California registration for car bought in Arizona

[Mike V]

Has anyone completed a Califonia registration on a car bought out of state. I am assuming I will have to go the SB100 process. I have been studying this procedure, if I am mistaken please advise.

[RJacobsen]

Hi Mike and welcome,
I went throught the California amnesty program with my car. It was originally titled as a 64 Cobra in California. So what I had was an incorrect California title. Since you will have an out of state title in hand you will probably be able to register the car here without anyone at the DMV questioning it. There dos'nt seem to be a definitive answer to the "out of state titled" cars and the clerks at the DMV will not be able to answer your questions. If the car was correctly titled in Arizona then some here in CA say that the DMV will recognize that title as valid for the fransfer with no problem, I don't nessasarily agree with that because once you have a CA title, the car you own should match whats on the title, in your case it is not a 63 Shelby. At this early point you may have more than one option as to how to title the car, all of them will most likely include the SB100 process. Sorry for the "non" answer but every case is slightly different and even the people in the Know don't seem to know.

[souzape]

Mike/Rod- I went thru SB100 when I built my car in 2003 and DMV titled it as a 1964 Ford (which it clearly is not). They would not register it as "replica" and they would not recognize the Unique MSO as a VIN. So what do you call it under those conditions?? I've been driving for over 8 years with no problems....my feeling is let them call it whatever they want. Keep it simple.

Phil

[Mike V]

It is actualy titled:
year 1964,
make: cobra
model: spec

[RJacobsen]

Mike/Rod- I went thru SB100 when I built my car in 2003 and DMV titled it as a 1964 Ford (which it clearly is not). They would not register it as "replica" and they would not recognize the Unique MSO as a VIN. So what do you call it under those conditions?? I've been driving for over 8 years with no problems....my feeling is let them call it whatever they want. Keep it simple.

Phil

Hi Phil,
Part of my problem was the serial # that was used by the DMV for the original registation, they used the Unique #9152. When they did a search by vin # that one shows up for something else. But even with that I was licenced and registered with no problems from the day I bought the car. I got concerned from all the talk about crackdowns on fraudulent titles that I went in on my own to take advantage of the amnesty program that was offered and had everything corrected. that process included a new vin # assigned by the CHP, and a less complicated SB100 smog exempt procedure. The new title reads model year- 0000 and make- SPCNS which stands for specially constructed.

[pgermond]

Mike,

Registration has come a long way since SB100 was first introduced. I built my car in 2003 and was registered in January 2004. Unlike my friend (Phil Souza), my car's title indicates the make as SPCNs, and the year as 0000. When the CHP assigned the VIN he used the number on the MSO - 4279436.

My advice is to take all your AZ paper work to DMV and see if they will transfer it without the SB100 - that is the easiest and fastest thing to do to get the process started.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[Mike V]

Thanks for the great advice everybody.
Mike

[RJacobsen]

My advice is to take all your AZ paper work to DMV and see if they will transfer it without the SB100 - that is the easiest and fastest thing to do to get the process started.

I agree with Phil, Make sure you pay all the fees and don't offer to much information. you can always fix it later if you need to.

[scott h]

Join AAA and do the transfer at their office, much less hassle and beurocracy(spelling ?). In my experience they are less likely to create hassles and you end up with a valid Ca. registration

[souzape]

Oh yea! If you're an AAA member try doing business with them first.

[cal.cheesehead]

If you choose to go the SB-100 route, and I would highly recommend it, do some homework on DMV offices that are familiar with the process. Get there several weeks before the first business day of Jan. and get all your paperwork checked out and pay your license fee. Then when you get there early in the moring the first business day of Jan it becomes a very simple process. If you are in southern Ca, the Simi Valley and Santa Clarita dmv's hve good reputations. If you are in the North Phil G can give you some advise. Good luck.

[Mike V]

I am already a AAA member. I will give tha t a try first.