Info needed regarding new enhanced inspections in Massachusetts?

[TC/TeamEvil]

Does anyone in Massachusetts drive a dune buggy and is going in for an inspection this coming month? The new enhanced inspection procedure requires the the inspection bay be equipped with multiple cameras that feed back to a central location, all inspections will be watched or reviewed from the first of October onwards. The place that I go to for the inspection sticker on my Mustang told be that they would no longer be able to pass most dune buggies because they simple aren't Volkswagens. If the registration states that the buggy is a two door Volkswagen sedan, then the buggy fails the visual and is denied a sticker. I asked about the whole re-body thing and he said that even at that, there are no doors and the body style isn't a sedan. I would need to get a new title and registration that reflects the true nature of the car.

Of course, all of this is just what the inspector told me, no empirical knowledge for now, but if ANYONE is getting their buggy inspected in Massachusetts next month PLEASE post and tell what it was like, success or failure ! ? ! ? ! Truth will tell, really want to know !

I have a Mini-T underway and am seriously wondering if I'm going to have to bail out on it and list it on The Samba for sale if I won't be able to drive it here in MA.

[Tom_Kathleen]

After looking at the SEMA state by state vehicle rules - http://www.semasan.com/semaga/TagTitleToolbox_MA.pdf , shouldn't a dune buggy either be a Assembled Vehicle or Specially-Constructed Vehicle? if it was one of those, it would seem to be not be a problem. It seems some people have been trying to "beat the system" and they are catching up to you. Tom
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Manxter #16, 1968 Meyers Manx & Kick-Out SS #16 (WIP)
Manx Club & CVA

[Dale M.]

IN Calif a buggy has to be a Special Construction... Period...

Dale
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“Fear The Government That Wants To Take Your Guns" - Thomas Jefferson.

"Kellison Sand Piper Roadster" For Street & Show.
"Joe Pody Sandrover" Buggy with 2180 for Autocross (Sold)
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All suggestions and advice are purely my own opinion. You are free to ignore them if you wish ...

[TC/TeamEvil]

Things are very different here in Massachusetts, there are no constructed vehicle options or any of the other usual things that other states offer. It's extremely strict here in MA, everything goes by the book current legislation before the house involves banning number plate surrounds (passed) and making ALL cars emissions compliant regardless of the year, no more cut-off date for emissions tests (pending), that's why I'm specifically asking for information from anyone living here and going in for an inspection sticker after the first of October to please post about their experiences. Not at all interested in what happens to anyone anywhere else. REALLY just need to know what I'm facing here in MA after the first.

[DuaneL]

[TC/TeamEvil]

Honestly, I don't care a bit about specialty built or custom vehicles or how they are supposedly made legal for road use in Massachusetts, right now I just need to know how dune buggies are currently treated at state inspection stations. Real world empirical information about what happened when their buggy was brought in; that's all. Hopefully someone will have gone through the process sometime this month, will have noticed this thread and will post a report on exactly what transpired.

[oprn]

Tell 'em to go to Hades and move somewhere else. It's a big wide world out there! There's no reason to have to put up with their hang ups.

[bim55]

TC, your right MA has always been a PITA and once again things are changing and this will be no different.

With change, there's always some considerable amount of confusion or miss-information.

If your car (buggy) is currently titled and registered in MA and has been for years, it should be allowed to exist as is retroactively. No inspection station should be able to override that and re-classify your car as something different. One did to me in the past and I had to get to the registrar for an answer and to have it corrected. Frustrating and it took almost a year to get the Rejected sticker off my car.

As I’ve been told, any new construction car or those simply new to the glorious commonwealth of MA are the ones that have to do the Specialty Constructed vehicle rule. Not older dune buggies or any other pre-existing kit car. It would be like denying older cars for not having air-bags or any other new safety item. They are correct for the time period.

An interesting point is that the new camera systems are being installed by the exact same group of idiots that did the rolling dyno’s a decade ago at the inspection stations? Some things you can’t explain, other than through nepotism or payoff’s?

The new camera system is intended to be a means to check on the inspection stations themselves and verify they are doing the job correctly, not the vehicles necessarily. It should result in less on-site check by the RMV. For the stations that roll out a sticker every 3-4 minutes, the cameras can be reviewed for an explanation if needed. There is no staff or not enough at the registry to view all of this camera information 24/7 from all inspection stations.

Everyone is afraid since they’re being watched and recorded, or can be. But It’s still a smog and safety check, not a verification of registration, that is simply not in the scope of the inspection stations work.

Now, the truth is it might be better to wait a month or two till this calms down, or find another station that is not so paranoid.

Good luck, I'm not due till April or May and hope its not going to be a problem by then?
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Boston Bob E.
www.bimelliott.com www.deserterownersgroup.org

[HeidelbergJohn4.0]

hard top and two gull wing doors. boom. two door "sedan".
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71 LWB Manx style dunebuggy
71 Beetle
71 Volksrod
Machette Speedster
2012 Passat TDI SE (sadly sitting in a buyback parking lot somewhere waiting for it's heart to be ripped out.)

[didget69]

Massachusetts officials will gently, yet persuasively, remind you that they 'are from the Government and are there to help'...

Good Luck.

bnc
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I never found the need to impress people with any mechanic certifications, trophies or track wins... unless it was for Mom to post on the refrigerator door.

[TC/TeamEvil]

Crap beginning for real in Texas:

https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2017/11/06/texas-beg...-kit-cars/

Bound to spread. Massachusetts is ALWAYS looking for an opportunity to control it's populace. A REAL Nanny State if there ever was one. We might well hurt ourselves in anything but a brand new SUV . . .

Oh, and read ALL of the comments below, click on the "more comments," there are some very well phrased arguments related to motor cycles being FAR less safe than dune buggies but having a very powerful lobby in Washington to keep them on the road and being sold. The new three wheeled Slingshot vehicles and Ariel Atom are also covered. Interesting stuff.

[Wolfgangdieter]

Who would have thought Calif is starting to look good for Special Construction Vehicles with SB100.
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CMC '57 Porsche Speedster Replica and Dolphin boat tailed full pan VW MOD-T Street Buggy

[burn-z]

I live in MA and bought a Chassis from CT that had not been registered in a while so there was no way to register it in MA easily. I found out that you can register it in Vermont as an out state person. Here is a video instruction on how to do it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8sWBqgP1PI I did it and I was planning on using this to get a MA title once it was registered in my name but, sounds like I may be keeping my Vermont plates. By the way there is no inspection sticker and they don't require insurance but, that is risky to me. So, if they give you a problem. This is an option that you could use.

[TC/TeamEvil]

Driving a car in Massachusetts that's registered and insured in another State is illegal in Massachusetts. A thirty day grace period is allowed, then it becomes a legal offense and classified as insurance fraud. Should you get into an accident. well . . . change into your "I'm Screwed" shit-proof pants.

There's an exception for students, but that's a very circuitous route involving College officers and all sorts of random documents, much like voting in Massachusetts as a temporary resident.

If you look at the current number plates just issued in Massachusetts, you notice the new state slogan, "Massachusetts, the FUCK ME state." This supersedes the old plate slogan, "Massachusetts, the just empty your bank account and leave the money in the State House lobby state."

[finefettle]

It's "taxachusettes"
You register in VT to obtain a titled plate, then take that plate and title to MA for a mass plate.
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1979 Bug project