Vehicles: specially constructed vehicles.

Existing law, upon application for registration of a vehicle previously registered outside this state, requires the Department of Motor Vehicles to grant full faith and credit to the currently valid certificate of title describing the vehicle, the ownership thereof, and the liens thereon, issued by the state in which the vehicle was last registered. Existing law also requires the department to require, upon registration of a motor vehicle previously registered outside this state, a valid certificate of compliance, or a certificate of noncompliance, with California's emission regulations. Existing law additionally requires specially constructed vehicles, depending on various criteria, to be subject to different emission inspection and control requirements based on the engine model-year, the vehicle model-year, or the calendar year in which the application for vehicle registration is submitted. This bill would require a specially constructed vehicle, that was previously registered outside this state, to be assigned the same model-year as the calendar year in which the vehicle was first registered outside this state for purposes of determining emission inspection requirements for the vehicle, except as specified. If the department is unable to establish the year the vehicle was originally registered, the bill would require the department to assign the same model-year as the calendar year in which the application for registration was submitted.