Highly modified cars, known colloquially as tuners, have been trendy for years, but the origins trace back to the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s. We love muscle cars, diesel trucks rolling coal, and everything in between.
Highly modified cars come in all shapes and sizes. It might be a tuned-up Civic or Golf or a Dodge Ram pushing 1,000+ ft. lbs of torque from a Cummins. Or it might be something else completely off the wall. Well, that and your local DMV. Unfortunately, they have no imagination or creativity, so registering your highly-modified cars can be a chore. We can help with that, though, with our out-of-state registration services.
Since it’s more difficult to register these cars in places like California, especially when you start getting into engine swaps and super-tall lift kits, you might wonder why someone would still choose to do it.
Let’s explore what constitutes a modified car and how that all ties into registering with the DMV. Then, we’ll see what modifications will make that process harder than it has to be and how to solve the problem if you have trouble registering your modified car with the DMV.
Why Do People Modify Cars?
This is a great question: why do people take a perfectly good car or truck and then throw money at it? People modify cars to satisfy two needs basically:
Performance
Aesthetics
Both of these can mean many different things to the person. To some, aesthetics is everything; it is all about the car's looks. This one might not mean that much to the DMV, as long as it closely resembles the original car.
Performance means different things to different people, but it is highly sought after in many circumstances. For example, it may be a small, four-cylinder front-wheel-drive subcompact car pushing hundreds of horsepower. On the other hand, you want to take a modern generation muscle car (Dodge Charger or Challenger) and push the envelope.
What Are The Most Popular Modifications?
We can split this question between two general camps: cars and trucks. There is some common ground, mainly in the powertrain, but modifications between cars and trucks are pretty far from each other.
In a fast car, the goal is to go very fast and maneuver well. So the gist of a high-performance car is to get low to the ground, stay low to the ground, and go fast OR accelerate fast.
Since the goal is to go fast, most high-performance cars are made lighter than they originally were rather than heavier, and the weight changes often push a hot rod like this into another weight class.
Modifications in trucks/4X4s usually entail having as much ground clearance as possible. Therefore, we assume it is either made for trails (Jeeps) or shown for highly modified vehicles.
One of the most popular modifications for a truck is a lift kit. These provide added ground clearance for one and allow wheel well clearance to add larger wheels and tires, another popular mod. The most common lifts are in the four-to-six-inch range, but they are made more than a foot of lift, which is an area that might get you side-eyed and might break specific laws related to bumper height and headlight alignment.
But for the DMV, what turns their heads are custom-built cars, i.e., kit cars or complete custom-built cars or trucks. So if your project is a custom kit car or truck, we have created a registration service to help you quickly and easily get your can on the road.
Which Cars and Trucks Are the Most Popular to Modify?
You have probably noticed that certain vehicles you see are highly modified more often than others. Enthusiasts know that some vehicles have practically endless modification accessories and parts while others are hard to shop for. In this case, we are talking about highly modified vehicles, not lightly modified for aesthetics.
If you’re doing some heavy wrenching on any of these cars, your state’s DMV might take an interest.
Honda Civic
The Civic has been in production for nearly fifty years, entering production in 1972. Since then, around 18 million units have been sold, placing it squarely in the running for the best-selling cars. In addition, thanks to its legendary reliability, it has become a staple of tuners, with owners pushing well over 200 horsepower. Of course, some of these modifications are intended to bypass or replace emissions equipment because emissions gear chokes your engine.
Your engine is a giant air pump, using approximately 10,000 gallons of air for every gallon of fuel. The more air you can run through it, the more efficient and powerful it becomes. Therefore, tuners in restrictive states are wise to register their cars in a much more tolerant state using our out-of-state registration service, especially if “K series swap” sounds familiar to you.
BMW 3-Series
Another car that withstood the tests of time, the 3-Series has been in continuous production since 1975, now in its seventh generation. This car is so popular that it remains their most popular car, accounting for nearly a third of their sales even after five decades!
It is a lightweight car with tons of aftermarket parts readily available, well, at least they were readily available a year or two ago, and it is, of course, made to go fast. With the typical sleek lines you expect of a BMW, it has lots of oomph with several turbocharged options over the years and used reasonable prices (again, until recently).
