Reply to "Any GT5-S owners in California?"

Julian, my car is an Amerisport. Under the front hood of the car, it shows the VIN# tag and also the DOT tag. When I bought the car, I was under the assumption that Amerisport already went through all the hoops to make the car legal in the USA. I figured all I needed was to find a smog shop that was willing to play ball with me.

My problem now is that if the VIN# didn't show up at my local DMV in the Los Angeles area, I assume the DMV won't be able to pull up my VIN# no matter what city I try to register the car in. Then what happens? At least in Los Angeles, I am then sent to CARB, where it cost 10k for an inspection and they will force me to put on a ton of expensive smog equipment that will financially kill me.

I found that there are some counties that are smog exempt in California. Tuolumne Ca 95379., Julian Ca. 92036, Burrego Springs Ca. 92004, to name a few. Problem is, even though these small towns are smog exempt, if it is a new purchase where there is a change of ownership they need a smog certificate. This is required only the first time you register the car. After that you never have to worry about smog again. This has been the case in every smog exempt town in Ca. that I've checked so far. This presents some problems. My drivers license will show I live in L.A., not Julian Ca or Burrego Springs. Getting a mailbox may not suffice in these areas. They may ask for a utility bill. I checked and that is the case in Arizona anyway where some towns are smog exempt. But even if I overcome that problem, still the pressing question remains, what happens when I go to one of these small smog exempt towns and they can't pull up my VIN#?

George, if you can PM me and send me George Walker's e-mail I would appreciate it. If George has his car registered, it stands to reason I should be able to as well. I'd be interested to see how George got his car registered. I am pretty sure George has an Amerisport too, same as mine.

I have talked to Kirk Evans before. He says he remembers my GT5-S Amerisport #9465. He told me if I have smog issues, I can ship the car to him and he'd put on the cat converters and whatever else to make it smog legal. I appreciate his offer, but it would be quite an expense to go through the cost of shipping the car back and forth and all the smog modifications that I would need to pay for. There's got to be a better way.

If anyone out there knows the solution to this problem, I'd love to hear it.

Thanks,

David