I recently researched and wrote out every states’ safety and emissions inspection laws. Massachusetts made me laugh out loud. States such as California require private shops buy a complicated emissions testing device to “smog” older cars. Meanwhile, MA just tells mechanics carrying out the mandatory emissions standards to fail a car if they can see visible smoke. Looks good? It’s good to go!

The simple brilliance of Massachusetts’ visual emissions test

Beginning in 1996, every vehicle sold in the United States needed a standard, second generation “onboard diagnostics system.” AKA OBD II.

I bet you didn’t know OBD II is very much an emissions control system. It monitors every aspect of a vehicle that might increase pollution, and records fault codes. So during an annual or biennial emissions inspection of a 1996-present car, you can just plug-in an OBD-II reader and check its still running clean. So what do you do about pre-1996 cars?

Different states have different systems. Some give cars with “historic” or “antique” plates a pass (such as Massachusetts). But that type of vehicle registration often comes with mileage limits. Other states give old enough cars a free pass. California’s cut-off is 1975. But states must find a way to inspect every other vehicle that can’t greenlight its own emission.

California’s having a serous problem with the. You have to take your 1976-95 vehicle to a shop with an official BAR-97 Emissions Inspection System. Fewer shops bother keeping these systems running and calibrated, so inspection prices are going up, and many places even have a waitlist. This makes some sense, 1980s and 1990s vehicles are used less and less as daily drivers, while some are becoming niche collectors’ cars.

So Massachusetts just cut the BS. It discontinued any tailpipe test. Now, if a mechanic is completing the mandatory safety and emissions tests and gets a vehicle over 15 years old, they can just do a visual test. If it doesn’t “produce visible smoke” you’re good to go.

There’s some room for interpretation here. I suppose a dishonest mechanic could fail a vehicle that produces a puff of smoke on startup, hoping you’ll hire them to rebuild the engine. You could also get a mechanic passing a friend’s smokey old jalopy. But I’d say this classically Massachusetts law is a brilliantly simple solution to a complex problem.