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Where do you stand on california motorcycle smog (S.B. 435?

How does one sell a heavily aftermarket modified car that won't pass smog in California?

  • As I understand it, California smog tests contain a visual component, in which there is no way this car can pass (there's a huge aftermarket turbo attached to the engine), and the seller is responsible for smog check.  The car is fast (more than double the original horsepower) yet very reliable, and the original owner was very meticulous about the modifications (over $15k+ in modifications) and took very good care of it, so it seems like a pity (not to mention a pain) to convert everything back to stock before trying to sell it. Is there a way to sell a car as-is (with buyer agreement, obviously) as a track car, so passing smog becomes the buyer's responsibility or a moot point? Does the car have to pass smog in order to be traded in to a dealer? What about car auctions? The intent isn't to screw the buyer into buying a problem car, but rather to provide a better value with a unique and better car than stock.

  • Answer:

    Sell it as a track car rather than as a titled street car. There are many websites that list track cars, even EBay has a Racecar section for not-street-legal cars. Link to Racecarsdirect: http://racecarsdirect.com/ Link to EBay Racecars: http://www.ebay.com/sch/Race-Cars-Not-Street-Legal-/98060/i.html

Kerry Watson at Quora Visit the source

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Sell the vehicle in a state where there are no emissions tests required to register it. If it is a desirable model there will be a market for it. You can use Ebay, Craigslist or a number of other web sites to do this and many times you can find a buyer within hours or days

Jon Mixon

How hard will it be to convert it back?  I had a friend with a Mustang with a blower on it that he would take it all off and put it back to stock, smog it, and then put it all back on. About two days worth of work.   Based on that, I'm thinking putting the car back to stock is going to be the way to get the most for it when selling. You'll probably take a huge hit if you sell it as a race car or out of state.

Karl Walter

How much work would it take to convert back to stock? You could break it down to stock, sell it along with all the modifications, and then toss on an up charge to install everything again after the sale is complete. You might not get many takers for the installation, but I suspect there's probably a decent market if you sell the car and the modifications together.

Dan Metzler

You can trade it in to a dealer who will pass it on to a wholesaler for auction out of state but you will get a bad trade in allowance for it.

Denis Rubin

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