In a message dated 3/7/02 11:20:38 AM Pacific Standard Time,
napszeerf@YAHOO.COM writes:

<< Damn! I glad I dont live in Cali anymore! At least We
 can visit or live there for up to 6 months without
 having to register our Tiico Vanagons. When I moved to
 California, I didnt register my Toyota for a full
 year(untill I got a fixit ticket) and THEN i had to
 pay an "Environmental Impact fee" which was like
 $500!!...That AND pay something like %30 of the book
 value of the vehicle EACH YEAR which averaged $300
 bucks per year for a truck worth 6 grand.
 Oh well, God speed to Peter, i hope he can convince
 CARB. >>

Phil,

You must have left Cali a loooooong time ago. The fee you mention has been
deemed unconstitutional.  If you were charged the fee, you are probably
entitled to a refund.

Although I am not a native Californian, I have spent the last 28 some odd
years here. In my travels, I have always found it a relief to come home.
Nevermind that we more vehicle regulations. It is usually the way the rest of
the world eventually follow. As an example, remember when the Europeans did
not give much thought to smog until the Germans started noticing that acid
rain was turning the Black Forest ashen? Remember when they thought an
exhaust thermal reactor would work better than catalytic converters? There's
a lot of things that can make a place less desirable to live in. Minor
vehicle inconveniences are acceptable to me.

Besides, where else can you go and see 20 Vanagons in any given day? I went
to my parts guy this morning and there were two being parted out. I don't
think there are too many states your going to find that. On the non VW front,
we also get many models which the rest of the world never sees. Nevermind
that many models don;t make it here. There's enough manufacturers designing
just for this market. Where the rest of the world goes can sometimes just be
incidental.

Oh yeah, Eurospec, Tiico, Subaru, etc... if you can't get around the rules,
you have no business doing a swap. Been there. Done that. Will be involved in
others in the future.

OK so I didn't get my coffee yet this morning.

BenT
out of shape in the San Francisco Bay Area