Lets keep it clear. First, I have nothing against trying it and fully understand the feelings involved (and the cash). Unfortunately, that is not relevant here.
For those who bid on a HMMVV, paid and signed the papers,
1) was it stated clearly that you bought the vehicle with a limited off-road use only? No. In fact the opposite, it was stated clearly it was not restricted to off road use only.
2) Those who tried, when talking to the DMV, did you know that the bill of sale clearly said or would say "sold under off-road only conditions"? I knew it would not say those things, and I knew the VA DMV required that when talking to them before the purchase/bid.
3) If yes did you tell the DMV people clearly when talking with them that most if not all of these vehicles came with the "sold under off-road only conditions"? Yes, I told them that many are being sold as "Off Road Use Only" and I was completely unsure why since the vehicle is clearly made for road use.
If yes on two or three of the questions above, you took a gamble intended to go against a legal contract before signing it. Legally (in a perfect world), any case in court should be kicked out very quickly against you ( I am not completely unfamiliar with laws and court cases at least here in Europe where we love to go to court on principle or for the h**l of it).
If the sellers were not clear up front with the limited use only, then you have a case against the seller ... maybe, but not against any DMV. Dito if somebody did the trick before you and sold you a titled but "limited use only" HMMVV without telling you, you have a case against the seller but not against the DMV. The only party that gave me false information is my DMV. Everything was done according to the DMV's instructions. I have no doubt a court would rule I went well beyond a reasonable effort to make sure I was good, here. They told me I had to have a clear title, which meant either an M1123 directly from GovPlanet or an Off Road Use Only (ORUO) truck that was successfully titled in another state. I went above and beyond and avoided the ORUO trucks. When I was looking at them on eBay, I actually went through GP's SOLD section and found the truck I was looking at. If it was sold as ORUO, I avoided it. It looked like I was never going to find anything, and then along came the stripped M1123s and it looked like the stars aligned.
If you just mentioned to the DMV you have this nice vehicle that currently is not street legal but you would like to make it street legal without mentioning the signed contract conditions, you actually might be in problems with the intent to mislead the DMV. Maybe that is going a bit far but as DMV officer, if I got involved and this little sentence has been left out or at least not stated very clearly, I would be upset about the applicant and it would go against you in a court.
Again, and as said many times before here, for the law it is completely irrelevant whether or not the vehicle is actually road worthy or not, and whether or not some other people managed to get a paper-folded boat road worthy and titled so why not you. It is relevant if the DMV is reaching for straws making up excuse after excuse why it's not road worthy instead of citing the VA Code for why. I'll leave it at that for now.
The first question always will be: did you sign a paper stating the off-road-only status? If yes, bad luck, go home. If no, you might have a case against the seller or the DMV, but it will cost you waaaayyyyyy more than the $ 30 000 you have in it now. It will cost you real hard cash in legal costs, in-kind in the form of the endless hours and days you will spend on it, and in health and joy of life for you, your family, and your other close ones. You will get bitter and grey hairs before it is over.
Yes, sometimes life kicks you in the teeth you just had repaired for a fortune. I can fully understand those feelings, been there over and over again.