Panel Urges Lifting Smog-Control Repair Limit to as High as $500

The current $50 ceiling on repair costs for cars that fail the state’s mandatory smog check vehicle inspection program would be raised to as high as $500 for late model cars under a proposal to the Legislature unveiled Wednesday by an official oversight committee.

At the same time, the California Inspection and Maintenance Review Committee said the state Bureau of Automotive Repair, which administers the smog check program, should be authorized to require annual smog check inspections, if it chooses. Currently, the inspections are required every two years as a condition of renewing vehicle registrations, or at change of ownership.

The committee’s recommendations, contained in a draft of a report soon to be forwarded to lawmakers, are expected to face an uphill battle in the Legislature, which for years killed bills to create the program and only relented in 1982, in part because repair costs were held to $50.

Indeed, committee Chairman Richard J. Sommerville said Wednesday that while there was no doubt that increasing the repair cost ceiling would result in cleaner cars, he said there was no agreement as to how soon the cost ceiling should be raised.

Nonetheless, the committee said that tailpipe emissions have already been cut by an overall 11% since the smog check program took effect in 1984. Those emission reductions could be nearly doubled, the panel said, if its recommendations were followed, among them rigorous new training of mechanics and tough sanctions against those who fail to properly inspect and repair vehicles.

The review committee said that the current $50 cost limit precludes needed repairs. Often, the replacement cost of a single pollution control component exceeds $50, the committee said.

Under the smog check law, a vehicle owner is not required to make any repairs that exceed $50 in cost unless the car’s emission systems have been tampered with or removed.

“The $50 ceiling is among the lowest in the nation, despite the fact that California’s air quality problems are clearly the most severe in the nation,” the committee said.

Under the committee’s recommendations, the $50 ceiling would be retained for cars manufactured before 1972. But it called for a $100 ceiling for 1972-74 models, and a $150 ceiling for 1975-79 models.

For vehicles manufactured in 1980 and beyond, the committee urged a $500 ceiling because the smog control components on newer cars are more expensive. As an alternative, however, the committee said it could support a $200 ceiling for 1980 and newer vehicles, provided that manufacturers extended their emissions warranty coverage for electronic components and sensors to 10 years or 100,000 miles. Currently, most such warranties are for half that.

Might Wait Until 1990

State Sen. Robert Presley (D-Riverside), who authored the original smog check bill, said Wednesday that he believes any significant increases in repair cost ceilings and inspections and other changes might be better left until 1990, when the entire smog check program is up for renewal.

But, he added, “If they can convince us the repair cost ceiling ought to be done sooner, it’s possible we may do it (this year), maybe not at that figure. . . .” Presley said he plans to hold hearings on the recommendations March 30.

Passage of the program in 1982, he said, was “difficult. We had to do a lot of fine-tuning all the way through. We realized (the repair ceiling) had to be as low as possible to get it through the Legislature.”

Inflationary Amount

“I think the Legislature will be receptive to raising it some, just based on inflation if nothing else. I think we realized when we (enacted the original bill) that $50 was pretty low,” Presley said.

Presley has introduced a bill to improve mechanic training and to hold mechanics accountable for faulty work.

The committee report was critical of mechanic training and noted that one study found that only 59% of cars with obvious defects were properly repaired. In January, Martin Dyer, chief of the Bureau of Automotive Repair, said 75% of all emission inspections were either incomplete or improper, especially on cars built after 1980 with complex electronic and computerized components.