Speedsters in Massachusetts

Okay, I did not register my speedster in Massachusetts but instead in New York which tends to be a pain in the butt. I bought my speedster from Oregon, originally built in CA, which was listed on the title as a 1970 Volkswagen and brought it to the NY motor vehicle department along with the signed title, bill of sale, paid my taxes, and got it registered as a 1970 Volkswagen, as it was. Originally listed as a 1970 Volkswagen, because it was built on a 1970 Volkswagen pan. In addition because the vehicle was older than 20 years I was able to get it registered as a historic vehicle, and insured it through Hagerty Collectible insurance, and also purchased custom plates. As long as you have a proper signed title and bill of sale, I don't see you having any problem registering it is a 1970 Volkswagen. Also the yearly emissions inspection was waived because of the age.
Good luck. 

Jon,

As I'm sure you are aware, vehicle registration is the subject of state, not federal, law.  You need to become familiar with the relevant Mass. vehicle code and laws affecting replica registration.  There are 50 varieties of vehicle codes.  Possible one of our members can give you some knowledge on the Mass variety.  In California, guys wanting to register a replica are sometimes referred to a particular DMV office and even a specific employee in that office.  That's how important the knowledge requirement is for a smooth registration.  Our vehicles are such a small % of registered vehicles in total that many DMV employees have never completed the process and really don't know how the process works.  Your local car club will be a good source as well.

A Beetle pan with a vin is a pretty nice consolation prize.  Registration is so easy anywhere---insurance too.

Jon,

I bought mine from a guy in Me. two years ago.  It was registered as a 1968 VW with a VIN in between the seats to the rear.  I made sure there was a VIN to be found that matched the title/bill-of-sale.  I then brought this to the registry office in Haverhill (North Shore) with no issues.  Paid for Reg./plates and sales tax and was on my way.  I stopped by one of those Mass. Registry inspection stations for rebuilt/fixed/repaired cars and spoke to an officer.  Forget that. If its listed as a VW then go with that and you'll be fine.  Drive an be happy!

Sorry that I'm late to this rodeo, but I've been in Canada for a week And not following this forum much.

Massachusetts has a "Sema Law" in place that was supposed to make it easier to register a replica of something else.  In the last few minutes before it made it to the floor of the legislature for a vote, it was drastically changed, actually making it HARDER to register a replica here than before (and before, it was a nightmare).  I know....I was part of the group pushing it through the legislature.

If you have a valid, check-able VW sedan VIN, I would go with that, and simply register it as the VW that it started as.  The RMV actually knows how to handle that, AND, if need be, you can pull up the carpeting and show the RMv inspector your matching VIN.  

If you try to go the route of registering it as what it looks like, say, a 1957 Porsche Speedster, be prepared for an endless line of office visits to people who don't have a clue how to handle it, followed by endless paperwork and more office visits, followed by a visit to one of six "official inspection sites" which are private companies contracted to the state for the purpose of inspecting "unusual" vehicles.  One is in Shrewsbury, but I haven't bothered to find the others.  They don't have a clue, either.

That's too bad, Gordon. Illinois has a SEMA law, and it worked fine for me-- but I knew the law, was patient, and picked a rural office where I could conduct my business with somebody interested in learning something, as opposed disinterested in everything. 

Stan, IL gave me SS Registration on the IM so I am titles as a 1959 Intermeccanica 356 Roadster, but with regular plates.  I want to get the antique plates again but I'll have to buy Laquisha at the DMV a new car or head down into a town where someone really wants to help.  

Hi Jon. I bought my California built VS out of Oregon and had it shipped to Cape Cod in 2007. Before the car was delivered I went to the local registry with a picture, copy of the bill of sale and vin# to find out what I was up against. I was lucky enough to find a nice woman who was not very busy and wanted to help me get the car that my wife bought for me on the road. She first looked at what the taxes would be on a '55 Porsche. It was an OMG moment for sure. She then looked up the vin# and found out that it was a '65 VW. Things looked MUCH better tax wise.

