Brace Yourself for a Costlier, More Complicated Smog Check

The ritual of getting your car smog checked is about to become more of a headache and an expense because of a new California program intended to clean up dirty urban air.

Until now, smog checks have been conducted with the car merely idling. But starting Dec. 1, motorists in urban Southern California will be required to have their cars tested with the wheels in motion by driving onto a sophisticated device known as a dynamometer, essentially giant rollers that simulate actual driving conditions.

Dynamometers cost $40,000 each, and many garage owners are balking at the thought of investing that much, saying state lawmakers and the regulators at the California Bureau of Automotive Repair (BAR) have handed them a risky financial burden.

In any case, “people are going to have sticker shock,” says Joe Forgacs, owner of Family Smog and Auto in Bellflower and a representative of the Automotive Service Council. “The price of a smog test is going up.”

BAR chief Marty Keller acknowledged that smog checks could initially double in cost from the current average of $30, not including the $8 state smog certificate.

“This is a free-market system and I would suspect the price will go up,” Keller said. “The equipment is twice as costly and the supply of testing centers will be smaller.”

Under the current program, about 8,200 shops do smog checks. Of those, about 5,400 are in “dirty air” locations where the more sophisticated tests will be required. Not surprisingly, metropolitan Los Angeles is a “dirty air” location.

So far, however, only 2,000 stations statewide have signed up to do the more sophisticated tests. Keller thinks that will be enough to handle the demand, but the repair industry says motorists should be braced for long waits.

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Cars built before 1973 are exempt from smog testing, as are cars less than 4 years old. The idea is that old cars are seldom driven, and new cars almost always pass the test. But don’t think that just because you drive a new car, you’ll get a free ride.

The Legislature also has created a program to subsidize smog repairs for low-income individuals--and the money for that will come from assessments on new car owners.

For millions of middle-class motorists whose cars are neither new nor old, the new program will bring some unpleasant surprises. More cars than ever will flunk the sophisticated new tests, and thus will require repairs.

Under the old tests, only about 7% of cars failed. The new tests will initially double that rate--and eventually, even stricter rules will be applied that could boost the failure rate up to 30%.

For the first time, oxides of nitrogen (NOX) will be checked, taking the repair industry into a new area, according to Greg Kelly, owner of Greg’s Automotive in El Cajon and a chapter president at the Automotive Service Council.

“NOX malfunctions are difficult to assess,” Kelly said. “The cooling system is as much a factor as anything, involving localized overheating inside the engine.”

Despite all the concern, Kelly thinks the new program represents a good effort by the state government, environmentalists and the repair industry. And he applauds the state’s effort to assist the working poor, who cannot afford to keep their cars properly maintained.

“We are going to have a program that does everything it set out to do, which is keep the air clean,” Kelly said. “The industry is concerned about clean air and about the working poor.”

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* Vartabedian cannot answer mail personally but will attempt to respond in this column to automotive questions of general interest. Do not telephone. Write to Your Wheels, 1875 I St. N.W. #1100, Washington, DC 20006 or e-mail to Ralph.Vartabedian@latimes.com.