I've never heard of sniffer tests around here...all done by the car's self-diagnostics.
More ways the government is trying to fund it's shitty spending habits...make someone else foot the bill. Nickle-and-dime everyone to death by putting small fees, taxes, and bullshit on every aspect of life. Force people to keep buying new cars, and buy them often. Saving isn't in the government's interest, they want everyone to buy buy buy and spend spend spend, then bitch and moan about the economy they created.
The whole "green" thing is such a load of BS to me. In a global, or even cosmic scale the human race is little more than a trifling detail. Nothing we do is going to destroy the planet. The climate is changing? So what....science has demonstrated our planet goes through fairly predictable cycles of climate, and did long before humans and our "gas guzzlers" existed. But people are vain, and always need some cause to hold on to backed by a sense of artificial urgency. If they email instead of write a letter, they're helping save the planet. But the problem can't require too much effort, since people are also lazy. It's easy enough to say, re-use a water bottle, but I don't see people deciding to pick up trash on the highway(without a sheriff van nearby). They can go around and tell everyone how they're "doing their part" by changing a few utterly pointless details about their life.
Everyone was worried that we were killing too many trees in the 90's. Had to use recycled paper, cut down on paper usage, digitize everything. Save the forests, they'd be gone in a few years. Of course that was a load of crap, and pretty much blew over in a couple years when nobody had to start using plastic toilet paper. Now climate change is the big hot topic. Gotta "go green", drive small, burn corn. Same idea. Government and politician funded junk science backed up by taxpayer dollars and shoved down everyone's throat through the media.
One of my friend's moms drives a Prius, and while she's far from the worst ultra enviro-hippie I've encountered, I don't think it's possible for a hybrid owner to keep their trap shut about it. "Oh, I've saved xxxx tons of Co2 by switching cars, and reduced my carbon footprint(another buzzword that makes my blood boil), and I saved $100 last month on fuel". I got 46mpg last fillup!
Wooo...46mpg. My Honda Magna 500, built 25 years ago, would return 50 pretty regularly. Current overseas market bikes, packing 125-250cc, with modern technology are returning hundreds of mpg.
Another one of those "change, as long as it's easy" things. Think of the "carbon footprint" savings if everyone rode a motorcycle? Even the brutal V8 muscle car equivalent, the Vmax, returns 40mpg, or better than probably 90% of the cars on the road. But riding a motorcycle is "too much" change. There's a modicum of risk and inconvenience involved, and all the trend lemmings want to help desperately, but not if it actually requires doing something. If they were going to buy a new car anyway, and the new car does everything their old one did, and is massively hyped as being cool and eco-friendly, they'll buy a Prius instead of an SUV. A modern 250 bike makes Prius mpg numbers look silly, but I don't see any Rebels or Ninja 250's parked at Whole Foods or those goofy gourmet-organic grocery stores. A helmet would mess up their hairdo (with products not tested on animals, of course), there's a chance their hemp clothes would get wet, and the road is a lot more scary when you can actually see it beneath you. No, they're not that committed to their cause, despite real facts heavily favoring motorcycles. It takes less resources to build. Initial cost is a small fraction. Cost to own is much less. But motorcycles lack the eco-friendly stigma and media hype, and are therefore out of the question.
"Going green"...bah...humbug. Long live V8's and carburetors.
