The certificate and who issues it
The Smog Check program belongs to the Bureau of Automotive Repair, under Health and Safety Code 44000 and following, and the DMV enforces it at the counter: it will not register a car that owes a certificate. A licensed station inspects the car and sends the result to the DMV electronically. The buyer gets the vehicle inspection report; the certificate itself is a record at the DMV (BAR, Smog Check page, read 2026-10-22). The station collects a certificate fee the state sets under Health and Safety Code 44060, $8.25 on BAR's page, on top of its own price for the inspection, which BAR does not regulate.
A certificate is valid for 90 days (Health and Safety Code 44015(e)). The DMV asks for one at two moments: when a car is first registered in California or changes owners (Vehicle Code 4000.1(a)), and every second renewal (Vehicle Code 4000.3(a)). The transfer is the moment that concerns a dealer.
Smog before the car is offered for sale
The duty is yours, and it starts before the car is on the lot. Health and Safety Code 44015(f) makes a licensed dealer responsible for having a Smog Check performed on, and a certificate issued for, every vehicle it offers for retail sale. Vehicle Code 24007(b)(1) adds the bar: no one may sell, offer for sale or deliver a vehicle that does not comply with California's emission rules. Vehicle Code 24007(b)(2) puts the paper in the buyer's hand: the seller gives a valid certificate before or at delivery. When you send the transfer to the DMV, the certificate goes with it (Vehicle Code 24007(c)(1)).
A dealer's certificate lives longer than a private seller's. Under 44015(f) it is valid for two years, or until the vehicle is sold and registered to a retail buyer, whichever comes first. A car that sits on the lot for four months does not need a second test. The retail sale ends the certificate, and the buyer's next one comes at the renewal cycle.
The reason the duty sits on you: the DMV refuses the buyer's registration without the certificate (Vehicle Code 4000.1(a)), and a buyer who cannot register the car comes back to the lot. A car that fails after the sale is your problem either way, so test it before you price it. When you buy at auction, look the car up first: BAR's inspection history lookup takes a VIN or plate and shows every Smog Check on record (bar.ca.gov/inspection, read 2026-10-22). A car that failed last month is a failed car until it passes.
Which cars are exempt
| Car | On a change of ownership | Where it says so |
|---|---|---|
| Gasoline, hybrid or alternative fuel, 1975 model year or older | No certificate | Vehicle Code 4000.1(d)(6); Health and Safety Code 44011(a)(3) |
| Gasoline, hybrid or alternative fuel, four or fewer model years old | No certificate; the DMV charges the buyer an $8 smog transfer fee | Vehicle Code 4000.1(d)(7) |
| Diesel, 1997 model year or older | No certificate | Health and Safety Code 44011(a)(8)(A) |
| Diesel, 1998 or newer, 14,000 pounds GVWR or less | Certificate at any age; the model-year exemptions do not apply to diesel | Health and Safety Code 44011(a)(4)(D); Vehicle Code 4000.1(d)(7) |
| Diesel over 14,000 pounds GVWR | No certificate | Health and Safety Code 44011(a)(8)(D) |
| Electric | No certificate; there is no engine to test | BAR, Smog Check page, read 2026-10-22 |
| Motorcycle | No certificate | Health and Safety Code 44011(a)(1) |
| Any car with a certificate issued in the last 90 days | No new certificate, if the transfer is filed inside the 90 days | Vehicle Code 4000.1(d)(1) |
The eight-year rule is the trap. Since January 1, 2019, a car eight or fewer model years old skips the biennial inspection at renewal and pays an abatement fee instead (Health and Safety Code 44011(a)(4)(B)(ii); the fee is in 44060(d)). That exemption is for renewals only. On a sale, the line is four model years (Vehicle Code 4000.1(d)(7)). A dealer who hears "no smog for eight years" and sells a six-year-old car without a certificate has sold it in violation of 24007(b). BAR counts by adding to the model year: a 2020 model year needs its first renewal check in 2028, 2020 plus 8 (BAR, Smog Check page, read 2026-10-22). By the same count, a 2023 model year sells without a certificate through 2026 and needs one from 2027 on. Hybrids follow the gasoline rules. The family exemptions in 4000.1(d)(2) belong to parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren, siblings and spouses, never to a dealer.