When the car arrived I had to go to a different RMV to get plates and pay the sales tax etc. I was lucky again and got the same nice lady at the window, and she remembered my story. The Oregon title called the car a 1955 Porsche Replica. She called Boston to make sure she was doing the right thing and they told her to call it a 1955 Porsche Replica, which is what my title and registration says. From what Gordon says, the law is different now and it may be harder to get it done. As far as I'm concerned, they can call it a Chicken Coupe' as long as I can get it on the road. I have no plans to sell it or buy another better speedster because I've done enough work on on this one to make it suit my needs on the "sandbar".

As Frank says, if you have a bill of sale, a copy of the old registration with the vin# you should be ok. Go to a MVR that is not really busy and wear your best smile. If it flies through as a VW that's all they need to know. They can call it whatever they want and you can get agreed value insurance.  Best of luck and welcome to the madness.

Just for the hell of it, I'm contacting a few members of the Factory Five Northeast Forum to see how they're handling this on that side of the hobby.

I'll report back what I find.

gn

Hoping they would at least grandfather the ones in that are currently under construction.  I would assume this isn't something that could happen overnight or is it?

I sometimes just do not understand the thinking and rules of state DMVs. While in some states registering/licensing a replica, hot rod, street rod, etc. is easy in other states the DMV makes one jump through, up and over and round about every hoop they can throw at you. And considering in most states there are very few, replicas, hot rods, street rods, etc actually registered vs regular cars on the road and for the most part are not driven daily it makes me wonder why the various DMVs make it so difficult...

I've heard horror stories of guys trying to register their replicas, etc. primarily it seems in the Northeastern states. The owner having to keep track of and records for every single part used or purchased for the build, having to pass a safety inspection geared at modern cars and having a front license plate...and those for sure are a hard thing to do on some cars like street rods and some replicas, the threat of having to pass emissions with a 30-40 yr old engine.

SEMA has sure helped in a lot of ways with many state DMVs vs replicas, hot rods, street rods, etc. l0icensing and registration and to keep this hobby alive... yet it seems there are some states like we've read here that have used the SEMA guidelines to make it even more difficult to license and register.

Must be in some states the DMV 'boys and girls' are on a power trip

Remember the DMV people don't make the laws. The legislatures do. Environmentalism is a big deal, very important, and has a constituency and some lobbyists. What happens (mainly and generally) is this:

Big ticket environmental rules are shot down or watered down by oil, coal and related interests, whose lives literally depend on us burning as much carbon as we can for as long as we can stand to. Also wiped-out by these forces are rational public transportation and planning for same. Some of you guys are old enough to remember trolley cars . . . .

So the environmental laws that get traction are those "beneath regulatory notice" of the big players. You tell a Massachusetts (or CT, or MD, or NJ) liberal Democrat in the state legislature that you want to make it easier for a guy with a 428ci Cobra replica to register and drive his car, and they get a visceral fear/loathe response.

(Or, rather, their legislative aid, who is 24 years old and has a Master's degree from Wellesley or Wesleyan or some such, does). 

A TAILPIPE!

Another tailpipe.

The fact that 10 or 1,000 more Cobras will make very little difference in the overall emissions profile of the state is never factored into the decision. The fact that the six or eight coal-burning plants in the state exceed by orders of magnitude the emissions to be saved by screwing with Speedster guys is never considered.  The Factory 5 guys walk in and they are, obviously, Not One of Us (from the perspective of the environmentalists). 

The rest is predictable.

You've also got to remember big auto wants you to buy a new car every three years.

Big Ed Nova wrote: "Some of you guys are old enough to remember trolley cars . . . ."

Yeah, and they're STILL running those same, old Trolley cars in Boston (and some of them are older than ME!)

There were trolleys running in Atlanta when I started grade school, but were removed around 1950 as too expensive to operate.....   Now the City of Atlanta has reinvented the wheel by installing a trolley system for tourist use that covers only a small section of town....  They also learned of operating expense when they had their first accident, ( a fender bender else where ) and the "Trolley" was side lined with apparently minor but EXPENSIVE damage....   Bad enough, but then a supervisor riding with an operator   personally authorized the operator to pass an illegally parked truck, resulting another damaged Trolley....  This occured about two weeks after the first incident...  More expense, but the publicity has been kept tight....

