I have heard from a couple of residents from towns like Julian and Palomar mountain here in San Diego county that their cars regardless of year, make and model do not need to be smogged.
I did not want to ask them this question directly so I was hoping someone here knew more.

Personally, I have had it with smog in CA. I am pinned to the wall on stock vehicles that so much as hick-up once during a test, and know that it is a nightmare getting a swapped Fiero or any other swapped car to pass here as well.

I am considering registering a swapped Fiero in a rural town in CA where smog is simply not done at all and was wondering if someone here had done it themselves, or "knew" someone who did or knows how it can be done.

What I would think needs to be done is to obtain a P.O. box in that rural towns Post Office, and likely change my Drivers License's address to that P.O. Box before registering the car in that town.
Anyone know if this will work, or if there is something I am missing.

P.S.

I don't feel what I am considering doing to be wrong in the LEAST. I see 10's of thousands of cars from Mexico every day on our city streets blowing smoke and pollution in large quantities, yet they are not held responsible for smogging their cars in the US in spite of the fact that they have 40 hour a week jobs in the states and likely do more driving than my wife and I do combined. If i have a CO meassuring 1 point over the limit I am down $50.00 and end up spending hundreds of $$$ clearing that one point when when my car could pollute with that 1 point for a year and not do the smog damage a Mexican vehicle does here in 1 week.

I pay taxes, I pay DMV and I pay smog fees, yet I get penalized for paying and playing by the rules in my newer and compliant vehicles by getting to watch thousands from Mexico drive by in their cost free beater 4-wheeled smog generators.

[This message has been edited by FieroMonkey (edited 12-12-2007).]

The address might need to be your primary residence, although I'm not sure how they'd know that. Otherwise, you'd register that car at the address in the rural location. I don't know if a p.o. box would fly.

It maybe because those areas do not have qualified smog testing places within so many miles from them, because I live in a small town (pop. 10,000) with lots of people living in the rural outskirts but have a place that tests for smog in the town. In those places it may be like a 30min to an hour drive just to get their car tested for smog.

I looked into it also, as I remember the car has to pass smog once, you do need to have the car registered to the address in one of those counties. If you have a relative or REALLY good friend you can probably get away with it. If you are gonna do a swap you'd better smog first then move the address on the title. File the correct papers with DMV and you should be good.

I was looking at buying a place in Clearlake, ca. for that very reason, but then thought it was much cheaper to just do a smog legal swap (3.4 L DOHC) that way all I need to do now is go thru the ref one time. I really don't care if I have to smog bi-anually anymore as long as my swap is legal.

Just my 02 worth

RUNDLC

I know someone who did this so I know that what you heard is true.
The guy lived in the San Jose/San Francisco Bay Area but his car was registered
in Toulemnee County near Yosemite. (county name spelled wrong I now)
He no longer has the car AND his relative moved out of the Yosemite area
but he said that for a long time he didnt have to smog the car.

I would think that if you get pulled over you might need a GOOD excuse as why
you're "out of town" at that particular moment.......

Kit

Another option is to register the car to an LLC in Montana. This way it's the companies car and it's out of state.
As kit stated above, you'll need a good excuse handy. (not so much an excuse, but a believable story)

Problem with out of state plates, when I lived in San Diego I heard from cops that they tend to target cars from Oregon, as people buy them there to avoid Sales Tax, smog, etc. So keep that in mind too.

-M

You can go on the DMV site and find the areas that are "transfer only". They are out there. Some people do register them at alternate addresses. Seems to work. I have no idea what they will do if they find out though.

Not to rain on your parade but I was watching the news earlier and apparently our lovely state has just been granted the right to tighten up smog rules even more regardless of what other states do. This was just approved today........This state sucks

And as I recall, there's a toll free number now for people to call in and report people who keep their cars registered out of state to avoid smog. So don't tell anyone what you're doing.

quote Originally posted by IMSA GT: Not to rain on your parade but I was watching the news earlier and apparently our lovely state has just been granted the right to tighten up smog rules even more regardless of what other states do. This was just approved today........This state sucks

What now?

quote Originally posted by Fastback 86: And as I recall, there's a toll free number now for people to call in and report people who keep their cars registered out of state to avoid smog. So don't tell anyone what you're doing.

Similar thing happened to me 8 years ago with my V8 Miata when I had no Cats or O2's hooked up. someone at a gas station overheard me bragging like an idiot to a passerby motorhead and wrote down my plate number, took them 4 days to give me a ref notice in the mail. If I do elect to try something like this again I will be a bit more cautious and prudent regarding the details. Thanks for the warning.

Would like to know what the ostridges in Sacramento have done to smog this time...

You know, maybe I should just apply for Mexican citizenship and register my cars down there. Nobody in this government gives a rats azz what anyone from that country does with their cars or anything else for that matter.

[This message has been edited by FieroMonkey (edited 12-13-2007).]

quote Originally posted by FieroMonkey: Similar thing happened to me 8 years ago with my V8 Miata when I had no Cats or O2's hooked up. someone at a gas station overheard me bragging like an idiot to a passerby motorhead and wrote down my plate number, took them 4 days to give me a ref notice in the mail. If I do elect to try something like this again I will be a bit more cautious prudent regarding the details. Thanks for the warning.

Geezs, that sucks.

forget about it now...if these damn treehuggin hippies get there way,the air coming out of your tail pipe will have to be cleaner then whats gitting sucked in , god i hate this state good ol1 west mexiforniacisco

The way I understand the law, is that the car must be registered to your primary address. I had a friend who registered his tricked out Mustang up in the hills to get around smog. It worked well until he was busted for street racing. It was amazing what the DA came up with when you get busted for street racing. In the end, the state took the car, and fined him for everything they could. Sure, you can "claim" that your primary address is in one of the less smog testing areas, but you will have to get use to stuff like Jury duty up there too. Just remember that this is still fraud. Feel free to list all of your justifications and we will most likely back you up. But, in front of a judge, you have very little defense.

I have not had that much trouble getting my cars to pass smog and I have kit cars. Most of the time, passing smog with older cars has to do with the maintenance of the car. I have been a Fiero pulled out of a field pass smog. All that was done, was a fresh tank of gas. It was funny to see a car so dirty, with ivy in engine compartment pass.