Backfire: Classic California cars serve another purpose for some...
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I live in a fairly decent neighborhood in the SF Bay Area, but unfortunately, one of the streets behind my complex seems to be... mostly made up of some pretty run down places with some pretty sketch people. Some surrounding apartment complexes are kept up well, some are most certainly not. And Mister Disdainful and myself did live in a cheaper (but also much less safe) neighborhood not too many years ago. This area is still much better.
On my neighborhood walks, I noted some of the houses had much older vehicles. 60s-70s vehicles, mostly. I've noticed the odd car like this in local neighborhoods too. Except, these cars don't appear to be project cars in the least. No, in fact, they are either completely trashed on the inside with the usual "mentally ill" garbage fill, or they simply look like poorly-maintained daily drivers. The aren't covered. They don't sit for SUPER long periods of time. They do, USUALLY, have up-to-date tags (probably out of necessity as they are 9/10 times parked on the street).
Of the DDs, I have driven some pretty crappy and barely-running rustbuckets in my time... believe me.... and sometimes when you're desperate for wheels, you do what you gotta do. A handful of '80s cars, but mostly '90s and early '00s vehicles living their $1,500 afterlife (or less). I get it.
Well, one of the neighbors fired up one of those cars about 10 minutes ago. It barely runs. It is loud as FUCK. It stalled a few times. They weren't revving the snot out of it, but they WERE giving it some revs to keep a rarely-driven, or poorly-tuned carb, kinda lubed up. They probably can't afford to have it tuned by a mechanic. Or they are just in that poor of condition and they can't afford the parts.
Then it hit me.
The smog laws in the State of California, exempt vehicles MY 1976 and older. All of these vehicles are EASILY '76 or older. We're talking Ford Torino, older 3rd gen Chevy Malibu, older C/D body Chevy trucks, the odd F100.
So these people are simply driving vehicles that they don't have to smog; they don't have to care about the state of disrepair their vehicle is in (no inspections either), or if their exhaust has rotted off, etc. For any variety of reasons.
I just hope they never get into an accident in those things.
Things that make you go "huh".
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Government regulation making it harder for low-income people to maintain a standard of living (in this case, to be able to afford to have a car on the road)?! Next thing you know, you'll be telling me the sky is blue!
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@rykros-the-disdainful I had a strange, related experience a couple years ago... walked out to my car in the morning to find someone had used tin snips to cut the tags off my license plates. They had no use for the plate itself, just needed good tags.
I'm also pretty sure that a lot of people in my neighborhood are using inkjet printers to make themselves reasonable-looking trip permits... I can't tell you how many 20-year old shitboxes people are driving around, but, like, they just bought them at a dealer? No way. Kinda shitty, but then again I'd probably also never go to the DMV again if I didn't feel I had to.
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@rykros-the-disdainful Yep, this is an unfortunate side effect of decades of bad policy in CA. Sorry about living in SF. I live over in Richmond (city of, not the neighborhood). When my old CEO used to deny my attempts at getting a raise, I used to tell him that no one moves to California to live in Richmond.
Your observation also explains the age of the RVs you see in some of the rougher spots of the city. Usually late 60s/early 70s winnebagos. It's always really amazing that some of those things still run. 30 year old tires, a decade since the last oil change, and just limping from street sweeping zone to street sweeping zone trying not to get cited.
I had to get a package back in August last year from the UPS customer center at 320 San Bruno Ave. My aunt was with me (she's from out of state) and with none of the business in that area being open (mostly startups which are never coming back), it was all people living in cars. I got back in the car after 5 minutes grabbing my package and my aunt was like "get us the hell out of here".
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@mm54 There are a hell of a lot of better ways to help poor people than letting them drive cars that are exempt from smog rules.
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@rykros-the-disdainful In WA, the cutoff was 25 years old - I am certain a number of older cars in the high cost of living Seattle metro jungle were still on the road just to dodge emissions tests, too. However, emissions testing is now discontinued, as I guess the amount of really old cars still on the road has been deemed insignificant, and the cost of enforcement isn't worth the benefit - maybe WA is progressive in some positive ways after all.
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@facw said in Backfire: Classic California cars serve another purpose for some...:
@mm54 There are a hell of a lot of better ways to help poor people than letting them drive cars that are exempt from smog rules.
Yeh, probably more of an unintended consequence in this case.
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@rykros-the-disdainful OK so I have had this idea in the back of my head for a while now... I'm not sure it would work but maybe?
What if there was a nonprofit whose job it was to basically ask OEMs for free parts, for charity right? And then convince shops to donate a couple of hours each week to fixing poor people's cars for free? Could also take donations of parts cars and have volunteers pull em apart. You'd need a big lot/warehouse for that aspect, if you went that way... but the first part wouldn't be too bad.
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The cutoff here in Portland is 1975. I gotta be honest: I have considered looking for pre-75 cars for daily drivers to avoid inspections... what always stops me is gas mileage. The running and driving cheap old cars around here are usually land yachts, and I'd rather deal with smog tests than 10 mpg.
The cars people live in around here are not that old, but usually at least 25 years old, and usually with Washington plates. Or a smudged-out illegible trip permit in the back window.
