Vitoc

Good grief.

I'm not complaining about the cost of smog checks. I'm complaining I have to keep taking it back not knowing if it has passed the driving cycle. If you had actually read what I posted (instead of being an a-hole), you'd know that I have been driving it every day for at least a week before taking it back for retest. It's not always that straight forward. My commute is <17 miles, mostly freeway, there and back. Where else do you want me to drive it, exactly? Driving it up the street for quick errands from a cold start doesn't do ****, as it has to enter closed loop. I followed the driving cycle instructions I was given after the first failure to a tee -- it still was not ready.

Doesn't really matter anymore. I'm done jumping through hoops. It's clear you can't own a fun car you just jump into once in a while when the weather is right and you feel like it. You're required to drive your vehicles more than you want to, generating more smog, so that you can pass smog test. Makes perfect sense.

GTOguy

You can own a fun car and jump in it once in awhile and enjoy it if it's a classic and doesn't have all that timebomb plastic and electronics. Virtually every car made after 1996 is a disposable appliance. Made to run 200-300,000 miles in 10-20 years and to be thrown out. There is no cure for brittle air bags, out-gassed plastics, and expired electronics. It gets too expensive, too fast. Get rid of it and buy a '70-'73 Trans Am and enjoy. And, being in CA, and being a licensed smog tech, at least here, a car is always smogged using the engine compartment tag as reference. If it's a CA car, no matter where it ends up, it has to have it's factory issued CA smog equipment.