Topic: i got screwed! please help.

[jssgbsn]

The stamp says 22R, and it has EFI.  Looks like it had an EFI Swap and EGR Delete.

And I don't remember reading if you said but was it Titled as a Salvage or a Non-Op (Meaning trail only, not street legal, cannot register it for highway/roadway use, etc.)?

If the title implies it is a recreational only vehicle and not titled to be registered or driven on the street not sure what recourse you would have.  Except to spend the few hundred bucks to get it smog worthy.

A $1,000 drop in price for what hopefully is less than $1,000 of work sounds like a fair deal.  Of course if the seller is responsible to smog pre-purchase (assuming it isn't an Off-Highway Only Vehicle) then I wouldn't worry about it.

Definitely don't lose sleep or sanity over it.  In the end its only $5K or whatever.  Even at $20K it's not worth stressing out over.  Money comes and goes. 

Good Luck and Hang in there!

[Rocksurfer]

First of all did he tell you it was smog legal? Why didn't you have him smog it before you bought it? I see a lot of crawlers for sale that are not smog legal and there really isn't any thing wrong with that as long as the buyer is aware of that. Also a bill of sale doesn't mean much, the dmv only cares about a title and release of liability.

If he told that it smogs then you should get him to smog it, if he told you it won't smog now but will with a new cat then you knew it needed some work to smog.  The efi swap isn't a big deal and is actually a bonus, better then a carb and less smog stuff. I wouldn't worry too much yet if you like everything else about the truck. There really isn't very much smog stuff on an Ca 85 22re, charcoal canister, egr, dash pot, pcv and cat of coarse. Does yours have all of that? I also remember reading a thread where a smog tech was talking about efi swaps and said that if the efi was available on your vehicle (it was in 85) and all the parts for your year are installed that it doesn't even have to be reffed.

I'm kinda in your same shoes except mine is an 84 with an efi swap, efi wasn't available on the 4x4 in 84. Even though the guy I bought it from and the guy before him had it smoged I'm aware that I could potentially run into problems smoging it, but I knew that when I bought it.  So even if you buy something smoged it doesn't always mean its smog legal. What bothers me more is that I had to find out after buying that the frame was cracked, windshield was loose, radiator leaked and quite a few other things that the po didn't mention. I wouldn't have paid as much if I knew about these issues. I have noticed a lot of sub $6000 crawlers have issues in some way or another it comes down to what your comfortable dealing with.

This is not true, if it sold to be used legally on the street by law it is to be sold with a current smog cert. end of subject. Now if it were sold as a parts or project vehicle with no intention of ever hitting the road again or a bucket project then you can sell it as is.

[Rocksurfer]

The stamp says 22R, and it has EFI.  Looks like it had an EFI Swap and EGR Delete.

And I don't remember reading if you said but was it Titled as a Salvage or a Non-Op (Meaning trail only, not street legal, cannot register it for highway/roadway use, etc.)?

If the title implies it is a recreational only vehicle and not titled to be registered or driven on the street not sure what recourse you would have.  Except to spend the few hundred bucks to get it smog worthy.

A $1,000 drop in price for what hopefully is less than $1,000 of work sounds like a fair deal.  Of course if the seller is responsible to smog pre-purchase (assuming it isn't an Off-Highway Only Vehicle) then I wouldn't worry about it.

Definitely don't lose sleep or sanity over it.  In the end its only $5K or whatever.  Even at $20K it's not worth stressing out over.  Money comes and goes. 

Good Luck and Hang in there!

Not true here either, 1st a salvage title does not mean it cannot be registered for the street, 2nd Non-Op just means you are not currently going to use or park it on a roadway. IT DOES NOT RELEASE YOU FROM SMOG REQUIREMENTS. There are only a few exemptions in the law, even a green or red sticker vehicle must have all the original oem smog. Of course as far as I know there is no requirement to smog a green or red sticker vehicle.... yet. The only real exemptions I am aware of is a wholesale dealer auction, mechanic lien sale or police auction.

[OOPS]

dont quote me but I believe in Cali where you are it is illegal so sell a truck like that....

Really it is illegal in all states to remove SMOG equipment, it is a Federal mandate. California is just way more restrictive .

Non-Op (Meaning trail only, not street legal, cannot register it for highway/roadway use, etc.)?

Not true, it either has to be registered or Green Stickered to run the public trails in California. Non-Op means it is not operational! Private land you can do what you want.

