this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2025
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Fuck Cars

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Jay Leno’s star power wasn’t enough to persuade a California legislative committee to pass a measure to allow owners of classic cars like him to be exempted from the state’s rigorous smog-check requirements.

Imagine being rich and famous and this is your political cause. What an effing creep.

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[–] Ebby@lemmy.ssba.com 90 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

In Leno's defense, smog checks for older cars can be absolute nonsense in CA.

I have an older car caught up in that nonsense. The header pipes cracked and replacement parts didn't exist so I had a shop build some. They did amazing work and function perfectly; it's just pipe about a foot long.

Anyway, the smog test shop sees that and fails visual inspection. That super sucks. There are no CARB exempt headers, and OEM is't available. I spent $$$ to put the old, leaking pipes back on, and send it back to the shop. Visual passes, smog passes. Next stop to the mechanic to swap headers back again.

At the moment there is a lot more to smog testing an older car than a tube up the tailpipe and actual emission data which is the whole point of having this program in the first place.

Leno likes cars, keeps his in great condition, and may simply need replacement parts manufactured that no longer exist.

Edit: that said, I hoped the Leno law would fail. I looked up registration for my older car as a "classic". Yikes that's pricy! And has all kinds of strings attached like special registration and have to be garaged. This would be devastating to the classic car community.

[–] miked@piefed.social 37 points 1 week ago

After reading your edit I looked at the bill summary and yea, I don't care that it got killed. It only seems to help large collectors, not the person with one or two cars.

It would be nice if the 1975 smog exemption rule could roll each year.

[–] ThePantser@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Or unpopular opinion: Fuck classic smogmobiles. If you want to go show it off put it on a trailer pulled by an EV. Why create pollution for fun?

[–] azertyfun@sh.itjust.works 24 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Virtually every kind of "fun" creates pollution. Even going for a run you pollute. What about doing a road trip in a modern car is "better" than putting around town in an old one when both activities pollute a similar amount?

The real questions worth asking are:

  1. Are these classic cars a threat to public health? (Presumably no, their numbers are small and ever dwindling)
  2. Should the law apply to all cars and when/how is it fair to make a carve out? (The answer is subjective and political and I have a feeling this is the one that actually struck a nerve with you).

Also worth noting is that EVs are hardly a panacea. Modern ICEs are "good enough" that a lot of the immediate health concerns now come from particulates from brake and tire dust, noise pollution (which EVs contribute to nearly as much as ICEs at speed), sedentarism, accidents, and hostile urban design. The real fight is in getting most passenger cars eliminated from cities altogether and rehabilitating suburbs to be livable without car dependency, not in bickering about powertrains.

[–] Cevilia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I agree. We absolutely must ban people from going for a run.

/j

[–] DJDarren@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

What about doing a road trip in a modern car is "better" than putting around town in an old one when both activities pollute a similar amount?

There's no difference, both should be banned 👍.

[–] Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Better yet convert it to an EV.

[–] Ebby@lemmy.ssba.com 28 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Actually that is becoming more popular. I just saw one last month that gutted a V8 engine to hide an electric motor. Looks like an ICE from the outside. It was pretty neat!

It's the battery packs that hold these conversations back. Older car suspensions just weren't built for that kind of weight.

[–] P00ptart@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah but for a classic car you only drive on weekends, it doesn't need to go 500 miles on a charge.

[–] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 week ago

That’s the rub, many of these things are doing 1-2000 miles a year some less. Their emissions are peanuts compared to daily commuters. The same argument for small batteries is also the argument for letting them be in the first place (with strict mileage limits IMO).

Also EVs are heavy but the body and chassis are really light and often aluminum or composite. Old cars are often pretty heavy, but it’s because they’re made of thick steel with much thicker body panels (18 or even 16 gauges modern 22 gauge steel body panels). Adding batteries and keeping the weight balance even with small batteries is really tough).

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

How about no.

ICE cars shouldn't be common. Cars in general shouldn't be as common as they are. A handful of guys running around in old restored ICE cars are far from any real problem. They're putting a lot of work into keeping them going (and it's often more work than money).

From an engineering perspective, there's a lot of fascinating tweaks you can make to an ICE. How does spark timing affect things? Cam timing? Changing bore or stroke? The engineering behind it has a long history that's worth preserving. It just needs to go away as a mass market thing.

[–] Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca -2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You wanna drive it? Convert to EV.

You wanna preserve history, put it in a museum. I make an exception to your point if it is a museum's functional demo model that runs on biofuels.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Why? What is really the problem? The pollution is negligible to the point that it's not even worth discussing.

They should be driven. It's a bit counterintuitive, but they'll last longer if they're driven. What happens is that when parts break, they get fixed, and that means there's a market available for spare parts. You can daily drive a Model-T Ford today because they're still common enough to have a parts market.

[–] Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca -3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The pollution is negligible to the point that it's not even worth discussing.

Huff on a tailpipe for a few minutes then come back to tell me how insignificant it is. ICE needs to die.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yes, what of it? ICE lawn mowers are a bigger source of pollution than a handful of people running around in classic cars a few sundays per summer.

There is no problem that needs to be solved here.

[–] Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The lawnmowers need to go too.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 week ago

And you'll solve a lot more problems doing it.

Saying classic cars need to go is just asinine. Zero pollution isn't even possible, and it's a fool's errand to try.