Moving to LA...with or without the 308 ?

I purchased my 308 from Utah several years ago and it did not come with any of the smog equipment. It wasn’t difficult to make it California legal, actually it was quite easy. Most of the parts are GM anyways so not that difficult to get. There are some previous post, on what it takes to make it California smog legal. Also, it was not that expensive


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Get it titled in Montana (LLC). You will never, ever be pulled over for the plate - it is the only benefit to the LAPD's steadfast refusal to enforce traffic law.

 

Cali smog laws are pretty tough. I had a smog legal unmodified cali 308gts carb car and every 2 years it seemed tougher to get it smoged and keep the kludge of 1970's smog rube goldberg going. I'm also near the age of grandkids. All I want is a simple painfree life at this point. As the Ferraris get newer they are so much easier to pass. I remember my quatrovalvole having more modern fuel injection was a pretty easy pass with the ever increasingly strict rules. Then rules got tougher again and my OBD1 ferrari 348 had to go on a dyno during smog for an active test. My obd2 550 just gets plugged into the obd2 port/tail sniff and read by the machine and they guy does a visual and 100% pass all day everyday even when rules got tougher still with things like all monitors needing to be set and reducing emissions.

 

+1 for Montana registration

 

I drive through LA pretty regularly and it is worth noting the roads are not in great shape. There are also very large curbs at most driveways and intersections to manage the substantial amount of rain that comes down sometimes. I haven't driven my 308 around LA, but I suspect any car low to the ground will need to be driven very carefully to avoid bottoming out. That said, LA is a 'car culture' kind of town. People love interesting/vintage vehicles. I drive an 80s Bentley to LAX a few times a year for international flights, and people give thumbs up, take pictures, allow you to merge, valet parks you up front, etc. and that car really isn't anything special. Interestingly, due to traffic and congestion nobody is able to drive that fast when compared to other SoCal cities e.g. San Diego, Orange Co. where it's common to drive 90+ on the freeways (that can be a challenge for some older cars, but probably not the 308).

As I understand it the smog issue can either be really easy, or nearly impossible. I'm no expert but I believe you need to have a 50 state EPA approval sticker (which likely came on US spec cars? - mine is euro spec so I dont really know the US cars very well). If it's easy to get your car into the CA system for smog testing (has the right stickers/paperwork), and it passes the smog test, then you should be home free. Just having the smog equipment installed and passing the test is not enough - it has to have the stickers/paperwork too. If not, the advice I've received is to just register somewhere else (like MT or keep some presence to stay registered in TX?) since you'll probably never get the car licensed in CA. There are horror stories of people spending tens of thousands trying to get euro cars legal in CA and they eventually gave up. Again, I'm sharing my limited knowledge and will defer to others more experienced on this topic.

 

I think a lot of your question is answered by WHERE in LA, aside from the emissions issue which I believe is solvable. LA is a big place. Lots of traffic all the time unless you are in certain areas.