Sorta on the fence about this, on one hand it would be far easier to register the 1980's cars i own, on the other i don't want to be sitting in traffic behind a mid 90's accord running rich enough that the non catalyzed exhaust billows more blue smoke than the diesel truck next to me.

Sure there are higher emissions standards for new cars, but there are still plenty of running cars out there that get along just fine with failing emission systems. The main thing keeping them off the road is the 2 year emission testing.

I hate paying the fees every time and it costs when my car fails*, but i value the air that i breath enough to justify the costs.

*last car (35yrs old) failed for high hydrocarbons but ran perfectly fine, no smoke/smells or anything. Tore down the top end and found that a failing PCV had coated the intake with oil sludge that was getting into the combustion chamber and burning off enough to fail.