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Comment by fabioborellini | Hacker News Reader

So, apparently there is no mandatory vehicle inspection in the US. Of course there isn't, it would violate the freedom to drive with an unroadworthy car.

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It depends on the state. Most of the ones that do exist are concerned with things like “do you have seat belts? are there rear view mirrors? do the turn signals work? is the check engine light on?” Classic/antique vehicles are also often exempt.

There's no way that car would pass an emissions test.

Not all states test emissions, either.

and some only do it for certain counties (Virginia)

I imagine this means cars with bad emissions end up living in states with no tests...

I'm not so sure on that. Some of the states that don't test are pretty damn inhospitable to cars and bad emissions is often the first sign of the end of the vehicle.

But there has to be a pretty lucrative trade in buying 'scrap' (emissions failing, $50 for-the-steel) cars in some states, and shipping them over to non-testing states where they can be sold as 'kinda old but totally usable for a few more years, $3000'.

In CA "The California Smog Check Program requires vehicles that were manufactured in 1976 or later to participate in the biennial (every two years) smog check program in participating counties." so it would be exempt based on the year that it was manufactured.

Yes. And the consequences of the pre-1976 smog exemption are all too clear to anyone driving behind an older car on the freeway.

There's no snow where I live, so these beautiful old heaps can stay on the road far longer than is healthy.

Unless the Official Emissions Test rules state that the tech performing the test has to start it, and that it can't be failed unless the emissions are too high when it's running...

Imagine my surprise when this year my 1996 Toyota was suddenly an "antique" by state law. Yearly inspection for antique cars is a safety check as you described - does it have working windshield wipers, lights and seat belts, but no longer any emissions check.

The state of Washington is an interesting case. They had annual inspections and then somebody ran the numbers and found that so few cars were being flagged, that it was an enormous waste of resources. They got rid of their inspection requirement.

More programs should be run like that. Set a goal, create a program, then periodically evaluate if the goal is still the same and if the program is effective.

Many states barely even check anything anyway. Out of six states I've had a vehicle inspection in, only one (Maryland) did more than check lights, wipers, brakes, and horn. Inspections seem to be more a revenue stream than anything else.

I think most states will fail a car with the "check engine" light on. For cars in the northeast, keeping the CEL off gets more and more expensive every winter. I had a truck that was getting a new oxygen sensor (there were 6 on the car) every year from age 8 to 12. The truck drove fine with them malfunctioning, but it couldn't pass inspection. My current Jeep, I assume is going to need about $2K every year in maintenance to get it to pass inspection. And the only reason to do the maintenance is the inspection, because it also drives fine.

> I think most states will fail a car with the "check engine" light on.

Except Maryland, none of the states I've done an inspection looked inside the vehicle. The states that did emissions would fail if check engine light is on, but if you disconnect the battery right before to reset it then they might pass it.

How do you tell if there is no vehicle failing because your inspection takes them off the roads or if it's because nobody wants them anyway?

Any kind of policing is self-denying. You can't evaluate it while it's being applied.

Contrasting that to California, I had an old well-maintained Volvo station wagon. California tightened the emissions standards on that model until it failed smog (at 110% of NOX limit), and made me upgrade the catalytic to an after market one. It then passed at 85% the NOX limit.

The state strongly encouraged me to send it to a Golden Shield mechanic. As part of the work, they "checked" the air intake filter and MAF sensor on the engine, which was, of course, filthy. It sits in a big plastic box on that car. Instead of reinstalling the filter, they jammed it in sideways and closed the box. I figured it out later, and spent about an hour picking bits of leaves out of the downstream air intake.

Of course, this cost 95% of the limit past which California gives you a free pass till the next smog inspection. (And almost 2x the market value of the car.)

I'm convinced the whole thing is a make-work program that's holding our air quality hostage. (And I'm strongly for tightening emissions standards!)

>I'm convinced the whole thing is a make-work program that's holding our air quality hostage. (And I'm strongly for tightening emissions standards!)

My state on the other coast does (or used to) openly admit in the official training slides for the inspection license that the reason they have safety inspections is so that holding a state inspection license (they do a single license that covers both emissions and safety) is lucrative and therefore license holders have a financial incentive not to fudge emissions inspections.

Pretty much every business who is supplied a customer base by force of law gives the quality of service you describe.

Yes there is, it varies by state. Author is in NC, same as me. There is a state-wide safety inspection but vehicles older than 30 years are exempt:

https://www.ncdot.gov/dmv/title-registration/emissions-safet...

There's also an emissions inspection that varies by county, but vehicles older than 20 years are exempt.

https://www.ncdot.gov/dmv/title-registration/emissions-safet...

Does it make any sense to exempt older vehicles that are most likely to fail these inspections? No, of course it doesn't.

New vehicles within the most recent 3 model years are also exempt.

Beyond 30yr the people driving them are doing it for fun and aren't going to generally be running bald tires down the highway in the rain and when they do they are doing it full well knowing that they have to be super careful. Basically they know what they're getting into and don't need the state to tell them why working lights are good and brake pads shouldn't make metal noises.

> Author is in NC, same as me

This hardly matters though because you don't need to register the vehicle in the state you're living in.

Every state I have lived in requires you to register the vehicle in that state:

NC: Within 60 days of establishing a permanent residence in North Carolina, new residents who plan to operate a motor vehicle must get a North Carolina driver license and title and register their vehicles with the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles.

https://www.ncdot.gov/dmv/help/moving/Pages/new-residents.as...

GA: If you own or lease a vehicle in Georgia, you must register it with the state. [...] New residents should register their vehicle no more than 30 days from the date they move to Georgia.

https://georgia.gov/register-vehicle

FL: When you move to Florida and become a resident you have 10 days to register your out of state vehicle.

https://www.dmvflorida.org/vehicles/out-of-state-car-registr...

CA: Once you officially establish residency in California, you will have 20 days to register your vehicle with the DMV to avoid late fees.

https://frontdoor.ucdavis.edu/relocation/car

The trick is to have your vehicles belong to a LLC, Montana is/was popular.

Might be illegal in some cases. Too risky to be worth it? Not at all. Just look at where most supercars are registered.

Just don't name your company $firstname $lastname LLC.

Top of this thread questions whether there are mandatory safety inspections. There are in most states for most vehicles, including NC, where the author lives and where this vehicle is very likely registered. Due to the age of the vehicle, it is exempt from inspections.

You went off on a tangent saying that you don't have to register a vehicle in the state you're in. You do in NC, as well as other states I'm familiar with.

You're now suggesting ways to evade the registration requirement, which may be illegal. This is in no way a rebuttal to the registration and safety inspection requirements that were being asked about at the top of this thread. Exploiting a loophole - including potentially breaking the law - to avoid a requirement doesn’t get rid of the requirement.

When it comes to bad things that happen on the road mechanical condition is a rounding error compared to things people knew were risky and did anyway. I see no reason we should invest more than a token amount of societal effort chasing the long tail like that.

The fact that you start your comment with "in the US" when anyone even slightly familiar with the place knows that pretty much everything about it is a state by state deal is a massive red flag for a comment that serves no purpose but to convert pearl clutching into internet virtue points. The fact that you end your comment with a back handed quip deriding some imagined notion of freedom more or less confirms it.

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