Registration In California

[Ricardo Singer]

Seeking advice.
An acquaintance of mine called me today seeking advise because he received a notice of registration cancellation from the California DMV stating that they had conduced an investigation and that it seemed like his Superformance was registered as a 1965 cx cobra was a kit and therefore his registration was cancelled.
He also said that he needed to submit a hole lot of documents and he didn’t know what to do.

Any one with this kind of experience?

Thank you in advance for any feedback

Ricardo

[xlr8or]

This is probably more fallout from people using Titles Unlimited and registering them as 65's. Then they tried to get around the taxes by selling the car the TU then buying them back for a supposed 10K and only paying taxes on the 10K instead of the real cost of the $37.9K roller plus the drive train.

There are some old threads here the lay it all out pretty well. Basically the state is going after them for the fraud on the taxes. One local guy here ended up paying an additional $3500 in fees and penalties and they then gave him a SB100 number to use to register it properly.

[Bill Kesner]

Ricardo......

Let your friend know it's not as bad as it seems. He will need to gather all his receipts for the car, and take them in to the DMV beginning Jan 1st, 2005 to request an SB100 sequence number. The only real bad news is that the 500 numbers given out by the state each year for registering these type of vehicles, were all handed out last March. Once he has the sequence number, there are a few steps to follow as he re-registers the vehicle.

Hope this helps.

- Bill -

[Bluedog]

Does anyone know what happended to California's Assembly Bill AB 2683 requiring smog certification for vehicles pre 1976?
Bluedog

[RedBarchetta]

So long as your acquaintance's SPF is not outright "seized" by the CHP for the infraction, all he really has to do is follow-up with the DMV's paperwork request and then do the SB100 dance come 2005.

He would probably be wise to include some letter of explanation as to why the car was registered as a '65 (i.e. ...."the guy who sold it to me told me it was okay...."). Whatever excuse he comes up with, it better be earnest and sound as innocent and nieve as possible. Otherwise, they may take the hard core stance and either seize the car or deem the car "un-registerable in the State of CA." I've seen a few CA vehicles for sale on the web that have this disclaimer on them.

Bottom line: The State of CA and the DMV wants what is rightfully theres (fees and sales taxes). The CHP wants to ensure that safe cars are being operated on the highways and are not "hot" (stolen property). The B.A.R. wants to ensure that the car is smog exempt. And lastly, the insurance company wants to make sure they are insuring a legit vehicle that everyone else has blessed. If your acquaintance dots all the i's and crosses all the t's carefully and forthright, he can work his way out of this painted corner.

-Deano

[Ricardo Singer]

Thanks for the very good information, I emailed him all the threads and what he is going to do is to contact the DMV and follow up. He also contacted an attorney who advised him in the same terms that all of you.

Thanks again… and If I can be of assistance to any one of you, please don’t hesitate to call on me

My best regards

Ricardo
www.singerracing.com

[tonysshelbys]

I just visited Sacramento today and went to my local assemblyman who sits on the Assembly sub-committee which will be considering AB 2683 next week (April 12). His admin. assistant told me he is definitely opposed to the bill. By the way, I also visited the office of the Assemblywoman (Sally Lieber) who has introduced this bill and her admin. assist. hot denied that this bill will make cars older than 1976 subject to any type of smog check. She gave me a copy of the proposed bill and a flier outlining the major points of the bill. Both clearly state that any vehicle older than 1976 WILL NOT BE SUBJECT TO SMOG CHECK. What the bill does do is eliminate the 30 year rolling exemption for vehicles each year. Thus in 2006, under this bill, 1976 vehicles WILL NOT BE EXEMPTED FROM SMOG CHECK as they are scheduled to do under current law (Senate Bill 42 passed several years ago) and in 2007, 1977 cars won't be exempt etc. for each succeeding year.
Of course, their statement that pre 76 vehicles won't be affected is just a sop to us. This bill eliminates the 30 year rolling exemption and is just the first step down a slippery slope towards total repeal of SB 42 in the future. If you're a California resident and voter, tell your local assemblyperson to vote against this bill.
Tony Sousa
tonysshelbys

[Edley Rondinone]

Granted, the '74 - thru '82 (est) were the poorest running, most strangled automobile engines ever, IMHO. There may be fewer and fewer of these cars as the years go by, but I would have to agree with anyone who wanted to keep these poor-performing vehicles under the current smog-test program.

I also realize that ANY law to change our present status quo on the smog issue COULD be the proverbial "slippery slope" towards total "Big Brotherism" in the cars we drive. I would gladly keep the post-'73 cars under smog check rules, in order to save the pre-'73 cars without having smog checks.

[Turk]

Maybe now we will all find out why even under SB-100 we were made to go to Smog Referee, for our cars that were not expected to pass the emission tests to begin with.

It made no sense. There was no fee associated with it, so we were not being asked to go there prior to final visit to DMV for them to extract a few more bucks. It was and IS free. Why then the visit to test a car that could NOT fail!!

Well, it is like the gun registration.
"we have nothing against the guns, we just want them registered".

