Pimp my ride: no inspections in CA?

[Spiney]

I like to watch pimp my ride. From the condition of most of these cars there must be no mechanical inspection in California. They ride around with body parts hanging off or completely missing. You'd never get away with that in PA. Don't they have mechanical inspection in CA? Or are they just concerned with smog? Spiney

[bl3ujay07]

CA is SUPER concerned with smog! BUT, MOST cars in CA are not as bad as you see on "Pimp my Ride" and some are not even that bad. I moved to wisconsin, and the cars over here are eye sores! Nasty rusting! BUNCH of cars with holes in their exhaust systems! Half a bumper missing or bumper cover only being held on by straps! People trying to sell rust buckets for more than what the car is worth, and they "know how much their car is worth bc of what they have done to it." Not to mention, the dozens of cars that die along the freeway every day cold days.

[timaishu]

Whats a mechanical inspection?

All I have ever done is smog. They also look in the engine bay and under the car for "illegal" mods.

[Spiney]

In Pa there is a yearly inspection where they check the condition of your breaks, exhaust, lights, horn, wipers, tire tread and excessive wear, check body for rust through, suspension parts like tie rod ends, windshield, and finally in the last couple of years smog. If it fails any of these it must be repaired before you get your inspection passed sticker. Basically it's a safety inspection.

[ryanmcg1]

In southeast Louisiana new orleans metro are all I ever had checked was window tint and brake & head lights to get a inspection sticker or as I like to call it a tint sticker cause I always get limo tint I don't believe it's ok for a cop to have dark tint and not me I find it safe in my area to have tint cause nobody can see in my car that I'm in my car or by my self or have a few people in my car less likely to rob or shoot me (I've had a friend at the neighborhood i live in gas station get shot in his truck cause someone asked for change for a 20 and seen he had more than 20 luckly hes alive) anyway I find my way to get a sticker.

[T.O.C.]

I like to watch pimp my ride. From the condition of most of these cars there must be no mechanical inspection in California. They ride around with body parts hanging off or completely missing. You'd never get away with that in PA. Don't they have mechanical inspection in CA? Or are they just concerned with smog? Spiney


Not sure but would be willing to bet it's a Tv show, most of those cars came out of a junk yard. and should go back.

[erock]

Here in Florida if it roles you can drive it. Cars do stay in good shape with the great weather. Mostly you see clearcoat failure or headlight damage due to extream heat. You do see the occasional bucket o' bolts but not a lot.

[flyinion]

All they care about is the smog test. I'm guessing they use the cops and "fix it" tickets for the rest.

[Mazda.Mark]

In Pa there is a yearly inspection where they check the condition of your breaks, exhaust, lights, horn, wipers, tire tread and excessive wear, check body for rust through, suspension parts like tie rod ends, windshield, and finally in the last couple of years smog. If it fails any of these it must be repaired before you get your inspection passed sticker. Basically it's a safety inspection.

Im from PA as well, so when I moved to Indiana I was surprised they have nothing like the system PA has. No inspection OR emissions testing.

[tw33k2514]

You should see some of the piles of ..stuff driving around here lol.

I think Hammond, IN has the highest concentration of crappy cars in one area though lol.

[oldmodman]

In California, roadside spot inspection are a thing of the past. We used to have them (the last time I went through one was back in the 70's) and your car was inspected pretty carefully. I got dinged once for worn wiper blades.

I tried to Google the history of vehicle inspections but every answer was about SMOG inspections. And those inspections were to create a database of cars that had passed their DMV inspections but then failed a roadside inspection within a year. The Dept of Automotive Repairs discovered that 90% of vehicles that failed a roadside inspection had gone to a very small group of testing stations. Those testing stations were faking tests to get unpassable vehicles through the inspection.

But there is no testing requirement to show that a car is roadworthy, just that it doesn't pollute.

[Spiney]

I'm sure some of it is done for TV effect but on the show I've seen cars with no doors, no hood, seats that weren't bolted down, total safety hazards that you would never get away with in PA. Here smog tests started in the cities and has spread out but there are still rural areas where no smog tests are done. I'm in a smog area but my SVT Cobra is exempt as long as I keep it under 5000 miles per year. I just bought a set of hi flow cats because I'm not sure I can drive it that little.

For those that haven't seen it, Pimp my Ride was a show on MTV for about 5 years where people would have a real beat car and West Coast Customs or a place called GAS Customs would turn it into a sort of show car. Wild paint, new interiors, nice rims and tires, and a lot of gimmicky accessories. They generally didn't show that they worked on the drivetrain so you had a show car with one foot in the grave. It's on heavy rotation at night on Speed Channel right now.

