Talking about a job change that would put me near downtown Philly. Any advice from locals about whatever I need to know as well as PA in terms of taxes, title and tags for cars, anything else weird PA I should know.
Talking about a job change that would put me near downtown Philly. Any advice from locals about whatever I need to know as well as PA in terms of taxes, title and tags for cars, anything else weird PA I should know.
Licenses are handled through the DMV, titles and registration is handled through any local notary (there are lots because of this) and they do a pretty decent yearly inspection where it is not enough that things like wheels and brakes are within minimums, but need to stay within minimums for within the foreseeable future (depending on your annual mileage)
Yeah, nothing really bizarre about PA in terms of tax, title, registration. State inspection can be a bit of a pain. Cars driven less than 5000 miles/year are emissions exempt. Cars over 25 years old can be registered as antiques, I think 20 years and over is "classic".
You'll love Philly. I miss it, a lot.
The guys above seem to have covered registration and stuff. What kind of racing are you into? There's plenty of autocrosses around, it's one of the few parts of the country where hillclimb is convenient, and there are a number of road courses, ovals, and drag strips within a reasonable distance. It's also centrally located, although not particularly close, to a number of stage rallies.
Your profile says Florida, so a word of caution- winters aren't that bad here, but the road salt is, and it eats cars. Expect to encounter rust, and lots of it. Where were you thinking of moving? I grew up near Philly and still live pretty close.
Reading has their hillclimb up Mt Penn to the Pagoda. I never had a chance to go as either a competitor or a spectator, but it looks like fun
Philly Region SCCA is a big group and while they are struggling for autocross venues they have several in the local area, some better than others. South Jersey Region autocrosses at an abandoned airfield in Atlantic City, which makes for long fun courses. North Jersey Region is huge and has a great venue. A little west of Philly is Susquehanna Region who I have never run with. Brandywine Motorsport Club (my club) currently autocrosses and drifts at Dover Speedway. Philly Region and BMC (and maybe the others) also have road rally programs.
All of these are within 90 minutes drive of downtown Philly. There are also Pocono Raceway (tri-oval and road course) New Jersey Motorsports Park (2 road courses), and Bridgeport Speedway (dirt oval) in the same radius.
If you're in the Philly area you'll need to have both a state inspection and emissions inspection. Figure about $60 dollars a year. Registration is $37 a year.
If you live and work in Philly proper there is a 1% city income tax over and above the EIT (municipality tax). EIT's are generally in the 1% to 1.5% area, vary by municipality, and are not usually based on your AGI.
State income tax is fixed at 3.07%.
If you're into cars, garages, and "sheds", make sure you check the municipalities rules on such things. Where I am about 1.5 hours north of Philly we don't have emissions and I can build as many unpermitted 1000sqft sheds as I please. The county south of me has emissions and you may only build up to 200sqft unpermitted.
Unfortunately since the state has 2561 municipalities ordinances can get a little goofy so it's worth looking into some of the things that may irritate you if you are planning to buy.
Pocono Raceway is right up the Northeast extension from you and there's a lot of SCCA events in the Philly area.
I live in PA but my geography for the eastern part of the state is a little off. Philly is sort of close to Harrisburg right? Susquehanna scca region has rally cross in Harrisburg.
Other than the cheating dirty Flyers, I don't know much about Philly.
For the state, 15 years for "classic"plates, the private notaries can all make up their own fees and rules, so don't be surprised if one wants $400 to plate a car but a different one wants $200.
You still need to go to at least 2 stores to get beer and liquor for a party, you can buy instant lottery tickets online now, and supposedly our casinos pay out a little better than in neighbouring states but I haven't tested that personally.
Oh, I think Doug Demuro still lives in Philadelphia, so you can make fun of him and bug him about his "car of the year" if you stumble across him.
Taxes - if you live or work in Philadelphia proper, you will also pay Philadelphia Wage Tax on top of the aforementioned PA state flat-tax.
