Comedian and car collector Jay Leno tried to use his considerable influence to make life easier for California enthusiasts. SB 712, also known as Leno’s Law, would have exempted cars 35 years and older from the state’s strict emission testing. It was a valiant effort, but unfortunately for California car nuts, the bill has been killed in committee without even reaching a Senate vote, reports ABC 7.
Leno teamed up with Senator Shannon Grove to introduce the bill in February. In its original form, cars 35 years or older would have been made exempt from emissions testing. A fact sheet from the Senator’s office cites classic cars as the reason for this bill. Cars this old are rarely driven, well-maintained, and are typically owned for their historical value rather than used as daily drivers, meaning that their exemption from smog regulations would have a minimal effect on air quality.Â
California’s current laws require all vehicles from 1976 and newer to pass an emission test every two years and upon transfer of ownership. It can be extremely difficult to get Radwood era cars to pass modern emission tests. Their emission systems are complex and antiquated by modern standards. The testing equipment needed for pre-OBD2 cars built before 1996 required tailpipe sniffers and even dedicated dynos. They weren’t that accurate even when new, yet Californians must search for a shop that can test older cars, pay many times more for the test, and spend more to keep their outdated emission controls working.
This is why we can’t have nice things
A 35-year rolling exemption is pretty reasonable, even for a state like California that’s so obsessed with emissions that it sets its own standards that are more strict than the federal government (though perhaps not anymore). Massachusetts, for example, exempts vehicles 15 years and older from emission tests. New York only tests vehicles up to 25 years old. But legislators were still afraid this would open a loophole for Californians to start using older vehicles as daily drivers, specifically to bypass emissions tests. They added an amendment that would require exempt vehicles to be registered and insured as collector cars, SEMA says, limiting their use to historical, exhibition, or club activities.
Later, additional amendments completely nerfed the bill’s original intent. Its final form, which was to take effect in 2028, would only exempt vehicles made before 1981, which would then be 47 years old. It would become a rolling exemption for five years, but this limited scope would help a much smaller age range of cars than the original 35-year exemption, leaving many modern classics out of the loop.
It doesn’t matter in the end anyway. Although Contra Costa News reports it passed the California Senate Transportation Committee with bipartisan support in April, the Assembly Appropriations Committee shut it down, refusing to bring the bill to the full Senate for a vote. This is why we can’t have nice things. Thanks for trying, Jay.
