California Crackdown on Modified Cars

California Crackdown on Modified Cars

5 million in federal money will fund a Sacramento, California effort to stop drivers in modified cars.

Police in Sacramento, California announced Wednesday that they would use $5 million in federal money to begin cracking down on auto enthusiasts who modify their vehicles. The money will be used to form an undercover "Drag-Net" unit to stop motorists who appear to be driving modified cars.

The concept, which originated in San Diego in 2001, has been spreading throughout California generating significant revenue for the state and local departments. In Santa Fe Springs, for example, twelve officers on Drag-Net duty issued 300 citations and impounded 50 vehicles in just one weekend. Several cities have drag-racing ordinances that allow police to auction off seized cars and keep the profits.

Under Drag-Net, San Diego officers come to train other departments how to look out for what they believe to be tell-tale signs of illegal modification such as window tinting, large spoilers, extra gauges or racing stickers. Police say this gives them probable cause to stop and inspect a vehicle and its engine compartment.

In practice, "excessive exaust noise" tickets are the most common violation. California law does not require police to measure sound levels objectively. Instead, according to the California Highway Patrol, the "citation is based on officer's judgment."

Drivers of stock vehicles that come from the factory with some of the characteristics of modified cars have experienced harassment under this provision. One such motorist complained on an enthusiast website that the Calfiornia Highway Patrol was using these programs to make "driving while Asian" a crime, pointing out that the department's own website has several pages dedicated to Asian involvement in street racing and "vehicle modification."

Those receiving a vehicle modification "fix-it" ticket must visit a California Bureau of Automobile Repair office and pay a $35 fee to have their car inspected. If the car fails, a judge can impose another fine of up to $2000 for failing to meet California emissions requirements.

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/05/576.asp

ironic..since cali is pretty much where this whole import thing started, not to mention being one of the main "hubs" of car-culture in general

no wonder "sleeper" and JDM so popular

I just hope that shit never reaches Colorado cause man I will be pissed!!! I mean hell I can understand the whole performance mods like turbo and etc but so if u have a body kit and wheels they'll stop you? what kinda shit is that? so then why do they even sell parts for looks then? it's stupid..... but it's good that they are attempting to actually stop teenagers from dying but just cause u have mild body mods now you're considered a racer? that is stupid hell there's a thing that it's called sleeper that well they'll eventually find out about but then they'll know that looks mean nothing...

laws gets tougher and tougher, they'll eventually get to ur place lol...

i think thats bull shit... next thing you know, you can only drive a car that has a top speed of 35mph... that is bull crap to me...

i'm about ot drive to cali from PA and drive my car around that place.... what are they gonna do?
My exhaust is TRD, 50 state legal, and right now i have my airbox in and a K&N filter....
i got rims and tints. They can't do squat cause my car is 50 state legal.

Then you shouldn't have anything to worry about

I know in VA, they don't allow tints lower than a certain %. Even if you're from another state and are just passing through, technically they're allowed to give you a ticket for that.

Here too, you aren't suppose to have tints darker than a certain percentage, but, the cops really don't care, like at all... for example, when I had my Civic, the back windows we're tinted limo tint, you could not see through them at all, I got stopped 3 times with that car (twice was when my front licence plate fell off, rusted bolts...), onle 1 cop mentioned the tint, he even tested it,t old me it was illegal, but didn't give me a warning or a fix-it ticket, didn' even say I had to get it replaced.. they jus don't care over here...

mayn fuck dat....all bullshit...im pissed!!!

these mutherfuckers wanna play hard ball. any type of sports cars can get pull over for that shit.

dosen't suprise me that cali's state govt is being a bitch. We always had the toughest laws against modified cars.

I don't know what y'all are complaining about yet since it's not in your home town that they're being pricks about it. Yet another reason for me to leave Sacramento!

Anyways, Vortex you mentioned the possible economic impacts of this on the tuner industry. All I can say is prohibition! When the feds outlawed alcohol the money spent on it multiplied tremendously. SO all we can look forward to now is a shift in the trends of tuners. MOre emphasis will be put on either Show OR Go but not both. The true street racers, like now don't put gruesome bodykits on their rides. They are the ones that invented the "sleeper" so I don't see this being too traumatic for the tuning industry. Just my $0.02 though

I HATE COPS. I HATE THE LAW. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr. This forum makes me mad they first should make hummers illegal in all 50 states those things are too big for the road they take up two lanes.

haha hummers do suck.... man u should've came with us up here to Vortex's house man we're having a blast dood

You know instead of wasting 5 MILLION dollars of OUR money on this bullshit they could use it towards building tracks and creating safer alternatives for people who do modify their cars to have somewhere they can test their cars.