I'm not a mechanic; I'm a bassist. But, I think CA cars and their emissions gubins are more of an issue in 80's cars then 90's ones (according to a mechanic friend). He said the state to buy in back then was Arizona, but with the high heat you get a lot of cracked dash boards.

Of course, rusty bodies aren't the only consideration. Extreme temp changes take a toll on belts, hoses, wires... damn near everything. Now, if we go back to 60's and 70's cars, PV's, 1800's, 1's, now we could be talking a real advantage to importing clean cars. But they don't go too cheap even here.