Date:         Thu, 8 Dec 2005 21:31:05 -0800
Reply-To:     John Bange <jbange@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         John Bange <jbange@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Diesel conversion and SMOG
In-Reply-To:  <ccafde090512081756wc696019t5f937fa117a8bf3@mail.gmail.com>
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I wonder if they wil inspect old diesel vehicles or just new ones.
>

 Probably. I remember when they decided to force ALL gasoline vehicles to go
through yearly smog checks. Prior to that many cars beyond a certain age and
most "49 state" cars were exempt from testing because there did not exist
any emission standards for those vehicles at time of manufacture. I had a
'78 280Z that was originally from arizona. It ran on regular gas and had no
cat. It was infuriating to have to drag it in every year to be "tested" when
there were no standards against which to test and therefore it got an
automatic pass. I still had to pay though. The purported reasoning behind it
was "collecting data", but later it was pretty obvious that they were just
getting the system set up to go after "gross polluters". Nothing inherently
wrong with that, other than that they've been slooooowly tightening the
screws by nudging the threshold for "gross pollution" ever downward. Why
they felt it was necessary to squeeze those inconsequential impoverished few
who clearly couldn't afford to maintain their cars better, we'll never know;
probably just typical state bureaucrat "let them eat cake" thinking, or
maybe someone couldn't sleep at night thinking of all those yearly smog cert
fees the state WASN'T collecting on older cars.

At any rate, I'd wager that they'll be inspecting old diesel vehicles for
"data collection" purposes, and then (surprise) suddenly we'll see the
"gross polluter" thumbscrews come out again. Though I don't think it'll
bother me when my cheapskate landlord is finally forced to fix her nasty
soot-belching 70's turbo diesel Mercedes...

What about all these guys who have diesel registrations and now have various
> gasoline powerplants?
>

Heh. They'll probably have some 'splainin' to do...

--
John Bange
'90 Vanagon - "Geldsauger"