Special Insurance

[xharlequinx]

is anyone using collector car insurance for their dsm? I was told Grundy is a good one to use if you're not daily driving your ride. Is anyone else using this or have any other alternatives. The only reason Im asking a stupid question like this is because I'm in California, where the smog regulations make us look like stupid hippies. We can't really do anything without getting smog reffed. I intentionally rusted my t3 cast manifold and turbo housing just to make it look beat up so when an officer checks under my hood, he doesn't see anything shiny. It's only a matter of time before they figure me out I'm getting pretty sick of feeling like I'm doing something wrong, every time I get in my dsm and I was wondering if there were any insurance alternatives that anyone else is using to avoid stupid California regulations.

 

[turbodsmawd420]

Intentionally rusting over your mani and housing? Ouch, california is rough. Well anyways, my buddy actually has his RX7 covered under Grundy because its not his dd, and he's had no complaints. I know it's one of few company's that dont need a certain model year to qualify.

 

[xharlequinx]

oh wow awesome. I was just about to call them on friday but then one of my buddies, "who often claims he knows more than he actually does" told me that you can't qualify if you're not pre 91 or something like that... well Now that you say it, I'll definitely give them a call about it tomorrow. I know my automated quote was at 101$ a month, so I'll take that any day. All they need is proof that you have a dd and that you're paying insurance for that and I guess you're golden. thanks man I appreciate the info.

 

[turbodsmawd420]

No problem, glad to help out.

 

[Defiant]

How's the insurance going to help with smog troubles?

More and more DSMs are getting Test Centered-Only because of their age.

 

[xharlequinx]

okay well if you are on this insurance, smog can be taken care of. I'm not worried about the "test only" situation. What I'm worried about is getting smog reffed on the street by a cop who decides he wants me to pop my hood. With this insurance it pretty much lets the officer know that it's not on the street daily, and it's actually a collector vehicle. It's the equivalent to smog reffing a shelby cobra kit car. It really can't be done based on the circumstances. So long as you have another vehicle designated as your daily driver, there's no real way for your "weekend car" under the special insurance to get smog reffed since the insurance company insures race cars and collector vehicles.

 

[Defiant]

I think you're confusing "Historic Vehicle" registration with collector car insurance. The insurance policy doesn't mean shit to the smog laws. You still have to get the car registered, and to get that, you have to get the vehicle smog tested. Which includes original emissions equipment as well as actual emission levels.

If someone's told you the collector insurance is a dodge around smog checks, they're mistaken.
A replica Shelby must have all the emissions equipment and meet the emissions standards for the year of the engine used to power it.

 

[xharlequinx]

no no I know they aren't a dodge around the smog. I know that I have to get the car smogged. But what I'm trying to say is that no cop on the street can red flag me to go to a state ref to remove all my modifications if the insurance company I'm under (the collectors insurance) already knows the car is modified.

 

[Defiant]

That's not correct, either. It doesn't matter who insures your car, it's a matter of who licenses it (State of California) and where it's driven. The insurance policy only matters to the cop if you don't have one.
If you had an out-of-state reg, you'd be golden. For the twenty days you're allowed to drive it here.

 

[xharlequinx]

haha sweet. out of state plates... how hard is it to get those?

oh and is it possible, if you get a fix it ticket for all your mods under your hood, to just take the car off registration and the charges will dropped?

 

[Defiant]

The out of state plates are as easy as loading up the van and buying another house. There.

As for not renewing your registration, that'll drop the ticket, but you won't be able to re-register the car in North America without clearing them, first. Reciprocity between the states, now.

 

[xharlequinx]

I heard if you have family out of state you can register that way. Would I have to drive all the way to that state to register it there though?

 

[Defiant]

You can drive a "foreign registration" car in California for twenty days.
CHP Cheaters page
Then it gets very, very expensive. Registration fees are where the budget for the CHP comes from. We tend to be a little interested in making sure you've paid.

 

[xharlequinx]

god damn it.

I didn't think because of the age of a car that would make it more likely to become Test Only. I thought it was only based on the cars being tampered with or modified on a majority basis for the car type. I mean I know old cars get inefficient and can't pass smog so is it basically for any old cars or ones that get modified?

 

[Defiant]

Let me clue you in on something about the Smog Check system: It's a tax.
There's not been a need to check the emissions systems on cars since the advent of the On-Board Diagnostic system. It checks everything the car needs to be running plenty clean enough. Most cars that are polluting enough to "matter" (compare the emissions of every car in your town over the course of a year to the output of one passenger jet taking off from SFO) are running so poorly that they can't be driven. The State's gone so far as to realize that if they didn't stop biannual testing of new cars, their whole little dog-and-pony show would be brought to a screeching halt by even the dimwits who live in this state. So they get a BFD skip of five years.
My mom's bone-stock, 22,000-mile '92 Celica got Test-Only'd this year. It's because it's so old, they say.
But the simple truth is that it's because the State is going to take your money.

 

[xharlequinx]

oh hmmmm....thats interesting. I completely understand how annoying that must be. I guess it's our job to find every loop hole in the system to get that unfairly taken money back?

 

[Black95TSIawd]

I have a friend with collector car insurance in NJ on his supra. Because the car is limited on the number of miles its driven, they don't perform a standard inspection. His inspection sticker is a triangle and indicates "collector car" on it meanwhile the standard NJ stocker is a 3x3 square with a big fat white square and a number in the middle of it.