Dune buggies hit new hurdle
By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Transportation Writer
Todd Matsumoto is still waiting to be street legal.
Andrew Shimabuku • The Honolulu Advertiser
Matsumoto and several hundred other owners of Volkswagen-style dune buggies thought their years-long effort to register their cars would be over when Gov. Linda Lingle signed a law this year that redefines special-interest vehicles.
Kalihi resident Todd Matsumoto sits in his 1969 Volkswagen-style dune buggy. Matsumoto is fighting to make dune buggies street legal in Hawai'i. A new law redefined special-interest vehicles, but county officials say it doesn't cover dune buggies.
"The Legislature passed the bill, and the governor signed it. We thought that was it," Matsumoto said.
Not so fast.
A last-minute change in the bill's final wording deleted the term dune buggy. Now, county officials are refusing to register them.
Matsumoto said the change was made because dune buggies clearly fall under other definitions in the new law.
Honolulu licensing administrator Dennis Kamimura, however, says the change indicates that lawmakers didn't want dune buggies covered.
"They specifically deleted the phrase dune buggy, and there's nothing in the committee reports to indicate that they wanted them included in any other way," Kamimura said.
So the dune buggy owners are back to where they started: unable to legally drive their classic cars on the road.
Last year, the Legislature passed a similar bill, but Lingle vetoed it, citing safety concerns. To address that, this year the bill was changed to mandate that the cars have seat belts.
The problem, though, isn't one of safety, Matsumoto said. A Senate Transportation Committee report on the legislation notes "the significant investment in time and money owners put into their specialized cars to comply with current safety requirements."
"You've never heard of a dune buggy having a fatal accident," he said. "You've got young people racing and killing themselves in other cars all the time, but there's never been a problem with dune buggies."
Instead, they are expensive, custom-crafted vehicles brought out only for special shows or charity events, he said. Drivers value their cars too much to endanger them by racing or other dangerous behavior, he said.
Even so, the owners would like to be able to register them as street legal for an occasional Sunday drive around the island.
The law that went into effect July 1 was specifically changed to help define street-rod vehicles as those either built before 1967 or manufactured to resemble those vehicles with more modern parts. That includes the VW dune buggies, most of which are modeled after the original German Schwimmwagen built from 1942 to 1945, Matsumoto said.
Kamimura said he isn't going to register the dune buggies, though, until he receives either a ruling from the state attorney general's office or another sign of the Legislature's intent.
"If the attorney general makes a ruling, then fine," Kamimura said. "If not, I'm not going to make an interpretation of the law on my own."
State Transportation Director Rod Haraga said he requested a clarification on the law from the attorney general's office, but so far hasn't received an answer.
"We're trying to figure out some way to make it work. We've already spent a lot of time on this," he said. "Maybe we can do it through our rules, or at the worst, go back to the Legislature one more time."
After thinking their problems were solved, though, owners don't want to start all over again at the Legislature, Matsumoto said.
"All we're trying to do is get our car's paper legal," he said. "Now, everybody is back in the dumps again."
Reach Mike Leidemann at 525-5460 or mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.
