Consumer Group Attacks California Over Smog Check Costs

The State of California has announced that they will deny 3.4 million motorists consumer choice when it comes to where they have their cars inspected in the Smog Check program in 2005. The Department of Consumer Affairs' Bureau of Automotive Repair (DCA/BAR) will force 287,000 motorists each month to get their Smog Check inspections at a limited number of specialized "Test-Only" centers.

The remaining 6,000 licensed small businesses are enraged at the fact that they invested in the licenses, the trained technicians and sophisticated equipment but can no longer serve their customers. Dennis DeCota of the California Service Station and Automotive Repair Association says "the men and women in the auto repair industry spent more than $70,000 per shop to install expensive new emissions testing equipment and to train their employees. Now, the State of California says these 6,000 shops cannot serve their customers -- this is devastating to family-owned small businesses who believed in this air quality improvement program."

Likewise, consumers are outraged at the additional cost and inconvenience this mandate will require of them and their families. Under this mandate, they must take more time to get their car "smogged," pay additional testing fees and be bounced back and forth between test facilities and repair shops until their vehicle passes the emissions test. The Smog Check process could now take more than a day of personal time for those consumers who have been denied access to other licensed facilities.

DCA/BAR says regrettably that they can no longer give consumers choice to go to traditional test-and-repair facilities or "one-stop-shops" for Smog Checks because of federal guidelines and results of state air quality studies conducted in 1998 and 2000. However, neither the federal law nor studies suggest that the state be required to send 3.4 million motorists to "test-Only" facilities. In fact, under federal law passed in 1995 individual states are specifically allowed to conduct their Smog Check programs without using any "Test-Only" stations whatsoever.

Further, the state oversight committee on Smog Check, called the Inspection and Maintenance Review Committee, heard just this month from Dr. Jeffrey Williams of the University of California at Davis that the state's conclusion about the superiority of "Test-Only" may be seriously flawed. In fact, after reviewing the records of almost one million vehicles, Dr. Williams asserts there is not much of a difference between the failure rates achieved at "Test-Only" facilities vs. the "one-stop-shops" favored by consumers.

More than 14,000 consumers have signed petitions asking Governor Schwarzenegger to step in and to help simplify the Smog Check program for consumers. "There is very little reason to increase costs and deny consumers choice when the air quality is not being improved," said Jim Conran of Consumers First. "I call upon the Governor to use his authority to clear the air and gain control of the bureaucrats in Sacramento to simplify and improve this important air quality program for consumers."

posted by Consumer Help Web Editorial Team at 5:09 PM |