Can CA SB-100 status be put on hold for future if car is registered in another state?

[Russ F]

I moved from NorCal to North Idaho in December 2020. I plan to pick up my coupe (registered via SB-100 in 2016) from storage in Santa Cruz and register it in Idaho. CA registration is due for renewal June 24. Does anyone know if there’s a way to preserve the SB-100 status for a possible future CA owner, ie: planned non-operation or some other method? Thanks. Russ F

[EZ$]

Russ, My understanding of the SB-100 regs is that the status remains with the car for the life of the car. So if it comes back into California, the SB-100 status is still active. You may want to wait for others to answer, since I am definitely NOT the authority on this subject.

[Russ F]

Thanks, Rick. I’m sure hoping that’s the case. It know my sequence number was still in the system in 2016 after no activity since it was issued in 2007, despite my not having paid yearly maintenance fees. It took a knowledgeable manager at the Watsonville DMV office to convince Sacramento that it still was valid, but she was proved correct. Does anyone else out there have an opinion on this?

[crash]

If your vehicle is registered in CA, it remains registered in CA until you change it to another state. The trick with CA is that if you do not pay the registration fees they penalize the hell out of you. This is true on any vehicle where the registration lapses in CA. I believe your two choices are to either pay the registration fees or pay for the non-operation registration...or just register the vehicle in Idaho. Again, once the vehicle has gone through the SB-100 process and is registered it should not have to go through the certification process again, even if the car comes back to CA.

On a side note, I pay hundreds of $$ a year to have my vehicles sit in my garage and NOT be driven on CA streets because of the non-op "fee".

[dlud]

If your vehicle is registered in CA, it remains registered in CA until you change it to another state. The trick with CA is that if you do not pay the registration fees they penalize the hell out of you. This is true on any vehicle where the registration lapses in CA. I believe your two choices are to either pay the registration fees or pay for the non-operation registration...or just register the vehicle in Idaho. Again, once the vehicle has gone through the SB-100 process and is registered it should not have to go through the certification process again, even if the car comes back to CA.

On a side note, I pay hundreds of $$ a year to have my vehicles sit in my garage and NOT be driven on CA streets because of the non-op "fee".

I would do just that: go non-op.

[Russ F]

Thanks, guys. I am required to register it in Idaho, ‘cause I want to drive it in this beautiful place (Coeur d’ Alene area) but I’ll probably also go non-op in CA for a year at least. I hope to go to Huntington Beach in November (driving it in CA with Idaho plates but perhaps bolting on my cool ‘60s-era CA CSX2299 rear plate at the show). —Russ