One of the joys of living in California as opposed to, say, Ohio is the ritual of getting a smog check for your vehicle every couple of years. There are tons of places (often gas stations) with "smog test" or "smog check" signs out front, but where can you go for a deal?
eSmogCheck is the answer. Simply give it your zip code and it shows nearby smog check stations and their prices. Some establishments have joined the Internet revolution to offer on-line reservations and special pricing.
I just finished doing this year's round of smog checks, but next time around I'm gonna use eSmogCheck. It looks like I could have saved some cash.
Posted by jzawodn at October 24, 2006 09:20 PM
You need a reservation for a smog check?
You remind me of an incident long ago in LA, I went into some 20 Minute Oil Change place early one morning for an oil change. There wasn't a single car there, the mechanics were all sitting around doing nothing. So I went up to one of them and said I'd like an oil change. He said, "OK, I think I have a spot tomorrow, about 2PM." I said, "what about this 20 minute oil change thing, you can't do it right now? Nobody else is here." The mechanic was indignant, "you think we sit around all day waiting for YOU to come in and ask for an oil change?" Um, YEAH, that's exactly what I expected.
So I left and went down the street to some other quickie oil change place and got my oil changed in 20 minutes. Sheesh.
Is this available only in the US? You can get a fine for so many things, but did you know that there are countries where you don’t get one for heavy smoke? But that smoke reaches your countries eventually and affects us all. In Europe, for example, there are certain regulation regarding atmosphere preservation, but I am not aware of such rules in African countries or some in Asia. Let them come to California.
Ohio has smog checks for the most-densely-populated areas of the state:
http://www.epa.state.oh.us/dapc/mobile.html
Huh.
Either it's new (for some value of "new") or I never lived in a densely populated area.
Or both.
As of late last year the $20 smog check fee for my county (Cuyahoga)in Ohio has been eliminated. The smog checks are now paid for with the same money that built the Cleveland Browns stadium: Cigarette taxes.
And now you know...
You obviously never lived in Cincy or Cleveland then. They have (had?) smog checks there 5 years ago.
This coming from the man that lived in Columbus and now resides in Florida these past 5 years.
How Columbus got away without the checks is... probably because of all the legislators that live there during their sessions. :) :D
I see Will Mahoney now reports that they are gone (I thought they were going the way of the Dodo when I left...)
Mr. Price,
I think you misunderstood me. The emissions checks are still here (in Cleveland anyways), but you no longer have to pay the $20 fee. The checks are now free to the public.
Love,
Will
The cheapest smog checks in the bay area that I've found are on www.bayareasmogdeals.com
Regular Smog Checks for $19.95
Test Only Smog Checks for $36
You can't even come close to those prices anywhere else except in the Advertiser paper www.sfadvertiser.com
esmogcheck.com is down now, not sure what happened to it.
