At 10:38 AM 3/28/1996 -0600, Maher, Steve (SD-MS) wrote:
>
>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).

This isn't true, actually.  When I moved here (in 1990), I was not required
to pay any fee for my 1987 Golf.  It may only be true for cars that emit
excessive pollutants.  (If this is the case, GOOD!  Polluters should be
fined.)

Ron
--                                       
Ron 'Coyote' Lussier         /\_/\      ____             Chaco Communications
(408) 865-0657              (     )     \ _/__        10164 Parkwood Drive #8
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(1990 VW Westfalia Camper)    \_/          \/    http://www.chaco.com/~coyote