Any one knowledgable on importing a gray market diesel classic into CA?

[cnrotter]

About a year ago I found a really nice 1980 2 door classic. Manual transmission, nicely restored survivor that was imported from Italy. It was for sale by a gray market import dealer in Idaho. 

 

I spent a month or so trying to figure out a viable way to get it into CA legally, but soon realized it is pretty much impossible without spending huge money to have a 2 door gray market legally registered in this state. (it was a gasoline model)

 

My understanding being that anything post 1975 is required to pass smog (obviously a euro spec 1980 without cats would never achieve this) And even if I found a pre '76 truck there is a rule that the truck must meet federal US emissions standards of 1972 which again would be impossible stock. Would require probably $10k worth of modifications and the truck would then have to go to the CA smog lab to be tested, certified, and receive its CARB compliance sticker. Not something I am financially willing to do.

 

I even looked into the avenue of setting up a Montana LLC and having the truck titled with Montana plates, but again that would still be illegal to have a vehicle longer than 30 days on CA roads without a CA registration. Not willing to have a vehicle I'm constantly worried about getting pulled over in for the out of state tags.

 

So my main question is what about Diesels? The same gray market importer just advised me he has a really nice '92 2 door diesel with manual transmission that has just arrived from Spain.  If I were to buy a diesel gray market classic would it be smog exempt and easy to go to the DMV to title and register in CA?

 

I'm pretty sure thats the avenue most take with the gray market defenders. (getting a diesel one). Anyone have any experience or advice on the subject?

 

-Christian

[DHappel]

I would recommend you talk with Ted about this as he's going through it right now with a diesel Santana.

 

I *believe* what you would need to do is have a title from another state showing it as a diesel before trying to bring it into CA.  If that's the case then I believe you can title it here w/o any extra smog hoops to jump through.  If you try to bring it directly into CA from out of country then that triggers all sorts of extra inspections that you'll never pass.

 

Again, this is more hearsay than anything else - I have not actually done any of this myself.

[cnrotter]

I would recommend you talk with Ted about this as he's going through it right now with a diesel Santana.

 

I *believe* what you would need to do is have a title from another state showing it as a diesel before trying to bring it into CA.  If that's the case then I believe you can title it here w/o any extra smog hoops to jump through.  If you try to bring it directly into CA from out of country then that triggers all sorts of extra inspections that you'll never pass.

 

Again, this is more hearsay than anything else - I have not actually done any of this myself.

 

Don,

 

From the research I have gathered it seems that it is crucial the truck be previously titled in another state. Fortunately this particular one would already have a legit Idaho title/ registration from the dealer before being sold to me. 

 

I have read a few threads on other forums about the subject and the responses seem to be all over the place. Some guys seem to have no issues, while others are given the run-around nightmare and are stuck with un-registerable rigs. It all seems to come down to the VIN verification check. Some guys get it done at a AAA or DMV office without hassle, others get sent to CHP for verification. In the end it is in the hands of the inspector as far as how thorough they want to be and whether they actually try and hunt down the federal DOT emissions stickers under the hood and door sill (which a non-USDM vehicle wont have).

 

What is Teds username on here? I would love to reach out to him and see if he could share his experience with me on the matter.

 

-Christian

[DHappel]

It's a pretty complicated name:  Teds

 

Conner (MrBlueSky) is another you may try talking too.  He has a diesel MOD truck with a Nebraska (?) title and needs to get it changed to CA.  I'm not sure where he is in the process right now.

[AdvRovr]

 

 

Some guys seem to have no issues, while others are given the run-around nightmare and are stuck with un-registerable rigs. It all seems to come down to the VIN verification check. Some guys get it done at a AAA or DMV office without hassle, others get sent to CHP for verification. In the end it is in the hands of the inspector...

From everything I've seen, this is the only statement that's true about registering grey market diesels here. Seems that each inspector tends to follow their own rules and it's just the luck of the draw.

 

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[DHappel]

Oops - I meant to say Miles (MrBlueSky) was the one with the MOD Defender

 

Conner has a diesel Defender as well, but that's a whole different story. 

