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BRAT registration, car or truck?


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The state of Wisconsin refuses to acknowledge the brat as a passenger vehicle, so i had to chuck the money for truck plates.

 

the brat does have jump seats, as it came from the factory to avoid TRUCK tarriffs.

 

i guess it's no big deal, but i would have rather used an existing plate for my car i sold rather than buy a new plate.

 

and for states that prohibit passengers in the back of a truck, would it still be legal to ride in the jump seats?

 

wisconsin classifies the brat as a truck because it has an open bed. the subaru dealer insists it should be an AUTO UT registration. there are suv's with car plates in wisconsin. the dealer also made mention of the ford explorer sport trac, with it's open bed, is still a passenger vehicle. and that they also have been registering new BAJA's as auto ut as well.

 

so how about you all brat owners? car or truck plates?

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Up here in Alaska they are considered a small truck. But you can sit in the back seats because they came factory like that, and they had seat belts.

 

The laws are going to vary from each state, but I think in the end, you'll find that most places consider the brat a truck because of the lack of cab in the back.

 

 

The state of Wisconsin refuses to acknowledge the brat as a passenger vehicle, so i had to chuck the money for truck plates.

 

the brat does have jump seats, as it came from the factory to avoid TRUCK tarriffs.

 

i guess it's no big deal, but i would have rather used an existing plate for my car i sold rather than buy a new plate.

 

and for states that prohibit passengers in the back of a truck, would it still be legal to ride in the jump seats?

 

wisconsin classifies the brat as a truck because it has an open bed. the subaru dealer insists it should be an AUTO UT registration. there are suv's with car plates in wisconsin. the dealer also made mention of the ford explorer sport trac, with it's open bed, is still a passenger vehicle. and that they also have been registering new BAJA's as auto ut as well.

 

so how about you all brat owners? car or truck plates?

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Got car plates on my Brat here in WA. I wanted truck plates but it was registered originally as a car, so they gave me car plates. Most other Brats around here have truck plates though.
You can register almost any car for truck plates in WA. All you need to do is go to a commercial weigh station and get a certified weight for your car and bring it to DOL to register and they'll register it as a truck. My '91 Legacy wagon was registered as a truck so I could park at the truck loading/unloading spots for my work. My two Brats are currently registered as passenger vehicles.

 

By the way, a truck registration costs slightly more than a passenger version but that's not very much.

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my determining question has always been: does it have a frame?

 

if it's got a frame and you can remove the body and still have an engine and drive-train then it's a truck... if it's unibody and the body IS the frame then it's a car...

 

but as others have stated, I've seen plenty of "cars" registered as trucks...

 

people at the DMV have no idea about how these things are built, they just fill out the paperwork they think fits best...

 

I would classify the brat as a car, and a jeep as a truck... but it's not up to me...

 

 

--Spiffy

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The 2 Brats I have owned a 78 and my 84 were both registered as passenger vehicles here in California.

Funny you mention that as Sko's Brat is registered as a truck YOM 1982. My 86 is truck and as edrach said, to get a vehicle registered as a truck you need to get is weighed, but in CA you ALSO need it as a work vehicle; my friends 91 4Runner was pulled over repeatedly for being too tall (38" Swampers) and being over the legal height of passenger vehicles. Went and got it registered for his business and all was good. Also in CA, if a truck has a sink?, or promises NEVER to remove the camper shell again after install, they can go ahead and get regular Passenger plates. I've noticed that the Baja's, SportTrac's and what ever it is that's Honda's version ALL have Truck plates due to the open bed, even the Avalanches.

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In Washington I think that the 78-81's are considered a car and 82 up is a truck. My old brat(79) was lilke a, NSF-123 plate number and my 82 Brat is a A76763Y, they charge me tonage like it's a 1/2 Ton Ford F-150. But the owners manual says the Max payload is 350lbs:dead:

 

Jeff

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I've had them registered as both in Iowa. my first Brat I got from MN and when I registered it, I convinced them to to register as a MPV like a baja. but mostly they register them as trucks.

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Non commercial use vehicles can be registered as a passenger vehicle here in Michegan.

 

I've road around with people in the back of the '82, cops looked real hard at them as we went by, but never was stopped for it.

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Funny you mention that as Sko's Brat is registered as a truck YOM 1982. My 86 is truck and as edrach said, to get a vehicle registered as a truck you need to get is weighed, but in CA you ALSO need it as a work vehicle; my friends 91 4Runner was pulled over repeatedly for being too tall (38" Swampers) and being over the legal height of passenger vehicles. Went and got it registered for his business and all was good. Also in CA, if a truck has a sink?, or promises NEVER to remove the camper shell again after install, they can go ahead and get regular Passenger plates. I've noticed that the Baja's, SportTrac's and what ever it is that's Honda's version ALL have Truck plates due to the open bed, even the Avalanches.

