how do i pass smog with a 2180cc performance engine?

[VWBeetleObsessed67]

i'm looking at bugs from 1962 all the way to 2019, like i am not picky pretty much at all.

[stevebaz]

buy the best bug you can find with a non rusted body and floor pan. learn to where the problems reside on the sever restorations and repairs on this site. the better condition bug you buy the better off you are especially if your planning on hot rodding it.

[VWBeetleObsessed67]

i actually plan for it to be essentially a sleeper. where it looks stock but it actually somewhat packs a punch.

[mjtracy]

Definitely go with the advice of starting with a stock 1600 (especially if it will be taking you to your job). You will have a lot to learn to keep these things running reliably, and stock will be a much simpler classroom. Once you know the basics, you can start adding HP. Realize a car is a system, once you modify one part, you will most likely need to modify others. Good luck.

[H2OSB]

If you purchase a Beetle that is 1975 or older(IIRC, you said you'll live in CA), there will be no need for emissions compliance. Cars '75 and older are not tested for emissions. If you're in another state, then I have no idea

H20SB
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(o\_i_/o) I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals, I'm a vegetarian because I hate plants.

[VWBeetleObsessed67]

to be honest, my favorite year of beetle is 1963. so i'm basically eyeing oldbug.com like a hawk to see if a 1963 shows up in good condition for a decent price. but if that doesn't happen i will most likely get a 1967 or a 1968/69.

[Michael Ambrozik]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SwQ9iavJeI

just listen.

[VWBeetleObsessed67]

rude... :(

[Michael Ambrozik]

Just messing with you. Don't get mad.

[mclumber1]

NV is similar to AZ with overly restrictive smog requirements. 1968 and newer cars require yearly smog checks, unless they run on alternative fuels, are an EV, or registered as a classic car.
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1968 Beetle

[VWBeetleObsessed67]

has anyone heard of the 2003/2004 VW Beetle Última Edición? i actually grew up in Hendersonville, TN and lived there all my life up until a few years ago when me and my family moved to Hartsville, TN. and when i was 7yo, a lady that just moved in a few days after my 7th birthday (i was born in 2004 just so you know.) drove up to her new house on our street in a bright blue almost a baby blue color vw beetle. my seven year old brain was immediately obsessed with the car. i would get home from school and as soon as i walked in the door i would ask whoever was home at the time if i could go see the bettle, and i spelled that wrong on purpose bc when i would go and see the car i didn't know how to pronounce beetle so i would call it the bettle (pronounced by my small 7yo brain "beh-tul") and the sweet old lady who owned the car was very friendly and would let me sit in the car and look around it and eventually we formed a bond over that car and whenever i would come over she would have a little batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies waiting for me whenever i would walk down after school. she was just one of the sweetest people i have ever met. she recently passed away and the car was inherited by her daughter but anyways it just so happened that one day when i went over to see the car (i was about 12yo at this point.) i sat in the car like usual and that's when i noticed a little badge on the glovebox, which i had never noticed before and i remember it vividly, and it said "Última Edición, Volkswagen de México 2003"
and just a few days ago i remembered that car and the little badge and decided to look it up and apparently today the car is illegal in the united states because of the stupidest reason i have ever laid my eyes upon. it is illegal because and i quote "the trunk is in the front and is a safety hazard because of said front trunk" like whaaat!?!?! yeah cus theres totally not like almost 50 years worth of cars with a front trunk named the beetle! like what the actual heck. so anyways i really want to be able to acquire one of these cars. and i want to know if anyone can find a loophole to the reason that the dumbass who decided that it needed to be banned made it banned. i mean seriously! what the actual hell! im just laughing my ass off at the fact that someone can be that stupid! so anywho if anyone can help me out that would be great. honestly even if i have to wait years to acquire one of these i am willing. i don't mind having to completely restore the car to allow to own it, like i am willing to spend the money to have every mexican part from the original car and have it built on an earlier vw floor pan from the ground up as long as i can be able to own one of these cars. thanks.

[Paul Windisch]

Yes, the old air cooled Beetle continued to be produced in Puebla, Mexico until 2003. The last Beetles to roll out were Ultima Edicion. They came with some novel badges and an old school paint scheme with white wall tires.

VWoM Beetles were barred from entry in the US after the 1979 model year due to increased safety and emission regulation, not because of the front trunk. If the front trunk were the problem, Porsche and Tesla would also not be able to sell some of their vehicles here currently.

My Beetle is a 1984 VWoM Beetle. I originally bought it in 1995, so it was only 11 years old. I initially did have issues registering and insuring it, because the VIN is shorter than the 17 character VIN that was standardized in the United States starting in the 1980 model year. This is no longer an issue, because my car is over 25 years old, so Haggerty is the insurer of my car, and they don't care what the VIN looks like.

EDIT: Sorry, the 17 character VIN was standardized in 1981. The designation for model year characters was standardized in 1980 (A=1980, B=1981, etc.).

