I have a mint 88 Cad Eldorado 4.5 V8 I want to give to my younger brother who lives in L. A. area. My question is if a Illinois car will have an expensive hassel getting thru registration in your state. What is needed to make this as painless as possible ? Thanks. DON_WOW
I'm not positive, but I think if the car meets the emission standards in the original state of registration, it's OK in Cali. I don't think it needs to have the Cali smog gear installed. Have your brother check with the AAA. I also have a friend who swears that if you go to a small town DMV, it's much easier that a big city one. Hope this helps cp
That's right! And He will have to get it smogged to register it here, right away. If it has ALL the smog equipment intact and functioning that came on it in Illinois and it passes the sniffer test it will pass. If it's been modified engine, or exhaust or any smog equipment is missing, even a vacuum hose or a stuck EGR valve, it will fail the visual and since the right parts weren't available here he won't be able to fix it to pass. Yea it sucks, I think only the factories should be required to make them pass and what we as owners do after should be our private business with our private property... Oh, the Caddy, If everythings as manufactured it should be ok. Get a sniffer up the tail pipe there just to see if it's clean enough to bother sending out here, just for insurance. It's all computerized tune so it should pass if it hasn't been messed with or something's malfunctioning.
back then there was a difference between cal or federal cars for emissions. the under the hood label with say if it's a "legal for sale in california" (cal) or "not legal for sale in califonia" (federal) car. california doesn't have the "inpact" fee anymore so all you have to deal with is geting it smogged. as stated in other posts make sure that ALL the equipment is on there and working. if a part is not working they can repair it here, might be a little harder if it's a federal only part, but they have ways to get around parts that are no longer avalible. funny thing is other states will take a cal smog for registration, but cal won't take anyone elses. as for the dmv all you should need is a smog certificate, bill of sale, title and there may be a slight chance they would want to see the car (to check the vin). also the 4.5 was light years better then the 4.1 but they still don't like to be overheated and make sure you use the stop leak pellets from the gm dealer on those cars.
in October i brought in a 1986 porsche from Oregon, imported from Germany to Canada in the late 80's, then to Oregon... did NOT have california emissions, let alone 50 state. It passed just fine here in CA. they put it on the rolling test, passed the sniffer... everything looked legit under the hood, i was on my way. i've smogged and reg'd a few out of state cars here in CA, all without problem (since they dropped that impact fee, even easier). my old '78 dodge truck, a 91 Caddy, 92 Mustang... -dan
I just registered an out of state car. I took it to a smog shop, and they looked under the hood to check for vaccum lines and other obvious failures/changes. They tested the gas cap for vapor leaks. They put it on a rolling test unit and "drove" it at certain speeds and certain RPMs for certain lengths of time. Took about 45 minutes (including waiting for the guy in front of me). I got a small stack of paperwork that I took to AAA (you don' have to use the DMV). I got a plate in 20 minutes, for about $100 - including sales tax(?), registration fees, transfer fees, etc. Tackett
This car has not been tinkered with and drives out like a new one, super clean and tight. Sounds like from what you guys say it will be a walk in the park. Looks like its found a new home. I want to thank everyone for the information. Jerry
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