Heh - just found this:
Why doesn’t the U.S. government sell surplus vehicles to the public?
There’s a story that goes like this: Back in the 1950s, the government sold WWII surplus Jeeps to the public. Someone wrecked one and successfully sued the government for selling unsafe vehicles. The government then adopted a policy of not selling surplus vehicles to the public. We don’t know if this story is actually true, but it’s plausible. It is true that the government has had such a policy in place for a long time. They will cut vehicles up for scrap rather than sell them to the public.
If you’ve got the cash, you can go to Letterkenny in PA and buy real retired Humvees [and other military vehicles] to your heart’s content.
I know many state/local police depts will sell old cruisers, etc. I have also heard of people buying retired Border Patrol SUVs and trucks. Those seem to consist of F series/Ram pickups and full size GM SUVs.
That only applied to the vietnam/cold-war era M151 “jeep” (not the WWII/Korea Willys-style), which had an early version of Independent suspension at all four wheels. It was notorious for rollovers, even in service, so the military decided not to release them to the public. They also don’t sell HMMWVs anymore either, at least not whole, though I am not sure of the reasoning behind that. However, you can still buy just about anything else, including tracked vehicles, civilian-origin stuff, Deuce and 5-ton trucks, and occasionally heavier stuff (I almost scored a HET tank transport once).
They should make like the Swiss, and sell all surplus equipment to the public. Some Cantons even sell howitsers and other war arms.
The govt sells a lot of used vehicles, including military ones.