Bringing a Used Cobra Into California

[RedBarchetta]

Mark, here's the deal. I just went through what you are contemplating so I'll spill my knowledge here.

I bought an out-of-state car (Texas) with a super clean title (titled as a '66 Ford with 11 digit VIN). My thinking was pretty simple...go to AAA and smooze the older ladies that work there. They do the car inspection, I pay the correct amount of taxes based on the actual purchase price (keeping things legit), they pass the paperwork onto DMV and ding-ding, the pink slip (Title) gets sent in the mail. Assuming too much was my first mistake.

DMV must have really gone over this one, 'cause they rejected the package and requested a "VIN Verification" with the CHP.
At that exact moment, my heart sank and I knew, I @#$%ing KNEW, that I was going to have to "go by the book" just like everyone else before me.

The CHP will first check to make sure the car isn't "hot", so buyer beware when purchasing a used one. I passed that sniff test and the officer promptly removed ALL underhood tags (including the nice Cobra plate attached by Superformance), and they rivited their own tag on the same place of the front frame crossmember. I might add, a clean installation and all I need to do is fill one hole and touch up with black paint. Oh, and the officer was kind enough to give me back the fire wall tag, though insisting that it should never be placed back there. Okay.... ;-)

Next I decided to "race" to the DMV earlier today, as my appointment was for March 1 and with less than 100 numbers left, I didn't want to chance it and wait. 4 hours later I had my sequence number. Now keep in mind that I had to kindly explain to the clueless DMV worker all about SB100/1578 and I even showed her print screens from the DMV web site to prove my point that this program exists (!). I also had to "hint" to her that it would require her supervisor to contact Sacramento to get the sequence number.

So now I await my certificate in the mail. Then I make an appointment with BAR, they look at the car, out their stamp on the certificate (along with a sticker or two under the hood somewhere), and then I take the whole mess (all the paperwork, about 15 pages or so) back to DMV and finish the process. It's not too terribly difficult, just a BIG FRICKEN HASSLE and you have to educate the DMV along the way. It was the hassle part that shied me away from it to begin with. It's not a tide worth fighting against...go along with the State plan and it will work itself out.

The long and short of it is this. I wouldn't base your buying decision solely on what is left with the 2004 sequence number allocations. I found many nice Cobras for sale in California that were already "SB100 compliant". It's just that they were either the wrong color, slightly out of my price range, or were too "rough" and were just not as clean as I expected. Find the right car and deal with the paperwork afterwards. If you miss the cutoff, just get your paperwork fine tuned and plan on spending January 2nd, 2005 at the DMV.

That's my advice to you. Good luck with your purchase and search!

Regards,

-Deano