California To Repeal Pre-'76 Smog Exemption?
California state Senator Dean Florez has introduced a bill to repeal the the San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District's exemption from state emissions tests for vehicles made before 1976. The District includes eight counties in California's Central Valley, which are home to a number of now highly pissed-off tuners, hot-rodders and retro gearheads who are mobilizing to fight the new restriction. The usually apolitical Hot Rod magazine blog has posted an action alert by aftermarket industry association SEMA, urging fans of malaisemobiles and other oldtimers to contact their representatives and protest this proposed law. Asserting that "Pre-1976 vehicles constitute a small and shrinking portion of the overall vehicle population in California and are a poor source from which to look for further emissions reductions," the SEMA bulletin warns that should this measure go through, the whole state could go on to force newly registered pre-'76 cars to undergo smog checks which they would be unlikely to pass. This should make for some interesting protests.
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I own a 58 Chevy and love classic cars of all types. I tend to notice a pre-72 car going down the road (and I doubt there are many more '73, '74, and '75 cars) This time of the year is when the classics come out of the wood work and I doubt that I see more than four or five in a day. I can also tell you that most companies in the business of insuring classics limit you to 2,000 miles per year, which makes daily drivers rare, as you wouldn't be able to get insurance that would cover the true value of the car. There is no way that the classics account for any significant pollution.
Originally there was going to be a rolling date of smog exemption, something like every 5 years we moved the exempt year up one year. This was in exchange for passing stricter emmisions standards. We passed the standards and they cancelled the rolling date! Love that. So if you have a pre 1975 car that has been modified you will soon be unable to register it, this happened to me in the 80's. Fortunately there were other avenues back then. Test the tail pipe for every car on the road. If it passes it passes...
First, I would like to see the Rolling-30 year rule reinstated--even reduced to 20, which seems to be about when the manufacturers quit offering parts. That being said, I would like see the details for the new proposal and the old (the current Post-1976 rule that Arnold the Governator sold us out on)....Just exactly how many cars are affected and what are "smog" savings for taking mostly hobby cars off the road? Plus, were those "savings" accurately calculated. The devil is often in the details. Also, you don't have to live in Dean Florez's district to send his political opponent a campaign contribution
That dumbass Dean Florez is just trying to gather eco votes- all he is doing is pissing off classic car owners and making plenty of enemies. He is foolish if he thinks we will sit idly while he creates legislation intended to make us sell our cars- we will never sell our cars, or tolerate any legislation to take them away from us. I got news for you Florez- if we know how to double and even triple the power output of our cars, we also know to swap in smog-legal V-8's and increase their output as well. Keep it up Florez- you make us look for a new engine, we classic car owners and hot rodders can make sure you'll be looking for a new job too.