Thanks to new breed of used-car dealer, fast and furious generation can buy once-banned Japanese cars

When strange cars appear in your neighborhood, you know something's up. Within about 2 miles of where I live, there is a white Mitsubishi Legnum station wagon parked in a driveway and a dark-blue Toyota Hilux pickup in front of a house.

Both models were never sold here. A closer look reveals the steering wheels are on the right side. These are JDM — or Japanese domestic market — vehicles that are now legal to drive in most states.

A new breed of used-car dealer — call it a micro-niche of the used-car market — has emerged to satisfy the growing demand for cars, pickups and SUVs that were once banned in the United States because they did not meet federal safety and emissions standards.

When a vehicle turns 25 years old from the date of manufacture, the feds relax those rules and allow classic vehicles to be legally imported. And specialty used-car dealers are setting up all over the country to do just that.

Some say the growing demand is partially a result of the Fast and Furious generation (the first movie in the long-running franchise is now 23 years old) coming of age with a lot of discretionary income.

The market for these private imports, which also includes classic European cars such as Rover Mini Coopers, Land Rover Defenders,1990s-era Porsches and Italian exotics, has grown from a few hundred vehicles per year little more than a decade ago to an estimated 20,000 this year.

In our story on the JDM cars, you'll meet Tennessee dealer Gary Duncan, the Godzilla of JDM importers. He has imported more than 5,000 old vehicles and keeps around 700 in inventory.

But there's trouble bubbling up. My colleague C.J. Moore details how a growing number of states are not only refusing to register the smallest of these vehicles, but also are revoking titles and tags on cars previously registered.

As for the manufacturers, two I spoke with, Toyota and Nissan, are thrilled to see their out-of-market cars in the U.S. And Nissan is, on the down-low, supporting JDM cars here with limited parts availability. Parts for Nissan Figaros, Skylines and the company's other older JDM cars can be ordered at American Nissan dealers.

A Nissan spokesman told me: "We fully support the legal importation of our heritage vehicles and appreciate the passion of those who keep Nissan's heritage spirit alive."