I just re-read your page and I'm curious about something. Here in
> California, the land of the allegedly Draconian DMV and such, you could,
> in
> your situation, either pay the registration and non-op the vehicle without
> smogging it,...you pay the registration and
> you therefore have a 'legal vehicle', whether it's operable or not.
> You can't do the same in Ohio?
>

You can't always do that in California either.  The state allows it, but
individual municipalities have varying local regs. My brother has a non-op
280ZX Turbo in the paved side yard under a cover behind a chain-link fence
at the house he rents in Simi Valley. A nosy city goon had previously warned
him they'd tow it for being unregistered after he left it in the driveway
uncovered. They still knock on the door asking to see under the cover to
check if its the same car and still unregistered, but he and his roommate
both say it belongs to a third party living there, and that if they REALLY
want to know, why don't they TRESPASS then DAMAGE PRIVATE PROPERTY cutting
the lock off the cover to find out. They always go away grumbling. The
"funny" part is that across the street a guy has a car body UP ON BLOCKS in
his driveway with no plates, much less registered. It's really about his
landlord being unpopular with certain city officials, but the rules are
still there...

--
John Bange
'90 Vanagon - "Geldsauger"