What do you think about this non-street legal “Jeep” clone?

DaveInDenver

Middle Income Semi-Redneck
The most surefire way to go, as mentioned, is to find a smashed CJ or YJ and register the Roxor as whatever the wrecked vehicle was. I assume that would require a salvage title. But then again that may not be legal in some jurisdictions.
Yeah that would be VIN cloning/swapping, which is totally illegal.
It wouldn't be legal to do a straight VIN "reassignment" but if you started with a Jeep frame and a title and swapped everything over it might be possible.

There might be a path using a kit or custom car rule, which I think I've read about here in Colorado getting a new VIN assigned. How extensive or possible that is I honestly couldn't say. It would probably require a lot of rework and red tape.

But, really, it would seem better to take a CJ7 with a blown engine and swap in diesel from an old delivery truck or whatever.
 

Tokarev

Member
So I pulled the trigger on one of these. I've had it six days and have right at 200 miles and ten hours on it.

No issues to report this early in. The rig starts easily and idles smoothly. Acceleration is nothing to write home about put I've also been taking it easy during break in.

I have it registered for street and off highway use in AZ. It is legal here with the addition of mirrors and illuminated license plate bracket.

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NorthernWoodsman

Adventurer/tinkerer
Rode around in some of these when I visited India in 2010. They were the versions that look like the old Jeep Scrambler with the longer wheelbase and bed. We took a couple of them loaded with college students up a 4x4 road that barely qualified as a road to a Hindu temple site. We had about 15 or so people in the back of each one, which I'm pretty sure was not a great idea, but those things handled the load well as we bounced all over the place and rocked side to side like a seesaw.
 

Mike W.

Well-known member
I doubt that's legal anywhere in the U.S. DMVs and insurance companies get tetchy over VINs. If the two were actually combined in a way that satisfied any legal requirements, it'd probably negate any advantage to buying a Roxor in the first place.
Roxors are registered as an offroad vehicle..We have a bunch of them registered and street legal in Utah..it's no problem getting plates for them..
 

Tokarev

Member
Some recent upheaval in the Fiat Chrysler vs Mahindra case. Apparently the International Trade Commission is ruling with Jeep in that the Roxor violates some kind of trade license.

What does this mean? Will Mahindra be allowed to sell the Roxor in the future? Will it require some cosmetic surgery so it doesn't look so Jeepish?

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givemethewillys

Jonathan Chouinard
People that dont want to futz with 30-70 year old wiring and mechanicals are going to want this over a cj5 or cj7. The diesel powerplant is a nice bonus.
 

Bayou Boy

Adventurer
People that dont want to futz with 30-70 year old wiring and mechanicals are going to want this over a cj5 or cj7. The diesel powerplant is a nice bonus.

Thus the "sorted" part. Give a mechanic a couple of days and he can put an entire new wiring harness and FI kit on a CJ7. Diesel is not a bonus for something like this. All your buddies with RZRs and such are going to be carrying gasoline anyway. Why do you need any more torque than a normal gas engine for something this small?
 

MOguy

Explorer
It is a toy, I would rather have a side by side. Actually I would rather have my 4 Wheelers. I have seen a few around, they aren't fast, they don't come highway legal.

I don't seem them that great to build for off road, they don't seem all that agile and not sure what work you could get done with them compared to other work vehicles or side by sides.
 

Martinjmpr

Wiffleball Batter
Some recent upheaval in the Fiat Chrysler vs Mahindra case. Apparently the International Trade Commission is ruling with Jeep in that the Roxor violates some kind of trade license.

What does this mean? Will Mahindra be allowed to sell the Roxor in the future? Will it require some cosmetic surgery so it doesn't look so Jeepish?

FCA owns the Jeep name, Mahindra has (or had) a license to build a replica of the Jeep for the Indian market. I don't know enough about how franchise licenses work but I doubt that it would allow Mahindra to sell what is, in essence, a direct competitor to the Jeep in the US. Even if it doesn't bear the "Jeep" name it is so similar in appearance to a "real" Jeep that consumers would likely be confused as to whether it is actually a "Jeep" or not. The legal term for this is "trade dress."

Think of it this way: Suppose Mahindra had obtained a license to make a replica of the 1965 Ford Mustang in India back in the 60's and has continued to make that - a copy of the 65 Mustang - in India.

Then, Mahindra decides to import their Mustang-copy to the US but only to be sold as a "track car" not legal for street use. People then start doing shady things to get them "street legal" in some states.

I suspect the FoMoCo would not sit by and let that happen, even though the "modern" Mustang doesn't look anything like the 1965 version.

So the same thing is happening here.

EDIT: The obvious difference here is that the Ford Motor Company that exists today is the same Ford Motor Company that existed in 1965. Whereas, when the Mahindra license was granted some time in the 1950's, Jeep was owned by Kaiser, and then later AMC, and then later Chrysler, which was bought by Daimler and then Fiat. So there might be some contention as to whether the "Jeep" that existed when the franchise was granted is the same "Jeep" that exists today.

But even without that complication, it's clear to anybody with eyesight that the Mahindra is a Jeep copy and that a consumer is very likely to mistake the Mahindra for a "real Jeep." FCA could still prevail on the grounds of "trade dress infringement" against Mahindra even if you take the license aspect away.
 

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