MONTPELIER, Vt. (June 2, 2014) — The Vermont legislature has adjourned for the year without acting on a bill to ban aftermarket exhaust systems that increase a vehicle's noise level.
Under the bill, violators would not have passed the state's required inspection and would have been subject to fines of up to $350, according to the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA).
The legislation “did not provide an opportunity for vehicle hobbyists to install and use aftermarket modified exhaust systems that meet an objective decibel limit under a fair and predictable test,” SEMA said. Instead, the bill “would have allowed inspectors to make subjective judgments on whether an exhaust system amplified the noise emitted by the motor vehicle,” the association added.