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Here in the People's Republic of California they don't have inspections, but all cars from 1976 onward much pass emissions testing. And it's getting more and more difficult to find a testing station that will do OBD-1 or pre-OBD cars.
Arkansas Shet Canned it's Vehicle Inspection quite a few years back. It was when I believe, Govenor Huckabee. Said "He knew where to take his car" to get it past the Inspection. That pretty much ended it right there.
I guess they're now at least being honest. I didn't read the article, but I'm sure that the safety inspections were only meant as an income source for the state.
I guess they're now at least being honest. I didn't read the article, but I'm sure that the safety inspections were only meant as an income source for the state.
Except here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and other metropolitan areas where we will still have to go for an annual inspection. Most big cities in the US are under an Environmental Protection Administration ozone standard order to reduce the amount of NOx and/or VOC emissions. Here we missed the 85ppb standard in 1997, missed the 75ppb standard that we were supposed to reach by like 2008 and missed the 70ppb standard we were supposed to reach by 2015. We started well over 100ppb, fell to 76 by 2019, still six points over, then the pandemic hit and ironically we started going back up, 81 for this year. Seriously, even the scientists who came up with all this are starting to question whether vehicles are really contributing 60% as first thought but we're still stuck with the current law until its changed or repealed. Each time we miss, we've gotten a few more years reprieve, but now, no more reprieves, if we don't fall under 70ppb by 2027, companies in North Texas would have to start paying Section 185 fees amounting to about $11,000/ton for their VOCs and NOX emissions, I.e. they'll all shut down or move out of North Texas rather than pay millions of dollars to the federal government for doing nothing but being a pest. Or we taxpayers could keep them here by paying their emissions fees for them indirectly in the form of other state tax breaks and I kind of expect that's what the state would do rather than let them go to China.
But that's why we will still have annual vehicle inspections in the big cities in Texas. And Bob, I believe Wise County IS included in the non-attainment area. At least you are on the map as such. https://www.nctcog.org/getmedia/bae4...ouncilRoom.pdf Oh, and they'll still check your windshield wipers and light bulbs, not for safety, but because they might find some little part that they can sell you.
FWIW, my aunt died in SoCal during one the smog disasters in the mid 1950’s . I was just a little kid then and don’t remember the exact year. But there’s no doubt about what killed her and a lot of other people who had lungs which couldn’t tolerate the poisoned air.
Thanks to tricky dick nixon , the EPA was created in 1970, and now the LA air is cleaner than it was in the 1940-1950-1960’s eras. Is there some governmental overreach ? Sure, I don’t doubt it. But lives are being saved because there is regulation effective enough to make polluters do more than nothing
Too late to help aunt Elnora, but maybe she didn’t die for nothing.
PS:
several eye opening photos here:
https://waterandpower.org/museum/Smog_in_Early_Los_Angeles.html#:~:text=Historical% 20Notes,and%20containment%20of%20photochemical%20s mog.
Twenty years ago I considered moving out to Wise County because I was miffed at having to unmodify my Toyota Supra for inspection purposes (actually cleaner as-modified based on dyno tuning, but would not pass visual). But I heard a rumor that Wise County was going to be added to the non-attainment area. I completely gave up on that idea after looking at some property out by Aurora and getting stuck in traffic, taking a hour to get back home and realized that I'd have to endure that every day, twice a day. I really didn't think about it again till today.
A little web research and it appears Wise County got out of vehicle emissions inspections on a technicality. Wise County officially became part of the DFW non-attainment area in 2012 but the EPA allowed the state to apply some credits for emission reductions they got from natural gas drilling regulations in lieu of adding vehicle emissions inspections in the newly designated county. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality first tried to transfer some reductions in VOCs that they had in the other nine counties, but the EPA would not allow the transfer of credits between counties so they did a bunch of modeling and figured out that there were lots of oil and gas wells in Wise county and they already were regulating something about emissions from drilling activity that they could get enough credit for to substitute. You may not be out of the woods yet tho. If the region doesn't meet the threshold by 2027, the state could be forced to revise the rules again and who knows what measures could be added. Fingers crossed for you in Wise, but in Tarrant, I'm already still stuck with inspections for the foreseeable future.
I heard that the EPA set up a monitoring station in Tarrant County and said Wise County did not meet standards.
