SAN ANTONIO \u2014 Drivers in Bexar County, get ready for what might be an inspection sticker shock.<\/p>\n
The state\u2019s fourth most populous county, which includes San Antonio, is joining 17 other Texas counties in requiring emissions testing of vehicles for registration.<\/p>\n
All gasoline-powered vehicles between two and 24 years old must pass the new emissions test in Bexar County starting in November, and several businesses have already begun preparing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to do the registration, you have to do the emissions test. So it\u2019s going to be more like every year,\u201d said Saul Castillo of Bravos Auto Care in San Antonio.<\/p>\n
Castillo is one of many technicians who will tackle the upcoming change when people come into the shop ahead of registering or renewing a vehicle\u2019s registration.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not new. In California, they\u2019re already doing that. So Texas is catching on,\u201d said Castillo.<\/p>\n
Dallas and El Paso counties have required emissions tests for decades, and some counties have required the tests since the 1990s. Bexar County will become the 18th county in Texas starting Nov. 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the fuel system is not working right, obviously we\u2019re going to have smoke,\u201d said Castillo.<\/p>\n
The question is, does the county have enough equipment and technicians to meet the upcoming demand?<\/p>\n
Castillo says he took his certification test about a month ago and noticed many others in his industry locally doing the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are already prepared. We already have the machine. When I went to do the license test, there were like 30-40 people doing the same thing,\u201d said Castillo.<\/p>\n
As Castillo and his colleagues become certified for the new requirements, drivers will have some additional considerations at registration time.<\/p>\n
First, the cost. The charge for the test itself is $18.50, and the addition of a state fee puts it at $26.<\/p>\n
If the check engine light is on, the vehicle fails, and you have 15 days to repair it for a free retest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If the vehicle is over 25 years old, it\u2019s exempt, along with diesel and electric cars and trucks as well as motorcycles.<\/p>\n
The rule change comes as the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says the concentration of ozone at ground level in Bexar County is too high for federal standards.<\/p>\n
Bexar was added to Texas\u2019 list of emissions-testing counties as part of the state\u2019s clean air plan approved last year by the EPA.<\/p>\n
At Bravos Auto Care, the machine is being kept safe until it\u2019s time to put it to use, which Castillo estimates will keep them busier than ever.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, we haven\u2019t opened it. We\u2019re taking care of it. We don\u2019t want dust or anything. It\u2019s going to hit just with brand new equipment,\u201d said Castillo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2014 Drivers in Bexar County, get ready for what might be an inspection sticker shock. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[132,1570,102,138,6716,223,82,84,83,6293,27,1569,835],"class_list":["post-372663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-austin","tag-ctv","tag-dallas","tag-el-paso","tag-lauren-kendrick","tag-news","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-san-antonio-what-you-need-to-know","tag-texas","tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}