Another Dealer Is Selling a Suzuki Jimny With a ‘Legal’ Oklahoma Title
A 2024 Suzuki Jimny 5-Door, one of the coolest little cars that you can’t legally buy in the U.S., has popped up for sale at a dealership in Oklahoma. Exotic Motorsports of Oklahoma‘s Facebook ad describing the car as “legal to drive” with an “Oklahoma title” has perplexed and intrigued some fellow car enthusiasts on Oppositelock, where it caught our attention, too.
The Oklahoma dealership says it specializes in exotic cars, which might provide a clue into just how the dealer was able to get a title for the Jimny 5-Door in the first place. The dealer explicitly states that the “vehicle has an Oklahoma title and is legal to drive.” The listing then goes on to describe the Jimny in more detail, adding that it’s a four-cylinder automatic transmission model. The odometer reads “4K miles,” or specifically 4,705, as the FB post describes. It’s unclear from the listing exactly how the Jimny made it to the U.S. Still, I assume there’s an intrepid Suzuki fanatic who is willing to roll the dice and pay the $54,995 asking price for the Jimny 5-Door. There’s even a walk-around video of the SUV.
People on Oppo are understandably wondering how the Jimny was titled in Oklahoma, but the dealership hasn’t yet disclosed how or what the legal process entailed. Hey, at least the dealer seems to have a good sense of humor about it all. When some folks on Oppo asked just how the Jimny came to be legal in the U.S., the dealer simply replied with a picture of Top Gear’s Rowan Atkinson (also of Mr. Bean fame) smiling wryly. The meme is captioned with the word “Magic.”
When The Drive reached out to the dealer about the big Jimny’s provenance, a salesman explained that the Suzuki is being sold on consignment so they are not exactly sure of all the details that culminated in the SUV’s legal status. The dealer also says there are no liens on the SUV’s title. Being a luxury auto seller, much of Exotic Motorsport’s sales are brokered through the dealership for owners and collectors. The owner of this Jimny is apparently a long-time contact with the dealership who specializes in right-hand drive Land Rovers and similar off-roaders, and who is also a frequent participant in the local car show circuit. The red Jimny in question certainly costs as much as an older and rare Land Rover. Truth be told, I’d rather the Jimny than most any Rover—even if the Jimny is a five-door and lacks a manual transmission.
Exotic Motorsports of Oklahoma
We have seen Suzuki Jimnies for sale in the States in the past, but their provenance and legality in the country has always been suspect. The dealer says they can’t promise anything, but will try to gather more details from the owner selling the Jimny on consignment. The one thing that seems to be a common trait of the Jimnies that have inexplicably made it to the U.S. is they all appear to be titled in Oklahoma.
The two Suzuki Jimnies, or “Samurais,” that we wrote about in 2022 happened to be in my hometown of San Juan, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley. I spoke with the owner of that dealership at the time, who claimed the two Jimnies were similarly titled in Oklahoma after being brought to the U.S. by wealthy Mexican nationals who decided to sell the Jimny SUVs after their kids didn’t want to drive them once in America.
The most likely avenue of how these things get titles in the Sooner State is through Oklahoma’s “Title 42” policy. More completely, “Title 42 Possessory Lien Procedures on Vehicles, ATV’s [sic], Utility Vehicles, Manufactured Homes, Commercial Trailers, Boats and Outboard Motors.” We’ve uploaded the state government’s full documentation below, but, essentially, this set of rules exists to make a paper trail of ownership for expensive things like vehicles and mobile homes that may not otherwise have traditional titles.
We suspect that such a process mainly exists for big expensive farm equipment; something there’s a lot of in Oklahoma. And while we do not know for sure that’s how these Suzukis were made “legal,” in this case, it’s certainly a possibility. Just because the vehicles have OK titles, however, doesn’t mean they’re federally legal. These things would be in a grey area at best, and you would undoubtedly be taking a big risk owning or driving one.
Still, it would be absolutely wild to see one of these on American roads. You’d certainly break a lot of necks at cars and coffee.
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Exotic Motorsports of Oklahoma
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