NY registered car in California Safety Inspection

My son has my truck that is registered to me in the state of California. He will be attending grad school in August. The car is coming up for an inspection in August. This truck will probably never see NY again. I had it inspected last August before he moved out there. Will I have to re-register the vehicle in California? Would California do a safety inspection on a NY registered car? I’m in a quandary as to what I should do. Any help/guidence would be appreciated.

This is really unclear. If you are in California and a member of AAA (CSAA) ask them.
Otherwise, you need to be specific about where it is registered, what State issued a title, etc.

Do you have any idea how confusing your post is?

You say, “My truck that is registered to me in the state of California.”

Then you ask, “Would California do a safety inspection on a NY registered car.”

Is it registered in CA, or in NY?

Truck or car?

Please be more specific.

Are you saying that CA now does safety inspections? My memory tells me just emission inspections in CA. Never been to NY (the airport doesn’t count) but I believe they do full safety inspections.

I don’t know how it is in the states you mentioned, but when I was in college in Florida, and my car was registered in my mother’s name in Texas, Florida cops could not give me a ticket for an expired Texas inspection sticker. However, Florida was not inspecting cars at the time. (They only did emissions testing for a short time, and have never conducted safety inspections as far as I know.) So I didn’t have to get the car inspected until I took it back to Texas. If New York doesn’t do safety inspections, you might be able to get away with letting the inspection sticker expire, but keep registering it in your name in California. If New York conducts inspections, your son might have to get it inspected in New York, even though the registration is from California. If the car will never see California again, it is probably a good idea to transfer it to his name and have it registered and inspected in New York. New York might have laws that require it to be registered in New York if your son stays longer than 30 days.

Your right, this was confusing. Here it is: It’s my pick up truck, registered & title in NY in my name. The truck is in California with my son. NY has yearly safety inspections. To keep the registration current I need to have it inspected yearly. Problem is the truck will probably never come back to NY. I really don’t want to register it in CA if I don’t have to. Would an emission/safety inspection satisfy NY to keep up the registration. Sorry for the confusion and appreciate any help you can offer.

If the truck will “probably never come back to NY” why do you think you deserve to register it in NY and not the state it is going to be used in? What is the draw to keeping the NY registration?

Again, no safety inspection in CA.

Cost of insurance

Go to the DMV in N.Y. and tell them the truth. The truck is in California “for a couple of months” and the plate is expired. Can you PLEASE renew it for me and I’ll get it inspected as soon as it is back in N.Y. They usually will do this because they want the money for the registration and they do NOT want California to get it.

If they are completely institutionalized and refuse, then you have no choice but to register the truck in CA, and pass their smog test. They have no safety inspection. You are on thin ice with the insurance anyway. Insurance companies are not stupid and you are probably violating the terms of your policy now. If your son gets in a wreck and they learn the true status of the vehicle, they can refuse to pay the claim…

Ca. will not do a safety inspection. They will do a smog system check only if the car is registered in Ca. The car will pass if there is nothing wrong with it. I don’t know if students have to reregister in Ca. or not. The college might know. It’s easier than you think and there is no fee for bringing out of state cars into Ca. I think they have a check station on Rt. 40 where they ask if you are carrying almonds or pecans. I don’t think they mean the roasted ones.

Now it makes sense.

I doubt that anything but a NY safety inspection will satisfy the NY authorities. You’ll have to call them and ask.

Good luck.

You might want to check with your insurance agent. They don’t care where it is registered. They base their rates on where it is used. If your insurance agent discovers your fraud, you will have your claims denied.

Since California doesn’t conduct safety inspections, they won’t give your son a ticket for an expired New York inspection sticker. That might not solve your problem though. California conducts emissions testing. If the truck doesn’t comply with those laws, you might have some issues with the law.

Your truck needs to be registered in the state where it spends the majority of its time–or in this case, ALL of its time. Otherwise, you are perpetrating fraud on your insurance company, and possibly on the authorities in one state or both states.

The truck’s insurance rate is based on its location (where it is registered and the municipality where it is “garaged” or parked at night), and it is even possible that the insurance rate in California will be lower than that in NY. But, whatever the rate might be in CA, your insurance company would not be happy if they found out that you are engaging in fraud of this nature.

If the truck is now permanently in CA, it needs to be registered in CA, and your insurance company needs to be notified of its location.