Jurisdictions are often faced with requests to register or title vehicles that are not manufactured for use on public roadways. These off-road vehicles may lack many safety features such as doors, windshields, seatbelts, lights, braking systems, steering mechanisms, and so on that are required on motor vehicles complying with federal safety standards.
An off-road vehicle is defined as a vehicle that is not designed and manufactured to meet Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards or Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. They may also be referred to as off-highway vehicles. These include, but are not limited to, surplus military vehicles, historical military vehicles, mini trucks (including those over 25 years old), all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), dune buggies, snowmobiles on skis or converted to operate on tires, dirt bikes, farm tractors, and golf carts.
With this in mind and pursuant to AAMVA's Off-Road Vehicles Policy statement, AAMVA's new Regulation of Off-Road Vehicles Best Practices recommends that motor vehicle administrators should use available statutory authority, or encourage adoption of such authority, to prohibit the registration for, and on-road use of, off-road vehicles. These recommendations are provided to assist jurisdictions in responding to requests to register or title off-road vehicles.
