Nissan Clamping Down On Illegal GT-R Sales

The Nissan Skyline is one of the more often illegally imported cars in the world, due in part by it’s huge popularity in Japan and staggering performance numbers. Unfortunately however, it just doesn’t cut the mustard when it comes to US or even European emissions and crash testing.

Fast foward to today, where Nissan has issued a press release notifying of its intent to “Enforce Trademark Rights.” These cars are selling like hotcakes in European markets and are even making there way onto US highways.

The businesses in question are suspected of importing and/or offering for sale in the European Economic Area (EEA) Nissan vehicles originating from Japan and which are intended only for sale in Japan. The trademark owner, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd, has not consented to the importation or sale of these vehicles into the EEA and either of these activities would infringe Nissan’s trademark rights.

What this really means is Nissan won’t be playing nice any longer. In fact, there are even a hanful of legitimate (at least on paper) businesses in the UK actually advertising imported JDM Nissan GT-Rs for sale and some of those have already received cease and desist letters.

Nissan’s number one priority is to ensure that the GT-R and its dealer network are in optimal condition to facilitate and support our customers. It will take until start of sales in March 2009 to do this. Until that time the UK will have no GT-R trained technicians, no established GT-R parts supply and, most crucial of all, the GT-R will not be covered by a manufacturer’s warranty.

While this will likely stop, or at least slow down, business sales of GT-R’s it certainly won’t stop the home enthusiast. We’ve heard reports of getting these cars shipped in crates from overseas and getting them titled with junkyard Nissans and with the help of crooked mechanics - getting them to pass inspection to get a tag. We’ve also heard claims of getting these illegal-to-import cars shipped in pieces and assembling it as a “kit-car.”

Nissan Clamping Down On Illegal GT-R Sales was written by Joe on Friday, December 21st, 2007 at 11:35 am. It was filed under Coupes, Nissan, Sportscars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the Comments RSS feed.