SEMA Urgent Legislative Alert: California Lawmaker Trying

[Max Baker]

Well said Mike,

It's fine if you have tons of money like Brett and can afford to have a
new cat and 02 sensor installed once a year and then pay for a test-only
smog.   But to me, it seems like a tax on the poor, because they're the
majority of people driving older cars.  Us car enthusiasts are a small
minority in comaprison.

-m

On Thu, Aug 28, 2008 at 09:13:20AM -0700, Mike Veglia wrote:
> I'm with Steve on this one... All should take notice because many states tend to adopt smog test regulations based on California's. It keeps getting worse here. The cost of a test in an enhanced area can be as much as $80-100. The "certificate" (an electronic file transfer now) is $8.00 alone. Smog testing is a racket through and through. Admittedly, it does help enormously, but taking the test to annual is nothing more than a hidden tax grab that will contribute little to further cleanup of the air (compared to the biennial tests). The every other year, biennial, tests we have now are enough. Many of us who have 15 year old, or older, cars have a bunch of them (spares, ya know?). Right now at my house we have seven cars registered in our name (two are our teenage kid's cars). Of those, 5 are presently over 15 years old, and the other two will be next year (2010 model year). It is a very real increased expense, and hidden tax, to us Californians who
>  choose to not have car payments (so we can afford our half million dollar mortgage and the highest gas prices in the continental US).
> 
> Mandatory Audi content: I will be faced with downsizing the fleet of aging Audis if this comes to pass.