Those of us who had their cars registered under SB-100 all own gross polluters. They gave us a pass under the current law.
What happens when the rolling 30 year goes into effect?

Remember our cars are NOT registered as 1965 or 1966. they are registered as 2003-2004 Special Construction.

What is to stop them from revoking or demanding that our cars must pass the new emission requirements. They are newer than 1976.

It is getting uglier than expected. I got calls from two different friends yeterday. Both are scared to death with what is going on. One of them who has been building his car for the last three years is scheduled for a visit from DMV and an iinvestigator.
They want to go see his car this Friday.

The other has missing paperwork, and is scared to death his car may be confiscated. We also found out yesterday, they are after Porsche, Ferrari, Beck and few other replicas. They are claiming numbers in the thousands will be visited, contacted. They see lot of revenue potential. The last number I heard was 78,000 vehicles that may get this close a scrutiny.

I suppose we are in good company, there maybe stregth in numbers, but we are getting picked up one by one.

I have heard of more than 4 registrations being revoked, titles suspended.

In my case my perfectly legal SB-100 registration caught the attention of DMV, and instead of being given my license plates and my title, I was given another temporary sticker good for 3 more months while Sacarmento tries to find something wrong with my paperwork.

Nowehere did they offer to give me my taxes and registartion fees back. Almost $3000.00 is theirs to keep, while I sit here wondering what is going to happen to my paperwork.

9 out of 10 people I know who have gotten tangled with the folks at DMV have done so to get around a damn near impossible system to be able to drive their cars in this state.

We have 7800 felons they can't locate. There are 2-3 millions illegals they don't know where they are. State has attempted to grant driving priveldges to ILLEGALS.

Mexican cars, trucks buses freely drive into US from South of the border and pollute the $hit out of the air. Yet, me and other car nuts who spend most of their time just tinkering, or trailering or driving a few thousand miles a year have to go through hell.

We got our state so much in order, everything is so perfect, we must now get all these criminals with Cobras and Hotrods behind bars or confiscate their paper work, collect fines, and make them jump through every hoop possible and then some so they can go and buy gasoline at $2.45 a gallon to drive on the most cogested highways in the country.

ENOUGH!!

They have time to put investigators on these but just today, I called the police department to ask for their help to send an officer from the Narcotics department to catch the Roach Coach (Lunch Truck) driver that comes by every day and allegedly sells drugs to my employees.

I got a recording, and left a message. That was at 10:00 this morning. I have yet to hear from them.
They have their priorities.
Cocaine dealers welcome. Cobra owners not.

I know the $hitheads from Sacramento read these boards, That is how they gathered the information on many of the cars we bought and sold and built and drove. They use our forum to gather information on us.

You know something, I don't care. Come and get me.

I spent over $25,000 in this state during the last 3 years, on sales taxes, registrations, Plates,fees etc. for toys alone!

My neighbor next door drives a Neon he didn't spend squat. Guess who is the target. $25,000 extra dollars gotten from me for my bike, my Cobras, my Porsche is not good enough. They want more and they want to make my life difficult.

Give ME a break.

How would the State of Califirnia be better of, if I had gotten fed up earlier and said NO and didn't buy any one of these cars. Everyone of them were slated to be sold to people in other states.California wouldn't have gotten a dime.

No wonder they are broke.

Yes I am on a tirade. I am tired of running and hiding from these people. The voice of my friends yesterday bothered me. They were grown men, with families jobs and homes, wondering what will happen to them. They were asking out loud if there could be prosecutions for fraud, or fines.

Before some self righteous tax payer gets on my soap box after I get off, I don't want to hear about "if we had done this and had done that we wouldn't have this problem".

Screw that. I did what I had to do, and State is richer for it, and I will make sure they don't get another dime from me and my vehicles.

Does anyone know anybody who paid a red cent in fines because they had out of state plates?
What is the fine for such offense. Almost NON EXISTENT.

I am willing to take my chances, and I will go to the press, I will go to Sacramento, I will make someone else's life miserable besides me.

500 lousy registrations for a State the size of California.

Give me another break..

Ok, I think I am done.

How about that Critical Mass to Sacramento with the loudest nastiest cars and trucks we can possibly drive?

TURK
The Taxpayer

[Bill Kesner]

Excellent tirade Turk! I couldn't have *****ed about it better. They have no clue in the real world. Rather than bendover and register my car which would have added to their revenues, I'm now forced to go out of state to register my vehicle.

I think the entire DMV in California needs to completely restructure itself by coming up with new ways for Registration, which would increase their revenues...not turn them away!

If that doesn't work, I say we go to Sacramento, line them all up, and give them a good ***** slapping!

- Bill -

[Gordon Claunch]

October 1st I'm moving to Texas!!!!

