[911mnypt]

The story begins with me attempting to do my bi-annual smog on the 911. A little history first…I bought the car from a local dealer in May 2007, who specifically sells Porsches and BMW’s. Nothing unusual about the purchase other than the documentation took forever to process. Since the car was not plated, I had to take it to the DMV and have them inspect it. There was never any mention of the car being a “grey market” and I only found out about it from one of our Pelican comrades.

The first test failed, which I had a feeling it would. I then took it over to Frank’s Automotive and had a new smog pump installed along with duming down the timing and fuel mixture. Frank’s took the car back to the smog place and it passed just fine…so you would think that all is well? NOT. The smog tech said he can not perform an official smog test because this car is a “grey market” car and does not have its inspection/vin sticker in the door. He also looked into the smog history of the car and said that it has never passed smog in the state of California. My next step was to call DMV and set up an apt with the State Referee so he can inspect and perhaps sticker the car. I met with them yesterday and they seemed perplexed on how I got my original plates and what is a smog pump doing on a 1980 911. I tried telling him that this car was federalized when it was brought into the US because it has a smog pump, catalytic converter…one inch bars welded into the doors, but he said you need to take it down to our smog lab in NAPA and have the car analyzed.

Thinking that I was duped by the dealer I called the Bureau of Automotive Repair and seeked advice on my options. They looked into the history of the car and showed that smog test was performed in 2003, 2005 and in 2007 all failed. They advised that I file a complaint with the DMV investigator and BAR to cover me just in case.

I called the dealer who is just as perplexed as I am about the situation. He says he has the smog cert and all the proper documentation that he submitted to the DMV. He also said that he bought the car from Brasher’s in Sacramento and can’t imagine they would do something hanky. We plan to meet next week so I can obtain the documents and plead my case to someone?

At this point I do not know where I can turn to or which direction this will go. Needless to say, I am very disappointed and upset with this whole situation. How can the DMV send me my registration and plates back in 2007 without smog cert and validation of Federalization? This just does not make sense to me at all….