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@mark-tucker Not gonna lie - while it's not a hard rule I'm definitely looking for a pre-76 project here. Seriously contemplating daily driving an old Beetle...
@beefchips I really, really like that idea. Seems something that should be pretty doable, there are numerous charity bike shops in the area, same with other services. It seems like a charity garage would be a very good idea.
Even staff it work students and folks wanting training in a new career under the supervision of 1 or 2 paid mechanics and you could both turn it into job placement + public service...
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@jminer said in Backfire: Classic California cars serve another purpose for some...:
Even staff it work students and folks wanting training in a new career under the supervision of 1 or 2 paid mechanics and you could both turn it into job placement + public service...
Now there's an angle I hadn't thought about, great idea!
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@beefchips said in Backfire: Classic California cars serve another purpose for some...:
tin snips to cut the tags off my license plates
What are these tags you speak of?
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@66p1800inpieces said in Backfire: Classic California cars serve another purpose for some...:
@beefchips said in Backfire: Classic California cars serve another purpose for some...:
tin snips to cut the tags off my license plates
What are these tags you speak of?
the month and year stickers that you get when you register, and then paste on the plate. Thats what they're called around here anyway... unless... wait, did you take my tags???
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@beefchips My wife has worked a lot in job training and non-profit (in healthcare) so I'm used to having folks both provide cheap labor and learn a well-paying skill at the same time.
I'm new to CA, to highschools have auto-shop programs?
You really have my wheels turning here, coming up with cash to actually start this would be problematic as space, lifts, insurance, tools and connections would be needed but this is a hell of an idea. I'm going to ruminate on it for a bit and bring the idea up to the Mrs. She's the one that knows the ins and outs of non-profit stuff.
Edit: I found these guys on a google search, but not much else.
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@jminer said in Backfire: Classic California cars serve another purpose for some...:
@beefchips My wife has worked a lot in job training and non-profit (in healthcare) so I'm used to having folks both provide cheap labor and learn a well-paying skill at the same time.
I'm new to CA, to highschools have auto-shop programs?
You really have my wheels turning here, coming up with cash to actually start this would be problematic as space, lifts, insurance, tools and connections would be needed but this is a hell of an idea. I'm going to ruminate on it for a bit and bring the idea up to the Mrs. She's the one that knows the ins and outs of non-profit stuff.
Hmm, I would check with contra costa comm college over in Oakland. I took a bunch of welding and shop classes there and I would not be surprised in the least if they also offer auto shop.
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@rykros-the-disdainful Purchasing a pre-76 car is a no strings attached price, if it drives you can legally use it. Cars that actually passed smog demand a premium in the shitbox tier.
I've personally experienced buying a non smogged cheap car and not being able to register it because it won't pass smog. Clean 323 with a valve tick comes to mind.
If repair money isn't on the table then the last thing you need is your unregisterable car getting impounded then being sent the tow bill you can't afford and being out transportation. Better to keep an old shitbox running then deal with that mess.
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@beefchips There's a mechanic shop somewhere in my area that frequently fixes up cars for free for people who can't afford to have them fixed. I forgot what it's called, though.
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@jminer There's a mechanic shop somewhere in Idaho, I believe, that does something like that. They'll find people who can't afford to have their car fixed and then fix up their car for free. Or they'll buy an old car, fix it up, and donate it to someone who needs a car but can't afford one. I can't remember what the shop is called, though.
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@beefchips Ohhhh, I get it now. I thought they cut actual tags or something attached to your plate with wire ( I was thinking like little tags on electrical meters or truck cargo locks). Your saying, you have normal month and date stickers and they cut the metal plate to take the stickers. Wow. What piles of crap would do that. I mean maybe peel them off with a razor. That would still suck, but a little less.
NJ used to do the stick on tags for registration but they stopped many years ago. Or, I am just out of compliance. Ok, I just read up on it. NJ started plate stickers for registration in 1999 but as a collective we were too stupid (or just genius enough) to use them correctly. They were discontinued in 2004 ish.
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@66p1800inpieces Yeah, where I've been, New York and Texas both had switched to windshield stickers (though the Texas registration document still included a "void" spot where the plate sticker would have been attached. Massachusetts still uses the stickers on the plate.
I normally think of "tags" as referring to the plates rather than the stickers though? And in any event, getting some fake ones (or taking the whole plate) seems way easier than snipping off the corner.
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@facw said in Backfire: Classic California cars serve another purpose for some...:
(or taking the whole plate) seems way easier than snipping off the corner.
That's what I thought too! I have actually seen that happening too... side of the road, two dudes in two cars, one pulls out new plates from his trunk, they both start pulling the other car's old plates and installing the new ones.
I called the cops to report possibly stolen car/plates but mehh... no way they got there in time
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When are we doing a bay area oppo drive?
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@facw like actually giving them decent housing, decent wages, and decent living?
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@nickhasanexocet said in Backfire: Classic California cars serve another purpose for some...:
When are we doing a bay area oppo drive?
This is a very good question!
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@jminer said in Backfire: Classic California cars serve another purpose for some...:
@nickhasanexocet said in Backfire: Classic California cars serve another purpose for some...:
When are we doing a bay area oppo drive?
This is a very good question!
I'll organize something when my Miata is back on the road. Until then, I'm a bit stuck anyways!
