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Ontario's Drive Clean Test

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The Drive Clean program helps Ontarians make smart choices about the way we maintain and drive our vehicles.

"Driving clean" through proper vehicle maintenance can:

  • Save on fuel consumption
  • Prolong your vehicle's life
  • Help protect the air we breathe

Improvements in vehicle-emissions technologies continue to reduce harmful emissions
from new vehicles. However, these vehicles can become heavy polluters too, unless they are properly maintained. And, many older vehicles that do not have the newest technologies will be on our roads for years to come.

Different programs for different vehicles.

Light-duty vehicles

Heavy-duty vehicles
  • passenger cars
  • vans
  • light trucks
  • sport utility vehicles
  • motorhomes
  • Diesel
  • Non- diesel
  • large trucks
  • buses

Owners' responsibilities

Under Drive Clean, your vehicle must have an emissions test to renew your registration and licence plates. If your vehicle needs a test, you will be notified by the Ministry of Transportation in the registration renewal documents.

As a consumer-protection measure, an emissions test is also required when buying or selling used vehicles with a model year older than the current calendar year. This helps ensure that consumers do not purchase a used vehicle with emissions problems.

Seeing results

Here are some very positive facts about - or resulting from - the Drive Clean program:

  • Drive Clean was introduced because motor vehicles are a major domestic source of smog and several other toxic contaminants. Smog can have serious health consequences for many people, particularly children, the elderly and those with respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses.
  • Through Drive Clean, vehicle owners have an opportunity to make a positive contribution to the quality of our air through good vehicle maintenance and by identifying and correcting emissions problems.
  • Starting in 2012, Drive Clean is phasing in a new testing technology that, by 2013, is expected to reduce emissions from on-road vehicles by 20 per cent over what can be achieved with the current test.
  • A well maintained vehicle that is using less fuel saves money at the gas pumps as well as emits fewer pollutants. Early identification of emissions problems also helps avoid major repair bills and results in vehicles that are more reliable, run more smoothly and will likely last longer on the road.

Drive Clean Compliance

All vehicles on Ontario's highways - whether registered in Ontario or out-of-province - are subject to the provincial Environmental Protection Act. The act prohibits excessive visible exhaust emissions and the alteration or removal of emissions control equipment. This applies to vehicles even if they have passed a Drive Clean test. In addition, the act makes it an offence to be involved in the production of a false Drive Clean pass or to try to use one for a vehicle registration transaction.