Last fall, life was playing out perfectly for Kumar Konar. He landed a new job in San Francisco, and he was driving a brand new Mazda 6.
“At that point in time, this was my dream car,” Konar said. “I wanted something that’s really sporty, really shiny, and really fast.”
But everything soon came to a screeching halt. Konar had his new car shipped 2,000 miles from Houston to the Bay Area. He immediately drove to the DMV to register the car.
“And they said, ‘Sorry, sir, we cannot register your car in the state of California,’” said Konar. “I was taken aback. I didn’t know how to react to it.”
Konar said DMV told him his new car didn’t meet California’s emissions standards.
“It’s a new car, it should conform to all emissions laws,” said Konar.
But DMV said it didn’t. And it wouldn’t budge. It would not register Konar’s car. He was left with one option.
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“I have to sell the car,” said Konar. But I can’t sell it to any person, any entity, any dealership in California. I was looking at a loss of $9,000 to $10,000.”
That’s when Konar reached out to us.
California does have tight emissions standards. And the law does prevent residents from buying out-of-state cars that don’t meet those standards. But there are some exceptions. On of them: when you move to California from another state, you can bring your car with you.
After we reached out to DMV, it immediately registered Konar’s car.
“I had been going through months of hassle to get my car registered, and in one hour - I had everything sorted out,” said Konar. “NBC definitely helped me in getting the problem resolved. I’m really thankful to NBC for that.”
DMV doesn’t know what went wrong with Konar’s case. In a statement it said that it regrets the error.
