Leno’s Law: Historic 49-4 Vote Clears California Legislature

Caecey Killian September 1, 2026 5 min read 0

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Leno’s Law just cleared the biggest hurdle it has ever faced. On a 49-4 vote, California’s Legislature sent Senate Bill 1392, the collector-car smog exemption known as Leno’s Law, to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk. For anyone with a pre-1986 project sitting under a cover in the garage, this is the closest California has come in two decades to loosening the smog check grip on true collector vehicles.

Leno’s Law creates a narrow, phased-in smog check exemption for qualifying collector vehicles built between 1976 and 1985. It does not touch the state’s existing pre-1976 exemption, and it does not open the door for daily drivers to skip a smog check. This is built for the cars that spend their lives under a car cover and come out for a cruise night, a charity show, or a Saturday morning coffee run.

What Leno’s Law Actually Changes

Starting January 1, 2028, collector vehicles manufactured before the 1981 model year would be exempt from California’s biennial smog certificate requirement. The exemption then expands by one model year every year after that, reaching vehicles built before the 1986 model year by 2033.

To qualify, an owner has to carry collector-vehicle insurance or be able to show the car covers fewer than 1,000 miles a year. That second option matters for anyone running an older muscle car on a standard policy instead of an agreed-value collector policy. The bill defines a true collector vehicle rather than handing out a blanket exemption, which is exactly why it picked up support from both sides of the aisle.

How Leno’s Law Cleared The Legislature

SB 1392 passed with a 49-4 vote, a number that tells you how far this bill traveled from where collector-car legislation usually lands in Sacramento. The bill is authored by Senator Dave Cortese, who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, with Senator Shannon Grove as principal coauthor. Cortese represents Silicon Valley. Grove represents Bakersfield. That pairing alone says something about who actually cares about keeping old iron on the road.

Jay Leno lent his name and his garage to the effort, and SEMA ran point on the advocacy push that got the bill through committee after committee. California’s lowrider community sent more than 1,700 letters backing the bill, and the FIA’s International Historical Commission weighed in from overseas, calling out the bill’s balance between air quality goals and automotive preservation. When lowrider clubs, restoration shops, and a European motorsport federation all show up for the same piece of legislation, that is not a small coalition.

Why This Isn’t A Blanket Smog Pass

Leno’s Law is not a giveaway for anyone who wants to dodge a smog check. The bill’s own language limits it to vehicles that meet a specific collector-use definition, and the insurance or mileage requirement keeps it from becoming a loophole for a daily-driven project car. Picture the difference between our own Project Street Reaper, a 1976 Camaro that logs most of its miles at cruise nights and the occasional back road pull, and that same small block Chevy pressed into daily commuter duty. Leno’s Law is written for the first car, not the second.

That distinction is also why the bill kept the support of environmental-minded legislators through multiple committee votes. Collector vehicles built between 1976 and 1985 represent a small fraction of registered vehicles in California, and the phase-in schedule gives regulators years to track the real-world impact before the exemption reaches its full 1986 cutoff.

What Happens Next

Governor Newsom now has to sign or veto SB 1392. SEMA CEO Mike Spagnola has publicly called on the governor to finish the job, and the bipartisan margin in both chambers puts real pressure behind that ask. If Newsom signs it, the first phase of the exemption takes effect January 1, 2028, covering vehicles built before the 1981 model year, and the cutoff climbs one model year annually until it reaches 1986 in 2033.

For builders sitting on a barn-find project or a car pulled from a lake bed, as the 1974 Camaro Z/28 recovered from Sebago Lake in Maine, a smog exemption changes the math on whether a car is worth resurrecting for California registration. It also matters for shops turning out full builds in the RestoMods 1957 Bel Air mold, where a numbers-matching drivetrain or a period-correct carburetor setup can make passing a modern smog test nearly impossible without stripping the car of what made it worth building in the first place.

What Leno’s Law Means For The Aftermarket

California is home to more than 1,500 SEMA member businesses, and the state’s automotive aftermarket supports close to 150,000 jobs and generates more than $40 billion in annual economic impact. Restoration shops, parts suppliers, and small builders all have a stake in whether older platforms stay registered and on the road instead of getting parted out or shipped to a state with friendlier rules. A car that can stay legally registered is a car that keeps buying parts, keeps showing up to events, and keeps a shop’s bay occupied.

AboutCaecey Killian

Caecey Killian covers builds, installs, and product features for Car Junkie Magazine. He has spent years on the floor of the garage chasing horsepower across SBC, LS, and modern muscle platforms, and that shop time runs through every article he writes. His current CJM project is Project Street Reaper, a 1976 Camaro built around a fresh SBC 350. He is also known for Project Mighty Mouse, a 1977 Chevy Nova running a 1962 small-journal 327 SBC, with build coverage published across multiple online automotive magazines. His media background spans long-form build documentation, install coverage, and product features across the magazine and the Car Junkie Magazine YouTube channel. He writes the way he wrenches: specific, honest about the mistakes, and grounded in real garage work.