 

Actually, the BRAT is registered as a car.

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Well, here's my take.

 

I got very upset in wisconsin that they made my 4wd GL pass the ssame emmissions standards as 2wd cars of the era.

 

The reason is that the 4wd Subarus were imported as *light utility vehichles* Says so right on the under hood emmissions sticker. Take a look at a 2wd Soob, and youy'll see the sticker says *passensger vehichle*.

 

That is why 2wd and Cali Models had the feedback carb, and all others didn't.

 

Didn't matter to the state, even though it was the EPA allowed for the difference. They made my car meet the same standards as every other car from that era.

 

The way Wisconsin Tests is lame too. Dyno roller style. Some yahoo gets in you're car and *drives* it on the rollers. He watches a screen with a graph he is supposed to follow speed wise, accelerating and decelerating. Problem is the graph is the same for all cars. They should use a *slower* graph for smaller cars. It doesn't reflect the real world at all.

 

So big V8 and V6 cars with lots of power, barely need to rev or have full throttle applied to match the graph speeds. My poor little soobie gets run wide open and revved to 5500 just to keep up to the graph. (I've had to be retested because the guy couldn't get my car to keep up the first time)

 

So the big cars breeze by, but the little old cars that don't have alot of horsepower get wailed on. Which engine is going to put out more pollution the one barely idleing or the one being driven WOT to Redline????

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[quote name=

 

The way Wisconsin Tests is lame too. Dyno roller style. Some yahoo gets in you're car and *drives* it on the rollers. He watches a screen with a graph he is supposed to follow speed wise' date=' accelerating and decelerating. Problem is the graph is the same for all cars. They should use a *slower* graph for smaller cars. It doesn't reflect the real world at all.

 

So big V8 and V6 cars with lots of power, barely need to rev or have full throttle applied to match the graph speeds. My poor little soobie gets run wide open and revved to 5500 just to keep up to the graph. (I've had to be retested because the guy couldn't get my car to keep up the first time)

 

So the big cars breeze by, but the little old cars that don't have alot of horsepower get wailed on. Which engine is going to put out more pollution the one barely idleing or the one being driven WOT to Redline????[/quote]

 

 

you must have lived in milwaukee cuz I aint seen no emission testers yet in northern sconsin. P.S. the test you described are the same as in CA.

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you must have lived in milwaukee cuz I aint seen no emission testers yet in northern sconsin. P.S. the test you described are the same as in CA.

 

Kenosha, I forgot there was no testing up north. I knew alot of people who registered there cars up north to the address of some relative or a cabin or something, to avoid the emmisions test.

 

IDK about Cali. They have SMOG certification. Which is normally done at service stations. California hjas WAAAY too many cars spread over too much land mass to have a state operated dyno center available to every car. Normal testing is done at regular repair shops. The station has to be certified, and linked to the database. They do an underhood visual inspection, and then do an exhaust analysis, at idle and IIRC at 3000 rpms, but not on a dyno.

 

I don't think they use dyno rollers unless you fail a SMOG test at a service station, then you have to go to one of their special facilities with the dyno. There you're car can be *refereed* Unless they have changed in the last 5 years.

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They registered my Brat as a truck at first, then when renewal time, I complained, and showed them that when i bought the Brat from CALI it was title there as a station wagon, so they were able to change mine here to Station Wagon (had to reprint the title too) only cause that was the previous category.

The money saved is huge here by not having it as a truck.

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They registered my Brat as a truck at first, then when renewal time, I complained, and showed them that when i bought the Brat from CALI it was title there as a station wagon, so they were able to change mine here to Station Wagon (had to reprint the title too) only cause that was the previous category.

The money saved is huge here by not having it as a truck.

 

 

mine is a stationwagon on the title, doesnt mention anywhere that it is a brat or light truck. im not even going to bring it up unless they ask about it from registering the vin.

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In Cali they use dyno rollers and a computer everywhere...

 

Who, news to me. I'm still not sure though.

 

My Dad lives in central Cali, in a really rural area. I don't think he has to take his cars to a dyno station. But I could be wrong. I was born there, learned to drive there, but haven't registered a car there since 1998.

 

At any rate, I'm an enviromentalist, yet I still think SMOG laws are crap. Just there to make you buy new cars.

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