The objective of this study was to simulate surface air pollutants and to examine reliability of mobile emission for CMAQ system using an observation-based approach in the Seoul Metropolitan Area. Accurate assessment of emissions from mobile source is one of the most debatable parts in the entire emissions inventory process. For this study, we evaluated the official emission inventories of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides ($NO_x$) using an observation-based approach. In this paper, we achieved VOCs/CO and $NO_x$/CO ratios derived from ambient measurements taken from June to August of 2005 in early morning (07:00~08:00). And we compared them with those derived from the emission inventory. Based on these ratios and on the assumption that official inventory of CO emissions is reasonably accurate, mobile emissions of $NO_x$ seem to be slightly overestimated and VOCs emissions significantly underestimated. The results of simulations using modified emission of mobile source were in closer agreement with the observation results except NO. Predicted NO values based on revised $NO_x$ emissions were considerably lower than the observed values. Using modified emission inventories brings the modeled values into closer agreement with observed ozone levels in Seoul. Especially in case of CO, $NO_x$ and VOCs emission, the modified values were suitable for simulating ozone levels in Seoul and Gyeonggi. However, ozone values predicted using the modified emissions were higher than the observed and predicted values based on original emissions. According to the 95 percentile ozone concentrations, emission revised by CO, $NO_x$ and VOCs from mobile source was the best for predicting high concentration.