Registering my out-of-state ZR1 in California
 

I finally was able to register my new Corvette ZR1 in California today after buying it from out of state. The reasons for buying it out of state were compelling. California dealers didn't seem to have very many allocations nor were they willing to sell at MSRP. For the ZR1 the dealer markups I saw ranged up to $25,000.

Having decided to buy out of state the preferred delivery method would have been to do an in-state courtesy delivery. These are usually available for $500 to $1,000 and allow you to take delivery from a California dealer who will register the car for you as part of the delivery process. That is far and away the best way to go. However, my selling dealer, MacMulkin Chevrolet in New Hampshire, advised me that for this particular car with the complexity of carbon fiber parts arriving separately from the car and requiring dealer installation that my experience would be better having the car shipped directly to me from New Hampshire using a company like Interstate Auto Transport. The fee for the transport was just over $2,000 for a ZR1 coming all the way from New Hampshire to Los Angeles.

I did not try to set up a local courtesy delivery but read on the Corvette forum that many California dealers would not agree to cooperate for the ZR1 perhaps to preserve their relationships with those customers who did pay the dealer markup. It occurs to me that there may also be liability issues with any potential mishaps or issues with the car as received by the in-state dealer but sold by another out-of-state dealer which may lead California dealers to deny this service.

Registering a new out-of-state car in California yourself means jumping through a number of bureaucratic hoops. California dealers are exempt from many of these requirements.

First, you have only 20 days to register the car after it touches down in the State. Since no car can be driven on the public streets without some kind of registration, MacMulkin provided me with a temporary New Hampshire tag good for about three weeks which at least let me legally drive the car upon receiving it. If you need more time, which I did, you can get a temporary California tag good for about a month as long as you pay the California registration and license fees that amount to something over 9% of the sales price of the car. Show your out-of-state temporary tag at the DMV to get this California tag. Simply paying the fees is not enough to allow you to register the car, you must ask for the temporary tag. The registration fees you paid should include this temporary tag.

By the way, the Auto Club (AAA) will be completely useless to you during this process. They do not process registrations of new cars coming into California. California considers any car less than 2 years old or having fewer than 7,500 miles to be a new car.

Here is what you need to register a new out-of-state car in California:

1. Fill out a registration application (REG 343) form
2. Pay the registration fees
3. Provide the original certificate of title (Manufacturers Statement of Origin, MSO) signed by the selling dealer over to you.
4. Provide a Verification of Vehicle (REG 31) form filled out by an authorized vehicle inspector (usually a DMV employee)
5. Show proof of insurance
6. Provide a smog certificate

Item 1 can be downloaded here:

https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/de...rms/reg/reg343

Item 2 must be done at the DMV. They don't take credit cards.

Item 3 should have been sent to you express overnight from the selling dealer after paying for the car.

Item 4 requires that a DMV employee (or some others empowered to do so like peace officers) examine your car and make sure that it was built for California and that the VIN on the car matches the VIN on the title. This means that you should have included the California emissions equipment option to the selling dealer when you ordered the car or that the car you are buying was already built to conform to California regulations.The MSO you receive may have a section declaring that the car has a 50-State emissions system. The Corvette order code for this is YF5. There is also an order code specifically for California, NUE. The examiner looks for the emissions sticker under the hood and it has to say that the car meets California emissions. Without the word "California" on the sticker, forget it! Also, allow plenty of time for this inspection. Even with a DMV appointment I had to wait over two hours before it was my turn.

Item 5 is up to you to make sure your car is insured even with any insurance grace period that may exist. It is covered by the transport company during shipping but once off the truck it's up to you to make sure it has coverage.

