Follow up question to auto inspections thread

JOCCO · Dec 18, 2009

Well no one likes them and if they did away with them here it would be worse than the flintstones!!! Now the question what do states that don't have them do to keep junk off the road? Bald tires, lights out, excessive rust, You get the picture.

JayinNY · Dec 18, 2009

If you have to ask that question, my answer is,it cant be that much of a problem!

MarkB_MI · Dec 18, 2009

In Michigan, I'm told that the state police automatically stop any vehicle they see with two or more equipment violations.

If I'm not mistaken, safety inspections were originally a federal mandate, then the feds allowed each state to decide whether to have mandated safety inspections or random checks.

kyhayman · Dec 18, 2009

I'm not sure, guess I should be walking. Here, a light out gets you pulled over. As to excessive rust I cant say I've ever seen excessive rust, at least to the point where the vehicle might break in half. I've had a few that needed a piece of plywood in the floor board. Now tires, I've seen a lot of slick tires in the parking lots. Cant say I've ever seen it in the paper for a citation and the insurance adjuster in the other room tells me she's never seen bald tires listed as an accident cause.

rhouston · Dec 18, 2009

I warned a Marine in N.Y. on wednesday that the tires on the front of his Gov. vehicle were bald, he went in the ditch that afternoon.

Your insurance adjuster has it all lumped under road conditions/weather instead of actual cause. No wonder we should not believe statistics.

Spook · Dec 18, 2009

I knew a guy that p.o. a cop at a traffic stop. The cop wrote $500 in equipment violations. Had the car towed. Kinda "attitude adjustment".

keh · Dec 18, 2009

If there has been any problems with poorly maintained cars causing a lot of wrecks in SC after they quit inspecting cars, I'm not aware of it. A bigger problem is drivers driving without insurance or licenses. Quite often the highway patrol inconveniences the public by having traffic check points and rounding up people with outstanding warrants and the no licences and no insurance. At any time they can stop a car for obvious mechanical deficiences. What a lot of people don't seem to realize is that after a car passes inspection, it has a whole year to wear out tires or whatever before another inspection is due. With times hard I suspect a lot more people will be wearing the tires out closer to the air inside and inspections wont stop that. Back in the day most people wouldn't replace tires until there was one layer of cord showing.

KEH

kyplowboy · Dec 18, 2009

Not try'n to be rude but what do you call "excessive rust"? Bald tires, well they put you in the ditch. A light out will get you rear ended and pulled over if the popo see it. Popo see's a tail light out you get pulled over and get a $50 ticket.

Please post a list of places that don't let rusty rides in, I will have to stay away.

Dave

thurlow · Dec 18, 2009

No state inspections in TN; the larger cities do their own.....can you say 'patronage jobs'; don't know when I've heard of an accident caused by a vehicle; drunks, cell phone users, tail-gaters, cars full of teenagers, people driving too fast, people driving too slow, etc.

Anonymous-0 · Dec 18, 2009

haven't had vehicle inspections here for as long as I can remember... don't see much "junk" on the road... guess with the winters we have around here (below zero temps and howling winds/drifting snow) the problem just kinda takes care of itself...lol! as others have mentioned, if a vehicle gets too bad, john law just starts writing an' calling the wrecker...D

schmuck · Dec 18, 2009

When I was in the NAVY, I roomed with a guy for awhile who was from Pennsylvania, and according to him, any rust holes had to be patched so that they were air tight. His preferred method was to use Bondo. Now, that was in the late 80s', so I'm not sure if it is the same, or worse or better by now.

kyplowboy · Dec 18, 2009

Wow! Now that's a money grab!

ChrisinMO · Dec 18, 2009

We have lived at various times in Minnesota, Maryland and Missouri. Here in Missouri, the inspection is about as rigorous as the inspector doing it. Generally it is rather lenient. When we lived in Maryland it was an inspection only when you purchased the vehicle and were getting it registered. In Minnesota, there was no vehicle safety inspection at all. I have noticed no significant difference in the number of "unsafe" vehicles on the road no matter what the inspection requirements. I will say that in Minnesota, without inspections, there were much fewer crappy cars than elsewhere.

Christopher

old · Dec 18, 2009

Inspections for the most part do little or nothing to keep a car or truck safe on the road. Just because a car will pass today does not mean it will in 2 months. Lights do burn out and brakes do go bad etc etc and most places that do them are either one way or the other. Some will pass almost any thing with in reason and others will not pass any thing hoping to make a buck on a false repair. Plus I have found that depending on the inspector it is how they read the book so again it is a crap shoot at best and would be better off that the cops did thing like give out tickets for things. And of course what about the person who does not use his turn signals, or turn on his lights when they should etc. etc no inspection will help that

ChrisinMO · Dec 18, 2009

Years ago I had a friend who was a longtime mechanic at a dealership. I asked him once what, in his opinion, was the safest car on the road at that time. His answer was illuminating. "Any vehicle with a sober driver."

One of my previous bosses had driven OTR truck for more than 2 decades. He had never had an accident, though he freely admitted that he had many opportunities to have accidents. He just avoided them.

I guess ultimately, safety on the road depends upon the driver.

By the way, I agree with you about the Missouri inspection thing. Everyone around here knows who to go to for an easy inspection. Won't name names though.

