In buying older vehicles, other than obvious signs of smoking, is thereany way to determine, without expensive equipment, whether the enginewill pass emissions? On a marginal vehicle that fails, how effectivegenerally is replacing the cat converter. Talking 70's vehicles V-8s,Ford 350 in particular.

You won't need expensive equipment for this test, but it will cost alittle to find the answer. Tell the seller you want the car to passthe emissions test in your state before you trade dollars. Or take thecar for a test drive and take it into the local service station for aquick emissions test. If it passes buy the car. If it fails, justreturn the car and let the owner deal with the DMV and a recordedemissions test failure.

How to buy used vehicle; emissions

Jan 04, 2007 21 Replies

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Roger Blake 19 years ago

You are an imbecile.

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Tegger 19 years ago

Roger Blake wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@moog.netaxs.com:

And upon further thought, I do believe my earlier asserion of Canada's having a cat requirement in 1981 is mistaken.

I remember certain models being sold -- as late as 1986 -- with the advertising tag line being that they ran on cheaper leaded gas. The Dodge Omni and Plymouth Horizon were two of them.

I think Canada only mandated cats across-the-board once leaded gas was banned outright, about 1988 or so.

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