[aigel]

I was in arms when they changed the rolling exemption to a fixed. That was when I lived in Bay Area. Then I moved to L.A. There was no smog to speak of in the Bay Area and most areas I drove around in had fairly new vehicles , say 90 and up.

Change scenery to L.A.: Smog, practically every summer day. And you will not believe how many beater POS cars and trucks drive around here that are from the early 80s and late 70s. These are NOT collector vehicles driven occasionally. These are gardener trucks, tow vehicles, recycling collector trucks, beater commuters, grocery getters, even city owned trucks and all daily driven vehicles.

So, in summary, I changed my mind on the rolling excemption. Only thing I could see is that you could introduce a "historic vehicle" or "collector vehicle" registration that will exempt true enthusiast vehicles. This would be a bureaucratic nightmare (what cars qualify, what state do they have to be in, is a 80 corolla not someone's classic car etc.).

edit: I forgot one thing: Older cars should be allowed to pass on sniff test only. How you get there is not important and if they do not pollute, who cares what's in the engine compartment. Original parts availability for some of the collector stuff is impossible.

George