California Smog Exemption Bill 712 ~ Leno's Law

[dublife13]

There is a new bill proposed that would eliminate smog compliance for vehicles 35 years and older if register as collector vehicles.


https://legiscan.com/CA/text/SB712/2025


Not sure what the requirements are for collectors plates or what that insurance is in California, but it’s an improvement if passed.

[fxr]

That could be very helpful!
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Jim Crowther
1984 1.9l EJ22 Westy Wolfsburg Edition
Vespa GTS 300

[Wildthings]

If the bill allows old smoky engines to be on the road, then when the pendulum swings the other way all older vehicles may be outlawed. One should be careful what they wish for.

I personally believe that they should make older vehicles meet reasonably attainable standards, I know that back circa 1981 I was able to get my 1972 VW Thing with an aftermarket carb to pass the pollution standards that would be applied come the 1986 model year IIRC.

[hdenter]

It varies from county to county. In LA and Bay Area my wife's '79 vert requires an "enhanced" smog with a dyno. Here it is just a regular... Go figure. At some point there will be too small a percentage of cars older than the beginning of OBDII for it to be worth it to maintain the smog station bureaucracy. Even now, some smog stations don't have the equipment to smog late '70s early '80s cars. If the "collector" plate has a mileage limit, I'm out.

Hans
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'79 triple white convertible bug
'84 sunroof vanagon
'85 weekender

[metahacker]

California used to have a rolling year exception
e.g. if it was X number of years old, it was historic and exempted

then when the Terminator (Arnold S.) was in office they suddenly froze it and it got stuck at 1975

putting it back like it was would be ideal...and totally reasonable

[GoEverywhere]

[syncrodoka]

Collector(historic) motor vehicle registration has usage limits and annual mileage limits. They aren't for a daily or a car you are taking camping. This wouldn't be of much use for most of us, unfortunately. I would love to hear otherwise though.

[dublife13]

Washington has mileage limits for their collector plates but doesn't check or enforce them in any manner. One time purchase, no year tab renewal or any fees for the life of the vehicle.

[zerotofifty]

[MsTaboo]

I think if they're gonna still smog check (and I understand why in certain areas) they should require the vehicle to meet the numbers when it was made, regardless of what kind of engine it currently has.
Makes no sense at all to penalize a 1990 VW for having a 2003 engine if it's putting out the same (or better) emissions just because it's an engine conversion.That newer engine is most likely getting better milage and not dripping oil all over (or stuck on the side of the road broke down).

On the other hand it's crazy that you can have 1964 Mustang with a 800 hp engine with no emission equipment and be exempt from any smog check just because it's older. Or those off-road only vehicles doing the same thing; just because it's off-road doesn't mean it's not polluting!

edit: added the bold type
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Currently:
'90 Syncro Westy 3 knob w/Zetec

The information age has morphed into the age of disinformation and willful ignorance. Agnotology!
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[GoEverywhere]

[markswagen]

l'm not interested, we do far more miles in a year that having the vans insured and historic or what ever would allow.
our school run alone is over 200 miles a week.
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markswagen {mobile mechanic} san diego area all early VW's cared for.

619 201 0310

[Abscate]

[Wildthings]

I have Oregon historic tags on 5 vehicles and only my 91 Multivan is titled as a regular vehicle. Two of the vehicles with historic tags reside full time in Arizona any more so Oregon doesn't know or care how many miles they get a year and the other three with reside in Oregon get only about 5000 miles combined in a year much of which is in Washington so I figure I meet the limited use requirement of the historic tags pretty well.

As of yet my only problem with the historic tags was in a two incident-two state occurrence. I parked my historic Toyota pickup in a perfectly legal spot in paved pull off in California that was well outside of a marked wilderness area to go hiking. While I was out hiking a National Park Service LEO saw the rig and ran the tags which because they are good forever don't have an expiration date or even places for the date stickers to go. I got a warning about having an expired tag and to not drive into the wilderness area which I had not done. A week later in Arizona I am going hiking in another wilderness area, so am driving a jeep road that goes right along the wilderness boundary several miles. This is a numbered BLM road that actually goes to an officially developed but long forgotten parking lot and is perfectly legal to use. As luck would have it the very same NPS officer that gave me the previous warning saw me turn up the unmarked Jeep trail that skirts the wilderness and he followed me up the trail and pulled me over figuring he could cite me for both having expired tags and for driving in the wilderness. I had ended up stopping right next to a boundary sign for the wilderness and pointed out to him that it was perfectly legal for me to drive on the north side of the boundary and offered to show him my BLM map and then when he went on to the expired tag issue I showed him the registration which was marked "permanent" which he too accepted. He seemed intrigued at the idea of the permanent historic tag.

Sadly almost no one goes hiking or hunting on foot in this area anymore and LEOs just assumes if you are parked close to a wilderness area you are there for nefarious purposes, so I have gotten a lot of warming tags left under my wipers for doing something that is 100% legal.

[MarkWard]

After cash for clunkers, FL did away with emissions testing. They were done at state facilities. Florida has historic plates, but you renew them every year. Not sure what the advantages are. They are blue and match the paint better. There are restrictions, but ours is not a daily driver. It’s more for car shows, parades etc, but I don’t think it’s enforced much. I see classic pickups with landscape equipment with antique tags. Vehicle needs to be 30 years. I think it’s a step in the right direction.

Terminator seemed pretty far fetched at the time. With AI and advances in robotics, it does get a bit concerning.

[GoEverywhere]

[Wildthings]

[Dailymoto]

[BuddyTheWolf]

It's silly to ban a "modified" car, say with a modern EFI system and high flo cats but it's allowed if the anemic and inefficient 40 year old emissions equipment is left untouched.

[E1]

For what it’s worth, Colorado has an annual mileage limit of 4,500 on their Collector plate, so we did a standard plate for eight years.

We almost did that again last time… until the clerk asked why we don’t do the 5-year collector plate.

I mentioned the mileage limit, and she said “Oh, we don’t care about that.”

So neither do we.
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1984 Westfailure/2.1 Digijet/5.43 Ring & Pinion/Peloquin/D-rated BFG KO2s
AI has spoken to further illiteracy, to steal, to cheat, and to replace humans

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