The old rule was once a car reached 10yrs old, it had to be "shakened" one a year. This led most people to do very little maintenance once a car reached several years old, and basically just dump it once it reached 10 years. There was also a second car tax at the time that made things worse. This situation created a couple of interesting things. Car prices dropped dramatically when they got to about 5 years old. I bought my 1989 Z in 1997 for about $10k
Anyways things have changed in recent years and aside from a 3year shaken for brand new cars, all years of cars are treated equally. Older cars still have to pass the shaken, so if they have problems they have to get fixed. However, it has been getting gradually easier to pass the inspection so this isn't as big a deal as in the past.
14:27:15 05/20/09
