As a couple of you mentioned, the CA issues has nothing to do with how
clean the conversion is, zetec or otherwise. The conversion with the
close-coupled metallic core cat we use has tested cleaner than the
stock close coupled cat, which is really odd since most OEM cats
perform better than aftermarket.. but I won't argue.   The problem
with CA is scale. They're after mainstream changes, and don't have the
ability to look to the small crowds unless they gain enough clout to
provide opposition(something the vanagon crowd alone simply cannot
do). It's about legislating fleet overturn, and there is nothing
inherently wrong with that, it is the most cost effective way to
tackle their size of problem... unless you get pinched in the process
like we do. In any case, enjoy driving your vanagons while you can, as
eventually it will reach a point where it won't make much sense to
continue ownership in CA, which is what they are trying to achieve.
Hopefully someone will have had the chance to offer a newer
alternative that can offer the same versatility before that day.

Jim Akiba