Car registration is a yearly fee. Based on weight. So if you have a 3/4 or 1 ton light truck, that yearly fee can be a bit painful. I paid $154/year for my old 2500 Cummins 4x4 (8800 lb. GVWR). My cars are $36/yr. Classic and Antique is a one-time $75. Classic registered cars require yearly safety inspection (no emissions). Antique registered cars do not require any inspection.
If you have a number of cars and like to work on them yourself, it really pays to develop a relationship with a particular inspection station. I have one shop I've been going to for over 25 years. Usually if my cars need something, they will pass it anyway and tell me to fix it. Every once in awhile, I'll pay them to fix something when I don't have time.
Where to live may depend some on income and school (children) requirements. I live in Bristol Twp along the I-95 corridor. Taxes are cheap. Housing costs aren't terrible. Schools apparently aren't so good.
PA and NJ currently have reciprocal taxes. So if you work in one, but live in the other, you only pay taxes for where you live (I work in NJ and only pay some minimal NJ local taxes). Except Philly - you'll pay the city wage tax regardless. There has been talk about changing this, but it hasn't happened yet.
Bring a lot of money for housing.
I worked for a company whose office was across the street from the Liberty Bell. Most of the people I knew that worked in the office commuted from 1 hour out.
I have friends who own a row-house in "old city", but it helps they are DINKs with good jobs. However, as Doug has mentioned in a couple of his articles, it's tough to be a "car person" and live in Philly (or any large city).
That said, the more I visit other cities around the country, the more I like the Philadelphia area. While it definitely has some drawbacks, overall it's not a bad area to live.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: - winters aren't that bad here, but the road salt is, and it eats cars.
Speak for yourself. 
After 42 Philadelphia winters, I had enough...it was one of the reasons we moved to Atlanta.
Housing in downtown Philly is expensive, but no different than most major cities. If you want to live in the best parts of the city (i.e. Olde City), you will pay dearly for it. Suburbs vary in price, depending on where you are.
In reply to RevRico:
Harrisburg is around 1.5 hrs from Philly, give or take depending upon cruising speed, but it's a straight shot out the turnpike. Susquehanna region has some good sites. In the early and late season, before the amusement park actually opens or after it closes, we run at Hershey Park in a pretty big lot. Mid season we're either at the Farm Show Arena in Harrisburg, which is also decent, or the Giant Center in Hershey, which is just a smaller section of the Hershey Park lot, basically, and is a little small. Rallycross is in Harrisburg as well, though I have yet to get into that and couldn't really comment on the quality of the site.
There's also Carlisle another 20-30 minutes west of Harrisburg, if you're into car shows and stuff. TONS of dirt track stuff out this way as well. PA is really a pretty good area for car culture, generally. What isn't available locally usually isn't too far of a drive.
PA inspections do tend to be rather strict. For example, my Jeep goes in for it's 2nd try on Saturday because it initially failed for 1. wiper blades, which really weren't bad at all, and 2. ratchet strap for battery hold down, which is evidently frowned upon. Emissions inspection varies by county, but anything within reasonable commute of Philly is gonna have it. Philly is also one of my least favorite cities to drive in and every time I drive the Schuylkill Expressway I swear to myself "Never again!"
In reply to Furious_E:
Inspection strictness is up to the inspection station - which is why I keep saying it pays to develop a relationship with one shop. The better they know you, the more lenient they are likely to be. The place I go to is one I used to deliver/sell parts to in a past life.
The one thing they don't have a lot of leeway on is with emissions, since that data gets filed with the state. But I understand that is now only a concern with OBDII cars. Older cars now just get a "visual" inspection (are all of the emissions devices present? No CEL? Pass).
Yes... the "Sure-Kill" Expressway can be... fun.
In reply to Ian F:
They still test the gas cap and use a sniffer for pre obd2 cars. Which is a problem because hardly anyone has the machine anymore. I've got one shop within 40 miles that can do it, which is why I'm getting classic plates for the miata.
