California SB100 Question ? ? ?

[Randy Rosenberg]

Hi Adam,

Your situation is not uncommon...

Back in 1992, the DMV titled these cars differently than they do today. I've talked to lots-o-guys with older Cobra replicas, and it's amazing how many different ways the DMV legally titled these vehicles.

You're in what I call a "gray area" where your title was (most probably) not issued illegally, however it doesn't meet today's standards. As you may already know, the state is pulling titles from those who used titling services to have their Cobras titled - this is a form of title washing, and the DMV is pulling the titles of these vehicles based upon the on-going investigations of these out-of-state title companies by the Attorney General's office. Assuming that back in 1992 the original owner didn't use a title service, but followed what the DMV told him, then chances are extremely low that the DMV will ever approach you to pull your title and demand that you correct it (bring it up to today's standards).

However, there are two Senate Bills (SB953 & SB577) which each propose an "amnesty" program to encourage the correction of vehicle titles. The intent of this program is to encourage those who used a title service (or other such means of titling) to correct their vehicle's title with amnesty from prosecution. At the same time, the state is looking to acquire revenue, due to the their expectation that the value of these vehicles are under-reported (and therefore the owners have not pay their full share of title and annual registration fees). One of the obsticles of these bills is that our community of Cobra replica owners strongly believe that without significant relaxation of the current smog requirements with respect to our replicas, many will not take advantage of such an amnesty program. I have clearly stated this to both Senators who authored these two bills, as well as to SEMA.

(Again) assuming that the original owner followed the process prescribed by the DMV at that time to title your replica, then my advice is for you to continue to renew your registration annually, and to take advantage of any possible anmesty program to bring your title up to current standards, only if the state can provide a realistic means of smog requirement relaxation. Until then, due to the limited number of SB100 Sequence Numbers (the only means of smog requirement relaxation available for post-1966 engines), I do not recommend that you take action now to bring your title up to today's standards.

Hope this helps,
Randy R...