You’re cruising down Highway 1 in a pristine 1969 Mustang Boss 429, the Pacific sunset painting your chrome bumpers gold, when suddenly you remember: oh right, California wants to treat your weekend warrior like it’s personally responsible for melting the polar ice caps. Welcome to the Golden State, where we’ll legalize pretty much everything except common sense. I have lived in California for around eight years now, and I’ve always loved it here: the weather, the food, the beauty, the car culture… That’s why it’s even more disappointing that this state, the one that basically created America’s car culture, would basically turn its back on classic cars.
Senate Bill 712, lovingly dubbed “Leno’s Law” after its most famous champion, Jay Leno, should have been a slam dunk. Instead, it got the bureaucratic equivalent of being ghosted on a dating app — quietly killed in committee with all the ceremony of taking out the trash. And frankly, that’s not just disappointing. It’s downright insulting to anyone who believes that preserving automotive history shouldn’t require jumping through more hoops than a circus poodle, especially in a state as forward-thinking and culture-heavy as California.
“I’m deeply disappointed that once again, the California state Legislature did not prioritize California’s classic car culture and the enthusiasts who were relying on this measure to pass,” said Senator Shannon Grove. “Sadly, today California said ‘no’ to helping preserve these rolling pieces of history and let down classic car clubs across the state, from lowriders to hot rods and every American classic in between.”
Detractors will point out California already exempts 1975-and-older vehicles from smog checks, so the oldest hot rods and cruisers aren’t at risk. Leno’s Law simply would have moved the goalposts to include cars 35 years and older. However, that misses the bigger point: enthusiast cars of any era are a microscopic slice of the fleet and contribute almost nothing to California’s emissions.
Rare Cars, Common Sense
Leno’s Law wasn’t asking to exempt every gas-guzzling monster truck from environmental oversight. It simply proposed that cars 35 years and older — you know, the ones that see less road time than a gamer sees sunlight — should skip California’s increasingly Byzantine smog check requirements.
The numbers don’t lie, even if Sacramento prefers creative accounting. Classic cars represent a microscopic 0.6% of registered vehicles in California, according to the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA). That’s roughly 230,000 vehicles out of nearly 40 million registered cars and trucks. To put that in perspective, you’re more likely to spot Bigfoot buying a Venti drink at Starbucks than encounter a classic car during your daily commute.
To make it even crazier, these automotive time capsules average fewer than 1,200 miles per year, according to Hagerty Insurance data. My neighbor’s Peloton gets more action than most classic Corvettes. Yet California treats a 1987 BMW that gets driven to car shows twice a year like it’s single-handedly responsible for the state’s air quality problems.
Jay Leno, who owns more than 200 classic cars, put it perfectly: testing these cars isn’t just expensive, it’s often impossible. Smog testing equipment designed for modern fuel-injected engines struggles with carburetors, like I’m struggling with California’s decision. The result? Classic car owners pay up to six times more for testing that often yields meaningless results.
Money Is the Motive
Perhaps I’m being cynical, but it’s worth noting that California’s smog check program generates money for the state. Classic car exemptions would trim that revenue stream, and apparently, Sacramento values every penny more than it values the automotive heritage that helped put California on the map. State officials reportedly warned the board that the bill would cost the state money, basically confirming what this was really all about.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) opposed the bill, citing concerns about air quality and emissions reductions. But let’s look at some numbers that California DMV employees should understand: Classic cars are driven just a few hundred miles per year on average, compared to the 13,500 that regular cars are driven annually. It’s probably obvious to most of us from those numbers that classic cars are not even close to the main culprits of vehicle emissions.
Meanwhile, California continues to import electricity from coal plants in other states to charge its growing fleet of EVs. Still, somehow, a guy driving his 1965 Shelby Cobra to a weekend car show is apparently some environmental monster. According to the EPA, transportation accounts for 29% of greenhouse gas emissions, but light-duty vehicles (which include classics) represent only about 17% of that total. Within that slice, classic cars are such a tiny fraction that they barely register. We’re essentially arguing about crumbs while ignoring the whole cake. This is the same state that just reversed course on banning new gas car sales by 2035 (whoops!), yet somehow can’t find room for a few thousand classic cars that spend most of their time under car covers.
Cars are part of California’s rich history. The 1967 Camaro SS that inspired generations of enthusiasts. The 1970 Challenger R/T was the quintessential American muscle car. The humble 1989 Honda CRX proved that efficiency and fun could coexist. Each one tells the story of American ingenuity, craftsmanship, and the democratization of speed and style.