Item 6 is the worst saved for last. This is the reason why I needed that time extension beyond the 20 days. You would think that a brand new built-for-California car would simply fly through an emissions test, but no! All GM cars including the Corvette as well as some other makes have a California approved catalyst break-in period. To pass the SMOG test the "post catalyst oxygen sensor diagnostics must report an Inspection/Maintenance System Yes (O2S/HO2S Monitor Complete - Yes" to pass the test. But they do not do so until after the preset catalyst break-in has been completed. This means that your new very low mileage car will probably fail the SMOG test and cannot yet be registered in California. It may take at least 400 miles and can take up to over 1,000 miles of driving before those monitors report Yes to the SMOG test equipment. The California temporary tag is a one-time permit, is not normally renewable, and may expire before you can drive enough miles to get those monitors to show ready. If you want to read more details about this go to this California Bureau of Automotive Repair (BAR) document and find GM technical bulletin 15-NA-010 incorporated therein:

https://www.bar.ca.gov/pdf/Smog_Chec...ll_Version.pdf

Fortunately there are things you can do to legally get that SMOG certificate even if the monitors are not yet ready.

First thing though is to see if you even have this problem. If you have an On-board Diagnostics (OBD) scan tool that reads car computer error codes you can see for yourself if the monitors are ready. The tool will show a green LED (as opposed to yellow or red) when you turn on the car's ignition. The tool's manual will explain how to use this function.

If you do have a problem, and you probably will at very low mileage, you can simply drive more miles. There is also a vehicle break-in deceleration maneuver procedure you can perform to try and get the monitors to show ready. That is described in the GM bulletin 15-NA-010.

If you don't have a scan tool to know when the monitors are ready or you don't want to drive a bunch of miles just to pass an emissions test you can get a waiver from the BAR Smog Check Referee Program. They have the authority to issue a SMOG certificate even though the monitors are not yet ready. A normal SMOG check station cannot do this. You can make an appointment by calling (800) 622-7733. These days it takes about three weeks to get an appointment so call them soon after you get your car. They also don't care if your temporary tags are expiring, They only have a limited number of stations so you may have to go far out to get an appointment that allows you to subsequently go to the DMV and finally get your car registered. The same is true for DMV appointments, it can take weeks to get a convenient appointment at an office near you.. You can just walk in to a DMV office and do the long sit and wait but that's miserable.

What happened to me is an outstanding example of Murphy's law in action. My monitors at a few miles on the car were of course not ready so I made a three week hence appointment with the BAR referee. This meant that I had to get that California temporary tag. Fortunately it became active after my New Hampshire tag expired so I had lots of time, or so I thought. I showed up at my referee appointment only to be told that an underground electrical fire that morning had resulted in all power being cut off to the building and that I would have to make another appointment. The referee was sympathetic but there was nothing he could do. He told me to drive my car as many miles as it took until the monitors showed ready. I immediately got on the phone to make another appointment but the first available was also three weeks hence, two days before my one-time California temporary tag was to expire. I also had to find a DMV office where I could make an appointment for the next day after that. I tried to do it online but for some reason the DMV website returned nothing but blank screens whenever I tried to verify a date and time. I had to use their telephone system with a two and a half hour call back waiting period.

Not real happy about cutting things so close I just drove the vehicle break-in miles and did that deceleration procedure described in the GM technical bulletin. After 550 miles the monitors finally showed ready on my scan tool and I just went to a regular SMOG check station and got my SMOG certificate.

What a frickin' nightmare. I went through a similar experience with an out of state purchase of a Z in 2009. The smog was not an issue back then so that went smoothly for me. The MSO and CA certification were eventually settled with the incompetent DMV staff and I was done. They have to make it hard or I guess they feel like they're not doing their jobs. Anyway, glad you got everything resolved and can now enjoy that bad boy. :thumbs:

Thats a lot of process you had to go tru .
i was wondering if Boardwalk Chevrolet in Redwood City would give you a discount and save all that hassle

Another reason I am glad I live in Indiana. We don't have the beautiful scenery you have.

I purchased my C6 ZR1 out of state. Transferring it to PA was a piece of cake. CA is loco!

I drove my 16 Z06 back here from Rick Conti in OH in 8/16 with a temporary OH license plate and after 2700 miles it was smog ready.. I took the smog certificate from a local smog station to the local AAA office.with the OH title, pointed out the CA smog sticker under the hood and paid the difference from OH's lower sales tax to Kern County's 7.25% and walked out with the CA registration paperwork and the sticker to put on my FLY a Z06 rear plate.

