[david]

Went in to register my Insight and they said I needed a xmog check. Thought it was a little unfair for obvious reasons, but made some calls today to smog check places. Two of them said they were'nt sure what to do with a hybrid and the third said I was probably exempt and that I should call the Bureau of Automotive Repair. I plan to do that on Monday, but it's the weekend and I thought somone here might know

P.S. I bought the car in another state if that makes a difference.

 

[figgy]

I just had a Montana Insight smogged for purchase in CA. The place that did it looked it up in their book and didn't seem to have any problems, although they were kind of slow and contemplating the book quite a bit. One of them knew something about it.

To make a long story short, at first one of them said it didn't need smog, and then the other corrected them.

They do need smog in CA, as far as I know. The dealers who sell them used all do smog on them in my experience.

Just call around a bit to make sure your guys can do it. Some Honda dealers can also do smog, and might be a better bet.

The DMV smog site lists all smog stations, so you can get numbers easily.

 

[Tim Maddux]

Your Insight has an internal combustion engine that burns gasoline and as such is subject to the same clean air regulations as any other car on the road.

 

[Rick]

I do think I recall reading that you have to get an out of state car smogged when you bring it in. Even so, I really doubt that you'd have any problems passing the test. Right now I'm exempt for the first 5 years of the car's life or something like that. Even if it does fail if your under 80,000 miles it's all warrantied anyways.

You might consider yourself lucky though that california just checks the gas output from the tail pipe. Arizona recnetly switched to a new test for anything newer than 96. They plug in to the obd and if you have *any* code what so ever you fail. It could be a transmission code, you fail. Kinda stupid.

 

[Tim Maddux]

Actually portions of California did the OBD test as well. Back in 2002 it varied by county... essentially the closer you were to L.A. the more likely you were to need more stringent testing.

 

[Rick]

Hmm, interesting. I was unaware california did that. My parents have a shop which specialiazs in emission repairs so I always get to keep up to date with any changes to the system in the Phoenix area anyways. In a way I guess the obd testing is good because it keeps the vehicles in polluted areas having to run at spec.

 

[joe4ska]

Smog Checks

In general its important to get a smog check for maintaince reasons. If your car pollutes over the regulations it probably has a problem.

I only hope that they hold the Insight to the same standards as your average passenger vehicle as emmisions go.

Just because we own a hybrid we shouldn't be put to any different regulation standards.

 

[Tim Maddux]

More details here for California: "Do I really need a smog check?" indicates that "Vehicles four model-years old and newer (model-years 2001-2004, for registrations due after 1/1/2004 ) are not required to have a biennial (every other year) Smog Check performed until their fifth year. However, these vehicles must have a Smog Check performed if the vehicle is sold, or being registered in California for the first time."

The program area types I referred to earlier are set by county, and are partitioned into "change of ownership," "basic" and "enhanced" areas. "Change of ownership" areas only require testing when the car is bought/sold and are mainly rural areas. "Basic" areas have two-speed idle tests (this one would be difficult and arguably unfair to perform on an Insight). "Enhanced" areas have BAR-97 loaded-mode dynamometer tests as well as OBD-II checks.

 

[SeanW]

Here is what I went through: CA Smog Test