does anyone live in washington state???

how are the smog laws???

i am thinking about moving with my c4....

how long can i use my ca license?

i can get my car smogged here...but i dont know if it will pass in WA...

 

I'm no expert, but...

The SMOG checks are less stringent, but that will be changing soon. The usurper-Governor got CA-style smog laws passed last session. Don't know fully what that means yet, though. As of now, there is no visual inspection, just a sniffer at idle and under load. If you pass in CA, you should have no trouble here. You have just 30 days to re-register and get a WA DL if you're becoming a permanent resident. You'll have to take your car to a State Patrol inspection station where they'll check your VIN against the title and make sure you have minimal safety equipment.

You should find everything you need to know on the DOL website. Start at http://access.wa.gov

BTW...I moved up here 13 years ago from the Bay Area in1993. Had no trouble getting my 82 Camero through emissions.

Rob

 

Most of the larger cities and counties will require a smog check, but it also depends on the ZIP code where you wind up living. For example, you need a smog test in the greater Seattle area, but not all of King County requires a check. Same for Tacoma and Piece County, Everett and Snohomish County, Vancouver and Clark County, and Spokane and Spokane County. Live in any of the other counties and there are no smog checks.

The new smog laws pretty much applies to new cars built in 2007 and that matches the CA standards. I don't think that the new law will require older cars to go thru a smog check.

In most cases you no longer have to take a out-of-state car to the WSP for VIN verification, especially if you are the legal owner. When I bought my C5 down in CA last year, all I had to do was provide the CA title, registration, bill of sale and pay the 8.4% "use" tax on the sale price (2700 friggin dollars )

One good thing about WA is the license fees are pretty cheap. I pay $33 per year where I live. The Seattle area has some add-on fees that bring registration costs up to around $100 but that could drop some day.

Oh, make sure your windshield wipers are in good condition....

 

Bellingham, WA,,,, no smog, no inspection on any vehicle, my 2000 F150 and the 87 corvette....

 

Since you pass Cali smog laws, you'll be good to go here in WA. Just think of WA as a smaller, colder, and damper CA. At least that's what our thief, I mean governor, wants our state to be.

 

NOHO to Washington State, culture shock...........
You're gunna get hit with sales tax enough thou, the car isn't being bought.

Rain do you really, really, like wet, cold, damp, days forever?
Your gunna need a cat box for a daily driver theres some days a Corvette just wont work.

If you like hiding out in the house for months at a time you might like the PNW.

I don't know about Washington, but in Oregon if you're a Californian your last on the list for a job.

Its called "Californiacating Oregon".
I was really sirprized at how many Oregonians who had nothing but bad things to say about Californians.

But once you're a part of the group the folks in the PNW were great.

Coming from NOHO set your clock to PNW time, thats about 5-6 years in the past.

The east cost is about 8 years in the past.
I tried it for 5 years but the constant rain got to me.
Oh, yeah the log trucks have the right of way, if you get in "thier way" they will run you down.

A rolled log truck was in our shop for a rebuild and we asked the driver what happened and he said, " Motorcycle got in his way and he ran him down". The bike and the rider got stuck in the front fender of the Peterbilt and rolled the log truck.

Good luck.

 

wow that sounds crazy!!!!

of course i love the weather here! it is the best! sometimes you just have to move though...at least i am moving to seattle...so hopefully it is not that backwards...

if i said i paid $500 when i registered it here...does that mean i will only have to pay the sales tax on that amount?

maybe i will have to say i live in one of the other counties that dont have smog...because i am really not sure if it will pass...i said i can get it passed here...with some adjustments or something..not necessarily there...it is a 88 so i dont think it is old enough not to have any smog done...

so i really can stay only 1 month with ca plates?? what if i say i am visiting temporarily??

 

There is no real way to get around paying the use tax when you get WA plates. The WA DOL uses a special table of vehicle values to get their money. In the past, there were too many people registering cars that they "bought" for $500 when the real value of the car was in 5 figures.

There is a value statement you can fill out to declare a reasonable value to cut the costs but it's pretty hard to go too much below the typical real-world market value of a car. I paid 5500 for my 87 a couple years ago but they wanted to hit me for $10,500 which they showed in their table to be the average retail value of an 87 coupe.

You might be able to use your CA plates until they expire, but if LEO's see you driving every day for months on end, the chances are that you will be stopped. Once you establish a legal residence, you need the WA plates and WA driver's license. And liability insurance is a requirement! You have to carry a proof of insurance card with you. The cost of insurance will change by ZIP code, miles driven to work and things like traffic record, credit ratings, age, martial status and such.

You can't get away with registering the car in anouther county or a ZIP code where there is no smog check if you don't live there. Your WA driver's license now has to match the car registration. Too many people were using a PO box or a fake address to avoid taxes and license fees. BTW, the use tax you pay is based on the sales tax where you live. In the Seattle area, sales taxes can approach 9%

"Seattle" is a pretty big area. If you live outside the area, you can get by with no smog check. You might want to find out what ZIP codes in King County don't have the checks and then figure out what your commute will be.

Believe it or not, the commuter traffic in the greater Seattle area has been shown to be as bad as (if not worse than) LA! So plan accordingly. I would visit the area a couple times to see what areas you like and what you will face in the way of commuting.

Don't worry about the rain. We get a fair amount of rain but that's what makes the area so beautiful in the summer We are now on our 10th straight weekend of sun and no rain and that's a big deal. Snow is not really a factor in the Puget Sound so you shouldn't need snow tires, 4WD and/or a dog sled.

 

It's been a LONG time since I moved to the Pacific NW, but when I did, I didn't have to pay use tax on my vehicle because I already owned it. If you are a WA resident and buy a car in another state and bring it back, and register it in WA, you definitely have to pay the use tax (that's why they call it a use tax (based on where you use something rather than where you buy it), rather than sales tax.

So, unless something has changed, you should not have to pay use tax when you register your car after moving here.

I think the _law_ maybe says 30 days to register, but you won't get in trouble unless you get pulled over and the officer asks you how long you've been here and you say more than a month.

I love the moderate weather... and it's downright BEE-YOO-TII-FUL today, at about 80 degrees with nice blue skies

 

thanks!!!

that makes me feel a little bit better....

where can i find that info on the use tax...i just want to be sure before i make any plans to take the car...

also...are there not a lot of corvettes in the area?? do you think LEO will notice me and figure out i have been there for longer than 1 month??

 

There are alot of corvettes in the area. Don't know about whether Leo will notice or not. They have raised alot of hell about cars not being registered...King County is a bear about it because of the rapid transit tax.

 

thanks for the reply...

how hard core are they...i am planning to live in the city of seattle..
do you think they will hassle me that bad??? if you tell them you are visiting does it go on a list??? or do they give you a ticket if they dont believe you...

in CA there are so many cars from different states that i dont think they pay much attention...

 

Don't know what you folks down there are smoken these days but this year round 50 mile dd ain't no cat box.

Of course driving in New England for 30 years probably helps a bit. You guys may feel squirrelly in the rain. Really the weather here is quite mild at both ends of the range. It rarely gets up to 90 and rarely below 30. Rare to get snow in the Puget sound at least in the past 7 years since we moved here from NY. It'll take you a year or two to get used to the rainy season which is 6 - 8 months of the year. (true) Seattle is a very clean city and easy to get around.

 

having dif. state plates isnt a big problem, although i live in new york, and for us its legal because were in the army and our homestate is texas, but weve never been stopped for offstate plates in the 3 yrs living here. im about to move to seattle in about a week, but the weather probably isnt that much dif. then ny