In reply to RevRico:
Interesting. I've heard otherwise. At least they dropped the dyno test from a few years ago. That was one of the reasons I sold my E30. It would fail the dyno test miserably. I almost got classic plates for it, but they required pictures at the time and the car had been modified just enough to potentially make that a PITA.
In reply to Ian F:
Yup, safety inspection totally depends on who is looking at the car. When I had my E36, I had a great relationship with a little BMW specialty shop out my way, but they only do Bimmers. Since then, I haven't really found a shop to replace them.
In reply to RevRico:
I think the requirements for pre-96 vary by county, some actually require the sniffer, some don't. I'm fairly certain out my way it's visual only, but the RX7 is the first pre-OBDII car I've owned in quite a while and that's probably just getting a classic registration anyways because it's swapped and I really don't wanna berkeley with any of that BS.
I left PHL in 81. I had enough of the taxes, high housing costs, terrible roads and SNOW! I moved to the south side of ATL. I took a pay cut - nearly 50% and was taking home $35 less. Yes that is $35! I was working in PHL. The roads in this area are great for driving the TR. Rarely snows, taxes are a whole bunch less and housing cost is night and day.
In reply to RevRico:
This varies by county. Since you didn't know where philly was relative to harrisburg (and there's 4 or 5 counties between them each with potentially different emissions standards)...hold on there with the misinformation.
This should take care of it: http://www.drivecleanpa.state.pa.us/info_se.htm
I had a '90 Miata inspected a few days ago, in my particular county that consists of "yeah that thang looks like a cat" and you're good to go.
Thanks guys. I'll be living the life of extreme commuter. House family and toys stay in FL, I ride the bus (plane) Friday and Monday. Will keep a minimal apartment and a car in Philly. Working close to downtown. Hopefully there is some RC racing as that fills my tinkering need from the kitchen table while away from the real projects. Interested in SCCA and other clubs for mid-week socializing, but autox and more stays in FL. Appreciate all of the taxing info as well as remembering that car inspection thing. Guess I'll have to deal with the CEL before I leave my current similar arrangement in Detroit.
For mid week stuff, there are some kart tracks around but I'm not sure if there are any right IN Philly. If you want to travel north to Speed Raceway the leagues there are fun.
In reply to RedGT:
Reading through the "facts sheets" they have for the different regions, they all say pretty much the same thing. Visual anti tampering test, gas cap test, tail pipe for 75-95 model years, excluding classic, antique, special production, over 9000gvwr, and vehicles with less than 5000 miles per year.
We're either in emissions counties or we're not. The only difference I can see is that in the Philadelphia region there is still an option for tailpipe test with dyno, but their newest documents on the website are 2004.
This post based on that website. Personally I think it's up to the garage what they can do or are willing to doeven though it's supposed to be the State guidelines.
Keep your car tagged/inspected in FL. Everyone in Philly/South Jersey that has property in FL does so.
There are a few kart tracks in the philly metro area. Both are electric indoor facilities (Oaks, and South Jersey). NJMP likely also has karting facilities.
Plenty of housing at all price ranges in the city. Space and price varies by neighborhood. Snow varies but really isn't too bad the next day or two. Public transportation is fine, and there's also a great bike share system.
glueguy wrote: Thanks guys. I'll be living the life of extreme commuter. House family and toys stay in FL, I ride the bus (plane) Friday and Monday. Will keep a minimal apartment and a car in Philly. Working close to downtown. Hopefully there is some RC racing as that fills my tinkering need from the kitchen table while away from the real projects. Interested in SCCA and other clubs for mid-week socializing, but autox and more stays in FL. Appreciate all of the taxing info as well as remembering that car inspection thing. Guess I'll have to deal with the CEL before I leave my current similar arrangement in Detroit.
You are going to hate me for suggesting this: Your car usage is EXACTLY what the Smartcar was designed for
In reply to mad_machine:
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