Thread: SEMA and California

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I wonder if we will see aggressive prosecution once the amnesty period ends? At least now people have an option to doing something illegal to title and register their specialty built cars. I also wonder if Ford and Chrysler will step up and offer something similar for those that prefer their flavor. I know a number of people who have used later model pull out motors for swaps and gotten them smog legal through the referee program.

Pat

Originally Posted by Stu Cool

I wonder if we will see aggressive prosecution once the amnesty period ends? At least now people have an option to doing something illegal to title and register their specialty built cars.

Pat

Anyone who's run a small business has played a similar "game". There are multiple agencies with a staggering number of regulations and mandates that could stop commerce as we know it dead in it's tracks. Most people who start a business are unaware (in a certain way happily) of all the potential bureaucratic pitfalls that await them. The saving grace is that the legal web is so vast and entangling that it's not economically enforceable by the state/agencies to it's maximum level. The business people who end up surviving (approximately one fifth of those who start) do so by figuring out which agencies, and which laws/rules/mandates, do get enforced the most.

So it will likely be with our hobby. A few years ago when Cali started this thing about "improperly" titled rigs, and initiated the annual 500 exemptions, they targeted the highest profile vehicles. Cobra kit cars and professional shops (some might remember the "raid" on Boyds, though other lower profile shops were targets too) were hit first. The Cobra replica community was rife with stories of pulled titles (many of which were blatantly dubious such as registering as a '65 Ford sedan). Fines were paid, some cars re-registered, and back taxes collected. This current move is just a continuation of that, which is why I say there will be more in the future as long as there is a revenue stream to be tapped. Some hobbyists will gamble, and if they are low profile scenarios they might get away with it..........call it collector car roulette. Others will gamble and be fined, maybe charged with a felony that will probably be pleaded away with money changing hands. All in all it won't be good for our hobby, but really, who cares.................well other than the minority (albeit one with no particular advantage as other so called minorities enjoy) that is we.

Since we're often involved with nostalgia, here is a quaint message from 60 years ago..............maybe a little corny but timely.........and prescient.