Hi,

I live in CA and am considering buying a used 2006 or 2007 Mini Cooper from out of state (FL, to be exact). The cars I'm considering have low miles, under 2000 miles, so they're still considered "new" cars.

A friend mentioned that I need to make sure that the car can pass the CA strict SMOG test. I read on the net and found that if the "new" (but used )car isn't labeled as "California Certified" under the hood that it cannot be registered/operated in CA.

My questions:

1. Are there really differences in 2006 or 2007 MC sold in CA vs. in other states?

2. Can somebody in CA reading this help to confirm that your 2006 or 2007 MC has the specific labeling of "California Certified" under the hood?

Thank you for your help.

 

I will look when I get home, but I don't remember seeing such a thing. As an aside, we moved from CO to CA a few years ago, and both our CO cars passed the state smog test with flying colors, and we had no problem registering them in CA. Granted, they were a bit older at the time....

 

If the MINI is stock, it will have no problem passing CA smog. Stock MINIs are 50 state certified. There is no special sticker.

 

i bought my car in Louisiana and brought it to California with no problems. I passed the smog just fine, the only added hassle was having to get a VIN verification from the local police department, which was like pulling teeth dealing with San Francisco cops. After being lied to several times, i just drove out to San Bruno where it took about 5 minutes. The bigger hassle was bringing it back to Louisiana where they made me pay an additional 10% tax on the value of my car to register it here.

 

Thank you for helping to check. http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/NonCAVeh/NonCAVeh.pdf is the one that spells out the rules, including a used car is considered as "new" in CA if it has less than 7,500 miles. I wonder if I can visit a local MC dealership to check what's under the hood.

 

Thank you all for your replies and help. I definitely feel much safer now that this won't be an issue.

 

Forums are great but in this case - Call DMV and get all your info up front - don't take any chances - it may be just fine - however, you do not want to buy a car THEN find out you should have done this/that - You will NOT win with DMV - do your homework first...

 

I agree and thanks for the advice.