<p>I don’t have a California address, though–on everything that asks for my address besides product shipping I state my Florida address. Additionally, my insurance agent (State Farm agent) is very aware of my situation and seems to have no issue with it. </p>
<p>I don’t see how my insurance company could deny coverage; there is nothing in my policy that I am not abiding by, nor am I breaking the law.</p>
<p>Edit: and just in case anyone is curious, bookworm is right (as usual, heh). I am not paying in-state tutition because I am at a private college.</p>
<p>lizzardfire-my D has found that car insurance in Florida is more expensive then Ca. She is paying more and getting less coverage. In Ca she was a driver on our policy which probably had some effect on the rate.
She would have loved to register her car in Ca and stay on our car insurance. It would have been cheaper and less hassle. Since she was purchasing a car in Florida she could not get around registering the car in Florida and getting Florida car insurance. She is still trying to figure out if she has to change her drivers license.
Her permanent address is Ca.</p>
<p>You might want to consider this section of the California Motor Vehicle Code:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>In other words, if the car spends more than half the year in California, it’s deemed to be a California car and by law is supposed to be registered in California. Now I concede it’s a little unclear how this is supposed to interact with the provision you cite. They seem squarely contradictory. Section 4000.4 does say “except as provided in section 6700” so maybe 6700.2 does create a narrow window for homeless and jobless persons and for college students who have neither “gainful employment” nor indicia of “residency,” i.e., they live in clearly temporary campus residence halls. But I take it the DMV statement about “renting” and such is an administrative interpretation of and elaboration on the part of the statute you cite that says you MUST register your car in California when you have “gainful employment” and/or “residency.”</p>
<p>So the overall structure would be like this:
If the car is in California more than half the year, it must be registered in California, UNLESS
it’s already legally registered in another state and the owner has neither a job nor a residence in California; and
if the owner rents an apartment or house in California, that will be deemed by the DMV to constitute evidence of California residency.</p>
<p>Which all goes back to my earlier advice to the OP that if the summer internship is paid and/or if the student is renting housing off-campus, the state of California may think the car should be registered there. They may not enforce it. But you may not want to risk being charged with operating an unregistered vehicle, and doing so is a great excuse for your insurance company to deny coverage.</p>
<p>^ even if they did decide to make a thing about it, the charge wouldn’t be “operating an unregistered vehicle” because it clearly is registered in another state. The charge would be not complying with that law that says you must reregister it in CA.</p>
<p>But like everyone has pointed out, the laws and regulations are so confusing and contradictory, its not likely one would ever encounter problems with this, assuming the vehicle is lawfully registered in another state and used by a non-resident student in CA.</p>
<p>I don’t know any FL kids who registered cars in states they attended schools. During years S was full-time student, he could be included with my car. My insurance company said not to worry if he worked elsewhere during a summer. I know CA says 'only 20 days". Had S done an internship in Silicon Valley, they provided him a car.</p>
<p>End of day, I check in with my insurance company. I’ve used AMICA since 1986, and I do let them know about S’s change of address, etc.</p>
<p>“or until residency is established in this state”</p>
<p>that’s the clause that can bite you in the arse. If you’re caught, the DMV will likely tell you that you established residency by renting an apt, taking employment, or any of the things they listed on their site. </p>
<p>bottom line, you may get away with it or you may not. One of my roommates had his car registered in Washington for years (along with his insurance–not smart). He never got caught nor was in an accident. He got rid of his car with the WA plates still on it, bought a new one, and registered it in CA. </p>
<p>I had another friend who got busted by parking enforcement after just two parking. But then I had another who had probably a half dozen parking tickets who never got busted (maybe the parking enforcement agent reported the first?) </p>
<p>I think the worst was my first roommate when I moved to l.a. from SD. He kept his car registered in AZ. When he finished grad school, he went to register his car and the DMV hit him with something crazy like $1800 in fines. They used the rolling stop ticket on his car from years ago, and used that date as the day the car entered the state.</p>
<p>I think it’s probably luck of the draw, who writes the tickets, or registers your car at the DMV that determines if you get nailed or not. You’ll prob get away with it, but if ur caught, ur screwed cuz fines are hella steep. with the state needing money, i’d expect enforcement to go up though. </p>
<p>pretty much two government entities you won’t win against in life: parking enforcement and the dmv.</p>
<p>2001 is still fairly new. My husband’s '97 beater Mazda truck just passed the smog check. My old '96 Honda Civic did, as well. (One of my older girls has it now.) And, my teen daughter’s 2002 Toyota ECHO passed. I would think a '01 Toyota Corolla would pass with flying colors, unless he rigged it up in a “souped up” way. :)</p>
<hr>
<p>timely wrote:</p>
<p>my concern is that his car won’t pass CA emissions testing…and how could I find out if, for example, a 2001 Toyota Corolla would possibly pass?</p>
<p>S now tells me that if you are registered for classes in the coming fall, you are still considered a full-time student in the summer for DMV purposes. S is attending a private university, so there isn’t any oos angle to take.</p>
<p>So sounds like the way to handle an out of state registered car that has been in the state for a while is to sell it and not re-register it in CA. Best to get a CA car at that point.</p>