The main registration hurdle facing newer examples is cat deletion and emissions changes. With older examples, it’s engine swaps - if the phrase “S54 in a 2002” means anything to you, you know the DMV might not love it as you do.
VW Golf
Volkswagen has been synonymous with performance tuning for decades. Old school tuners would somehow push 200 horsepower out of the old air-cooled Type-I engines on the Bugs!
The Golf is a great little lightweight car that handles tight as expected from a German automaker. However, it has also been in continuous production since the early ‘70s, and around 30 million units have been sold globally, putting it in the world’s top three best-selling cars.
Thanks to its fantastic handling, availability, and multiple powertrain options, including the torquey little turbo-diesel for compression lovers, the Golf has a cult following. You can build these up for serious performance, capitalizing on turbocharged stock options and any performance upgrade you can imagine
Many Golfs are too old to need emissions tests these days. Still, if yours isn’t, especially considering VW’s reputation with emissions, it’s worth keeping that in mind when you start buying modifications.
Ford Focus
The Ford Focus has carved a niche in the performance car market as a newcomer to this group. The Focus is one of the cheapest performance cars on the market, readily available, light and quick, and most importantly, very easy to find.
Like the rest of these cars on the list, the Focus can be lightly modified or radically modified for monster performance out of a small car. Unfortunately, some of these more radical modifications might very well draw the ire of your local, unfriendly DMV, and they certainly might get you flagged at the emissions check, so you might just want to consider registering your hot rod Focus in South Dakota, where people mind their own business and don’t make you smog check your car.
Jeep CJ/YJ/TJ/Wrangler
The iconic lineage of the Wrangler goes back to the infamous Willys, but practically we are talking about the CJ series, really beginning with the CJ-5.
The vintage CJs are a collector's item now.; the YJ, TJ, and JK Wranglers are extremely popular trails rigs due to their high production numbers, short wheelbases, and light bodies. They are also reasonably flexible from the factory, and of course, they are wide open with removable doors and soft tops.
Popular upgrades include pulling the ultra-reliable 4.0l I-6, dropping in a GM LS, and significant suspension upgrades. Yes, guys are running 44' Super Swampers on Wrangler platform Jeeps. Running a high-powered Jeep on massive tires and running straight pipes will draw attention at the inspection station. So save your headache and register in South Dakota.
Jeep Cherokee XJ
The Jeep Cherokee only ran for eighteen years (1983-2001), but it certainly seems like a lot more considering the impact it has had on the off-road community. Although the Jeep Cherokee was built on a unibody chassis, an inherently weaker design than a frame that’s far more flexible, the solid-axle XJ remained a trail favorite.
Like the Wrangler, Cherokees have been modified far beyond the wildest imaginations of their creators, with it being referred to in print as a “significant link in the evolution of the 4x4.”
Small-block engine swap kits are abundant for the XJ, including the cheap, dependable, and infinitely improvable LS engine swap kits. But in some states, doing that could render your Jeep unregisterable. Is that even a word?
What Is a Modified Car to the DMV?
So, we have a pretty good feel for which cars and trucks are popular to customize (although the list could go on forever); we need to answer an important question: in the eyes of the DMV, what constitutes a modified car? I.e., what do they care about and what doesn’t matter?
This is certainly a grey area because at what point is it no longer the original vehicle and now an entirely new creation? If you have swapped an engine, you could easily argue that this constitutes a custom vehicle because the numbers will not align, particularly putting an off-brand engine in your car or truck (e.g., LS engine swap in a Jeep Wrangler).
Look, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to answering the distinction between a custom-built car, as opposed to a modified car. Each state has its own rules regarding how to register these vehicles and requires a decent amount of legwork to understand the requirements. I am outlining the process in a few of the most highly-populated states below, which is far from inclusive. This is why we suggest going through our out-of-state process because there are fewer unknowns at play.
To be safe and avoid getting caught up in this gray area, may we suggest our out-of-state registration service?
How Do State DMVs View Highly Modified/Custom Cars?
Diving into what some more populated states say about custom cars will clear up some of the confusion surrounding this.
