Fellow New Yorker's, looks like the party might over for us

[oldmansmonte]

So this passed the other day:

Governor Hochul Signs Legislation Cracking Down on Noisy, Illegal Mufflers and Exhaust Systems to Protect Public Health, Safety and Quality of Life

Governor Hochul signed legislation that increases penalties against motorists and repair shops that illegally modify mufflers and exhaust systems to make them excessively noisy — an act associated with aggressive driving that harms community health, safety and comfort.

www.governor.ny.gov

From what I can gather these are likely results:

1) Companies like Jegs and Summit will have shipping restrictions on aftermarket mufflers, high flow cats and cold air intakes to NY.

2) All exhaust violations are not only a $1,000 fine for the user(the next closest is $200 in Cali), but they automatically refer back to the shop that last did the inspect.

3) Shops like Muffler Man in Kenmore, NY who make a living making very affordable exhaust repairs for regular folk and a killing making top notch after market systems for those of us who like fun will be out of business. Like in short order. They employ like 14 people.

4) Shops that inspect my car(they will remain unnamed at this time) each year will also go under. Another big, multifaceted car business won't be able to inspect or mod jack sh*t.

5) Cops will have a huge grey area to pull over and mess with many different people.


The Wurlitzer car show every Monday in North Tonawanda NY has 600 cars each week in the summer. 80% minimum have louder or modified exhaust. Like many places theres and endless supply have classics and hot rods. Imagine all of those people and the people that rely on that business just to be left out in the cold. It's a massive industry and the values of these classics are 25k to 90k+ all day now, What if they all become paper weights because no one can put a silly sticker on them?

I drive my car from April to November as much as I can(weather permitting) and at best it ads up to 800 miles a year. That's it. Just sad.

 

[ck80]

So this passed the other day:

Governor Hochul Signs Legislation Cracking Down on Noisy, Illegal Mufflers and Exhaust Systems to Protect Public Health, Safety and Quality of Life

Governor Hochul signed legislation that increases penalties against motorists and repair shops that illegally modify mufflers and exhaust systems to make them excessively noisy — an act associated with aggressive driving that harms community health, safety and comfort.

www.governor.ny.gov

From what I can gather these are likely results:

1) Companies like Jegs and Summit will have shipping restrictions on aftermarket mufflers, high flow cats and cold air intakes to NY.

2) All exhaust violations are not only a $1,000 fine for the user(the next closest is $200 in Cali), but they automatically refer back to the shop that last did the inspect.

3) Shops like Muffler Man in Kenmore, NY who make a living making very affordable exhaust repairs for regular folk and a killing making top notch after market systems for those of us who like fun will be out of business. Like in short order. They employ like 14 people.

4) Shops that inspect my car(they will remain unnamed at this time) each year will also go under. Another big, multifaceted car business won't be able to inspect or mod jack sh*t.

5) Cops will have a huge grey area to pull over and mess with many different people.


The Wurlitzer car show every Monday in North Tonawanda NY has 600 cars each week in the summer. 80% minimum have louder or modified exhaust. Like many places theres and endless supply have classics and hot rods. Imagine all of those people and the people that rely on that business just to be left out in the cold. It's a massive industry and the values of these classics are 25k to 90k+ all day now, What if they all become paper weights because no one can put a silly sticker on them?

I drive my car from April to November as much as I can(weather permitting) and at best it ads up to 800 miles a year. That's it. Just sad.

Before the first hotrod gets touched by a single finger I'd expect every single last motor cycle needs to come off the roads first, good luck with that.

Hard to imagine allowing higher decibels for one than another.

Then again, sound is a funny thing. My 77 has no exhaust. It rotted away past the cab. It's quieter than all those gurgling fart sounding late model stock chargers...

 

[oldmansmonte]

Before the first hotrod gets touched by a single finger I'd expect every single last motor cycle needs to come off the roads first, good luck with that.

