After making sure my license plate sticker was up to date, I proceeded to check other things when I got to an old emissions test result sheet. It said that I am due for another emissions test and the last day is at the end of october. What a coincidence. So, hypothetically, let’s say I never go, what happens? (I’m in the state of IL)
I don’t know anyone who has been asked for license, registration, and proof of emissions test.
Here in New York the emissions test is part of the annual vehicle inspection, the passage of which earns you a sticker on your windscreen next to the registration sticker.
If you get pulled over (or are even parked on a public street) with an expired inspection sticker, you get a ticket.
Don’t know about your state; there isn’t any sticker on the plate or windscreen?
In California the smog check place enters your data into a computer hooked up to a central machine in Sacramento. The results of the test are automagically entered as well to keep the shop honest.
When you go to renew your registration, the DMV computer will tell the clerk if in fact your test has been done.
So in California, at least, you can’t complete your registration without it.
Well, in my case, I got a reminder letter saying I had until date X to get the emissions test or my license would be suspended. So, that’s probably what would happen to you.
Likewise for PA. Emission tests are done along with safety inspection, such that if either is missed, your registration renewal won’t be issued.
If you miss the first deadline you will receive another notice (a pink one) in about 3 months, reminding you in stern language that you must comply by the next deadline (within 3 months IIRC) or your license will be suspended. If you do not comply by that deadline they will suspend your license. I don’t suppose they’ll come knocking on your door with a warrant but it will be entered into the database and if you are stopped for something else it will show up when the cop runs a check.
And if you should fail an emissions test you will be given a computer record of the deficiencies and how to correct them. A new pcv valve, a tune up, etc. Again you will be given another deadline. Back to square one.
I checked it out and I now understand… but that leaves me in a weird situation…
my car is registered in the Chicago area where my family lives however,I’m about five hours south at school. the county in which I live at school does not require an emissions test. there isn’t even a close emissions facility…
so where does that leave me? do I still need to get one? can I opt out of it by providing proof that I live somewhere else such as a utility bill?
I see that the site says that it is based on where the car is registered. my car is registered with the Chicago area address but my insurance says I live in southern Illinois.
In California, you’re required to report to the DMV a change of address. IOW, you’re transferring your vehicle’s registration from one area in the state to another. I imagine that IL might have the same requirement. There shouldn’t be any requirement for you to renew the registration in a county in which you no longer reside. Check with the local DMV office.
I wish California had the same concept, though, regarding emissions tests. I’ve long felt that it’s a silly thing for my vehicle, which has only been in Los Angeles a total of perhaps four hours, to pass a test required to keep Los Angeles air less polluted. CA’s requirement is state-wide.
You have to go to summer emissions school.
To do that, I think you’d have to change the address on the car registration. We have the same situation in Colorado, where only a few counties require emissions. If a car is registered in one of those counties, it must have an emissions test, no matter where it does its tooling around.
What the hell? What if you don’t drive the car anymore, possibly because it’s disabled? I’d hate to live in an area with emissions because I’d lose my license simply because one of my cars has a broken crankshaft…
I discovered to my lament (in California) a few years ago that once a car’s registered it has to stay registered. If it’s not going to be driven, then it has to be registered as non-operational. Failure to register it on time as either operational (regular renewal) or non-operational incurs a higher registration fee for either status.
California has MANY rural areas that do not require emissions testing… ALL of southern cal requires it but much of the northern part of the state requires it only once when you register your car for the first time… always PI$$#d me off because I lived in SO cal and peeople living in the eastern Sierra didn’t have to pay exhorbatant amounts of money to keep their cars on the road…
I escaped the zoo last year 
moved to NE Washington… no smog checks here… so I get to pollute it up the right way
JR
I’d work on getting the address changed, pronto, as well as telling the agency that sent you the emissions statement about this fact. However, you might well find that you’re now in trouble for not having your registration updated promptly - I suspect there is some regulation about having to change that within X days/months of a move.
I know someone, a resident of an IL county in which emissions testing is required, who was pulled over for a minor traffic infraction within the last year. Since she’d also failed to meet the emissions testing deadline on that car, her license had been suspended (all of that came up in the computer, they don’t ask you for proof of emissions testing since they have that data), and the cops ended up hauling her off to the station for dealing with that hassle. I don’t know the details of the resulting fines/points/etc. but I suspect it wasn’t pretty.
If you look at your notice, right above the postcard, you will see (bolding and snips mine):
BTW, I don’t know for sure, but I have always been under the assumption that while you are away at school you don’t have to change your residency. As a matter of fact, I know some friends who were at school with me from out of state. They had been in state for several years, but didn’t get in state residency. They still had their out of state driver’s licenses and everything.
Also, a couple of others had gotten in state driver’s licenses, lived in state year round, etc. but the school refused to give them in state tuition unless they could show a “clear intent” of staying in state after graduation. AFAIK, the only ways to do that was to buy property or marry someone who is a resident.