[Rix6]

I'm sure some of it is done for TV effect but on the show I've seen cars with no doors, no hood, seats that weren't bolted down, total safety hazards that you would never get away with in PA. Here smog tests started in the cities and has spread out but there are still rural areas where no smog tests are done. I'm in a smog area but my SVT Cobra is exempt as long as I keep it under 5000 miles per year. I just bought a set of hi flow cats because I'm not sure I can drive it that little.

For those that haven't seen it, Pimp my Ride was a show on MTV for about 5 years where people would have a real beat car and West Coast Customs or a place called GAS Customs would turn it into a sort of show car. Wild paint, new interiors, nice rims and tires, and a lot of gimmicky accessories. They generally didn't show that they worked on the drivetrain so you had a show car with one foot in the grave. It's on heavy rotation at night on Speed Channel right now.
I'm sure thorough inspections for road worthiness that are performed back east have a lot to do with the fact that you have rust back there. As in, rust that destroys cars in short order if they are used as daily drivers. In California we have so many cars, in fact so many new cars, that attrition via the used car market all but ensures that practically every car on the road is road worthy. Before I bought my G37, for 8 years I drove a car that by all outward appearances was a hooptie. An '89 with clearcoat failure. Now there are many migrant field workers in California. Many here legally, many here illegally. For the past decade I have witnessed over and over that every field worker was driving a nicer car than I was. Without exception. Ever since some idiot law passed that bans busing of workers in and out of the fields, this has become even more noticeable. (I'm not a fan of this law because lots of cars coming off the fields means lots of stone laden mud on the road and in the air...hood chips ahoy.) These cars will go 150, 200,000 miles more with little problem. Shoot, my hooptie has at least 100,000 miles left in her. Now, I'm not going to say that every car on the road is a model of safety. But I think something along the lines of my reasoning described here, plays a part in the law-makers' thought process. Inspection programs aren't popular in California. Smog inspection is a necessary annoyance. People wouldn't go for safety inspections. The law-makers wouldn't go for safety inspections. They wouldn't want to be bothered! They already have to take their cars in for smog!

Since you mentioned catalytic convertors I will diverge from topic a little bit, do a little segue...
About California smog inspections I will say this. Nine years ago I did a favor for a friend and drove his car up to him in Portland, Oregon. Ah, Oregon! Who in Oregon isn't a nature lover? Anyhoo, one thing about Oregon stuck out like a sore thumb. No cats. The roads stank. Nasty, asphyxiating car exhaust odor behind any car, new or old, the likes of which I hadn't smelled since 1970's childhood family road trips to Disneyland in Anaheim! 1970's LA smog = 2000's Oregon highway air! What was worse was I had been so used to decent air that it was really sickening. In the 70's constant exhaust fumes, in all their tetra-ethyl lead laced glory, were the norm. Over time, the requirement for catalytic converters means pretty much all cars on California roads, excepting the rare classic, do not stink.

Back to the original topic regarding inspections and rust buckets and all. I still happen to have my very first car. A 1974 914 bought in 1986. I really need to get rid of it because the space will be worth a lot more to me than the car for the next half-dozen years at least. I mean, I will have no business spending even a minute of time towards any kind of restoration on that car, as cool as that would be, for the next 10 years, if not a few more. Anyways it sits outside. Uncovered (the cover, now 25 years old, has sat in the front trunk for the past decade and a half. The last time I drove the car, it was dirty enough I just didn't bother to put the cover back on.) It's got rust. It has moss growing on it for crying out loud! But I tell you what. It hasn't rusted through. I could clean out the moss. Wash the windows. Scrub them a bit. Put a fresh battery in that sad, neglected vehicle, and start it up. And it would be road worthy. Ship it back east and drive it through one winter and it will be dust. But leave it where it is, another 10 years, not much is going to change except it's just going to turn another shade of ugly.

Alright, I hope I haven't bored anybody with my long-winded, pseudo-allegorical spiel. All it takes is a good glass of wine, and even more than usual, I have many words to say, that say very little. :bolt:

[Spiney]

Rix6, I thought Cats were a requirement in all 50 states except for older cars where they were not OEM, and low use and specialty cars. Spiney

BTW I remember when they were new Cats all smelled like rotten eggs.

[M0nk3y]

In Ohio, there are only 7 counties that are subjected to ODOT Smog testing (This in northern Ohio where the Steel Belt was).

Everywhere else there is no regulation, and I have many BMW friends that run catless headers with no problems. If I did that though, I would fail inspection instantly.