Hard to imagine allowing higher decibels for one than another

If this were logical and based on results it would be done by decibels. But it's not. It's New York State. It's going after ANY aftermarket exhaust mod of any kind. By the same logic they would go after motor cycles and shut down half the recreational boating industry.

But this is a multi phase problem in my opinion.

1st: I said to a friend this summer" "All these 18-22 year old idiots with straight-piped wannabe sports cars(fill in the blank here. 05' BMW's and Audi's, 2014 Ford Fusions and such) are going to ruin it for everybody.

2nd: The full size pickup truck guys who wives won't let them have a sports car/hot rod, so they buy the oversized, v8, full size pickup they definitely don't need and put loud exhaust on it that it definitely doesn't need and hammer the gas pedal at every light throughout the suburbs all day every day when they daily it.

New York cops won't touch motorcycles because they generally don't. Motorcycles have free reign over the streets to do as they please. And bikes have no emissions.

Boats are even worse. Boats have zero emissions and disperse their exhaust right into the water like a giant, straight piped water bong. You can run twin 454's with 130db exhaust and no emissions in a vehicle that runs in first gear only and serves little function to society and that,s just cool. Totally unfair.

 

[ck80]

For those interested, here is the actual bill text:

NY State Senate Bill 2021-S784B

Relates to certain vehicle equipment violations and fines.

www.nysenate.gov

Now, that said, I'm not well versed with legal precedent in NY. However, if I were in a position needing to challenge this bill, I would be careful of 2 provisions, take a couple steps to protect myself, and look at a couple loopholes:

1) it says no cutouts. That means: no cutouts. No way around that. You want one for the track, build a bolt in test pipe you swap in place of the cat when you go then swap back when you leave.

2) it says and stresses a benchmark noise level that an originally installed muffler and exhaust would have. (We'll get back to that later.)

So. Step one, there is, for now, a built in ambiguity. If you run a dash cam/go pro/data logger that can prove rpms at the time pulled over, there is a loophole. They didn't specify that an installed exhaust/muffler must limit the sound level to be equal at all operating rpm and speed... just that you will not generate more noise than an oem unit. If you pay to have a properly performed sound test showing that your exhaust at 3000rpm when you were pulled over makes less noise than the oem would at 7000rpm, technically you were, at the time of being charged, making less noise than what an oem system in good repair is capable of making. And the fact you didn't test your system at 7000rpm wouldn't matter... that would've been up to the prosecutor to have obtained a subpoena and paid to have a test performed on your exact car, and having specs for your personal car. And they won't want to spend the money for that. The prosecutors opinion doesn't matter. And you would have a test result while they wouldnt, leaving them without evidence. It's a technicality, but, had the legislature intended to close that loophole they could've have. But it only works if you have evidence to back those correlations up.

Step 2: not knowing what your local registration schemes are like, if there is a kit/assembled car class available that is intended to cover vehicles built using parts of others, and you choose to title it as such for your enjoyment, then if, when first built, you use straight pipes then you are effectively exempt. You just need to document that as the original build to give a FU to the powers that be.

Step 3: there is, legally speaking, additional ambiguity and conflicts for a judge. First, they use the word "excessive" which is an arbitrary term. There is no definition as to how you quantitatively define excessive for purposes of the law. It doesn't even apply a reasonable person standard or account for larger engines being louder, or for engine swaps. When dealing with older vehicles, there also would not be adequate records of the decibel limits of OEM equipment, which itself varied from engine to engine and so on so forth, and proving a tested OEM vehicle, even if they had a reading, was performing as originally built.

But the best news is it exempts 1979-down vehicles. While that's bad news, potentially, for 80-88 gbody owners, you can own and enjoy early models such as those damn sexy 78-79 monte carlos.

