Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Transportation, to which was referred S.B. No. 460 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to include dune buggy replica vehicles within the special interest vehicle registration requirements, thereby removing such vehicles from the reconstructed vehicle registration law.

The Volkswagen Club of Hawaii and several concerned citizens testified in support of this measure. The Department of Transportation opposed this measure.

In 1986, Hawaii enacted its reconstructed vehicle registration law, which required owners of reconstructed vehicles on Oahu to submit a certificate of safety from a qualified engineer in order to register their vehicles. However, fiberglass replica and so-called "kit cars" were not included in the original statute and thus were not able to be legally registered on Oahu.

To correct this disparity, "special interest vehicles" were defined and subjected to vehicle inspection and registration requirements that allowed for these vehicles to be legally registered and operated on public roadways. However, this only applied to kit cars that were manufactured before 1949 or resembled vehicles built before 1949. Other kit car owners, and more specifically, dune buggies, were not considered "special interest vehicles" under this statute.

Your Committee finds that dune buggies and other kit cars are substantially similar in structural and mechanical integrity, and are as safe as, "special interest vehicles" currently defined by statute. Your Committee further finds that this definition has led to the disparate treatment of dune buggy owners with regards to legally registering this type of motor vehicle and operating it on a public roadway.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 460 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.