Christopher

old · Dec 18, 2009

Ya a lot of times it is who you know not what they do. The place I go knows that I pre-inspect my cars/trucks so he also knows he is very unlikely to find a problem with what I drive. But again I will not name names because in doing so it could cause some one some problems but ya again Missouri has talked about doing away with them but I think they don't because of the little bit of $$ it brings in but at least it is now a 2 year thing instead of the old 1 year thing

ChrisinMO · Dec 18, 2009

I gotta check. I think my pickup and dump truck, both registered commercial, are still one year inspections. If not, then wonderful. That much less money I'll have to spend this month!

Christopher

Spook · Dec 18, 2009

I was told that about 1 in 5 traffic stops in Michigan yield somebody driving without insurance. And about the same for driver's licenses.

Ric Ks. · Dec 18, 2009

Im not sure of the exact year but I think it was in the late 50's or early 60's that Kansas stopped inspecting autos.
In the early 70's my buddy had a 1950 ford 4d that was rusted so bad the post between the left side doors was only held to the car by the roof and baler twine to the seat bracket. Id say that was excessive rust. Ran good though and too fast for the 4 bald tires.

Heyseed · Dec 18, 2009

Here in VA it is every year, pretty thourough inspection. It can be a pain but does catch things that can be dangerous. The whole program is run by the State Police. Pitty the fool inspector that gets caught breaking the rules. That being said I have had several tell me they could fail just about any car on the road.

Dan from WI · Dec 19, 2009

Wiscoinsin did away with inspections back in the 60's as I recall. As wyod mentionedpreviously, the cold weather culls the fleet and pretty much keeps the junk off the road. The state also has equipment standards that officers can use to make owners fix their jalopys...

JOCCO · Dec 19, 2009

KYplow Bad frame, holes in sheetmetal are not allowed. The cop can take vechile off road for any or this (bald tires, lights out, unregistered or insured, loud exhaust and many others) They have discretion defect card, summons or wrecker.

Hobo,NC · Dec 19, 2009

(quoted from post at 01:11:55 12/19/09) Well no one likes them and if they did away with them here it would be worse than the flintstones!!! Now the question what do states that don't have them do to keep junk off the road? Bald tires, lights out, excessive rust, You get the picture.

The state use to do the inspection here but turned it over to private enterprise,,, why cuzz the state could not make money at it if they could do you think they would let it go,,, they loose money sell'n liquor also...

The good olde lick'em and stick'em,,, a product of inspections preformed by private enterprise cuzz the state sets the rate so low that's the only way SI's can be performed as a money maker,,, even then you need minimum wadge help to do the inspection....

Now we have OBD11 emission inspections,,, the state allows any one that can afford the equipment to preform and make (attempt) repairs do emission inspections. Originally to be a OBD11 inspector you were going to have to have a ASE L1 advanced engine performance certification,,, the state was going to keep a track record of your repairs,,, if you failed X amount of repairs you were going to loose your licence to inspect...

But know the lick'em and stick'em guys won the fight...

State inspections don't work its plain and simple least were its run by every quick stop on every corner,, here if your car/truck is 35 years old are older no inspection is required :roll: ,,, inspections here are in my opinion a rip off of the consumer,,, the consumer should be raising ell,,, goes to show ya how the gov. can train folks to open up their wallet...

JDemaris · Dec 19, 2009

Every major study indicates you are incorrect. But, I assume you don't believe in such studies.

Seems you believe that the average person must be forced to do things right, and some how the people in government doing the forcing are somehow "special" and more trustworthy than us average people?

scot in pa · Dec 19, 2009

Actually, it's no sharp edges on the body. Most rust holes have edges sharp enough to cut someone. Basically it's lookin out for the a hole that's messin with your car. We had a 82 Dodge farm truck that we built a pipe bumper and put square truck taillights on it. When we sold it to a guy tht was working for us, he had to cover the factory taillight openings or put factory taillights in because the edge of the taillight opening weren't rolled, and therefore "sharp".

I ran my plymouth breeze with no inspection for 5 years. Guess what, when I took it for inspection, it passed!

djw · Dec 19, 2009

I have had a New York inspectors license since the '80s. and worked as a mechanic in several different shops. I can say this, there were always people that would bring their cars in with the wipers worn out so bad they would be scratching the wind shield, tires smooth as slicks with steel cords hanging out, brake pedals nearly going to the floor. Now I also know the majority of people do maintain there cars and trucks, but what about the driver that can't see out their wind shield in a rain storm and runs over your daughter? I never tried to make money on people , I just tried to make unsafe vehicles safe. As far as the new emissions testing, I think that is uncalled for, not a safety issue, if people want to drive around with CEL on, use more gas, run crappy, let them. Dave

old · Dec 19, 2009

On those it depends on the license place. Some will say if it is 90 or older inspection you have to re do but some say they are good for the 2 years. And as far as one year plates if they are the 18,000 or more yep once a year every Dec. That is why I switched back to 12,000 on my truck and then just cross my fingers I do not get stopped LOL. Ya been scaled out at 14 plus a few times

JOCCO · Dec 19, 2009

The way i look at it it gets the auto a going over atleast once a year and corrects a few things. The current issue seems to be rusty brake lines.

Hobo,NC · Dec 19, 2009

(quoted from post at 21:57:17 12/19/09) The way i look at it it gets the auto a going over atleast once a year and corrects a few things. The current issue seems to be rusty brake lines.

Don't need brakes as long as the horn works

Don't need a horn long as the brakes work...

Follow up question to auto inspections thread

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