Wholesale and dealer to dealer
A wholesale sale carries no smog duty. Vehicle Code 24007(b)(1) excepts a sale to a dealer and a sale for the purpose of wrecking or dismantling, and 44015(f) reaches only vehicles offered for retail sale. Whoever retails the car owes the certificate. At a public auction the consignor gives the buyer the certificate unless the buyer is a dealer, a dismantler or an off-highway user (Vehicle Code 24007.5(b)). A salvage pool instead hands the buyer a signed notice that California requires a certificate and registration before the car goes on the road (Vehicle Code 24007.6).
When a car comes to you from another dealer with a certificate already on the DMV's record, 44015(f) is the only rule there is: a certificate issued to a licensed dealer is valid for two years or until the vehicle is sold and registered to a retail buyer, whichever comes first. A wholesale transfer is neither, and no DMV or BAR page says more. If the record cannot show a dealer certificate under two years old, test the car.
Who pays, and the $50
In a private sale the seller pays, because the duty in 24007(b)(2) is the seller's. In a dealer sale the duty is the dealer's, but part of the cost may pass to the buyer in the open. Vehicle Code 11713.1(b) lets a dealer advertise a total price that leaves out taxes, registration, the tire fee, finance charges, the document processing and electronic filing charges, "emission testing charges not exceeding fifty dollars ($50)" and the actual certificate fee under Health and Safety Code 44060. Vehicle Code 11713.1(e) then requires the dealer to sell at the advertised price, those exclusions aside, whether or not the buyer saw the ad. So the most a dealer adds over its advertised price for smog is $50 for the test plus the $8.25 certificate fee. A dollar more and the dealer has failed to sell at the advertised price, a violation of 11713.1 and a ground for action against the license under Vehicle Code 11705(a)(10). Vehicle Code 11713.1(d) adds one rule of labeling: the testing charge may not be presented as a government fee. Only the $8.25 is the state's.
The buyer pays the DMV directly for two things: the $8 smog transfer fee on a car four or fewer model years old (Vehicle Code 4000.1(d)(7)), and at each renewal the abatement fee that comes with the eight-year exemption.
When the car cannot pass
A dealer with a car that fails has three doors: repair and retest at a licensed station, sell it to another dealer or a dismantler under the 24007(b)(1) exceptions, or keep it. Retail is not a door. Two things a private owner can do, a dealer cannot.
The first is the repair cost waiver. Health and Safety Code 44015(c)(1) has a referee issue one to a vehicle owner who asks, after the owner has spent the repair cost limit in Health and Safety Code 44017 (the statute says $450 and 44017(b) has the department adjust it for prices) and fixed every tampering defect. The waiver lasts at most two years, is issued once per owner for a given car (44015(d)(1)), and is accepted in place of a certificate of compliance "for the purposes of compliance with Section 4000.3 of the Vehicle Code," the renewal section. It is not accepted for a transfer under 4000.1, so it does nothing for a sale. A tampered car gets no certificate of compliance (44015(a)(1)), and a gross polluter is certified only at a test-only station or a qualified test-and-repair station (44015(a)(3)).
The second is BAR's Consumer Assistance Program. It pays for emissions repairs, up to $1,450 on a 1996 or newer car and $1,100 on a 1976 through 1995 car, for a registered owner whose household income is at or below 225 percent of the federal poverty level and whose car failed its biennial Smog Check (BAR, CAP repair assistance page, read 2026-10-22). Or it retires the car: $1,350 for any owner whose car failed its last check, $1,500 or $2,000 for an income-eligible owner, amounts in force since January 1, 2025 (BAR, CAP vehicle retirement page and regulatory actions page, read 2026-10-22). 16 CCR 3394.5 shuts out a vehicle undergoing a transfer of ownership, a vehicle registered to a business, and, from the repair help, a car that failed a check required for a transfer. Your inventory does not qualify, and neither does the car a buyer drove off your lot last week. A buyer who asks can be told the truth: the program is for the failure at their next renewal, not this one.
