Non CA Jeep to CA?

[Phil]

Ok, I'm working this summer and will be looking to buy my own Jeep in a month or two. California, though, has it's own set of smog laws. Can anyone tell me what I would have to do to bring in an out of state Jeep, or point me to where I could find out? I'm not planning on going out of state to find a Jeep, but I'd like to know if it's even worth trying. Thanks.

 

[Tucker]

See these links for more info:

http://www.dmv.ca.gov/vr/osreg.htm

http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/NonCAVeh/NonCAVeh.doc

 

[Phil]

Thanks. It said that converting a Federally certified vehicle to become a California certified vehicle is not allowed, so that solves that.

 

[Goatman]

You don't have to do anything. The only restriction is that you can't register a non-CA smog vehicle in CA until it has 7500 miles on it. This keeps people from going to adjoining states to buy non-CA vehicles. Once over 7500 miles there are no restrictions to registering the vehicle.

I don't have time to read the links that are posted, but from your comment to them it looks like you've come to the wrong conclusion. A federally smogged vehicle does not need to meet CA smog requirements, it just needs to meet Fed requirements. The only restriction is the 7500 miles thing.

This is my business to know, I buy cars for a living and I buy plenty of out of state cars. Plus, as bad as our legislators are, they can't make people moving into the state to sell all of their cars and buy CA cars.......not even remotely practical.

Since you can't buy a new XJ, just make sure you buy one that will have 7500 miles on it when you come to CA. Even then it's not an issue if you're not moving here permantly and won't be registering it here. If you did move here and had 5000 miles on it, you just drive it until you're over 7500 miles before you go to register it.

Not an issue.......

 

[Tucker]

Goatman ... then what happens when it comes time to re-register and it needs to be smogged? Certainly it isn't exempt? But won't pass, either ... what's the real deal?

 

[Goatman]

Goatman ... then what happens when it comes time to re-register and it needs to be smogged? Certainly it isn't exempt? But won't pass, either ... what's the real deal?

It's smogged to Fed specs, based on the smog sticker that's under the hood. A non-CA vehicle doesn't ever need to be at CA specs. The only thing that they used to do was to charge a $300 fee to bring an non-CA vehicle into the state, but that was challenged in court and they had to quit doing it and even return peoples money that had paid the fee. Of course, they only had to return the fee to individuals, not to us dealers, and we've paid many thousands of dollars over the last few years in those $300 fees for out of state cars.

Politicians.......

 

[Tucker]

Thanks, I've wondered about that and there's lots of misinfo floating about, I've never been able to get a straight answer, especially from the DMV.

 

[cbremer]

Goatman ... then what happens when it comes time to re-register and it needs to be smogged? Certainly it isn't exempt? But won't pass, either ... what's the real deal?

it won't be exempt... you'll still need to have it smog-tested every 2 years. As Goatman mentioned, it needs to meet Fed specs, not CA specs. Why do you say "it won't pass"? does it need a tune-up? time to rebuild the engine?

 

[Phil]

Well, the 7500 mile rule doesn't matter much to me, because I'd be looking probably for 75000+ mile Jeeps, becasue my budget would be low. So once it has more than 7500 miles, it only has to meet Federal standards? Thanks for clearing that up then. But I guess that modifications, exhaust or whatever, would still have to be CA certified?