From: levine@dinsdale.ics.uci.edu (David Levine)
Newsgroups: ca.driving
Subject: Re: How much to bring out-of-state vehicle into CA?
Date: 28 Jan 93 00:02:02 GMT
Distribution: ca

George F. McQuary writes:

>Yes, the Import Tax, left over from three years ago when the California state
>congress' main concern was overpopulation.

The $300 is a "smog impact fee", only required on vehicles not build to
CA emissions standards.

>Apparently they now have some funky plan where the
>car's value decides the amount of the tax. Her car is maybe worth 2k at best,
>so expect it to go higher if you have something fancy.

The registration fee has been that way for a long time.

I tried to condense the responses to this thread, and some of my own
gibberish, into a FAQ entry.  How does this look?


-- How much will it cost to import and register an out-of-state vehicle in CA?

   From aclark@netcom.com (Al Clark), chucko@kronos.arc.nasa.gov (Chuck Fry)
   and dhepner@cup.hp.com (Dan Hepner) in Jan 1993:

   Assuming it meets Federal emission standards, you can register it in CA,
   but you need to pay:
   1) Use tax (in lieu of sales tax) for it's value, unless you did not buy it
      for use in CA.  If you owned the car for more than 90 days before you
      brought it into CA, you are okay.  The use tax is reduced by the amount
      of sales tax paid to the another state, if owned for 90 days or less.
      The stated purpose is to reduce any advantage one might have in buying a
      car in some other state "for use in California".

   2) Smog impact fee, a one time fee of $300.  If the car meets CA emission
      standards for the year of manufacture, this is not applicable.  It says
      what emission standards it was manufactured to meet on a sticker under
      the hood.

   3) You'll need a smog check and certificate for most vehicles.  Figure
      around $40 for this.

   4) Normal CA registration costs.  Part of this is based on car's value.
      This like a personal property tax, and this part is a deduction on your
      Federal Income Tax.

   For late model vehicles, the smog check is usually not a problem.  First,
   there isn't that much difference between "49-state" emission standards and
   California's.  Second, the smog checkers recognize that it's a 49-state car
   and test it to the appropriate standard.  Third, any well-maintained car
   should have no problem passing even the stiffer California standards.  A
   modern catalytic converter-equipped car should be putting out air that's
   almost as clean as it's taking in.

   It's hard to generalize for older vehicles, such as those without catalytic
   converters.  The 49-state and CA emissions standards were quite different
   way back when, and it's not unusual to be required to retrofit such items as
   closed PCV systems and air pumps.

   You don't have to bring a 49 state car up to CA tailpipe standards.  The
   stated purpose of the smog impact fee ($300) law is to fund checking up to
   see if this was once a California car which was taken out of state and is
   now being brought back in as a 49 state car not in compliance with CA's
   standards.  Many cars are "50 state cars", and have an emissions sticker
   which claims that they meet the CA emissions standards, even if bought in
   Maine.  These cars are not subject to the $300 fee.

   What you really do have to watch out for is removed smog control parts which
   were perhaps legal, or quasi-legal to remove some places so long as the
   emissions met local standards.  In CA (and in many other states as well) the
   smog test includes a visual equipment check:  certain emissions-control
   components must be installed and functional, regardless of the outcome of
   the tailpipe test.  This is because the tailpipe test is under very
   restricted conditions (at idle and at one steady-state speed with no load)
   and doesn't check all of the species (unburned hydrocarbons and carbon
   monoxide).  In contrast, the vehicle manufacturer had to demonstrate
   compliance over a much more representative driving cycle, had to meet
   standards for oxides of nitrogen and evaporative emissions, and had to meet
   50K or 100K mile durability requirements.  More than one out of state
   vehicle has met the recommendation "take it to Nevada and sell it" when the
   cost of replacing such parts exceeded the value of the car.


to accept the universal responsibility of doing | David L. Levine
good to all sentient beings, and if that is not | Internet: levine@ics.uci.edu
possible, to do no harm                         | UUCP: ...!uunet!ucivax!levine
  -- paraphrased from the Fourteenth Dalai Lama | BITNET: levine@uci
Newsgroups: ca.driving