Out-of-state buyers and out-of-state cars
Nothing in 24007, in 4000.1(d) or in 44015(f) excuses a sale because the buyer will register the car in another state. The duty in 24007(b)(2) is written on delivery for sale, not on where the plate ends up. Deliver the certificate as on any retail sale and let the buyer's state add its own rules.
A car coming in needs a certificate at its first California registration (Vehicle Code 4000.1(a)), and the age exemption does not cover a car previously registered out of state (Health and Safety Code 44011(a)(4)(C)(ii)). One more line catches dealers who buy young cars out of state. A vehicle with fewer than 7,500 miles on the odometer when a California resident or business acquires it is a new vehicle (13 CCR 151.00), and a new vehicle that the Air Resources Board has not certified for California may not be sold, delivered or registered here (Health and Safety Code 43151). A 43151 violation is a ground against the dealer license by name (Vehicle Code 11705(a)(16)).
So is a bought certificate. Health and Safety Code 44072.10(b) makes selling a used vehicle that the dealer knows was fraudulently certified a ground for suspension or revocation, and a license revoked on that ground stays revoked for at least five years.
What changed in 2024 and 2025
- October 1, 2025: BAR's readiness monitor rule, 16 CCR 3340.42.2. Every OBD readiness monitor must be set for a car to pass, phased in as BAR's data shows a monitor can complete, with exceptions for cars with known design problems. It reaches OBD II cars, 1996 and newer gasoline and 1998 and newer diesel (BAR, fall 2025 newsletter, read 2026-10-22). For a dealer this means a car whose battery was disconnected or whose codes were cleared in reconditioning needs its drive cycle before the test, or it fails on monitors alone.
- January 1, 2025: the Consumer Assistance Program amounts above (BAR, regulatory actions page).
- July 1, 2024: updated inspection equipment and station requirements, 16 CCR 3340.17 (BAR, regulatory actions page). This binds stations, not sellers.
- Unchanged: the 90 days, the dealer's two years, the four model years on transfer, the $50, and the STAR program for directed vehicles.
Sources
- Health and Safety Code 44015, certificates, the dealer's duty, waivers; 44011, exemptions; 44017, the repair cost limit; 44060, the certificate fee and the abatement fee; 44072.10, fraudulent certification; 43151, uncertified new vehicles. Read 2026-10-22 on california.public.law and codes.findlaw.com, which carry the leginfo text.
- Vehicle Code 24007, sale of noncomplying vehicles; 24007.5, auctions; 24007.6, salvage pools; 4000.1, certificates on transfer and the exempt transfers; 4000.3, certificates on renewal; 11713.1, advertised price and the $50; 11705, grounds against the license. Read 2026-10-22.
- 13 CCR 151.00, the 7,500-mile definition of a new vehicle, read 2026-10-22 on law.cornell.edu.
- 16 CCR 3394.5, vehicles ineligible for the Consumer Assistance Program, read 2026-10-22 on law.cornell.edu.
- BAR, Smog Check: when you need one and what's required (bar.ca.gov/smog-check), read 2026-10-22.
- BAR, Consumer Assistance Program, repair assistance and vehicle retirement pages, read 2026-10-22.
- BAR, vehicle inspection history lookup (bar.ca.gov/inspection), read 2026-10-22.
- BAR, Regulatory actions, and the fall 2025 newsletter article on OBD readiness monitors, read 2026-10-22.
- DMV, Lesson Plan Guidelines for Used Vehicle Dealer Education Programs, OL 2000 (rev. 12/2007), topic 12.