This brings you to step 4: an officer must have known that you had a 1980-up vehicle to issue the ticket to begin with. And many wouldn't. I'm not sure on NY evidentiary laws about profiling, but, I doubt any officer could tell on a courtroom stand a pictoral quiz as to which gbody, or squarebody, or any bodystyle that bridged either side of the exempt year was above or below the cutoff, especially once introducing 4doors and trim levels. That's going to mean a good chance of tickets dismissed possibly on those grounds.

Finally, have your work done over a state line, and buy your parts over a state line. There's stress on 'in this state' so they cannot get you on a presumption due to the modification portion of the statute since most of that language is tied to the act of sale or installation occurring inside NY.

So do your research, be prepared. None of that is actual legal advice, but, those are some speculative thoughts from my addled brain.

Edited for typos, hope I got em all.

 

[ck80]

Also omitted from my last reply is this distinction:

If you read section 31(B) which discusses motor vehicles, it differs from sections 31-(a) and 31-(b) which talk about motorcycles.

In the motor vehicle section. It plainly and clearly omits a penalty regarding use, and only covers 'sell, offer for sale, or install'..... in the motorcycle one it lists '[or use]'....again, clear distinction.

So, there's that, for whatever it's worth. Make of it what you will.

Piss poor bill pushed by activists what don't know their head from their @$$holes, except that both full of $hit and spew vile noxious content nobody wants. But, thankfully, they're so stupid they left all those loopholes for you guys.

 

[64nailhead]

This a way to stop the backfiring , exhaust farting idiots from backfiring through Long Island neighborhoods every time they shift or lift the throttle.

These are the dingle berries to thank for this crap. Inconsideration is generally the rule of the day for this crowd, to the point that they usually need to hire a janitor to clean up after them for cruise ins.

Regarding the law, the only thing clear about it is the ambiguity of the term ‘excessive’. Hopefully the local law enforcement will use this as how it was designed - to ticket the dingle berries, not the car enthusiast that enjoys old cars.

It does have a clear description of ticketable offenses for bike exhausts though. ‘Removable baffles’ are ticketable.

 

[Streetbu]

I'm not concerned about it. One my system is already done. Two, this is a NYC and Long Island problem, not upstate/Central NY. Shops that I go to, don't care about window tint, which is now part of NYS inspection, and I'm sure they won't care about exhaust modifications. Cops around here never pull over a vehicle for loud exhaust except for an excuse to look for something else, drinking, unsafe driving, drugs, etc.
Long story short, it's not an issue for me, at least I don't think it will be. Just another worthless law on the books.

 

[08Malibu]

I'm not concerned about it. One my system is already done. Two, this is a NYC and Long Island problem, not upstate/Central NY. Shops that I go to, don't care about window tint, which is now part of NYS inspection, and I'm sure they won't care about exhaust modifications. Cops around here never pull over a vehicle for loud exhaust except for an excuse to look for something else, drinking, unsafe driving, drugs, etc.
Long story short, it's not an issue for me, at least I don't think it will be. Just another worthless law on the books.

It’s amazing that most of NY is one way, but NYC seems to drive the whole state.

 

[69hurstolds]

Absurdity abounds. You'll only get a ticket if there's enough police force left that got the Covid shot. It's worse if your car or your garage catches on fire in NYC anytime soon.

They already have that ambiguously-written law here in SC, though. Nothing new. You can tell it was an idiot who wrote it because they believe a muffler will prevent annoying smoke. The way it reads, it's ok to HAVE an exhaust cutout, but you can't use it on the highway. But no year exemption for this law, so feel lucky. I feel bad for the electric vehicles that will be required to install a muffler to meet this law. "Every" doesn't mean "some" or only ICE. It says "motor" vehicle so that's what powers EVs anyway, correct? 🙂

Every motor vehicle shall at all times be equipped with a muffler in good working order and in constant operation to prevent excessive or unusual noise and annoying smoke and no person shall use a muffler cutout, bypass or similar device upon a motor vehicle upon a highway.

 

[L92 OLDS]

I would welcome a law like that in Michigan as long as it focused on motorcycles only. I despise Harleys with straight pipes.