Smog regulations

I think the Ca. smog checks vary from model to model.

I think I had to get my Saturn smogged every other year.

I don't have to get my Prius smogged for five years. And I wonder if that will change/be extended.

Now I used to own a 1960 Cadillac Sedan de Ville that I never had to have smogged because it was too old. Cars built prior to a certain year are exempt. At that time it was cars built prior to 1965 but I think the date has moved up to 1967 or something. After I sold the car I stopped paying attention. Man...I loved that car. It was my "second" car, just for pleasure on weekends. But I had to keep it in the garage so parts of it wouldn't "disappear" and parking is so bad on the street that I just couldn't keep my regular car on the street anymore. One night I circled the block for 45 min. hoping someone would leave and they never did. One of the cars had to go so I sold the Caddy. But at least I sold it for double what I paid for it.

 

Map of areas in California where the different levels of Smog Check are required:
http://www.smogcheck.ca.gov/ftp/pdfdocs/pr...program_map.pdf

For many years the San Francisco Bay Area fought to stay exempt from the tougher requirements . . . because the sea breeze blew the smog out of their area. “Hey, why should we be made to pay when we already have clean air . . . it was you who decided to live downwind from us, it’s your problem, clean up your own air and don’t blame us.â€

[It was so easy for the liberal, ecologically correct Bay Area to shirk its responsibilities until 2002 . . . because it had the money and political clout to do so. Hypocrites!]
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories...23/daily74.html

Don’t get me started on San Francisco’s water supply.
They dammed up a beautiful valley in Yosemite National Park just so they could have the cleanest of water. And yet, San Francisco is still the home of the Sierra Club. Hypocrites ALL!!!

 

California (state) smog regs are the same throughout the state. These regulations allow for "delayed first inspection" on new cars for several years. They also exempt hybrids, since the testing equipment isn't ready for them yet.

Overlaid on top of the State regs are local regs, incouding for example, the SC-AQMD (south coast air quality management district). Because such urban areas are not meeting federal clean air guidelines (for air quality, not just for tailpipe emissions), they have had to institute additional mitigation measures, or risk losing their federal funding.

These measures may include more frequent inspections, restrictions on non-automotive pollution (such as brush burn permits), programs like subsidized electric lawn mower sales, carpool lanes, and anything else they can think of.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(remaxmanager\";p=\"104195)</div>

Or if you are so poor that you really can’t afford to be driving a car - but do anyway, all you need to do is drive a 1975 model-year or older car and you are exempt from Smog Check . . . even if your car is the grossest of polluters ..
http://www.smogcheck.ca.gov/StdPage.asp?Bo...eck/doineed.htm

If your car is newer than 1975, but you would rather spend your money on superfluous things like spinners (hub caps that spin when the car is stopped), or a thumpin’ sound system, or colored neon lights to light up the ground under the car . . . the state will pay up to $500 for your smog check repairs.
(They call it "Consumer Assistance Program" . . . Just what are they "consuming?")
Consumer Assistance Program

We in California do these type of things ("Consumer Assistance" and 1975 and older exemption) because we are a touchy-feely society in which everyone should have the RIGHT to drive, and not be “forced to suffer the humiliation of riding mass transit†. . . even if they really can not afford a car . . . AND THE BYPRODUCT???? . . . polluting more than a thousand newer cars, funkin’ up the air, killing off wildlife, endangering other drivers and passengers, and helping these people stay in poverty because the want to spend more to drive a marginal vehicle rather than take mass transit! :x

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(KTPhil\";p=\"104282)</div>

WRONG.

Map of areas in California where the different levels of Smog Check are required:
http://www.smogcheck.ca.gov/ftp/pdfdocs/pr...program_map.pdf

Where are you from, and what is your source?

 

"Gross polluters make up about 10 percent of all the vehicles that are on the road, but they are putting out more than 50 percent of the vehicle pollution."
http://www.documents.dgs.ca.gov/breathe/be...e_factsheet.pdf

Ooh Great!
Import an out of state clunker.
Invoke the Economic Hardship Extension and be exempt from Smog Check for two years, then use the Vehicle Retirement Program and have the state give you $1000 for your high-polluting worthless rust bucket. Then go out of state and import another POS.

Hardship:
The Economic Hardship Extension allows a vehicle to be registered immediately without passing its Smog Check inspection and gives a vehicle owner up to two years to complete the repairs needed to bring the vehicle into compliance with emissions standards. To obtain an extension, a vehicle must be brought to a Referee Center, where tests may be performed.
http://www.smogcheck.ca.gov/stdpage.asp?Bo.../exsumgloss.htm

VEHICLE RETIREMENT:
The Vehicle Retirement Program is available to motorists who want to voluntarily retire their vehicle rather than repair it. Eligible consumers can receive $1,000 in exchange for their vehicle. Approved vehicles must be driven to one of the state’s authorized dismantlers where they are crushed.
http://www.smogcheck.ca.gov/stdPage.asp?Bo...nce_Program.htm

No wonder there are so many hoopty cars on the road in California making my eyes water.

IT’S PC . . . NOT EC!

 

Those different levels are not a California invention; as I posted, they arise out of certain areas not meeting Federal standards.

That's all you get until you learn some tact, dude.