RobW33
Member
This thread is fascinating. Figured it would be worth sharing my experience. I purchased a 2018 in October from a dealer in Minnesota - I live here in California. They had almost got burned by a guy who tried to purchase 2 Raptors earlier in the year who intended to ship them to the Middle East. These trucks are worth a lot out of the country. Here's what I was told:
Now that the truck is registered in MT and in California I have a very short period of time to properly register it in CA. I can assure you that every single Raptor has CA emissions installed on it. The emissions label on the hood shows that it is CARB compliant. All I have to do now is get the truck weighed, inspected, and pay a crap load of ridiculous CA fees and taxes and I'm all good. There is no such thing as a black listed VIN. It's a visual inspection of the emissions label that is required. For you dealers in the so called "brown" states take a look at the label. The dealer in MN was very surprised. It's my belief that CA is taxing manufacturers for their stupid CARB compliance and this is just a clever way for Ford to save a few bucks. I might be wrong but that would make sense.
I've also seen other dealers on this site explaining that they know how to work around this process, but the dealer I worked with in MN had no clue what was required. So the easiest way for us CA residents to get a deal is to find a dealer who has experience shipping non CA emissions vehicles to CA (not many from what I can tell), or get a vehicle from a state that requires CA emissions, or order one from an out of state dealer who can then specify CA emissions on the special order.
I got mine for $100 over invoice so it was well worth the trouble. And I really enjoyed the 2000 mile drive to CA!
- If I buy a Raptor, the dealer must handle the title and registration. This is to prevent unwanted export and the dealer needs to make sure they don't get in hot water with Ford.
- Only special order (not orders for inventory) can include CA emissions if you are a dealer outside of the 5+ states that all require CA emissions.
- The dealer could not sell me the truck and have it titled, registered, and delivered to CA if it came from their inventory because their inventory trucks could not include CA emissions.
Now that the truck is registered in MT and in California I have a very short period of time to properly register it in CA. I can assure you that every single Raptor has CA emissions installed on it. The emissions label on the hood shows that it is CARB compliant. All I have to do now is get the truck weighed, inspected, and pay a crap load of ridiculous CA fees and taxes and I'm all good. There is no such thing as a black listed VIN. It's a visual inspection of the emissions label that is required. For you dealers in the so called "brown" states take a look at the label. The dealer in MN was very surprised. It's my belief that CA is taxing manufacturers for their stupid CARB compliance and this is just a clever way for Ford to save a few bucks. I might be wrong but that would make sense.
I've also seen other dealers on this site explaining that they know how to work around this process, but the dealer I worked with in MN had no clue what was required. So the easiest way for us CA residents to get a deal is to find a dealer who has experience shipping non CA emissions vehicles to CA (not many from what I can tell), or get a vehicle from a state that requires CA emissions, or order one from an out of state dealer who can then specify CA emissions on the special order.
I got mine for $100 over invoice so it was well worth the trouble. And I really enjoyed the 2000 mile drive to CA!