No, having a title of ownership is not the same as registering as a street legal vehicle. BYD cars don’t meet DOT Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards which is a deal breaker, regardless of which state you’re in. Even if you could get it registered, insurance would be impossible.

A mechanic/storage lien is simply a way to get title without the cooperation of whoever the last guy in the database as having title is. It doesn't solve stupid government rules.

What's legal per the law is a tiny fraction of what you can put on a DMV form and have the form get past the clerk and process properly which itself is a tiny fraction of what the cops will go after.

Yes, and it's been done in the past. Will likely still get caught at some point. I had a friend that owned a Motorex skyline where the importer did the testing but then fudged the papers to say it was something else and federal gov revoked its status but people that had cars imported before that got to keep them.

This article has some info about it and other things: https://www.jalopnik.com/here-s-how-people-illegally-import-...

In California? Probably not. In other states? Well there are lots of military vehicles sold as explicitly non-road legal with a requirement of sale being that you can't title them. I see those with license plates and titles for sale in Texas all the time. I just don't happen to have much need for a Humvee or similar vehicle.