no, from my understanding your emissions exempt if you put under 5K on your vehichel....for instance i got an exempt last year...i was riding my bike a lot because gas was expensive and my truck is a 2002....if your theory was true they still would have done emissions on my truck because it came factory with all emissions stuff....it goes on miles driven....makes sence to do it that way too because if you have an old clunker thats driven 13,000 miles a year and it's putting a hole in the ozone layer somethign should be done so it conforms to the origional factory emissions stuff if their were any....