I know the CA AAA can still handle registrations as just 2 weeks ago I took the smog certificate for my 2002 Trans Am to my local AAA office, paid the registration fee and walked out with the blue 19 sticker for the rear of my FLY a TA plate.

Moral of the stories: Skip the DMV and let the AAA handle registration.

Joel

Thanks for that Joel. I did try the AAA first and was told they don't handle new car registrations. They didn't even know how to do it. I also asked at the DMV if the AAA could do the vehicle verification for me. I was told they are not authorized to do so. For renewing existing California registrations or for used car transfers the AAA is the only way to go. Maybe things have changed but for a new out-of-state car they were useless.

And the fact that in Texas right now, gas is less than $2 a gallon. Just piling on!

I also will be buying my ZR1 from MacMulkin in New Hampshire with a TPW of 12-10-2018. I also live out of state in Florida. Florida doesn't have all the red tape to go through like California does. Here is what staff at MacMulkin provided me in an e-mail which I thought was extremely helpful in regards to registering a car from out of state :


Yes that's correct, I will be the person keeping you up to date on the status of your order as well as handling paperwork etc!
That's perfect, we use intercity quite often. They are great, we highly recommend using them!
Once your corvette is built and invoiced we will provide your VIN for insurance purposes. We'll then connect with you in regards to paperwork.
We'll confirm the address before sending any documents to ensure we send it to where you prefer, (home, office, ect) Everything is very simple, and much like purchasing at any local dealership other than the fact that everything will be through internet/phone communication. You will receive every piece of documentation you will need to register your car and show ownership ( such as your Bill of Sale, Purchase and Sale, Certificate of origin, along with additional documents from our dealership to complete the sale). You will take your Certificate of origin (which will be your temporary title) as well as your Bill of Sale, to your local DMV to register the vehicle. In addition you will receive a temporary registration that will go along with your 20 day temporary plate ( we try our best to date the plate for the day your plan to take delivery of the vehicle, since you will be having it transported we will try and date it for when its expected to arrive). We will send all of these documents to you, (and your credit union if needed). When we send this there will be our copies in the mix as well, that will need to be signed and returned, with the extra envelope we will be providing. Each document will be clearly stated as to whose copy it is, where to sign, and what will need to be returned. I'll make note under your file that you plan to have the car transported, and I'll also make note that you will be financing with your local credit union. As we get closer, I'll be checking in just to ensure this is still a plan of yours.

I'm hoping this explanation helped! If there's any other questions or concerns you have please don't hesitate to reach out!

I went through the exact same process as I purchased my GS from McMulkin as well. In my case, I got a waiver from the Referee, since my car still was not ready after 500 miles and numerous driving cycles. If your car has the CA smog sticker (different than the 50 state one), you don't need the smog check.



Phil

Shoulda left the New Hampshire tags on the car.

After paying thousands, do you really save anything at all?

Welcome to the DMV! (It's what happens when you let Gov't run amok.)

My shopping experience so far seems to indicate that CA dealers don't offer discounts that compare to the volume dealers back east. There may be several reasons for this.

These are my ZR1 allocations. December had no allocation for anyone! 1 in jan, 2 in feb. Jan in blocked off now. Vehicle will be msrp. We have 1 black on black ztk A8, and 2 shadow grey with black interior A8 ztk. 1 arctic white black interior A8 ztk. All being built right now the white will be at my dealership in 2 weeks....

I bought my Viper out of state new......but I do not deal with the DMV (not worth my time or frustration). I use a private company that handles all the DMV dealings and file all paperwork and are electrically tied into DMV so they can issue registrations, etc. They know the laws, rules and have a specific people that they deal with at DMV so the answers are always the same.

Cost was around $60.00 and all I had to do was get the car smogged.

The company I use is in Sacramento but there are many that provide this service.