[Rockdad]

You may need a exhaust manifold also. If you like the truck get what cash you can from the guy and track down the parts. A CA cat is going to cost you $250 (google it Magnaflow was the only one I could find). Find out what other parts you need and beg around here and I am sure you can find them for cheap. I have a motor sitting here that I am ready to give away. Small parts fit in a flat rate box. Find a friend to borrow an exhaust from to see if it will pass smog with just that. A good smog guy should be able to fill in some of the blanks.

Figure out what you need and get back to us.

[84Flatbed]

This is not true, if it sold to be used legally on the street by law it is to be sold with a current smog cert. end of subject. Now if it were sold as a parts or project vehicle with no intention of ever hitting the road again or a bucket project then you can sell it as is.

This may be true from a legal standpoint but the reality of it is there is nothing keeping you from buying or selling a vehicle without a recent smog and without any legal repercussions, UNLESS the buyer wants to pursue legal action. If a seller is 100% honest about the smog status of a vehicle and a buyer is willing to take responsibility for the smog then go for it, why not, the dmv will not initiate any legal recourse.

I purchased a registered samurai, under the circumstances the seller did not provide a smog, I was willing to deal with it. The way it worked was I was able to pay the title transfer fee's and put it in my name but it was a incomplete transfer until I could provide a recent smog, basically I wouldn't receive the title until then. 3 or 4 months later the registration was due, I still hadn't smoged it so I went to the dmv paid the non op fee, the funny thing is by non oping it they could now complete the title transfer and I received the pink slip (title). Several months later I was offered a decent amount $ for it, it wasn't really for sale but I decided to do it. I told the buyer that I hadn't smoged it and wasn't sure if it would smog, he didn't care and was also willing to deal with it. I turned in my release of liability and that was it. He eventually had it smoged and is still putting it around today.
 
In the case of the OP it sounds like he was mislead and was not willing to take responsibility for the smog, if he chose to use the "law" it would have been on his side. 

[jssgbsn]

My point (prob not written well) was that there has got to be situations in CA where the 'seller' is not responsible for emissions pre-sale and therefore 'Buyer Beware' / 'As-Is'.

EX: Wrecked car, motor runs, only has exhaust headers, nothing else...no CAT, no pipe, no muffler.  Maybe CA is different.  I have purchased salvaged vehicles and it is implied that the buyer is responsible to make it safe and street legal, not the seller.  Maybe that applies to everything except emissions.

I'm definitely outta my depth when it comes to CA smog laws.  I can't imagine wanting to sell a salvaged/wrecked/can't smog vehicle but being told I cannot sell it until it can pass smog. I wanna sell it, you wanna buy it.  What's the problem with that.

Maybe CA has a different type of title for that scenario.  Seems like they have something different for everything.

I guess just file the forms at the DMV if the seller isn't being responsive to buy back or pay for the repairs.  Worst thing that could happen is if their is a loop-hole the DMV will point it out to the OP. 

[David]

You might try doing a google search for this: california smog referee center, sometimes when the cost of smogging a vehicle exceeds reasonable cost they will make some allowances on the amount of smog equip you need to make it Calif compliant. That is why it was created. Good luck.

[Rocksurfer]

Hate to say it but there is no exemption in a private party or retail sale, none. As I have said before the only ones I am aware of are wholesale not open to the public sales, junk sales, mechanic  lien sales, and police auctions. Even sales of vehicles for off highway use only are supposed to have all the oem equipment intact, of course nobody would even consider following that rule don't see very many buggies with any smog equipment. Just like a car dealer you can have the new owner responsible for the cost of the smog cert. but the seller is responsible for it passing smog. You as a seller will have the same responsibility as a dealership to smog the car. Now as stated by others in reality sales are made every day "as is" and generally if both parties are up front on the deal then there is no issue. I have bought a few vehicles in the past that would fall under that category when it was obvious that it would not pass without some work including my current 4Runner. 

[Snowtoy]

My point (prob not written well) was that there has got to be situations in CA where the 'seller' is not responsible for emissions pre-sale and therefore 'Buyer Beware' / 'As-Is'.

There is, the car has to be registered as non-operational, or if the original owner surrendered the plates.  At this point the vehicle is not authorized to be driven/parked/towed(if any part touched the ground) on any public road. i.e. just a piece of personal property.  However, if the vehicle has a current registration, the owner is technically legally responsible for the smog cert., regardless of what the two parties agree to.  Now of course, if the vehicle can't be driven because it doesn't have an engine, the engine is toast, trans is in pieces, vehicle is totaled, being sold as parts only(should already be non-op at this stage), etc., the DMV isn't going to take the time to go after the seller.  The DMV usually only takes issue with the no smog cert when the seller has removed the smog equipment, or has been running non-CARB compliant components, i.e. punishment for breaking CARB rules/regulations.