Our County attorney told the EPA to set up the monitoring in Wise or 'pound sand'.
Lots of 'haggling' but too many people are moving to our rural county to just reside and not farm/ranch.
The Upper Trinity Regional Water District wants to make a minimum 5 acre tract for water well drilling because 'too many straws in the drink'.
FWIW, my aunt died in SoCal during one the smog disasters in the mid 1950’s . I was just a little kid then and don’t remember the exact year. But there’s no doubt about what killed her and a lot of other people who had lungs which couldn’t tolerate the poisoned air.
Thanks to tricky dick nixon , the EPA was created in 1970, and now the LA air is cleaner than it was in the 1940-1950-1960’s eras. Is there some governmental overreach ? Sure, I don’t doubt it. But lives are being saved because there is regulation effective enough to make polluters do more than nothing
Too late to help aunt Elnora, but maybe she didn’t die for nothing.
I'll not make a blanket condemnation of emission standards and testing. I lived in L.A. for 30 years, 1960s-1990s, and I can attest that the air was much much cleaner when I left. Car manufacturers had no reason or incentive to voluntarily build cleaner running cars. Something had to be done.
But..... that was then and this is now.
I'll just leave it at that. It'll be very easy for this conversation to go off the rails and nobody here wants that !
I’ll only add that, in my opinion, if a magic wand took away all the pollution abatement requirements that auto manufacturers are now required to follow, not a single manufacturer would do anything voluntarily to keep the air as “clean” as it is nowadays.
no one likes to be told what to do. Not me, not anyone. We wouldn’t have to have agencies like the EPA (who do get on everyone’s nerves) IF people would do the right thing voluntarily. But they won’t.
Indeed, Doug I didn't want to start an argument about the validity of emissions testing, but after seeing Bob's post about Texas repealing safety testing, I wanted to point out that it didn't really help every gearhead all over Texas. Some of us in the bigger cities will still have to deal with emissions testing and I could have sworn that Wise County got emissions testing added some years back and I wanted to warn Bob. Turns out I was wrong about Wise County, but also learned there was more to the story as Paul Harvey used to say.
But to the OP's question, yes, our safety testing here in Texas was never anywhere near as rigorous as the UK or many other countries. We could get away with some really bad vehicles here in Texas. However in counties where we have emissions testing mandated, that part they are generally pretty thorough. Granted, emissions testing is a hassle but it is what it is. We at least get an exemption when the car itself reaches 25 years old due to parts availability. I always get anxious coming up on that anniversary, just hoping that nothing pops up last minute that would make me have to reset the monitors. But now my X308 has just one more year to go.
Just for comparison, I have both a 1998 XK8 and a 2011 XF. When I last got them inspected the XK8 was done and passed in about 1/3 the time it took for the XF. That magic 25 year old mark has its benefits.
I am in Denton County, Texas and nothing changes for me in 2025. Same long inspection for the sedan.
In Georgia, any car over 25 years old just pays the $20 tag fee each year. Newer cars need an emissions test $25 and then pay the $20 tag fee. Nothing else is checked. They depend on the police to pull you over for broken lights, etc. My son recently pulled a 1992 Ford Festiva home on a trailer for $800. He replaced almost all of the suspension, shocks, wheel spindles (and much more) and now it is his everyday driver!!!!!
Well, I can say for sure after owning and being around muscle cars for many a year, that the tailpipe emissions have changed substantially since the '60s and '70s.
I guess back then we didn't notice the stuff we were breathing in. Now, if I get behind an old Corvette, or Charger, I have to get away from the unburnt hydrocarbons coming from the pipes.
Originally Posted by zray
;2702257
FWIW, my aunt died in SoCal during one the smog disasters in the mid 1950’s . I was just a little kid then and don’t remember the exact year. But there’s no doubt about what killed her and a lot of other people who had lungs which couldn’t tolerate the poisoned air.
Thanks to tricky dick nixon , the EPA was created in 1970, and now the LA air is cleaner than it was in the 1940-1950-1960’s eras. Is there some governmental overreach ? Sure, I don’t doubt it. But lives are being saved because there is regulation effective enough to make polluters do more than nothing
Too late to help aunt Elnora, but maybe she didn’t die for nothing.
12-07-2023, 03:16 PM
