Thursday, April 3, 2008

The smog hits the fan

My Rustbucket's days as a country cruiser might be numbered. (Or so I thought, until receiving a comment from an alert reader with better comprehension skills than I).

A bill in the State Senate could mean the joy of fixing up an old Classic Car goes the way of the dodo. It would require cars built before 1976 to be smog tested every other year, and the cars would have to pass for them to hit the roads. (As the reader noted, this would apply to those buying said cars after Jan 1, 2009)

As much as I hate to admit it, this sounds on the surface like a good idea. The Central Valley is the worst smog spot in the nation, and those old Bel Airs and Mustangs don't have the benefit of all the exhaust recovery gadgets that later models do.

But that brings up the question of how much will people have to spend to make the cars street legal, and how much impact the bill would really have. Most of these classics aren't daily drivers and probably account for a small amount of the soot in the air. Also, this bill reportedly would only affect cars in the Central Valley.

Still, every bit helps. And if this means the Rustbucket's country road driving days are over, I guess that's how the ecological cookie crumbles.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This bill would only apply to new owners (after 1-1-2009)of these classics. Which means you can keep your "Rustbucket" cruising all you want -- just can't buy another after that date. Now's the time to stock up on all those dreams.

Jon Mendelson said...

Thanks. Your reading comprehension skills must be better than mine!