County may raise smog check fees to help repair, replace ‘classic’ cars

An unknown amount of vehicles in Nevada bearing license plates designating them as Basic Motor vehicle, Old Timer, or Vintage Rod in buy to escape smog emission expectations have till the conclude of the calendar year to make important repairs or swap their car. 

Assembly Invoice 349, passed by the 2021 Legislature, is made to near the so-named “classic vehicle loophole,” which makes it possible for house owners of vehicles with typical plates to bypass smog checks. The new regulation not only prohibits classic autos from staying driven extra than 5,000 miles a yr, the prior regular, but also from remaining utilized for “general transportation.” 

“So on January 1, if you have a vehicle that you’ve been registering as a classic motor vehicle for yrs and yrs, you could wind up at the DMV and the DMV could turn you absent with out a large amount of frankly, advanced warning and without having a whole lot of chance for that individual to help you save the funds to get their vehicle replaced,” Marci Henson, director of Clark County Section of Environment Sustainability, told commissioners on Tuesday.  

The county is contemplating a pilot method modeled right after a person in San Joaquin, California, that would provide incentives or rebates to repair or replace autos.  

Officials estimate some 30,000 motor vehicles in Nevada have common plates, but lack facts on how quite a few are legitimately classified as this sort of.  

Henson states evidence indicates motorists register their autos as classic because “they cannot afford to repair the emissions products on all those vehicles.  And so that was the only way to get their autos registered so that they could get their youngsters to college. They couldn’t make it to work…” 

The legislation is made up of a “safety net” in the form of a cost that may possibly be added to smog checks in Clark County and Washoe County that would be earmarked to mend and change non-compliant motor vehicles, Henson said.

Commissioner William McCurdy states he’s worried about “disproportionate effect to reduced cash flow communities,” this sort of as District D, which he signifies. He fears the dollars elevated by an extra cost on smog checks “will not occur close to becoming in a position to meet up with the genuine wants of the families who are already strapped to the tee…” and just cannot manage to mend or replace their vehicle. 

“And we say, hey, we’ll give you and your family of 4 or five a rebate for an ebike.”

McCurdy mentioned the method may perhaps aid lower smog air pollution but develop “harm to families…” 

Henson approximated the condition could repair 1,000 motor vehicles with a fund of $850,000 or swap 100 vehicles with a fund of $1.1 million. The county intends to attain more data ahead of having motion.