thanks for the clarification John.

by your logic then.........
a person needing a good cat for a vanagon  in Ca.......
could just buy a new cat in another state, install it......
and be fine.
Though I can just imagine big cat companies saying they're not allowed to
ship such cats to a Ca address.

Subaru's btw, in vangaons...........run so cleanly that sometimes they'll
pass a sniff test with no cat.
scott
turbovans.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Bange" <jbange@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Monday, February 09, 2009 4:48 PM
Subject: Re: new CARB rules for cats in Calif?

>> if I sell this 85 Adventurewagon I have for sale to someone in
>> California........
>> I suppose they would automatically need the 'new standard' cat in Ca for
>> it,
>> to get through the van's first Ca smog check ?
>
> Nah. The law only says you can't SELL a cheapie cat in CA. When you go
> to the smog check station, all they really check is (1) if it's there,
> and (2) if it works well enough for the vehicle to pass the test. Even
> then, you could have a hollow cat shell and an extremely well tuned
> engine and you might still pass. The problem the California Air
> Resources Board has in implementing its vendetta against "old" cars is
> that it can't retroactively tighten the smog standards on older
> models. They'd love nothing better than to be able to declare all cars
> more than 15 years old "illegal gross polluters" and make everyone buy
> a $40K hybrid, but they can't. A 1978 car originally sold in Arizona
> can only be held to the 1978 federal emissions standard. An 85 sold in
> California can only be held to the  1985 California standard. Things
> like this catalytic converter standard are just one of the dozens of
> nasty little tricks they've come up with to make it harder to keep an
> older car on the road.
>
> --
> John Bange
> '90 Vanagon - "Lastwagen"
> '90 Vanagon GL - "Wiesel"