Good morning! I just bought a 2020 during the inventory flush at the beginning of August. I really love driving this so far.
Immediate goals are to get some full-size plates for it and then set it up for roadtripping and off road driving.
I have really enjoyed going through the old posts here--thank you all for sharing your knowledge and experiences!
Best regards,
Josh
Welcome - you've got a great product and you've found a great group to share experiences.
Regarding the full-size plate thing; I hope don't get too hung up on that. Instead enjoy your ride, have fun tweaking and customizing to suit your preferences - there are a ton of possibilities to explore.
We're early in the track record of this vehicle; the real test of street legal legality will come when the inevitable accidents happen and insurance companies start defending lawsuits - criminal and civil.
What makes the Roxor appealing in my opinion is that it is a clone of the real deal - a bullet proof early era jeep - like my old '46 CJ2A, only better! But - it's new, so it can't be "grandfathered", and it is heavy and can be made to operate at highway speeds, and no attempt has been made by the manufacturer to pass highway safety standards. In fact, quite the opposite, the manufacturer, who should know their product best, says it should ONLY be operated off highway - kiss of death. Sure, some local DMV agents may sign off, but I've not heard of any DMV at the state level which lists it as anything but an off road UTV - FCA has seen to that and is eager to remind them.
And then there's the reciprocity thing - getting other states to sign off on a classification they themselves don't recognize - it gets really sticky fast when you try to transfer a registration to another state. Plus we also expect reciprocity with insurance coverage; how does that work if you drive in a state that says the Roxor is only off road? Will the insurance company hang in there with you or bolt when they realize the registration in "unusual".
Don't attack the messenger here; I am confounded, baffled, annoyed, yep - pissed off, by seeing golf carts in my neighborhood operating with impunity and LEO turns a blind eye. "It ain't right, it's unfair, silly, ridiculous" - but, the fact is the Roxor hasn't passed highway safety standards and it classified by the manufacturer as an off road vehicle - can't get around that.
I bet there's no way that a brand new, straight off the line, CJ2A, 3B or even early CJ5 could be registered today as street legal either. There's this little thing called the NHTSA and their rules and regulations which came into being in 1966. New vehicles must meet their standards to be highway worthy.
So, I for one have accepted that I have a really great off road utility vehicle which I've modified to meet basic street legal requirements - can't do much about the formal highway testing though. The day I bought it home I started looking into making it "street legal". Now I'm considering getting a SD registration and MC tag which can add some semblance of legality to operate on local roads, but it also opens up another can of worms (besides the odd fact of a MC tag on "jeep") because is that in my state, FL, residents are required by law to transfer registration within 30 days. I'm sure I can "skate" by for a few months or more, but once I have to renew the out of state SD registration it will be very hard to explain why I did that again since I'm a FL resident.
Those of you who live in western states, or in very rural areas with a more open minded approach to these things, are probably fine. I"m in a semi-rural area within 10 miles of two US highways, a major interstate, and toll road and I'm 1,200 miles from SD where I have no roots or contacts. A SD MC tag on my "Jeep" becomes a rather flimsy proposition... still, better than nothing? or maybe not?
I'm not going to get my knickers in a wad over it - don't want to spoil my fun
