Car maintenance is, without a doubt, one of the liabilities that the average citizen spends much more money on than he or she should. Many automotive experts and independent third party market watchers actually estimate that the average citizen spends about twice the amount of money that he or she should on car maintenance over a lifetime. One way to make sure that the car maintenance that you pay for does not come close to this figure is to get a smog check on a regular basis, especially if you drive your car in a highly trafficked metropolitan area.Getting a smog check is required in places such as California, which will not allow cars that emit too much smog on the roads for external environmental reasons. However, there are definitely internal reasons that getting a smog check is important as well. Unless your car is extremely old, a vehicle emitting smog definitely means that the vehicle is clogged up in some way, and the waste products that should be leaving the car are staying in the car, clogging up the internal pipes much as a McDonald's burger clogs up arteries, and causing internal strife which is destroying the car from the inside out.This is why it is definitely in the best interest of all drivers to get a smog check every two years, whether or not the locality in which you drive has a law that mandates that you must have one. A car that does not emit smog does not have to work as hard to drive itself, which will save you tons of money on gas and oil, and also save you money on things such as the brake pads, the air conditioning filters, the shocks and struts, and even tires.The cars that most people drive resembled the human body in many ways. If the body is clogged up with all kinds of fats and sugars, then it will not be able to perform to its highest ability. The same is true for cars. If smog is being emitted from a car, this is definitely a sign that the car is clogged up in some way, and the car must be unclogged to save you money on car maintenance.