California Air Resources Board

SACRAMENTO– The California Air Resources Board (ARB) recently settled cases with 17 off highway recreational vehicle (OHRV) manufacturers and dealers (listed at the bottom of the page). The settlements stem from alleged violations of state emissions certification regulations.

"On a per-mile basis, off-road motorcycles and All Terrain Vehicles produce as much as 118 times the smog-forming pollutants as modern automobiles," said ARB's Executive Officer, Michael Kenny. "Therefore, we must strictly enforce these regulations."

Over the last three years ARB inspectors visited numerous OHRV retail stores, found uncertified or incorrectly certified OHRVs, and cited the manufacturers and dealers accordingly. Under California law, every OHRV offered for sale and / or sold in California must be properly certified with the ARB. Some of the OHRVs vehicle identification numbers (VIN) were not coded correctly. The violating manufacturers and dealers sold over 1400 illegal off-highway recreational vehicles in California.

The Board approved the off-highway recreational vehicles regulations in 1994. These rules established emission standards and test procedures for off-highway vehicles including: off-road motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles; engines used in specialty vehicles and go-carts; and golf carts. In 1998, ARB amended these regulations allowing some of the OHRVs not meeting California's strictest standards to operate in designated areas, but only outside peak ozone periods. In addition, specialty vehicles and go-carts were taken out of the OHRV regulation and put in other ARB regulations. In order to comply with these allowances vehicles must be certified as non-compliant and be clearly marked with a "C" or "3" in the eighth character of the VIN. The C or 3 allows the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to identify the vehicle, using a red sticker, as a "limited use vehicle." These are vehicles that do not meet the more stringent emissions standards but are still legal to be operated in designated areas during low ozone seasons. The dates of the seasons, generally late spring to mid-fall, vary according to local air quality management district regulations.

To resolve the alleged violations, these non-complying OHRV manufacturers and dealers settled with the ARB and have paid penalties totaling $131,000. Most of the settling manufacturers have quickly certified the OHRV engine families in dispute and many of the manufacturers have gone to great lengths and costs to correct the miscoded VINs or to repurchase and replace the uncertified OHRVs. Because the alleged violations were discovered during early implementation of the 1998 regulatory amendments, the penalties are significantly less than available statutory maximums. In the future, ARB will seek substantially higher penalties for similar violations. Cases against other non-complying OHRV manufacturers are still pending.