I have never lived in an area with semi annual inspections, what is that experience like? Do they lift the car, does the inspector have a clue, what are the wait times , and how long does it take? Our BMV is great in N.W. IN, never much of a wait, and the only problem I ever had was when a worker could not see the VIN on an A pillar I had to wait for some one with better vision as they are not allowed to enter the vehicle.

In MA, it's actually done by repair shops -- you schedule an appointment as you would for any other repair, bring the car in, get the sticker, pay $29, and drive off into the sunset! The inspection takes about a half-hour -- I'll post a picture of our car's last inspection sheet to show you what they do.

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"Senior Luna, your sense of humor is still loco... but we love it, anyway." -rickymay ____ "Your sense of humor is still loco... " -MBeige ____ "Señor Luna, your sense of humor is quite järjetön" -Delibes

1982 300SD -- 211k, Texas car, tranny issues ____ 1979 240D 4-speed 234k -- turbo and tuned IP, third world taxi hot rod

2 Samuel 12:13: "David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die."

Hey thanks, I do remember doing a truck sticker in IL that way. They were sticklers on lights but other than that a waste of time and money. Sounds like easy money for the shops.

Sort of, the inspection portion is a break even at best. ( the actual procedure / items checked is state dependent )

There is a pile of paperwork, site " inspections " by the state police, ordering stickers , dealing with customer complaints that their junk car won't pass and such beyond the 1/2 Hr. Getting repair work is what will make some money.

Some shops will tack on extra work to pass if you're ignorant. I had a shop in Queens ("Great Bear Auto", Queens Blvd.) try to fail me on things that were either minor (tiny chip in a taillight edge) or non-existent (loose steering idler -- asked him to show it to me under the car, and it wasn't loose).

After giving the manager a piece of my mind, I was kicked out the door and told to never return (without ever being billed for the $10 inspection fee, hah) -- I took the car to a reputable mechanic for inspection. It did need some work, but not even close to the amount required by those thieves.

In general I am against inspections. The government already controls WAY too much of our lives and sucks up WAY too much of our income.

I would have to see some very compelling evidence that inspections significantly increase safety before even considering such a thing.

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617 swapped Toyota Pickup, 22-24 MPG, 50k miles on swap

Did you forget to leave the twenty spot on the front seat?

Reminds me of this prank call..

Auto Mechanic Prank Call - YouTube

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1995 E300 Diesel

Pretty much.

This would be an interesting topic for a separate thread. I lived in NY for years and the annual safety inspections were a general nuisance, but if you kept your car in decent shape, passing was rarely an issue.

I since have lived in western states with no inspections at all, and believe me, there are some really scary pieces of scrap rolling down the roads. I don't think it's a bad idea to have the inspections to help at least try to keep some of the most dangerous cars off the road, i.e. the ones with lights that don't work, bald tires, or no brake linings. Now, when they fail you for things like a cracked windshield, yeah, that's getting stupid. But actual safety items? I don't want those POS's on the road.

Driving a car is a privilege not a right, you are using roads owned by various local , county, state, fed Govts and can cause injury to other road users. Having some controls is a good thing.


Inspections are a must in salty and / or hilly areas as body rust , suspension wear , brake wear can make a car unsafe without the driver knowing about it.

I don't actually mind inspections (assuming a mechanic who isn't a crook) -- but there have also been studies that they don't actually decrease accidents after they're instituted or increase them after the programs are pulled.

You would think that, but we don't have inspections around here, and we have plenty of hills and mountains. They don't salt much on the valley floor, but they use enough in the Tahoe basin that you can tell a Tahoe car pretty quick. We have our share of accidents, including fatalities, but I can't remember hearing of one caused by a mechanical failure in the nine years I've lived here. It's always the squishy bit behind the steering wheel that's faulty.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.

I'm also curious about safety inspections in Michigan. Prolly not if the subject of this thread is still on the road. Why didn't Mr. Penny Pincher take the free filters? Is it because he has confidence in his backflush cleaning method? Or because he'd lose bragging rights about the original filters? It's amazing how rational thought can be completely sidetracked by pride.

I've lived in the west and on the east coast. Where a car can live for 20 years out west with little attention, here in NH the metal termites turn them to dust in 15 if the vehicle's not taken care of. The question of whether or not annual inspections are a good idea deserves its own thread. I've got plenty of stories from my time in both areas to back up my assertions that inspections are a good thing. Anyone who believes a human made, mechanical device can run indefinitely lacks a grasp of man's imperfections and the universe that contains them. Unfortunately the highways are full of those people.

For Mr. Penny Pincher, if I had reason to believe the car was safe I'd just enjoy the fact that he seems to be working harder and spending more to prove that his lack of maintenance plan is carrying him along just fine. I'm sure things are going to get exponentially worse soon.

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When life gives you lemmings... make lemmingade.

Safety checks in Nova Scotia, Canada are now every two years here. Generally I approve of them. Otherwise a lot of people would be driving around with very dangerous conditions in my opinion. Remember we use a lot of salt here as well.

The modern tendancies are to build up high milage these days for a lot of owners. Contributing to wear factors quicker. Driving stuff till it fails actually costs even more in many ways. We also have many owners today that really do not ever even check their oil levels in engines or have any concept of mechanical things in general.