New Replica Titling options

Hi Chris,

Unless someone was familiar with TX law, they couldn't give a meaningful response.  Example: Options 1 and 2 are mutually exclusive in California.  Option 1 was replaced by Option 2 and is no longer available.  Of course, that doen't mean that Option 1 isn't being used, it just means that it's illegal to do so. 

Taxes in CA are generated by the value of the car.  DMV doesn't know the exact value, so the owner proves value by receipts for all major components which must be presented on registration.  DMV also asks for labor costs to be calculated.  Yearly reg fees are based on that original value, just like other vehicles.  When I registered my SAS with the state of California, total costs to CA DMV were almost $4K, about 90% of which was sales tax. 

Regarding Troy's comment and your original question, titling it as a Porsche would be risky, since it obviously isn't a Porsche.  Individual states have their own ideas as to what our replicas acturally are, and many of them use different names: constructed vehicles, kit cars, specially construced, etc.  But they would all agree that putting a fiberglass shell on a VW pan doesn't create a Porsche.  It only creates a Porsche replica. 

Titling can be intimidating, since the process is fairly new to most state motor vehicle employees.  I personally found that patience and good manners paid off.  Best of luck in your ventures.  If you have the time, it is helpful to others to let us all know how the process of registration worked for you.  If I hadn't read lots of posts on other sites regarding CA registration, I may not have been successful. 

Thank you for the reply Jim.

Nice thing about Texas is we don't have a licensing fee that is tied to the value of the car.  Just a standard plate fee for all passenger cars plus a one time tax (6.7%) on the initial purchase price.

My personal preference is option 2, since, as you stated, that path was precisely created for our cars.

I will provide a detailed blow by blow of my titling adventures.  Stay tuned....

Don't you get a Certificate of Origin from JPS for the fiberglass body and also a Bill of Sale for the actual purchase amount paid?  The Bill of Sale makes taxing easy for the state.  

For one building there own vehicle with a kit (like a CMC or a roller), taxing is more difficult as the CoO came with a Bill of Sale, the donor car came with a Title and Bill of Sale, then you have a huge stack of receipts for parts ---- some of which were probably purchased in state and you already paid sales tax on and others were online purchases which you probably didn't pay sales tax on.  If one did their own work - can't see how their time could be taxed.

Wolfgang, I agree that it seems unfair to tax a hobbyist for his/her labor in building a car for personal use.  However, it is a done deal in California.  This is a state law, and I don't know how other states handle it. 

The hot rod sites that discuss cars, registration, taxes, etc.  invariably warn potential registrants to pick their battles when registering a replica or hot rod.  If you choose to fight the labor tax in CA, you will lose.  California Board of Equalization, the folks in charge of collecint all types of taxes, enforces the CA Revenue & Tax Code, which codifies the collection of taxes for fabrication labor.  The cobra sites and Factory Five provide a tutorial for determining how to compute value, including a reasonable labor charge.

I'm not a fan of taxes, either state or federal, and feel that I have paid more than my share during my working life.  On the other hand, I am a little long in the tooth to get into a real pissing contest with the powers-that-be over car registration, if a reasonable compromise on my part is possible.  I still get into battles occassionally, but I do try to limit my "take no prisoners" attitude more than I did when I was younger.

I feel that the more information I have when I approach a major bureaucracy, like CA DMV, the smarter my decision will be.  Works in theory, not always in practice, eh?  

Wisconsin no longer allows "Collector" plates to be applied to replica or kit cars.  They now insist on the "Hobbiest" designation which requires detailed high quality pictures on file and more details on the composition.  The people in charge are quite knowledgeable.  I still have one replica with "collector" plates and had two others recently.

I have a 2012 jps speedster titled as a 1970 vw in houston,tx. I had to pay texas sales tax 8pc...This is most common and tested way ?

Nice TD, Tilly! If you still have that you should come over to the light side--tdreplica.com--assuming you're not already there. We have four new members building cars right now. Probably the most TD replicas under construction at one time since, I dunno, 1985?