OK, it's been a short while but I finally got a REAL copy of the Massachusetts so-called "SEMA" bill.

In short, there are two categories of cars addressed that we can worry about:

1.  Street Rods and Customs - ALL of these cars receive an emissions waiver.  They only need seat belts if they are 1966 or newer, but the DMV welcomes any and all safety-related additions so go there with seat belts installed.

2.  Replica vehicles shall be titled as both the year in which they were built and the make, model and year of the vehicle it is intended to replicate.  It shall also be subject to emissions control requirements based on the vehicle model and year and configuration of the engine installed, whether the engine is an OEM production installed, rebuilt engine or crate engine.  

If the model year of the engine installed in the replica requires an on-board diagnostic system, the vehicle shall be subject to an on board diagnostic system emissions test applicable to the certified configuration.  So, this is a little ambiguous - I don't yet know that, if you have a 2005 Subaru installed in your 1957 replica, with an OBD II port, it will be emissions tested as a 2005 Subaru with that engine configuration (2.2, 2.4, 2.5cc, etc.) or as a 1957 engine and be smog exempt.  THAT, I'm afraid, may fall the the judgement of the DMV officer you deal with.  I'll dig a little harder on this one for you all.  In the meantime, you do not have an OBD II port on your car.  Remember that.

While this sounds pretty straight-forward, believe me, the Massachusetts DMV folks have made it about as complicated as they possibly can, referring the inspections (mechanical, safety and initial emissions inspections) to a third-party with several offices around the state.  While you might think that they should have some universal  degree of experience with different types of custom/replica cars by now, that does not seem to be the case and everyone I've talked with across the car spectrum has brought in something "never-before-seen" (except for the Cobra guys).  Part of the initial inspection is to insure that the vehicle was not built with stolen parts so there is a thorough going-over done.  I have no feed-back on this inspection yet.

Those of us with pan-based cars should, for ease of the process, continue to simply register them as the year of the VW pan and then all you need are seat belts (but you should have those anyway.)  If the replica model/color does not match the original VW, you have the option of a submitting a DMV form changing the color/model (say, from a red sedan to a white convertible) and you're done.  If you have a tube-frame car (Beck, or IM ) then I would register it as a Replica Car, then you should be exempt (at most DMV offices) from emissions testing as the engine essentially replicates a 1970 VW air cooled engine, and certainly a 1957 Porsche engine. NOT ALL MASS DMV OFFICERS WILL SEE IT THAT WAY!

I'll try to get some clarification on this in the next few weeks but it looks as though it is possible to register a replica, as a replica, in Massachusetts.  I wish it were easier, but that's our beloved state.  It makes a BIG difference, thus far, as to which DMV office you visit and which state-sponsored inspection facility you visit (you do not have to go to either one closest to you - you can go to any one of them).

The full document, signed by Hizzoner the Governor, Deval Patrick, follows as a PDF - it should load if you click on it:

Hi Gordon,

Unfortunately, what you've described as a disconnect between the current registration procedure for replicas on one hand, and the awareness of DMV personnel as to its existence on the other hand, is the norm, not an exception.  In fairness to the registration folks, we replica owners are such a tiny minority of overall vehicles registered that such lack of awareness is a reality we have to contend with.

Example: California has 35+ million registered vehicles annually, but only 500 specially-constructed permits are issued each year.  The clerk who registered mine told me she had worked at DMV for 13 years, and mine was the first she had done. MA has over 5 million registered vehicles, but the problem is much the same in principle throughout the US: inexperienced personnel make mistakes on new procedures.

My suggestion to all who use SEMA-sponsored registration in various states is to contact your local car club first to see if there is one or more offices or even one person at a specific office who knows the procedure.  Many car websites, such as the Cobra guys, publish such information.  It can change registration from a nightmare to something almost pleasant.  It also helps if we inform others of our experience in state registration, as we build a database others can benefit from.