Clearing the Air on Historical Vehicle Emissions

[lakeroadster]

Do our older vehicles really contribute that much more to air pollution than the millions of modern cars on the road? A lot of people and policy makers seem to think so. But when it comes to arguments and data supporting an exemption for historic vehicles from emissions inspections, the facts are on our side. Check out the article here: HVA Emissions Article

[SCOTI]

This is one of those 'deals' that get me pissed. All of the laws to keep the air clean are for the greater good. The means @ which they're trying to achieve the goal are where the system is screwed up. I feel, as long as vehicles pass a smog test per the criteria for the production year, it shouldn't matter how it looks under the hood. Visual tests? I thought we wanted clean air? That's what should matter.

I agree on the 'classic/antique' exemption as long as they are not 'gross polluters'. There's no reason classic vehicles can't operate as clean or cleaner than the original standards set.

[lakeroadster]

I think the visual would make sense if it were to see if the owner had installed devices that were "just for the test" that would be removed after the test.

Sadly since most of the people running the tests are non-technical types they don't know an air pump from a crack pipe.

[SBTork]

Originally Posted by lakeroadster

Sadly since most of the people running the tests are non-technical types they don't know an air pump from a crack pipe.

not to get too far off point but, this was very well put

[protrash64]

I'm sure the 10,000 Hondas driving to work everyday make much more pollution than any of my trucks.

How many tons of pollution would be saved every year if all the trips to emissions testing were eliminated?

[Tomsriv]

Good study and congrats to Arizona for moving to exempt older cars. In California 1973 and earlier has been exempt for over 15 years.

[jimmydean]

I think the cut off in Oregon is 1975. Diesels don't test at all, but my old F350 running B99 had very low tail pipe emissions. I hope to convert my '66 to diesel eventually, like a 4BT and run the same pump B99 in the summer and B50 in the winter as I ran in the F@rd.

[Blue666]

In PA we have to have a yearly safety inspection and emissions inspection. My 166 is exempt but but I still have to pay $4 for an exemption even though the vehicle was clearly manufactured well before anything but a a PCV valve.

The mechanic that inspects our four vehicles stated that when the State inspector checks his logs, the inspector looks at the number of vehicles tested & the amount paid to the state. The actual emissions rate are never checked. Seems like its about nothing but revenue.

[factorystock]

Originally Posted by Tomsriv

In California 1973 and earlier has been exempt for over 15 years.

In California, the law exempts 1976 and older. Unfortunately it is frozen at 1976. Before the change, it was whenever the vehicle turned 30 years old it became exempt, meaning a 1981 should know be exempt with the older law. The law was more reasonable before, locking it in at 1976 is very unncessary, since very few of these vehicles are used daily anymore.