Im still trying to figure out how Im going to do mine, after I go 956 miles (one way)to pick it up he informs me he dosent realy have the title for that pan, but had bought another one from somebody else&said just tell them this title gos with this pan.I was so pissed & cold I could of effed a goat& a snake at the same time.but I do have all of the paperwork from the manufacture the orignal guy that was building it had. I have some thinken to do. If he had given me some Id tags from the titled car that would probably work.just tag the chassie with the title #'s & the body with the mfr #s'...I should of bought a driver& drove it home.I never said I was smert.

I'm in TX, Mine is titled as a 1957 Porsche. There are 3 ways to go in TX.

1 Normal plates, inspect to the yr of the car (can title as a VW)Tags on both ends.

2 Classic tags, YOM (yr of manufacture, requires both front and rear plates from the yr of old car, if it's titled as a 72 VW, that would look bad with 1972 tags on a 57 car or...

3 Antique tag, only one plate , look good on the car, NO INSPECTION, reg every 5 yrs at like $65 but... Only drive on occasion to say shows, and special events. (I drive mine about once a week locally) and Can use Hagertys Ins., and it's cheap for full coverage.

so how od they know how much you would be driving it?milage? well I drove it 4 times last year to 4 shows, one on each coast, but I had top go to the other coast first to pick up  my buddy. you reckon that would fly with them?

"If he had given me some Id tags from the titled car that would probably work.just tag the chassie with the title #'s & the body with the mfr #s'."

I can see how this is going to work out.  When my request for personalized plates clears Tallahasse - can you make sure you do a super job stamping my new license plates? I doubt Certificate of Origin will get you far - I'd at least have a Bill of Sale with the true chassis VIN on it (in case it comes up stolen).  

I second Jim Kelly's advice about "patience and manners" in dealing with DMV people.

Unless you're first in line, early in the morning, these clerks have had to deal with all sorts of ill prepared semi literate buffons. An upfront smile and a greeting goes a long way...they relax and respond in kind and are usually willing to smooth out the bumps in the registration process. BTW, I made sure all my paperwork was in order to avoid confused fumbling...and presented in in a red folder that signaled that I knew what I was doing!

My VS is registered in Connecticut. Title and previous registration from Oregon which listed it as a '58 Porsche convertible...with a little boxed notation that it was a "Replica". Somehow this notation was overlooked by the DMV powers to be. Automobiles in Connecticut are taxed by the town as personal property. '58 Porsche convertibles are veeeery high end valued, and my whopping tax assesment damn near gave me a heart attack!!

With patience and good manners and Hagerty Insurance paperwork I convinced the town clerk that it was actually a '62 VW with a sexy plastic body, and shaved nearly $1,500 off my tax bill...I'm going to swallow my pride and re-register my "1962 VW" for Antique Plates which will further limit my town tax liability to about $50/year.  

I honestly haven't read this entire thread, but just transferred Pearl back into Massachusetts from South Carolina yesterday.  It took about 1-1/2 hours of sitting in the DMV.  Interesting folks visit the DMV.  A couple of people approached me, rather hesitantly, and asked if I was "Richard Gere".  Kinda made me wonder what the hell Richard Gere would be doing at the DMV...in Worcester, Massachusetts...in February.  Nassau, maybe......or St. Barts.......definitely not Worcester and certainly NOT at the DMV.

Anyway, I had both an SC title AND registration showing her as a 1969 VW convertible and even though Massachusetts has passed the SEMA law regarding registering your car as a "replica" of the year it represents, the DMV interprets that law in sometimes strange ways so, after talking with the lead Woostah DMV guy about "hypotheticals" if I were to buy a pan-based Speedster kit, I decided to just register her as a VW convertible, take my plates and run.

Once I got to the counter and met the rather pleasant lady helping me, I gave her all the paperwork an sailed right through.  The only hitch was when I gave her the paperwork for the car hauler trailer and no insurance stuff.  BIG no-no here.....  In SC, you just buy a trailer, hook it up and drive home - no plate, if you stay in-state, and the trailer assumes the insurance of the vehicle it is attached to.  Not so here in the Cod-fish state.  You need separate insurance for the trailer, so I'll be paying them another visit next week.  But I'll wear different glasses to avoid the paparazzi looking for Richard Gere haunting the Woostah, Mass. DMV