Registering a touring in CA

[BigAl325i]

Hey all,
just purchased a 1991 325ix touring from Colorado and am trying to get it registered here in California. Any advice? Do I need to take the car to the laboratory in Santa Ana everyone talked about on here, even if the car has full US smog equipment?
thanks

[Mike36]

Can't answer your question but I've noticed lots of e30 wagons here in CA are registered in Montana.

[BigAl325i]

Yea I’ve been seen them around as well. Not sure if it is legal to have a car registered in a different state and garaged somewhere else. ( insurance reasons I’m sure).

[McGyver]

It is not legal to register a car elsewhere to avoid complying with CA requirements. I believe its 7 or 14 days to register a car in CA once it's brought into the state. CA even has a program to pay people for reporting violators.

People use an LLC based in another state (Montana) to own a car that they keep in CA. This avoids lots of taxes and CARB restrictions, but people can and do get caught for it.

As far as I know, there is no totally legal way to register a non-US car in CA. That being said, if the car is an m20b25 with US compliant emissions equipment, you may be able to register it as a 325i. This will probably work out, but there is still some risk because it's not 100% correct. You should be fine once you convince someone at the DMV to get the car into the system.

If I were to do it, I would try to register the car as a 325ix sedan and see if it works. It would be even better if you're able to register the car in one of the few counties that don't have annual smog requirements.

[reelizmpro]

Well it's a 325iX so it shouldn't be too hard to get it BAR certified. Does it have the stock exhaust with oxygen sensor? Most wagons I have seen started as 316 or 320i/6...engines we never got here in the US so they would have to be swapped and fully BAR'd to be legal. Ask the state ref and see what they have to say.

[BigAl325i]

The car has an O2 sensor, cats, etc. I have smog papers from Colorado and it passed with flying colors, the issue with trying to get it smogged and registered is that the car has ZERO stickers (BAR,CARB). I contacted the conversion lab in Santa Ana and was given a quote of “as little as $7500 and as much as $12,000”. When I asked if they would give me a list of the things they would need to change to get everything to comply with CA compliance and they simply answered with “ no”.
From that interaction alone I can tell it’ll be a mistake (and a scam) to even consider taking it to those people.

[kronus]

yeah don't talk to those people

[reelizmpro]

Classic CA shakedown tactics, throwing out numbers like that. Sorry to hear they are unwilling to help. They are trying to get old cars off the roads so I guess we shouldn't be surprised by this.