Smog law change?, Is it real? Options

[jeffdon]

A friend of mine just told me he heard that the California state senate just passed a bill that would move the smog test to 80 and newer cars. State assembly needs to pass it.

Is this for real?

[r_towle]

1880, yes
Or was it an 80 year rolling window....

[Dtjaden]

My understanding is that it has been voted out of the senate transportation committee and referred back to the senate appropriation committee. It has not yet reached the senate floor for a vote. After senate approval it would be on to the state assembly and for committee approvals and finally an assembly vote. If it makes it through those steps it will finally meet Jerry Brown's signature before it would become law.

Don't get your hopes up yet for the 1976 teeners.

[ConeDodger]

I've heard nada - and I own a smog shop...

[damesandhotrods]

I wouldn’t get too excited. California has changed inspection requirements, and then changed them back a couple of years later. An awful lot of very nice rust free cars have been crushed because the owners thought they’d never need smog equipment again only to have the State change the inspection requirements back…

[0396]

My understanding is that it has been voted out of the senate transportation committee and referred back to the senate appropriation committee. It has not yet reached the senate floor for a vote. After senate approval it would be on to the state assembly and for committee approvals and finally an assembly vote. If it makes it through those steps it will finally meet Jerry Brown's signature before it would become law.

Don't get your hopes up yet for the 1976 teeners.

Dont HOLD your Breath...we live in California where common sense does not prevail.

[dcheek]

New Inspection ruling in New Jersey.
No smog test for any vehicle prior to 1995.
You no longer have to have the vehicle inspected.
You are instructed to remove the inspection sticker.
This for vehicles that don't already have Historic (QQ) plates.
Of course you could be inspected on the spot from a policeman if he pulls you over for a broken tail light or something.

Dave

[Optimusglen]

One of the reasons I love Minnesota, no smog inspections ever.

[EdwardBlume]

There's been lobbying, but I'll believe it when I see it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

[ConeDodger]

One of the reasons I love Minnesota, no smog inspections ever.

There were inspections. The state actually had its own smog test facilities. Huge drive through affairs. Very efficient. I believe Jesse Ventura shut them down.

[GregAmy]

New Inspection ruling in New Jersey.
No smog test for any vehicle prior to 1995.

Same for the People's Republic of Connecticut. Rolling 20-yr waivers, everything 96 and later is a simple OBD check for codes. Soon they won't need the roller dynos any more.

Every once in a while CT gets it right.

[Jonathan Livesay]

I wouldn’t get too excited. California has changed inspection requirements, and then changed them back a couple of years later. An awful lot of very nice rust free cars have been crushed because the owners thought they’d never need smog equipment again only to have the State change the inspection requirements back…

Except that exemption from testing never meant you could go ahead and take all the smog equipment that came on a car off of it anyway. When I first moved to LA in the 80's you could not see across the San Fernando Valley at noon, I'm not sure I am eager to trade breathing for someone's right to drive a poorly maintained '79 Toyota pickup.

[iwanta914-6]

One of the reasons I love Minnesota, no smog inspections ever.

There were inspections. The state actually had its own smog test facilities. Huge drive through affairs. Very efficient. I believe Jesse Ventura shut them down.

Correct, we had emission testing facilities. While it was very efficient, it was still a PITA.

While I love Minnesota, I also hate Minnesota for killing so many 914's with road salt (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Elliot Cannon]

I wouldn’t get too excited. California has changed inspection requirements, and then changed them back a couple of years later. An awful lot of very nice rust free cars have been crushed because the owners thought they’d never need smog equipment again only to have the State change the inspection requirements back…

Except that exemption from testing never meant you could go ahead and take all the smog equipment that came on a car off of it anyway. When I first moved to LA in the 80's you could not see across the San Fernando Valley at noon, I'm not sure I am eager to trade breathing for someone's right to drive a poorly maintained '79 Toyota pickup.

I pretty much agree. The argument though is there aren't that many '79 Toyota pickups on the road. There are so few older cars on the road nowadays, I don't think it really makes a dent in the air pollution problem. Am I wrong?

