Working at or owning an auto repair and SMOG shop in Southern California can very rewarding. The first reward is the paycheck. The second is to help keep people rolling along in their cars, and the third is to help automobile drivers and owners meet the strict environmental standards of the state. It’s a great job – as there is a lot of demand. In a bigger city like Riverside, whose population exceeds 330k or in a small town like Temecula, which has around 114k citizens there is never a shortage of cars to fix.
But the challenges of this job are considerable. Dealing with the Bureau of Automotive Repair (BAR), especially, can be a headache. One day you are humming along just fine, and the next day, you receive a “notice” from the BAR alleging some sort of regulatory breach or compliance issue. Without solid legal guidance, traversing these regulatory waters—as confusing as they may be—can prove daunting. Just as you are a smart guy or gal, who knows how to smog a vehicle, you may need another smart guy or gal, who is a lawyer who knows how to defend against Bureau of Automotive Repair “actions.”
Stricter Regulations are Coming
Indeed, with California Governor Gavin Newsom and his administration focused on environmental (and other types of) regulations, you might expect the situation to get worse. Tougher and tougher emissions regulations mean more and more complex work specifications. You’ve got to be at the top of your game, and recognize that the “Refs” are out there just hoping for you to mess up. Places like Riverside, Menifee and San Bernardino, however, need stringent enforcement of emissions standards. Failure to comply with those can result in fines, or even a suspension of the business. So, yes, you support clean air efforts, but no you are just trying to “do your job.”
None of these activities is simple for an auto repair shop owner to juggle. As difficult as this work can be, the satisfaction of protecting a portion of our community’s vehicles via both safety and California environmental law (when needed) makes all of these challenges more than worth it. But, after all, if you’re a smog tech or auto repair shop owner, you signed up for the difficulty and the satisfaction of keeping California’s air clean.