[Jethro]

The other one is counties that are smog exempt really help. Rent a vacation house in Arnold and use that address. This works if you have more than one vehicle and then can justify not having to change all of your addresses.

 

I just recently did this to avoid paying smog fees and the anxiety of it would actually.

 

Ted is also working with the famous defender lawyer as his personal one to take on CA and CARB as they are violating Fed and CA laws...so you may be able to benefit from that.

 

 

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[cnrotter]

The other one is counties that are smog exempt really help. Rent a vacation house in Arnold and use that address. This works if you have more than one vehicle and then can justify not having to change all of your addresses.

 

I just recently did this to avoid paying smog fees and the anxiety of it would actually.

 

Ted is also working with the famous defender lawyer as his personal one to take on CA and CARB as they are violating Fed and CA laws...so you may be able to benefit from that.

 

 

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Interesting... wasn't aware of smog exempt counties in this state. 

[DHappel]

Interesting... wasn't aware of smog exempt counties in this state. 

When you get away from the big population centers you find counties that don't do smog, but they do still require it at time of purchase/sale.  They just don't do the bi-annual smog inspection.   

 

So in theory if you bought a vehicle stock and got it through smog once, you could go hog wild thereafter with no worries until you tried to sell it.   I believe a cop could still make you take it in for smog inspection even in these counties if he had some reason to suspect a problem - say you were driving through town every day spewing giant clouds of smoke.  But I doubt they'd ever actually do that unless you did something really obnoxious.

[lithium1330]

NCLR member, SplurGn recently (last 30days) successfully CA titled and registered his recently acquired Defender 90 TDI. 

There were lots of prayers and candles lit during the whole process, which likely helped. 

[cnrotter]

NCLR member, SplurGn recently (last 30days) successfully CA titled and registered his recently acquired Defender 90 TDI. 

There were lots of prayers and candles lit during the whole process, which likely helped. 

 

Hah! Great news for him. Glad he made it through.

[lithium1330]

yah... it was edge of your seat suspense! haha

I guess it could have gone either way - a spendy gamble. 

[DiscoDavis]

I had to learn it all in my quest for a CA friendly car. In short:

 

for existing compliant vehicles, carb law is:

>Pre 1975 gasoline, no smog required,

>Pre 1997 diesel no smog required

 

for non compliant (an import) vehicles, carb law is:

>Pre 1967-8 gasoline, no smog required (no compliance required really)

>Pre 1979-80 diesel, no smog required (no compliance required)

 

People that bring cars (imports) from out of state simply retitle, and pay taxes on the purchase if done within 1 year, hence why people wait 1 year before retitling here (you do however get a credit based on what you paid in another state). This invites less scrutiny.

 

Essentially it boils down to when you go to the DMV they look for a sticker that indicates CARB compliance, sometimes people didn't get asked for it and got a title. Others get flagged for not having it and now they cannot title in this state without paying the monopoly lab for their approx $10,000 USD sticker. 

 

People that import directly into CA stand a very high chance of immediately being flagged for this sticker issue, because it won't have a title from another state, so everyone will know its not from here, they'll ask for evidence of compliance and boom. No title. 

 

And FWIW my one ten has a CARB sticker and is white-paper legal, one of the reasons I bought it with no concern (original owner imported it and paid for it), I think someone may be confusing my car with another... 

[Teds]

Your best chance is buying a ROW (rest of world) truck with an existing state title that has been registered for a year. Then, go into the DMV and try to register the truck and play stupid. You will most likely get the import paperwork with the truck, but play stupid and say you don't have it. You still may have to get a CHP inspection, but that is just to verify VIN numbers. There are some independent DMV authorized VIN identifiers out there and if you are in Sacramento area, I can give you the name of a guy. I know two people that had to get the CHP inspection, but it is just for the VIN.

 

Being a pre-1996 diesel, DMV usually doesn't care.

 

DO NOT try to import a vehicle directly to Commiefornia. It is futile. I even had a lawyer on it who talked directly with the CARB lawyer, has all the CA statutes and they wouldn't do it. It is really a CARB issue, not the DMV. 

 

After 8 months of headaches, I have successfully imported the vehicle, but not with CA plates.