[tonysshelbys]

Just read Turk's tirade. His point about our cars being included in a smog check years from now is exactly on point. When I discussed Lieber's bill with her twit of an admin assist. who was really arrogant by the way, she couldn't assure me that my Cobra which may be classified as a 2004 by DMV (more about that in a minute) wouldn't be subject to a smog check in the future under this proposed new law.
Now, about DMV's issue of year of production on new Cobras. Shelby American states on their MSO that their 289FIA is a 1965 Cobra. A friend of mine had his reg. cancelled officially by letter a couple of days ago and the letter stated that after a joint investigation by DMV, CHP, the Yolo County District Attorney's Office and the California Attorney General, the investigation had determined that my friend's car was NOT a 1965 Cobra and had been fraudulently represented as such. Question, if DMV disbelieves Shelby's MSO and will not accept it as justification that the car is a 1965 then the conclusion one can draw is that they will assign the current year you first register the car as official year of production/registration. That in turn leads all of us who have these cars to Turk's point raised above. What happens when the 30 year exemption applies to us? Guess what, our cars will be subject to confiscation or revocation of registration: BASED ON THE INITIAL SMOG TEST.
The 30 year rolling exemption can be cut short. The arrogant twit who I dealt with in Lieber's office admitted that the Legislature has the power to change existing law at any time and frequently does so. When I pointed out that this could mean pre 76 vehicles could be then subject to smog check by future legislative action, she admitted that yes that could be a possibility. When I asked her how AB 2683 applies to SB100 vehicles, she didn't have a clue what I was talking about and I think they could very well change the law to force our vehicles to be included in smog check.
Tonysshelbys
P.S. to Gordon, I had planned on retiring here in California but I'm strongly contemplating retiring in Nev. or Ariz. instead.

[RedBarchetta]

In 30 years I will be 72. I will be blessed if I can still push in the clutch with my rebuilt knees by then. But the car will go to my kids, so I'll fight for them.

And if I can't register it at that time, then I'll come up with another plan....buy a patch of dirt in Montana and register it there. Or I'll just swap tags with another car of mine and keep several one hundred dollar bills in the door pockets to give the cops "donut money". NO ONE is going to keep me from driving my beast. NO ONE!

[RedBarchetta]

Originally posted by Turk


In my case my perfectly legal SB-100 registration caught the attention of DMV, and instead of being given my license plates and my title, I was given another temporary sticker good for 3 more months while Sacarmento tries to find something wrong with my paperwork.

Nowehere did they offer to give me my taxes and registartion fees back. Almost $3000.00 is theirs to keep, while I sit here wondering what is going to happen to my paperwork.

Turk, I'm not quite in the same boat, but close. I have my tags and they handed me my registration. Now all I'm waiting on is the pink slip (ownership certificate). I dropped off all the paperwork two weeks ago, so now all I do is check my mail every afternoon.

Perhaps I went a different route than most: Bought a used car from out of state, assigned a previous tag (vanity plate) to the car, tried to go through AAA for registration but got flagged on a VIN verification at DMV, played dumb with the CHP and they affixed their own VIN, then went to DMV and got my sequence number and did the dance with B.A.R. Sort of bass-ackwards, but I was able to work through it all and ALL the paperwork is there. Oh yeah, and I paid full taxes on the full purchase price.

If the DMV does not present me my pink, my next step will be to contact an attorney. I followed all their rules and did everything they asked of me. They have no justification to withhold the pink.
Stay tuned.......

-Deano

[Turk]

Good LUCK!!

Please read the latest from Attorney General of California.

http://www.caag.state.ca.us/newsalerts/2004/04-042.htm

They mean business. Nowhere do they suggest how these criminals should have registered their cars. They turned bunch of law abiding citizens into lawbreakers.
While the Rome burns......

[RedBarchetta]

HOLY SHIIATT!!!! There are going to be many a Cobra owner in Cali getting letters from the DMV soon (if not by now).

Worst case is they hold up my paperwork because it's a Cobra. Once they go through all the documentation and see that I purchased it from a private party and Titles Unlimited was not involved, everything will be cool. The fact that the CHP has already inspected my car, affixed a CA VIN on the frame, and B.A.R. has completed their once over, AND the DMV has already given me the registration and allowed me to attach the plates, I can't honestly think what else they could say?!?

Since the CHP and B.A.R. did their due diligence (according to the law), and I paid all my applicable taxes and fees (again, according to the law), then the State has no foot to stand on. Game, Set, Match.....GIVE ME MY PINK!!!

[Randy Rosenberg]

Originally posted by RedBarchetta


HOLY SHIIATT!!!! There are going to be many a Cobra owner in Cali getting letters from the DMV soon (if not by now)...

It may be a more worse for these 613, as the last sentence in this Press Release says:

"The Attorney General's Office also has notified law enforcement officials in more than 20 counties regarding residents who titled their cars through the company for possible prosecution."

Ouch!

[RedBarchetta]

All I can say "I'm clean....I'm clean.....I'm clean." And I have some people here at clubcobra to thank for posting all the SB100 threads from months past. There was a time when I thought I could skirt the gov, but it turned out the best route was to follow the state rules, pay the man, and move on. That's the only real way to deal with this issue, period.

Hmmmmm, I wonder if owning an "SB100 compliant" Cobra in California just upped my resale value a couple thousand!

[Gary Morris]

Hey Turk....makes you wonder how many legitimate 32 Fords are in California? Ever hear of the street rod people being hassled?

Gary

[Turk]

Upped yours!

TURK