Community Forums:

Bitch and moan all you want. The program is designed to get good, running cars off the road. To qualify for this buyback cars must have been registered for at least two years (e.g. passed at least one smog test). The car must be safe to drive (and the junkyard must test this... and the car is required to move under its own power). To add insult to injury, cars that are bought back are crushed and not parted out.

Also, it's not just the state of California that's buying back cars, various air quality management districts are doing so as well. They'll generally offer less money (around $750), and require that the car be of a certain age... but I don't think a smog test is required.

In talking with the smog tech who's smogged my past few Volvos, the older cars aren't terribly problematic. I imagine Volvos even less so as their smog gear is quite simple. There's a big effort to get older cars off of the road in the name of pollution. It's more or less a sham, and gaming the system isn't something I'd lose any sleep over.