Hello,
My name is Connie Burke. I have been born and raised in Southern
California and am very upset about some recent regulations I
learned about that have impacted my family.
My husband and I work extremely hard to afford life here in
Southern California as a young millenial family with a small
toddler and newborn. With a newborn, we decided my compact car that
I have had for 10 years was no longer going to be able to serve our
needs as a family of four a we decided to purchase a SUV. I did a
tremendous amount of research and found it was more cost effective
for us to purchase a new 2022 vehicle than purchase a used vehicle
and found a great price on the vehicle we were looking for in
Arizona.
Obviously, travelling to Arizona with a newborn and toddler
isn't ideal so we went to a local Southern California dealership
that had the same vehicle and tried to negotiate a fair price. They
wanted over $7000 more than the dealership in Arizona. With that
large difference in costs, we decided to move forward on the
vehicle in Arizona after carefully reading the DMV website and
confirming the vehicle was 50 state certified and had the emissions
sticker.
We brought the vehicle home and I then had the surprise of
finding out that my brand new vehicle needed to get a smog check
before the DMV would issue the registration. I took the vehicle to
be smogged, paid almost $50 out of pocket to be told the vehicle
was not ready to be smogged. I had a long conversation with the
smog tech and then a long conversation with the car dealership who
both confirmed, the car is too new to be smogged and needs to be
driven. The dealership recommended I wait until I had 1000 miles on
the vehicle before completing a smog check. I only drive 3000 miles
a year.
To make this clear, I now have to purposely go out to drive my
brand new vehicle to get the miles on it to be able to be ready to
be smogged. That is wasting my time, gas (which is extremely costly
right now), money and bringing unnecessary emissions to get this
vehicle to be at a point where it's ready for a smog check. And I
will now have to pay for a second smog test, directly impacting the
bottom line on my family finances, again.
If this exact same vehicle had been sold to me in CA, it
wouldn't have to be smogged. It's not like the state isn't getting
their money from the sale - I have to pay the difference in the
sales tax, have to pay the DMV for the title transfer and
registration/license fees.
I can understand the need for a smog if this was a used vehicle
coming in from out of state, but this is a brand new vehicle. The
state doesn't require a smog check on new vehicles for a few years.
I'm hoping I can make you see how illogical it is to reasonable
people like me that you requrie a smog check on a brand new, 50
state certified vehicle and how it costs a middle class family like
mine precious time and resources.
Please consider changing the regulations.
Best,
Connie