CA Antique Vehicle Owners Get a Reprieve . . . Sort Of

You may have heard about Jay Leno’s backing of a law that would expand the exemption from regular or any “emissions” and “safety” inspections from the current gotta-be at least 50-plus years old (1975 model year and older) to 1976 and newer, on a rolling basis, beginning in 2028. That would be the year cars made in 1976 through 1980 would be grandfathered into the exemption. Come 2029, 1981 model years vehicles would be exempted and come 2033, vehicles made through the 1985 model year (by which time the latter would be just shy of 50 years old.

The benevolence of the state astounds.

Of course, the state has certain conditions attached to its benevolence. To begin with, to qualify for the exemption, the vehicle must be “covered” by an antique/collector vehicle insurance policy. These usually come with restrictions as far as how many miles you’re allowed (there’s that word, again) to drive annually and the state would impose its own in addition. No more than 1,000 miles per year and this would verified by a “process” to be conjured by the California Bureau of Automotive Repair, which is just that (a bureaucracy armed with the Authority of the state).

No one seems to be asking how the state would verify how many miles an antique vehicle is driven. Or where. In addition to the mileage limit there are to be other limits. A news story says “The rules would limit the vehicles to being used primarily for shows, parades, charitable events, historical exhibitions, maintenance, and preservation.” This implies the rules would bar pleasure driving, as I do when I feel the need to shake off some of the depressing effects of having to drive new cars with eye-movement monitors, Lane Keep Assist and the multitude of Driver Harassment Technologies all new cars now come standard with. I fire up my ’76 Trans Am and drive it just because I want to drive it – and I can (for now) drive it wherever and whenever I like. If I were only allowed to drive it  to “shows, parades, charitable events, historical exhibitions” and for purposes of “maintenance and preservation” there would be (for me) not much point in owing it.

Which I think is the point behind the state’s benevolence. 

This circles us back to how the state will “verify” that the rules are being complied with. Fifty-year-old cars are free-range cars. They have no built-in capability to transmit (or receive) any “data,” such as odometer readings. Also, their odometers are purely mechanical things; there’s a cable that runs from the transmission to the back of the speedometer, which is also entirely mechanical in analog-era cars. The cable is driven – mechanically – by a little gear inside the transmission that “transmits” (mechanical sense) “data” about how fast the transmission’s output shaft is rotating; the number of teeth the little gear has fine-tunes the “reading” you see in the speedometer and also the odometer. It is a simple thing to disconnect the cable – causing the speedometer and the odometer to cease moving. It is also not at all difficult to adjust whatever the odometer reads. This “rolling back was once commonly done by shady used car dealers and curbstoners – because it was easily done.

It is much harder to do it with an electronically controlled car. The odometer is controlled by the computer; very hard to just turn it off – or roll it back. And modern electronically controlled cars do have the capability to transmit and receive data, such as odometer readings. It is easy-peasy for the state (and the insurance mafia) to know how many miles you’ve driven anytime they want to know it.

The only way to read the odometer of an analog car is to read it – with your eyes. Someone has to look at it, in other words. The state could require annual or semi-annual odometer checks but – they will likely say – that won’t be good enough because some awful libertarian type could disconnect the speedometer cable (that drives the odometer) and “cheat” the state-imposed mileage limitations. Can’t allow that. So, what will probably be required – in order to qualify for the exemption – will be some kind of connected device that enables the state to monitor and keep track of how many miles the car is driven and also when, where and how (that part about the “shows, parades, charitable events, historical exhibitions” and for purposes of “maintenance and preservation”).

If you are discovered to be in violation – cue the Flock cameras – there goes your exemption.

So, arguably, this is not a benevolence. In fact, it is an attack masquerading as a benevolence.

If this were actually about “emissions,” it would be a non-issue – because the “emissions” of 50-plus-year-old vehicles are a non-issue because there are so few 50-plus-year-old vehicles in operational condition. When was the last time you saw a car made in 1976 on the road? Or 1980, for that matter? You probably haven’t seen a car made in the ’90s in some time, either. The “emissions” of those cars, by the way, are a non-issue because they weren’t when they were new. They have computer-controlled fuel injection, oxygens sensors and catalytic converters – the three things that eliminated almost all of the meaningfully harmful exhaust emissions that caused or contributed to air pollution. It’s been chasing after angels dancing on the head of a pin since then.

The bottom line is don’t ask the state for favors. It’s something like expecting a rapist to be gentle as he does his thing.

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