One of Woody’s turnkey builds.

In case you hadn’t heard, there is new legislation being passed that affects the builders and owners of turn-key replica vehicles. Up until this new SEMA-backed legislation was passed, it was difficult for a manufacturer to make anything more than a kit-style car when it came to replicas. The reason was, all states have different laws that address assembled-vehicle licensing.

Chris Sondles, the owner of Woody’s Hot Rodz told us, “The system is different in every state, and if you transfer the car to someone else two states over, the new state’s law take over.” In other words, if you buy an assembled vehicle in Ohio, and try to license it in California, the laws of California take over and any previous registration is essentially nullified. That means the process has to be done all over again, even if the vehicle complies with the specific laws of the state. Part of what this new law does is federalize the requirements to build an assembled vehicle, and makes it significantly easier to transfer cars across state lines.

There are three things affected by this new legislation. As Sondles describes it, “The three most important things that are going to change based on this are: registration, insurance, and financing.” We already discussed that the federal recognition of these cars will make registration easier, but it also makes it easier to insure your new turnkey car.

Part of why getting insurance might be an issue on an assembled vehicle is that they are not meant for resale and are essentially unregulated. According to California state law as an example: “A homemade, specially-constructed, or kit vehicle is a vehicle that is built for private use, not for resale, and is not constructed by a licensed manufacturer or remanufacturer. ” If we take that at face value, a specially-constructed vehicle is not allowed to be sold or resold. Isn’t that what car builders do? The most exciting part of this bill to producers of turnkey cars, is the potential availability of financing.

According to Sondles, “With this new law, now we as a shop don’t need a customer to front the kind of money it takes to build one of these cars. Now it can be financed the same way that you would any new car.” Since the title and registration will list the year it was manufactured, it is considered a new car. The law does allow the cars to be manufactured using new-model-year drivetrains, but they do not have to be EPA compliant. So you can still have your turnkey car built to drive, with the horsepower of environmental standards of years passed!

We also spoke with Dan Golub over at Factory Five, an authority in the field of kit cars. “With this, it opens the possibility of building both kit cars and completed cars.” Golub says, “even if we don’t run assembled cars like we continue to do with our kits, it would allow us the option of putting out a special-edition, completed car.”

This law really does a lot for everyone, and not just the industry. Not only does it federalize the laws surrounding turnkey-style cars, it will completely do away with all state-specific laws. A perfect example of this is the California restriction that only allows 500 replica vehicles per year to be licensed and registered. That will be done away with. “That number has never been reached,” Says Sondles, “But the point is that it’s there now and won’t be soon.” Under the new law that is taking effect in 2017, every manufacturer will be able to license 325 new vehicles per year. As long as they follow the guidelines, they do not count as large automakers, and will only be subject to the new regulations put in place for this law. Keep in mind, the specific regulations have not yet been drafted, and the NTSB has one year to write the specific rules.

There is a lot of complicated information here about a law that is anything but simple. We would really like to hear your feedback on what is going on here. Write to us in the comments section and tell us what you think about this. Our experts say it’s good, but do you have a different opinion? Let us know!