Maybe you guys and girls can help me with a big ordeal I am having with my car. I was going to post this on miata.met but know one ever goes in the southwest (az) part and you guys and girls seem to be very knowledgeable on cars also and you are based in az* and actually come in to this part of forum.

I have a 1995 Miata That has been stored in Sedona since the first week of may and I go there often and drive it in oak creek canyon during the summer months being it's way cooler and drivable in the hot season. I happen to notice last time I was there my registration was up. So I went online to renew it and I have to do emissions this time. I went to the MVD in flagstaff and she said they could not do nothing because one they Don't do emissions and inspections being the mvd site says to take it to the closest emissions in that county. I could have had my car emissioned up there if they did it up there even if its not in the same county as here and still work to get my registration up to date. So this is my dilemma. I drive my car from here to Sedona than jump in the other car and drive it back here get emissions than drive it back to Sedona and then drive back to the valley. Now my question. How are all these people getting there cars at the track, Pavilions and on street to pass emissions? I know for a fact a majority of them cars have test pipes and run rich as hell as i can smell them. I just want to get it registered so I can drive it without getting towed in Sedona/flagstaff. I was there a few weeks ago and I was to scared to even drive it being it might get towed for no up to date registration. You may also say why not register up there? Well I cant because the house I am storing it at is a friends house and he lets me store the car in there garage.

I hope you guys and girls can possibly help me. I just want to drive my car again. I plan on going back up to Sedona in two weeks and its been so nice in the canyon up there and having to ride in a 2016 BMW X5 up and down the canyon is boring as hell when I have a fully built miata to drive there and hopefully a S2000 Really soon.

Tristan,

 

You can register the car itself to an address in Flagstaff or Sedona and then you will not have to do emissions

 

Have your friend drive it down to get the emissions done and then drive it back. It is good for two years, doesn't seem that inconvenient. Things people do:

1. Register outside Maricopa or Pima county
2. OBDII for 1996(?) and later is a CEL check only, can pass with a test pipe
3. Temporary re-install cat for testing
4. Register as collector car

 

Get an Insurance policy that states your car is insured as a "classic or collector" car. These are limited mileage policies so then you are exempt from emissions. Go to the 3rd party DMV w. your normal registration paperwork and a copy of you policy stated it's a classic car policy and they'll put it through. My Miata is currently, and all my older "racecars" in the past have been done this way.
Call an agent, my collector is through Progressive I think and I was still able to choose how many miles I would use the car for/yr.
5yr registration and no emission. Usually the car must be 15yrs old.
Enjoy.

 

Thank you all for your suggestions. I am going down to the seconds hand MVD tomorrow afternoon so we'll see what happens. I took all your advice and I hope to get my car registered.

 

Do they do any kind of visual inspection? Going to register the car tomorrow and wondering if I should put the oem cat back on. I do not have a cel, so it should pass the obdII portion.

 

They have never done a visual inspection on any of my ODBII cars. Interesting enough, my 95 Integra had to go on the rollers and they did a visual inspection with a mirror along with the sniffer. Seems like it should be the other way around but good for us.

 

Heard it was 2000 and up that were exempt from the roller portion.
So do they give you a dyno printout sheet with your emissions record lol

 

Lol

 

Not bad. It was $17 for inspection and $88 for 2 years. A lot cheaper than I was expecting.