Rennlist - Porsche Discussion Forums - Out of state purchase re Smog legal in CA

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Out of state purchase re Smog legal in CA

So, I'm looking at a new GTS on the east coast, can anyone confirm that the 718 is 50 state legal please? If so, when I take the car to DMV where do I find the emissions sticker that says so?
Thanks!

yes - shd be under the engine hump carpet pad, directly below the rear hatch glass

Quote:

Originally Posted by golfnutintib (Post 15609365)

yes - shd be under the engine hump carpet pad, directly below the rear hatch glass

Excellent, thank you! Is this cover relatively easy to remove or would this be something to do at home before taking it in?

you need a pry tool to loosen the carpet/padding... it is hard to do by hand... best to loosen or remove before going for inspection... or dealer can do it for you

Things may be different now, but you may still need to smog it in CA when you register it with DMV, at least I had to that around 2007/2008 when I purchased a new Audi S5 in AZ and drove back to CA.

I knew I had to pay the tax differences to CA DMV, but I was also told to take the car to get a smog test first and bring the paperwork back to show the inspector at DMV before they will let me register the car.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1pcarnut (Post 15609690)

Excellent, thank you! Is this cover relatively easy to remove or would this be something to do at home before taking it in?

Definitely do it in advance - on my 718, I removed the trim (as directed by the dealership) in order to free the carpet on top of the engine cover. There is a thread on here that shows how much had to be removed. It’s a simple, but hugely annoying process.

You will likely also be required to smog it, despite the sticker.

Between calling the dealer to find the sticker location, going home to disassemble, then being told to go smog, it was a complete day of bureaucratic bs. At least the out-of-state deal was worth it.

Good luck.

Thanks for the help. I'm okay with getting it smogged, just don't want to get the car shipped and find out I can't register it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by golfnutintib (Post 15609365)

yes - shd be under the engine hump carpet pad, directly below the rear hatch glass

Ahhhh that makes sense. I had to get my NH purchased car inspected at my local CA DMV. I just played is super dumb. When the inspector told me to open the hood, I opened the frunk and scratched my head, "well, what do you know, there's no engine". When we opened the hatch same response. Eventually the guy got annoyed, signed off on the paperwork with a "not my freekin' problem" and let me on my way. DMV was more than happy to collect a big check for taxes and gave me my plates and registration.

How about if you buy a used car, can it be registered in CA at all, even with a 50 states emission certificate?

Yes - a 981 or 718 that was purchased outside of CA can be registered here. As others have mentioned, the DMV inspection involves a smog check and a visual inspection of several stickers, including one that is under the engine cover. When I moved to CA from NY, I took my 981 to a dealer to get the smog check and visual inspection done. I then took the paperwork from them to a local AAA to get the registration done. One advantage of having the dealer do the visual inspection and smog is that I didn’t have to drive around with the car disassembled (the DMV won’t accept my picture of the sticker).

The whole process took an afternoon for me - not ideal, but then again, I don’t understand why Porsche didn’t put this sticker somewhere more easily accessible...

Quote:

Originally Posted by white924s (Post 15616809)

There's a caveat with this statement.

If you buy the car while living out of state, then yes you can bring it in, even if it's not CA smog certified and has less than 7500 miles. HOWEVER, if you are a CA resident at the time of purchase, and it's got less than 7500 miles, and NOT CA emissions certified, you will probably not be allowed to register it. If you are a CA resident at the time of purchase, but the car IS a 50-state emissions certified car, you are fine. Hence my original query about the 718 being 50-state compliant.

As an aside, the CA AA can do both the VIN verification (which includes checking for the smog compliance sticker) and registration for an out of state vehicle. It's worth it to me just to have AA membership for that reason alone. I was not aware that a dealer could do this for a private party, so if this is really true as noted above, I will ask my local dealer about this, although I expect there will be a substantial fee involved as opposed to free with AA.

How about if you are in CA, car has more than 7500 miles and no 50 state certificate?

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1pcarnut (Post 15622669)

There's a caveat with this statement.

As an aside, the CA AA can do both the VIN verification (which includes checking for the smog compliance sticker) and registration for an out of state vehicle. It's worth it to me just to have AA membership for that reason alone. I was not aware that a dealer could do this for a private party, so if this is really true as noted above, I will ask my local dealer about this, although I expect there will be a substantial fee involved as opposed to free with AA.

The dealer filled out a form for the VIN verification and gave me photographs of the sticker. When AAA completed the registration, they reviewed those forms. For a normal car, I would have had the AAA do the whole VIN verification, but I went the dealer route given the disassembly/assembly required to get to the sticker on the Cayman. I paid my dealer for labor, but I don’t recall the cost being that substantial (1 hour of labor? Less PCA discount, of course).

Thanks for clarifying the limits on bringing in an outside car as a CA resident...I hadn’t caught that nuance when I was bringing my Cayman in to the state.

I just wanted to add a bit more in regards to what I had to do to get my car registered in CA.

Context: Purchased a new car (under 7500 miles, first owner) from an out of state dealership (NH).

Step 1: Schedule appt at CA DMV (remember you have like ~20 days to register your car, or so they say)
Step 2: SMOG check
Step 3A: VIN verification/Inspection -can be done at a CHP station, my local AAA could not do it for a new car (used and private party totally ok!)
Step 3B: VIN verification/Inspection -go to the DMV anytime you want and get into the inspection line. I couldn't find the sticker in the engine bay but acted really, really dumb. Guy signed off anyways. YMMV
Step 4: Take your paperwork (SMOG, Taxes, Application for Registration, Title or proof of ownership) and get your plates and sticker :burnout:

Hope that helps!

You can also pay a private VIN verifier to do the verification if you don’t want to deal with the DMV.