Registering a used car in Calif - is smog cert. always required?

[Joe Bob]

Originally posted by filou
one time, i've found a interesting web site, www. skrewthedmv.com ?????
They gave great loop holes to register a car in CA with exemptions about smog certificate. One more thing, you didn't ear it from me, understood ????
Good luck, filou.

Read a few of his dodges.....interesting but most are not workable.....I prefer to do most of my business with the Auto Club.

Here in CA they have DMV services. They are nice, have a brain you can actually reason with them and they don't cop an attitude like the drones at DMV.

[Zeke]

One more thing, if you op to hang on to the car and not register it holding the previous owner's title with no sales date, make sure you can supply the DMV with paperwork that shows the car had benn deliered (NOT DRIVEN) to CA within 10 days of your attempt to title it. Otherwise, you will pay late penalties. Ask me how I know.

I'd like to know more about options to hold title for a vehicle not intended to be operated on the public roads ever (race car). Seems to me that if you are stopped by the CHP, you ought to have something to hand over to the officer for the tow vehicle, the trailer and what is on the trailer. Did someone say 'certificate of ownership?' What is that? How is a sand rail or dirt bike registered?

[Joe Bob]

You would think that CA would have some type of offroad vehicle title....hey, another way to generate fees??????

[Tinker]

Yelcab wrote "The DMV said to me: if you don't want to drive it, keep it off the road in your garage, keep the bill of sale, and the old non-transfered title, and don't lose the paper work because that is the only proof you have of your ownership. No need for Cal to issue a new title in your name. Sales tax, please"

So who are they going to mail the renewal notice?? Probably the old/current title holder.

I'd think you would want the car in your name to be safe.

Tinker

[Zeke]

I don't THINK it's 10 OR 20 days. I remember only 2 time frames in dealing with the DMV which are 10 and 30 days. Most things fall into the 10 day catagorie.

BTW, there was an article in our local rag, the Press Telegram, yesterday about a luckless soul who sent his yearly tag money up to Sacramento and it was misplaced. He didn't get a smog which didn't help. By the time he got his notice of incomplete registration, he had the smog done and it was telecommunicated to the DMV. He kept copies of his canceled check and his smog work in the glove box. Didn't work. He was pulled over and towed. He couldn'g get his work van back for 2 weeks, thusly losing 2 weeks work. Had to go to court. At that point it came out that the DMV is so for behind posting data and that was the real reason he fell into his predicament. Basically he was cleared of all wrongdoing and penalties except for a $10 court fee. But, was he compensated? NFW!

When you deal with these *********s, be forewarned. It's the same in every department. Don't even think about filing a claim against your licensed contractor. They currently have a back log of 14,000 complaints according to their own newsletter they send me. It's like open season out there.