But in California’s bureaucratic logic, a 1932 Ford Roadster, which burns maybe 50 gallons of gas per year, needs the same regulatory scrutiny as a daily-driven SUV that consumes 500 gallons annually.
What Other States Get Right
What’s crazy is that California is often an innovative state that feels light-years ahead of the rest of the country. But apparently, progress stops here for California lawmakers. Texas exempts vehicles 25 years and older from emissions testing. Arizona does the same for cars built before 1981. Even environmentally conscious states like Oregon and Washington have classic car exemptions.
These states recognize what California refuses to acknowledge: classic cars aren’t the enemy of environmental progress. They’re museum pieces that happen to run on gasoline instead of sitting behind velvet ropes.
Virginia takes it a step further with antique license plates that cost just $50 and last forever — no annual renewals, no smog checks, just recognition that some things are worth preserving. Maryland offers historic vehicle tags with similar benefits. Even New York — not exactly known for regulatory restraint — has figured out how to balance environmental concerns with automotive heritage.
Meanwhile, in Cali, Senate Bill 712 had bipartisan support, backing from automotive groups, and endorsement from collectors across the political spectrum. It wasn’t asking for the moon — just recognition that a 35-year-old car driven 1,000 miles per year doesn’t pose the same environmental threat as a daily driver.
But it died in the Assembly Appropriations Committee without even the courtesy of a public vote. No debate, no discussion, just a quiet bureaucratic assassination that left thousands of enthusiasts wondering why their hobby is being regulated out of existence.
The bill’s sponsor, Senator Shannon Grove, called classic cars “infrequently driven, carefully maintained, and make up only a fraction of cars on the road.” She was being diplomatic. The truth is blunter: California killed a reasonable compromise to protect a revenue stream while virtue-signaling about environmental protection.
“We’re not asking for anything more than what every other state has,” Jay Leno said. “I mean, California is the strictest in the nation and will continue to be. I mean, I lived here in the 70s when they told you 100 days a year, don’t go outside. I mean, I’m all for emissions. I think it’s a good thing. I keep my cars running perfectly. But it’s such a small percentage.”
What We’re Really Losing
This isn’t just about smog checks or registration fees. It’s about whether California still values the entrepreneurial spirit and mechanical ingenuity that built this state. Every classic car represents someone’s dream made real — the factory worker who saved for years to buy that Camaro, the teenager who spent summers restoring a pickup truck, the immigrant family that saw their first Mustang as proof they’d made it in America.
These cars connect us to our past in ways that electric vehicles, for all their technological sophistication, simply cannot. They remind us that California was once the epicenter of American car culture, where hot-rodders and custom builders created the template for automotive enthusiasm worldwide.
When we make it harder to preserve these mechanical time machines, we’re not just losing cars — we’re losing the stories they tell and the connections they create. We’re choosing bureaucratic convenience over cultural preservation.
The solution isn’t complicated. Other states have proven that classic car exemptions work without environmental catastrophe. California could easily implement age-based exemptions with reasonable safeguards — perhaps requiring proof of limited mileage or collector insurance.
The state could create a “historic vehicle” designation similar to historic building preservation, recognizing that some cars deserve protection as cultural artifacts. Annual mileage limits could address any legitimate environmental concerns while acknowledging that these vehicles are fundamentally different from daily drivers.
California could even turn this into a revenue opportunity through special license plates or registration fees that fund automotive museums and preservation programs. Imagine channeling classic car passion into educational initiatives that teach young people about mechanical engineering, American industrial history, and the evolution of transportation technology.
The Golden State’s rejection of Leno’s Law represents everything wrong with modern governance: bureaucratic inflexibility, revenue protection disguised as environmental concern, and tone-deaf disregard for cultural heritage. It’s the kind of shortsighted thinking that prioritizes paperwork over people and regulation over reason. Hopefully, this isn’t the end of the fight.
“I am disappointed and frustrated that Leno’s Law was held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee hearing today, effectively killing the bill. I have been working behind the scenes to meet with legislators and decision-makers to give Leno’s Law the best chance,” said Senator Grove. “Unfortunately, the cost that was given to this bill by the affected departments was very high. Leno’s Law wouldn’t have made it this far without YOU, the enthusiasts, including Mr. Jay Leno. We have traveled a long way together the last nine months to fight for a change to a very outdated law. We have opened doors with the hard work we put into Leno’s Law, and I am confident our work will be part of the reason that change is made.”