'Leno’s Law' for classic cars gets second chance at Capitol

This year’s iteration of the bill exempts collector motor vehicles made before 1986 from the requirement to get a smog check for the car to get it titled and registered with the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles. The exemption would also apply to those renewing registration every two years or transferring title of ownership.

“These cars right behind us are in that era, that vintage, that we’re specifically going after with this bill,” Cortese said at a press conference and classic car show outside the Capitol on Wednesday morning in Sacramento. “Sometimes people try to act like we’re doing something that’s a loophole for commuters and daily drivers, people who are just trying to show up for work, and it’s not that.”

According to a legislative analysis, some environmental entities such as the Bay Area Air District oppose the bill, claiming that passage would result in more vehicles being exempt from the state’s smog check rules, including older-model cars that are not traditionally collectible or classic cars.

“In effect, if a vehicle is at least 35 [model years] old and the owner obtains collector car insurance, a vehicle owner can pursue the exemption, which means vehicles whose emissions control equipment have been tampered with can bypass this important review,” the Bay Area Air District wrote in opposition to the bill.

According to a fact sheet promoting Leno's Law, many classic car collectors aren’t able to renew their vehicle registration because some manufacturers like Oldsmobile and American Motors are defunct and no longer able to provide service or parts. Finding original parts, one requirement to pass a smog check, is increasingly challenging, and for some collectors, impossible.

The bill was originally introduced in 2025 as Senate Bill 712, which Grove authored. That bill did not pass because it didn’t garner enough support in the Assembly despite passing the Senate, according to the state’s bill tracker. Grove said during the press conference on Wednesday that some slight changes were made to the bill this year from last year’s version, including a removal of requirements to get a specialty license plate, a requirement that classic car owners get specialized insurance and imposing mileage-per-year limitations on classic cars.

“We were so close last year with SB 712, and we listened to what all of you said,” Grove said at the press conference. “We clarify what a true collector motor vehicle is. It's a car at least 35 years old, primarily for shows and parades, and as Sen. Cortese said, it’s not about having it as your primary vehicle.”

Leno, who is known to be a classic car collector himself – look no further than his long-running televised car show "Jay Leno’s Garage" – lent his name to the bill again this year, but did not make an appearance at the press conference. Instead, the former "Tonight Show" host called Grove’s phone on Wednesday, telling press and classic car collectors that although he had to take care of his wife, Mavis Leno, that day and couldn’t attend, he still believed in the intent of the bill.

“It’s important to me because you don’t want to make criminals out of people,” Leno said on the loudspeaker on Grove's phone at the press conference. “This sense that if you have a car, that if your grandfather left you his Cadillac from the mid-80s and early ‘90s, it’s probably not going to pass [a] smog [test]. You don’t make them break the law by trying to figure out somebody who can rig it or do some sort of trick like that.”