Hey guys I am moving out to the Bay area soon. My car has headers, pulley, injectors, primary catless so not exactly emissions ready. Any advice you can offer me ... (other than go back to stock)? Hit me up in PMs if it is too sensitive a subject.

Thanks guys!

 

Get some race cats and you should pass smog.

 

As long as you have cats you should be fine

 

What part of the bay are you moving out to?

 

Going to be working in Cupertino .. not sure where I will be living yet ... all happened very quickly! If you have advice on where to live too .. that doesn't cost me two arms and two legs, that would be nice too!

Don't they have visual inspections too? Thought anything non stock, especially removal of stock equipment is a no no?

Looks like my other cars will have to stay in Colorado .. my others are slightly catless

 

hopefully others members can confirm, but if you can keep the car registered in Colorado you will be exempt from California smog laws right?

 

You will not pass visual with anything but the proper cats. Sniff yes, visual no.

 

Try to find a hole in the wall place that will overlook the visual LOL

 

register your car in grass valley. smog exempt

 

What?

 

you going to Apple? if you are lookig for a bargain place to live stay out of Cupertino - the school dsitricts and the fact that it is right next to LG and Saratoga make it spendy.

if you are single or married with no kids and want to try city living - downtown SJ has changed alot - we lived in a mid rise for aobut 6 years and close to everything - very central.

as for passing smog if you can leave it registered in CO do it - otherwise talk to a shop that will help do the minimum - there are some good shops in the SJ area - for a good mechanice I have been going to MotorSpeed West in Santa Clara - the shop is nothing fancy but Ken/Bill have been working on BMW/MB for over 20 years - really good/honest guys who won't screw you over.

welcome to the YAY AREA!!!!!!!!

 

How about Menlo Park. Housing is pretty decent there and it is a great city. Welcome to the Bay Area! YEE

 

did you just say Menlo Park and housing is decent? come on man. He is coming from CO - don't give the man a heart attack!

 

If he's looking for an apartment its decent. But houses I don't think so. LOL

 

LOL .. how did you guess? Yes Apple

I am looking for out of big city I think. Would like Larger house, have kids so good schools are important .. more important than larger house.

I have thought about leaving it registered in CO and have addresses here I could leave it in. But I was thinking if I were to be stopped for whatever reason and have a California Driver's license and CO registered car, that would raise some questions that I wouldn't be able to explain.

Thanks to all you guys for the advice. I know this is an AMG forum for cars and performance but any advice would help! You guys are great .. hope to get the chance to meet up with some of you when I get out there!

 

Or the County of Lake or Lake Tahoe.

 

yeah ... I took a quick look already I am going to put the oxygen mask on next time I look again! LOL . Prices definitely a lot more than in Colorado, but my area has held it's value pretty well compared to a lot of places in CA so the differential is less than it used to be. Cheers!

 

If your car doesn't sound that loud and you don't have CEL and/or o2 codes, some of the shops in Oakland don't even bother to look underneath of the car. They never look underneath of my car when smog (well may be they know me) . Look for don't pass don't pay.

So Cat for safe or good luck!

 

If you're working at Apple, you're going to be seeing a lot of AMG cars in the lot. I was just here yesterday and saw an SL63 and a CLK63 Black Series both parked in the handicap out front. Lot of other AMGs in the lot.

 

LOL .. I was there just last week. They have a big campus! Were you at De Anza 3 building?... the cars sound familiar! Yes some nice cars in the lot!

 

Welcome to the Bay, yay! I work in Sunnyvale near HP/Palm.

It's amazing what you'll find people around here driving to work everyday... lots of MB's/AMGs, and occassional exotics pop up in well-kept condition (easy to keep a car nice with the responsible drivers and clear weather). Gotta love engineers geeking out their rides!

Enjoy!

 

welcome to the bay!!!

i work as a tech at a MB dealer in FREMONT...with a smog lic

 

Fletcher Jones? That's where I got my 08 C300. My sales guy was a Filipino guy that did a lot of exporting to Asia. I forgot his name.

 

DA3 is shi*box - i was at Apple for 4 years (left 2.5 years ago - now at Intuit) - to see the real money go across the street where the iPod group sits - alot of everything enthusiasts at Apple and alot of Audis for some reason too - i hope they offered you a realtor to assist in looking - if not your recruiter cheaped out on you - what's even better is Ducati NA is right behind the Apple campus - again welcome -

as for schools that is tough as most in the SJ area are probably no where as good as those in CO - we decided to go with private schools

 

Ooo ouch! I heard that they work your a$$ off. I am prepared for that. They did low ball me big time and I flat refused the first offer. They came back waaay better. Just gotta negotiate a little. They offered a good package overall including full relocation. Lot's of companies not offering relocation anymore.

I see it as a good way to get to a good company get some good experience and there are plenty of other tech jobs in the area if things don't work out. It is pretty dead here especially in my neck of the woods. Yeah, the schools here are really good. Thanks for the opinion and advice!