Re: Smog shell game

[Jay Mackro <jmackro@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 08:21 PM 11/12/98 -0500, "Doll, Karl" wrote:

>	(PS: Do you have any friends in Nevada who want to own and register
>your car for you to use? Never heard if it being done, and the insurance
>company may not cover you if they find out about a shell game, but it is a
>thought-provoking thought.)

Yea, you see a lot of Oregon and Nevada plates in Northern Calif (and
probably a lot of Arizona plates in Southern).  Back when I lived in
Calif, I had some friends whose primary residence was in Los Altos
Hills, but who had a ski cabin in Incline Village, Nevada (yea, they
were high rollers).  They bought a Masterati Bi-Turbo (not particularly
SMART high rollers, but high rollers just the same), registered it in
Nevada, but garaged it in California.  

Damned if some CHP didn't recognize that he was seeing the same car
on highway 280 day-after-day (this was a new Bi-Turbo, so it was still
running on a daily basis - their trick might have worked with an older
Maserati that only ran occasionally), and he pulled them over and cited 
them for *something*.

So, perhaps the moral is that if you're going to try to foil the smog
Nazis by registering in another state, drive something non-descript
(of course, non-descript vehicles don't HAVE smog problems.)  I also
recall my neighbor getting away with driving a Datsun pickup with 
Oregon plates for years - he did it just because the registration was 
cheaper.

Jay Mackro

ps - I hope we're not totally boring all the folks in Europe, Canada,
Australia, and NZ with these legends about Calif. smog.  Those of you 
in the rest of the US - listen up - it'll hit you eventually too.

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