California Accommodates TDI Owners

Just in from the CA DMV for TDI Owners while settlement drags on:

If your registration is due and you have to SMOG Please read/Print and take with you to smog appointment or DMV.....from the state!

Thank you to the Office of State Senator Ted Gaines for tracking this down and making available to us all!

"The VW diesel defeat devices will not cause a Smog Check failure because the defeat device also defeats the Smog Check inspection. The diesel Smog Check inspection involves scanning the vehicle’s on-board computer and checking for fault codes, a visible smoke test, and a visual inspection of the emissions systems. The Smog Check data shows that VW diesel vehicles affected by the defeat devices will still be correctly tested during a Smog Check inspection for other emissions system failures. Any VW diesel vehicle owners with problems passing the diesel Smog Check inspection where it is believed to be affected by the VW defeat device can contact me directly to investigate further with the Air Resources Board.

Greg Coburn
BAR Engineering
( 916-403-0154
7 916-464-3425
* Greg.Coburn@dca.ca.gov"

Thanks! I'm going in for a smog check tomorrow and I'll bring a copy of this

How does this help me: my registration is due 8/8/16 and I will be turning in the car for he buyback in October. I would have paid a full year to DMV but will only have the car for 3 months.


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BlueGruff said:

How does this help me: my registration is due 8/8/16 and I will be turning in the car for he buyback in October. I would have paid a full year to DMV but will only have the car for 3 months.

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You're in the same boat as anyone else in CA who renews their registration and then decides to sell their car: CA doesn't issue refunds once the car is driven in the new registration year. Some states do, CA does not.

Perhaps you could not renew and just park the car until you can turn it in? Or, if you are worried about losing money on your registration, wait until 8/7/2017 to complete your buyback.

DON'T REGISTER IT.... Take a chance. That is what I would do. Your conscience be your guide.

What is the chance you will be pulled over? Slim to none in my experience from everywhere I ever lived, including California.

gmcjetpilot said:

DON'T REGISTER IT.... Take a chance. That is what I would do. Your conscience be your guide.

What is the chance you will be pulled over? Slim to none in my experience from everywhere I ever lived, including California.

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Depends where he lives and parks it. Around here, unless it's in a garage, expired tags will get usually get ticketed in a month, and towed if not corrected. In DC they will likely get ticketed the day they expire.

Everybody has to have some kind of angle to defeat the laws they have to live with including coming to this forum and asking how to beat it. Pay your taxes drive your car and then sell it if you choose to.

BlueGruff said:

How does this help me: my registration is due 8/8/16 and I will be turning in the car for he buyback in October. I would have paid a full year to DMV but will only have the car for 3 months.


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You know whats worse? There will be fuel you paid for in the tank of that car you turned in. Someone owes you big time

Pay your registration and drive your car but don't take your wife out to dinner a few times and I'll bet you break even.

how dare vw conspire to have the turn in 3 months after your registration expires!

If only the turn in time were a window that would allow you to drive the car for the full year.

Non-op the car and have it towed in.

bizzle said:

Non-op the car and have it towed in.

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Proposed settlement (buyback) REQUIRES the owner to DRIVE IT onto the lot !

02TDIred said:

Proposed settlement (buyback) REQUIRES the owner to DRIVE IT onto the lot !

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C'mon, don't waste a post pretending that he doesn't know that. The car runs...

02TDIred said:

Proposed settlement (buyback) REQUIRES the owner to DRIVE IT onto the lot !

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Yup. From where the tow truck deposits it on the road to where you park it on the lot. That sidesteps the shrieking about the cost of keeping the car registered.

Though the tow will probably cost as much as the registration fee anyway.

Towing is free. It's included in our 3 years of roadside assistance from the goodwill package.

bizzle said:

Towing is free. It's included in our 3 years of roadside assistance from the goodwill package.

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Yes you are correct, i had forgotten that bit of the goodwill package
You solved bluegruffs nonproblem!

Kiter said:

You're in the same boat as anyone else in CA who renews their registration and then decides to sell their car: CA doesn't issue refunds once the car is driven in the new registration year. Some states do, CA does not.

Perhaps you could not renew and just park the car until you can turn it in? Or, if you are worried about losing money on your registration, wait until 8/7/2017 to complete your buyback.

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Can one transfer the registration to a replacement car in CA?

dropnosky said:

Yes you are correct, i had forgotten that bit of the goodwill package
You solved bluegruffs nonproblem!

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Still in the running for most pointless troll posts, I see.

flee said:

Still in the running for most pointless troll posts, I see.

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The thread policeman has chimed in with a flea defined troll post of his own! Are you better or worse when you do the same thing you complain about?

I think you arent taking seriously the sheer magnitude of the issue at hand here. People will have wasted registration money based on the date they sell the car back. Another planned way to screw owners by VW?

This is ALMOST as bad as having leftover arcade prize tickets.

S2000_guy said:

Can one transfer the registration to a replacement car in CA?

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No, once you send your money in it's CA's and they won't give it back. There's a process to request it but I've never successfully requested a refund.

My wife bought a car, paid for the plates and registration, was in a rollover accident after someone knocked her car off the freeway, and their insurance declared it a total loss before the mail arrived from the DMV.

The old plates and registration was still active and we brought the mailed package in to the DMV unopened but CA DMV wouldn't refund anything. We did get the other person's insurance to pay an extra couple hundred for the DMV costs.

Once you pay for registration and the clock is even one minute into the new registration period, even if you don't drive it, you won't get a refund in CA.

My registration is due on 9/2. I'll non-op it for $20 bucks and have VW care tow it in. You could also get a day pass from DMV but then you'd have to go in for a visit. I'd rather pay a few hundred dollars than go stand in line at the DMV all day

I wasn't asking about a refund. I was asking about transferring the plates to another car. In many states, if you trade in your car on the purchase of a new/used vehicle, you remove the plates and put them on the new-to-you car. Then you have xx days to file the paperwork with the state.

Plates stay with the car in CA unless they are personalized.

The anecdote I provided answered your question. We couldn't get a refund nor could we take the plates that were in the mailed package and put them on another car or we would have done so instead of tossing them in the trash.

bizzle said:

Towing is free. It's included in our 3 years of roadside assistance from the goodwill package.

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Priceless dude !!!

bizzle said:

Plates stay with the car in CA unless they are personalized.

The anecdote I provided answered your question. We couldn't get a refund nor could we take the plates that were in the mailed package and put them on another car or we would have done so instead of tossing them in the trash.

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Sorry, I didn't catch that

"The old plates and registration was still active and we brought the mailed package in to the DMV unopened but CA DMV wouldn't refund anything. We did get the other person's insurance to pay an extra couple hundred for the DMV costs.

Once you pay for registration and the clock is even one minute into the new registration period, even if you don't drive it, you won't get a refund in CA."

answered my question about transferring the registration to a new car.

the problem with the registration isn't VW's. It could be argued that if not for california, the standards for NOx emissions for diesels would be reasonably achieved and there wouldn't be the problem VW is dealing with now.

S2000_guy said:

Sorry, I didn't catch that [...] answered my question about transferring the registration to a new car.

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If I could have just put them on a different car I wouldn't be asking for a refund from the DMV or compensation from insurance, right?