Rob,

Beverly Hills from Redlands is like two to three hours on a great day, and five to six hours on a commute day.

Yea, no W124, Get your self 2000-2002 E-Class..Reliable, and cheap to own

The skinny on a California Smog:

You will not know the SMOG System until you fail, and when the problem is not a sensor, or vacuum line, but a hard part like an engine/intake/Transmission/Catalytic converter fail. I have had hard parts fail on two of my cars. One will learn real fast the California emissions game.

FYI, their a few counties in California where a smog is not required, but the car has to registered in that county, so I know Red-lands is encroaching near one of those county's, so your daughter may luck-out if she moves away from the cities.

The skinny on smog's is the vehicle must not have a check engine light on, and NOT be in the "not ready" state. I would say that a better than 80% to 90% of smog test only places are not kind to tell the person "Hey your car is Not Ready"(free pre-inspection) or "Hey you got a Check Engine light on" and "your car will not pass"(automatic failure of test), but what these clowns do is take your money, and tell you you did not pass because of "not ready" or check-engine light. The check engine is a no brainier, but "not ready" is tricky for the owner of the car.

When one resets any code. The car will be in a "not ready" state, and clear the ECU memory, so one will need to complete the drive cycles, and the drive cycles can be pain for some cars, yet some people can complete the drive cycle with 50 to 60 miles, and I have heard stories of people doing six to seven hundred miles and the car is still not ready. This applies to +96 cars(96 was the Boner year for Mercedes, so stay away from those cars-They will have documented test-abilities problems with the EPA). On the early cars, I have no clue with test-ability issues. The " not ready" is called I/M readiness, and their are ten-conditions that have to be met, but the EPA only allows any only ONE to be not ready of the ten for +96 through 99, yet for +2000 cars it CANNOT be the EVAP one. The best thing in California is to have a +96 car with OBDII, so one can use an OBD tool with readiness screen to look at the readiness flags.

The OBD test is about $40 to $50 if you pass the certificate is $7 to $9 additional. If you have a 96-99 car they charge $8 to $10 more, and before 96 they will charge $15 to $20 more.. Some offer pass or do not pay(once only), yet some will charge you less the next time if do not pass the first time. if the car just will not pass, they have a program to compensate the owner of certain repair dollar amount. At times, the state does have a buy-back of old cars that have failed a smog test, but it must have failed, and they give around $1000 for the car, and it must go to a recycler that crushes the car, and nothing can be sold from the car...Like previusly said the smog test is good for 60 days

If you are barley squeaking by with the hydrocarbons tail pipe reading. Fill the half the tank with E85, and half with Supreme Fuel...

I lucked out with one car as the idle emissions test were fine, and visual was fine too, but the tread-mil may be an issue with it as the transmission was skipping 2nd and 3rd gear, so I was not sure if the tail pipe output would be hampered because of that.

I was not so lucky with my 98S500 as the EVAP error was causing a low p0455(Gross Leak). Which a P0455 is a "Gas Cap Error"(missing cap). The tank pressure sensor was reading low pressure, but it was not the sensor(or bad cap/missing cap), but a leak on one of eight intake seal rubber rings that connect the upper an lower half of the intake manifold. I found the problem by using smoke machine, so the car is still in parts as i broke one of the intake bolts, and waiting for a welder to weld a nut... The car was just not generating a enough vacuum.

This Smog crap can be a can of worms...

Hope it helps

Martin