California
As usual, we lead off once again with sunny California. In California, you need to provide a construction statement (Form REG 5036) that breaks the vehicle into four sections: engine, transmission, frame, and body.
To process the registration, they want to know the prices of all the sections, the receipts to back it up, and who provided the parts (as if that is their business). You are subject to a bond if you don’t submit “adequate proof” that you own the vehicle and parts (if they are more than $5,000).
Beyond that, you need to have the usual smog check, and vehicle inspections conducted and pay the typical fees. Sign up for our out-of-state registration option to altogether avoid these
Texas
The registration process for a custom-built vehicle in Texas is pretty straightforward, with a completed rebuilt vehicle statement not altogether different from California. They want to know the vehicle's value to gig you at registration. If you have a highly modified vehicle, you might be better off avoiding the state DMV altogether and choosing our out-of-state registration service where you know it will be tagged and registered, no question about it.
You will need to be inspected by the state and issued a 17-digit VIN for the registration process.
Roadblocks to Registration
Again, the description of what constitutes a car modified enough to meet these criteria is unclear. You cannot run a bluff on whether or not it is modified in states that require inspections; the DMV staff probably doesn’t know or care what about your Jeep, but the technician at the inspection station sure does. They will immediately know if you are running a highly modified machine, and they do not want to lose their inspection station gravy train. So, you could register it in South Dakota through Dirt Legal’s out-of-state registration service if you want to get out of this cycle.
Out-of-State Registration Options
Fortunately for you, there are a couple of options of states that are not so restrictive.
Our services are not designed for custom-built cars which have no VINs. Ultimately custom-built cars will still need to be inspected in every state since they have never been registered as a vehicle.
If your car were built from the ground up and didn’t have a VIN, you would need to use a third-party company to acquire a new VIN before using our services.
South Dakota
South Dakota is the ultimate in simplicity; according to DMV.org, there is no difference in registering a custom-built car or truck than any other car. You just follow the same process as a Corolla. Also, South Dakota has no emissions testing or safety inspections; hence, you do not have to be in the state. You are good to go as long as you can satisfy the basic requirements by holding a title, MCO, or a salvage title.
Our goal at Dirt Legal is to offer owners and creators of highly modified vehicles a way to register and tag their modified cars without smog checks or state inspections. Of course, an engine swap does not constitute a custom-built car, but it certainly might make it a lot harder to pass a smog check (in fact, that might be the whole point), and if you’re in a full-blown custom car or kit car, it’s going to be harder still.
We will get your highly modified car, truck, Jeep, or SUV tagged in South Dakota, where it will be cheaper than most states (a flat, four percent sales tax rate), and no inspections are required.
Vermont
Suppose you don’t have a title in hand, creating a custom car. This can be a genuine hurdle, which we understand. Dirt Legal offers vehicle titling services because we all know that not having a title is a non-starter; your project is worth closer to scrap prices without a title no matter how much you have invested.
So here is how it works: Vermont only titles vehicles fifteen years and newer. So instead of a title, you will receive a transferable registration, or you can stick with the pretty green Vermont plate that we can send to you as part of the process.
All you need to provide is a bill of sale, and we will handle the rest.
If you want to transfer it into your state, you can do that. But, of course, if you are in one of those dystopian nightmares (California, New York, etc.), you may want to keep it in Vermont because you will have to meet all requirements for smog and safety inspections upon transferring. But at this point, you will have all of the paperwork necessary to be road legal and legally transferable, and you can do with that what you wish.
We’ve Been There a Thousand Times
Don’t let the system get in the way of chasing your dreams. If you want to customize your ride radically, do it! We at Dirt Legal believe that you should be able to do this without interference from your state, and we’ve helped get thousands of vehicles on the road in preparation for helping you. So check out our registration and titling services now so we can get you and your highly modified car or truck on the road!
John McCoy is a lifelong car and truck enthusiast and has a strong mechanical background off the road. He spent over 13 years in the U.S. Air Force as a crew chief, assigned to the B-1B Lancer, affectionately known as the Bone to those in the community, and the KC-135R Stratotanker. He resides on a small farm in Eastern Kansas where he (sometimes) enjoys fixing ancient farm equipment.