[urq] California Vehicle Registration Law

[Bob]

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And this is one of the biggest hesitations I have to move to CA.  I have 
too many 'odd' cars and none of them stock. Im afraid if I were to get 
there, Id have to sell them all, and that isnt worth it either.

Bob

urq wrote:
> *This message was transferred with a trial version of CommuniGate(r) Pro*
> It sounds as though you brought the car into the state ... correct?  Funny,
> for some reason I thought that you bought your car from someone in
> California.  You have to be very careful ... I'm pretty sure that California
> law requires that you need to notify the DMV within 10 days of bringing a
> car into the state.  Make sure you fully understand the rules before doing
> anything official at the DMV.
>
> My brother thought he'd save some money on a new car and bought a new
> Chrysler product from a dealer in Minnesota ... and my brother is a resident
> of California.  He had called someone from the DMV who said that it would be
> OK to do this ... but he did not get this in writing.  He flew to MN with
> his wife and they drove the car home.  When he got to California he tried to
> register it ... and was told that he couldn't register a new car from out of
> state in California (because it wasn't CA emissions certified), only cars
> that had 15k miles or more could be legally registered by California
> residents.  So ... he registered the car in MN and drove it until it had 15k
> miles ... then went back to the DMV.  The DMV told him that since there was
> an attempt to register the car here when it was new it would not be possible
> to register it in California ... ever.  He ended up driving the car back to
> MN and selling it there.  If anyone in the future tried to bring that car
> into this state they would have a big surprise!  By now I'm sure this car is
> out of the operable vehicle pool though.  
>
> Now, I doubt that there are very many other cars which are basically illegal
> to bring into the state ... my point is to be very careful to fully
> understand the requirements of California law before you attempt to do
> anything official with it at the DMV if there's some chance you didn't
> follow the rules.  If someone at the DMV tells you something that may not
> agree with the law, be sure to get it in writing ... 
>
> ... to answer your question ... yes, it will be necessary to have the car
> pass smog when you register it ... that would be a requirement even if the
> car had been registered in California before.  If you plan to restore the
> car in a engine configuration which is different from the factory stock one
> you may want to understand California law here too.  It isn't that you go to
> some expert who verifies that each and every piece is as it came from the
> factory ... you take it to a standard smog tech ... but if the car is deemed
> to be not stock you will be required to pay whatever is required to make it
> so.  Mind you, I had a smog tech tell me that my *stock* urq was not stock
> because there was a vacuum nipple on the top of the wastegate which didn't
> have a hose connected to it ... 
>
> By the way ... did you know that vehicles with certain engine types are
> exempt from smog testing in CA (diesel and perhaps LP gas)?
>
> Steve B
> San José, CA (USA)
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> Cali UrQ owner here.  Question: If I have not registered my URQ yet
> (Meaning... I obtained it legally but it is just sitting in my garage, not
> running,  waiting to be restored and not yet registered under my name) would
> it be safe to assume that when I'm ready to get it running and driving, I
> will still have to smog it since I'm registering it for the first time?
>
>
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