Mike,
In Oregon, there are a couple of rules depending on where you live. In the
Portland metro area all vehicles from 1975 and newer must be tested. In the
Medford (Rouge river valley) area, vehicles newer than 20 years must be
tested. The rest of the state doesn't have smog problems so no testing is
required. I quit worrying about it when my MG finally turned 20 as that was
the rule in the Portland area at the time. The cost has gone from about $7
every other year to $21 for the new testing. They use a rolling road type
test under varying conditions on the newer cars. I bought a 99 Ford pickup
this year and it just hooked up to a computer and no other measurements were
required. Still cost $21 same as the rolling road test. In my opinion this
is a political option rather than an air quality option. According to my
brother-in-law who is an air quality chemist and retired from the
Department of Environmental Quality this past year after working there for
about 40 years, the cost in air pollution to build a new car far exceeds the
air pollution caused by an old car throughout it's remaining life. In other
words the political directive is to try to get people to buy new cars for
the economy rather than decrease air pollution to any appreciable amount.
In my personal opinion it is a colossal pain in the ass to take time off
work (or play) every other year to get your vehicle tested. They don't give
a damn about the safety issues such as whether your brakes are worn out or
your head lights and windshield wipers work, they just care about getting
their extra $21 for each car being registered or reregistered every other
year. When I lived in Virginia in the late 50's we went to a local garage
and had a safety inspection before you could register your car. I don't
recall how often that was as I was a teenager at the time and always needed
something on my car fixed before I could pass the tests. That makes more
sense to me, although it would cost more now than the fee attached to air
quality testing that we have in Oregon. The real problem is that once you
start a program like this it evolves into some kind of a monster that no
longer makes sense. These tests do get some old smokers off the road, but
most of the time, they can be jury rigged to pass the tests. The older
carbureted cars are made to barely run to pass the test and then retuned to
run properly. I used to do it with my 72 MG although I didn't usually have
much trouble passing. Now all my pollution crap has been removed and my 72
runs like it should have run when it was new.
Sorry to get long-winded on this but it is a pet peeve with me.
Dave 72 B
I'm in the need of finding out the limits for EPA testing in other states.
In
Illinois we are trying to limit testing to 20 years. I know CAL is 23years
and I think Washington is 20years. Any info on the limits is needed for the
legislature.
Mike Olsen
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