RE: Ca (80) Quattros

["Buchholz, Steven" <Steven.Buchholz@kla-tencor.com>]

> Does anyone know if there are major differences between the California and
> 49-state 1988 80 quattros? I might be moving to the left coast and need to
> know if it's worth bringing a non-ca car into compliance; both wrt cost
> and
> hassle.
> 
As long as your car has all of the standard emissions related equipment you
should have no problem at all bringing your car into California and
registering it here.  There was a difference at one time between the
49-states and California cars, but that is rarely true today.  The only
issue is that in order to fuel the bureaucracy in Sacramento unless your car
has an emissions sticker (under the hood) that says that it meets California
requirements you will have to pay a $300 smog impact "fee" [read: tax].  I
believe that the emissions testing in parts of Colorado today is actually
more strict than it is in California in some ways.  When I brought the '91
V8 in from Colorado last year I didn't even check the state of the spark
plugs or change the oil (my usual process before having a smog test) and the
smog tech actually remarked that the car is one of the claenest he'd seen
for a while ...

HTH, and feel free to contact me if you have any other questions about
bringing a car here ...

Steve Buchholz
San Jose, CA (USA)