Hey so I recently bought a used Prius without knowing that the previous owner installed an off brand catalytic converters. I currently live in California and when I went to pass smog they failed it. My question was since it’s off brand would it be able to pass smog in a state like Texas or do I have to lose 2,000 for a new catalytic converter.
If I were in your situation I'd call my representative in the state legislature as well as some of the representative of key state agencies and remind them that their failure to crack down on Prius cat theft epidemic, combined with Toyota's outrageous profiteering due to state not allowing non-OEM cats on clean burning older Prius is leading to people selling their cars for parts and buying a less clean burning vehicle. The State of California needs to step up and offer an exemption to ensure that the life span of clean burning Prius isn't cut short by cat thieves due to unreasonable state requirements for OEM replacement cats that often are close to the remaining value of the vehicle. If every Prius owner who had a cat stolen in California did this, there would very quickly be legislation to address this nightmare that is rapidly creating more pollution, not less!
Tough break, sorry. It's called, "jus soli." or the law of place. What is legal in Texas is NOT in California. If you live in California and want to register and to drive it there, you have to return it to the original factory suppled cat or equivalent,
Even if you bought it from a dealer in Texas, it complied to everything required to comply with the law in Texas. Again, "jus soli." The seller cannot, for example, that the car will comply with the regulations in Japan..
If you bought it in California, technically it was illegal for the previous owner to sell it to you without a valid smog certificate. The law is on your side. You should be able to return the vehicle to the previous owner or have them pay for any repairs to get it to pass smog. I had the reverse happen. I was out of state and someone wanted to buy my car without smog, so I gave them a discount so they could smog it themselves. They then went and tried to smog it and apparently the smog guy told them I had tampered with smog stuff or something and charged them a bunch of money. So then they were pissed at me even though I had no idea what was going on and threatened to sue me if I didn't pay them a bunch of money. I had no recourse since the law was in their favor . Sucks to be on the receiving end but the law is the law. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