So, you could buy it and wait a few more years; 25 years puts you at 2028. Or, continue to search for 1979 and earlier Beetles or Super Beetles that were marketed and sold here. I would have a tough time justifying the placement of all the Ultima Edicion parts on a pre-1978 chassis (1978 and 1979 were only Super Beetles with a different chassis). It's a substantial amount of work, and the Ultima Edicion Beetles were made in limited quantities. I know they are not historic in the sense that they are old, but they are historic in the sense that they are the end of an era. At this point, I don't think that makes them super valuable monetarily, but I think they deserve preservation nonetheless.

What is more curious is how your neighbor lady got the Ultima Edicion here to begin with. I mean, purchasing it and storing it is one thing. But registering it and driving it (legally) is another thing. It is the same question I have had regarding my own car for many years, and will likely never find out the answer. My car has supposedly been titled in Michigan since 1985, but I have no idea how the regulations were skirted. It remains a mystery to this day.
_________________
*ASE Recertified Master Automotive Tech*

1984 Mexican Beetle
-1914cc
-L3 Heads 35x32 valves 52cc chambers
-0.040" deck for about 9.1:1 Compression
-Engle W110 cam
-CB Super Stock 1.1:1 Rockers
-Stock Heat Exchangers w/ Tri-Mil Muffler
-Dual Weber IDF 40s w/ 26mm venturis
-034 SVDA Distributor

2013 Chevrolet Volt DD
2005 Pontiac Montana SV6

MAHLE Service Solutions
Applications Engineer

[VWBeetleObsessed67]

okay well is it possible to buy the car that i want and basically have the car transplanted onto an older vw pan that is over 25 years old and register it as the year of the pan? bc ive heard of people doing that and therefore being able to bring the car into the us that way...

[VWBeetleObsessed67]

basically someone buys *for example* a 1968 vw beetle pan and has their *for example* 2001 vw mexican beetle's parts implanted onto the 1968 bodypan meaning that the car can then be registered as a 1968 beetle instead of a 2001 beetle therefore allowing the car to enter the us.

[VWBeetleObsessed67]

honestly i asked her years ago when i was 10 where she got it cus i wanted to get one later in life and she told me when i asked her that she got it as a gift from a family friend of hers who was a mechanic and according to her the mechanic friend did a lot of work on it and that she did not understand what all the stuff he did on it but she did know that it took years to get it to where it was legal and at the time i wasn't sure what she meant by "legal" but now i kinda understand. the only thing i can assume is that the mechanic friend had the pan switched to an older vw pan cus a lot of companies back then offered services to replace the pans on mexican beetles to allow them into the us. the only reason i know all of this is bc i did some research and came across what i think is an old forum post on some site ive never heard of that had a link to an old website that is no longer active but was supposedly a website for a company from 2005 that offered those types of services and it was supposedly popular to do that to be able to drive a one of a kind beetle legally.

[Paul Windisch]

There was an outfit in the south west somewhere that made a business of doing just that. I believe it was called Beetle-Mex. You send them a good, used, US spec pan from a pre-1978 Standard Beetle, and they would build an entire new Mexican Beetle on it, and register it as whatever year the floor pan was. Actually, it may have had to be pre-1969. VWoM Beetles are swing axle cars. I don't know if that company made provisions for floor pans that originally were IRS.

Either way, it was a thing.
_________________
*ASE Recertified Master Automotive Tech*

1984 Mexican Beetle
-1914cc
-L3 Heads 35x32 valves 52cc chambers
-0.040" deck for about 9.1:1 Compression
-Engle W110 cam
-CB Super Stock 1.1:1 Rockers
-Stock Heat Exchangers w/ Tri-Mil Muffler
-Dual Weber IDF 40s w/ 26mm venturis
-034 SVDA Distributor

2013 Chevrolet Volt DD
2005 Pontiac Montana SV6

MAHLE Service Solutions
Applications Engineer

[Paul Windisch]

[VWBeetleObsessed67]

heres the website i found. http://www.btlmex.com/
it is no longer active and i believe the company mainly operated in the year 2000 but this specific company only did about 10 cars before becoming defunct. now i can try to see if it can be viewed on the wayback machine but im not sure if it will work. if it does ill put another link to that.

[VWBeetleObsessed67]

and as i said it was inherited by her daughter. and a couple years ago my family moved and i don't even know what happened to the car after me and my family moved. i know that the daughter kept the car in her mom's old garage but i don't know if it is still there and i know for darn sure that even if i go back there i won't be able to see it cus it is not my property. so all i have is some old memories and some determination. :P

[VWBeetleObsessed67]

yeah. i just stuck the url i found into the wayback machine and wow... theres 163 captures of the url so yeah it was definitely popular. heck it goes from the year 2000 all the way to like 2014/15 even though the 2015 capture shows a buy domain button so yeah it probably went down then but im not quite sure but yeah it works and is a legitimate website! :)