Differences between the Federal and Califonia emissions equip. on 2000 Chev. Astro

I have an broker/buyer searching auctions for a 2000 Astro for us here on the west coast. The biggest auctions (most selection) are in California and as a result most of these vehicals have code YF5 (CA emissions).

Not living in CA I am hung up on not wanting a vehical with CA emissions equipment (poorer gas mileage, more difficult/complex problem troubleshooting, etc.)

What is everyones opinion? Is this no big deal and should I just not worry about it?

Does anyone know what the differences are (if any) between a YF3 and a YF5 code Astro after about 1998.

Hoping someone has some info...it could greatly expand our search choices.

Thanks

Reply to
smcdaniels
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Old info, valid in the '70s and '80s when CA cars had a great deal more plumbing and widgets and hairdryers. Nowtimes, the primary differences in most domestic cars is Emissions *certification*. That is, CA cars have been through the CA *certification* requirements, which require additional tests on *each* car produced, while Fed/Can cars have been through only the Fed/Can certification process, which does not require each vehicle to be tested before release for sale.

My opinion: Don't be gunshy about a CA car.

DS

Reply to
Daniel J Stern

And my addendum:

Unless it's from mountainous regions of California...

Purely from empirical observation, it seems that folks in mountain areas beat the living bejeezus out of their vehicles - I've been where I'm at for the last 6 yeears, give or take a couple months, and while I've personally only been through three vehicles (One threw a timing chain and blew itself to hell, one was the victim of a wreck that I just plain wasn't able to dodge - it was going strong until a PT Cruiser got slammed into my lane and I couldn't stop or get over far enough in time to miss it, the third is still doing quite well) I've watched:

My landlord/landlady go through 5, including a 1-ton Ford, three Mercedes and a Honda. My next-door neighbor go through (No this isn't a typo coming...) 8 "soccer-mom-mobiles" - two windstar type minivans, a couple of explorer-style rigs, and several others that are simply too generic for me to keep straight. The neighbor two doors doown has been through 4 pickups and three cars The neighbor on the other side has gone through 3 pickups and 4 civic/rabbit/tercel/corolla category cars.

And that's just the closest folks on my road. Others on this same chunk of mountainside have gone through multiple vehicles as well, and practically everybody gripes about how this road in particular "eats" vehicles. The weird part is, nobody (at least on my road) really does any kind of "hotdogging" - MAYBE a bit lead-footed coming up the hill, but nothing I'd really consider outrageous, or expect to cause failure. Regardless, the seemingly endless parade of blown engines, fritzed trannies, and screwed up suspensions coming down off this hill must surely keep the tow-truck guys and mechanics in this town smiling all the way to the bank. Which, IMO, doesn't bode well for any vehicle from this or any other mountain area.

Stick to "flatlander" vehicles, and you may be OK. Get into "hill hoppers" (figure that anything coming from north of about Marysville will be in that category, along with anything that's been asked to "do the grapevine" more than once or twice a month), and right or wrong, I personally would be expecting trouble.

Reply to
Don Bruder

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