement from the dealership selling it on the owner’s behalf states it is legal to drive, Carscoops has its doubts – describing it as a “$US55,000 gamble”.

According to the report, the dealer – Exotic Motorsports of Oklahoma – says the Jimny is actually on consignment, and it is inquiring about how it has a title from the initial seller.

It’s thought – but not confirmed – that a loophole in Oklahoma state law, Title 42, which allows people to create a legal paper trail of items such as utility vehicles, could have applied in this case. And, with such documentation, the State could have granted the Jimny a title it technically shouldn’t have.

Yet could the owner be onto something?

A number of right-hand drive Holden and Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) cars were previously also sold in the same way – according to Carscoops – but in Tennessee.

It reports the Australian-made cars did not “appear to meet the legal standards for importing a vehicle less than 25 years old”.

The used, left-hand drive 2024 Jimny has 4705 miles (7572km) on the odometer and is priced at a whopping $US54,995 ($AU82,558) – $US15k ($AU22k) more than the US price of a Tesla Model 3 and around the same as a BMW i4 electric sedan.

It’s an asking price of the highest we’ve seen yet for a regular showroom-standard Jimny anywhere in the world.

In Australia, the official price of an automatic five-door Jimny kicks off at $36,490 plus on-roads, and the BMW i4 eDrive 35 priced at $84,900 plus on-roads.

Even before the fourth-generation landed in Australia in January 2019, cult-like demand for the Jimny saw lengthy waiting lists, forcing the car maker to suspend orders as it couldn’t keep up – even as the five-door version landed in 2024.

The early demand saw asking prices in Australia reach into the $50k bracket, but the $AU82k ask for the US Jimny may be the highest asking price for a Jimny on the planet.

The premium comes after US Jimny fans watched on with envy aboard their Ford Broncos – and a number of other US cars not sold in Australia we’ve salivated over – as Aussie buyers devoured new Jimnys to set new sales records for the brand.

The post Outlawed Suzuki seemingly slips through US legal loophole as the world’s most expensive Jimny appeared first on Drive.

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