Before the 1980’s and 90’s the major urban areas of California, like the famous Los Angeles basin, experienced frequent smog alerts. A brown smog cloud often hung over the city on the worst days. The smog mostly came from automobiles and trucks that filled the freeways and streets. Little by little, the California legislature passed regulations to limit pollution from vehicles in an effort to improve the air quality, by requiring vehicles to be equipped with various pollution reduction additions such as catalytic converters. With the number of vehicles increasing every year, attention was focused on vehicles as the major contributor to the smog and poor air quality. Now that these regulations have been in place for 20-30 years, Californians can enjoy much cleaner air despite the far greater number of vehicles on the road as compared with 25 years ago. Everyone should realize that these efforts are really for our overall benefit. However, the need to take time out from one’s busy life in order to get their vehicle checked and certified can be a nuisance and added cost. People like to seek bargains, and as long as the vehicle is still rather new and has not had any modifications, you only need to get a smog test only from a nearby smog check station. It is easy to lose sight of the advantages enjoyed by the improvements in air quality.
There are certain exceptions and ways to handle cases where the car doesn’t meet the standard that applies to the particular vehicle type and age. Some vehicles are considered Gross Polluters and are handled as a special case. Vintage cars are also handled differently, since they are a small minority of the total number of vehicles on the road. Smog checking as well as certification is required and many smog check stations having different classifications are found throughout the state. A smog test only station is one that limits its service to only checking adherence to the regulations. Different classes of smog check stations can perform testing and also do repairs on most vehicles, though certain exceptions exist. Special stations like Gold Shield and Referee stations perform other special functions in special cases and if any disputes arise. Low-cost smog check stations like smog check San Francisco, are located in the Bay Area and in other major California metropolitan areas.