[Elliot Cannon]

One of the reasons I love Minnesota, no smog inspections ever.

There were inspections. The state actually had its own smog test facilities. Huge drive through affairs. Very efficient. I believe Jesse Ventura shut them down.

Kentucky had the same "efficient" drive through inspection stations. Large cinder block buildings with five or six bays with chassis dyno type test equipment. I found out that they were ALL owned by the same person. Nice huh? They shut them all down years ago.

[Elliot Cannon]

One of the reasons I love Minnesota, no smog inspections ever.

I encourage everyone to stay in Minnesota or what ever their home state is. California is a horrible place to live. Don't even think of coming here. And if you're thinking of leaving, take as many with you as you can. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[sbsix]

If I remember, the guy who spearheaded the smog exemption law for older cars in CA was John Burton, a member of the state legislature. I heard that it was because he owned a 914-6 and couldn't get it to pass the smog rules in place at the time.

I do remember the headache of trying to get my 914-6 to pass smog in CA back then. I hired an environmental engineer with emissions measuring equipment to adjust the carbs & advance to just pass the minimum thresholds at idle and 2500 rpm, then immediately hook it up to the state connected emissions tester to get my smog certificate. This usually took 4-6 hours of us fiddling with the tune of the car. Afterwards I had to completely change the carb settings and advance to get it to run properly and drive it home. Every two years.

[914_teener]

I wouldn’t get too excited. California has changed inspection requirements, and then changed them back a couple of years later. An awful lot of very nice rust free cars have been crushed because the owners thought they’d never need smog equipment again only to have the State change the inspection requirements back…

Except that exemption from testing never meant you could go ahead and take all the smog equipment that came on a car off of it anyway. When I first moved to LA in the 80's you could not see across the San Fernando Valley at noon, I'm not sure I am eager to trade breathing for someone's right to drive a poorly maintained '79 Toyota pickup.

I pretty much agree. The argument though is there aren't that many '79 Toyota pickups on the road. There are so few older cars on the road nowadays, I don't think it really makes a dent in the air pollution problem. Am I wrong?

Sort of.....it is the federal law that has eluded compliance for at least the LA Basin.

It is the shear amount of cars that are here that is the problem. Now instead of NO being the major problem it is O3 that is out of compliance with the Clean Air Act. It is WAY better than when I was a kid. Then there were days you couldn.t breathe or see the mountains which were less than a mile away. The dyno testing was changed recently to exempt cars 1999 and later. No dyno.

[r_towle]

For all the strong opinions against electric cars, it's the LA area that is just such a perfect micro climate to require electric cArs just to be able to see and breathe properly.

It always makes me scratch my head when I hear CA people against the electric car industry when the smog is crazy bad.

As far as the smog testing goes, in the northeast most of the older cars are now gone, between the cash for clunkers program and the smog testing on the dyno....then the mandatory requirement of no rust showing....oh, and zero percent financing...

All of that killed off all the 70,s and 80,s cars...
Salt was probably the number one killer, but the rest finished off the stockpile.

In CA it will take longer because cars last forever....

It sucks, but it really is a good thing.

[Jonathan Livesay]

I wouldn’t get too excited. California has changed inspection requirements, and then changed them back a couple of years later. An awful lot of very nice rust free cars have been crushed because the owners thought they’d never need smog equipment again only to have the State change the inspection requirements back…

Except that exemption from testing never meant you could go ahead and take all the smog equipment that came on a car off of it anyway. When I first moved to LA in the 80's you could not see across the San Fernando Valley at noon, I'm not sure I am eager to trade breathing for someone's right to drive a poorly maintained '79 Toyota pickup.

I pretty much agree. The argument though is there aren't that many '79 Toyota pickups on the road. There are so few older cars on the road nowadays, I don't think it really makes a dent in the air pollution problem. Am I wrong?

Maybe not except for those driven by gardeners pool cleaners and those guys who hire out to haul off trash cheaply. Perhaps an exemption based on low mileage driven, kind of like the mileage limits on classic car insurance?