Date:         Thu, 28 Mar 1996 08:33:00 -0800 (PST)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Maher, Steve (SD-MS)" <SMAHER@gi.com>
Subject:      RE: what year did california get it's own bus?


>Does anyone know when vw started bulfing Cal. and no California
>models.
>I'm thinking of moving there in '97 and would hate to get attatched to
>a bus (I'm looking to buy a westy now.) and then have to get a Cal
>model when I move there.

You don't have to abandon your non-CA car when you move here... at
least, that's the official line. What you DO have to do, is pay a $300
fine for every non-CA car you bring into the state. They call it an
Environmental Fee or some such, but it goes into the same general fund
that traffic tickets and court fines go into. The gummint's way of
getting around the Constitutional ban on interstate tariffs, maybe.

I found about this when I moved from Colorado to CA in '90, bringing
THREE cars with me.   :-O   Soon I'll be allowed to do it again for
the V6anagon, which I imported from Missouri.

The good news is, you don't have to add CA smog equipment to your non-
CA car once you pay the fine. Law here simply says that the car must have
all its original-type smog equipment for the time and place it was first
sold as new. Smog inspection stations here, have lists of both CA and
non-CA equipment. Keep a copy of your present registration, so later you
can prove to them that yours is a non-CA car (if there aren't already
stickers in the engine compartment saying so).

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 Steve Maher   smaher@gi.com       '80 V6anagon w/Chevy 2800
                                   '66 Mustang Coupevertible, for sale

 Check out the cars at http://www.lookup.com/homepages/76242/home.html

     *** I'm a Native American, born in Illinois. Or does ancestry
                   make a difference after all? ***
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