Re: Any south SF Bay area Audi owners/fans?

[reesor@tss.com (Rob Reesor)]

On Feb 7,  1:32pm, New England: July-August & winter  07-Feb-1995 133 wrote:
> Subject: Re: Any south SF Bay area Audi owners/fans?
> CA Audi fans:
>
> How much of a hassle is it to bring a non-CA Audi into CA?  I have an 86
5000CS TQ
> that I'm thinking of selling here in the east to prevent a hassle out there.
> Should I even worry about this?
>
> Any help is welcome.
>
> ...bill
>-- End of excerpt from New England: July-August & winter  07-Feb-1995 133

It should be no problem bringing a non-California Audi into California. I am a
CA resident and recently purchased a Coupe from someone in Oregon. I was
worried since the horror stories about moving CA with a non-CA car pale in
comparison to the stories about buying a car and bringing it in.

I had a lot of questions and a lot of worries. I called 5 different DMVs and
got 5 different answers. Finally, I got a guy at one of the DMVs that clearly
new the law. Basically if you are moving here from another state or if you buy
a car in another state and bring it in, the car must meet pollution standards
for the year it was made and for the market where it was originally sold.

There is a sticker somewhere inside the engine compartment of all US cars. The
sticker will say something about "meets EPA requirements". If the car is a CA
car, the sticker will say so. If not, it will not.

When you bring the car to CA, you will take it to a handy Smog Check
technician. The technician will test the car either as a CA car or a 49-state
car, depending on the wording on the sticker. If the sticker is missing, it's
assumed to be a 49-state car.

If the car fails, you will need to make repairs up to some dollar limit (varies
by the year of the car). After passing, you take all paperwork to the DMV and
license the car. If the car is a non-CA car, you will pay a one-time $300 smog
impact fee. Since your car will get slightly better gas mileage than a CA car
of the same make/model, this $300 fee offsets the state's loss of gas tax
revenue.

I was amazed at how easy it was to get my car into CA, though the cost of
registration, the smog impact fee, and smog testing was close to $500 total!

One thing I did, and you may want to as well, was to have the car tested in
Oregon to see if it meet 49-state specs before I bought it. This will give you
a pretty good idea of what'll happen here.

Hope this helps.

-- Rob

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