MASSACHUSETTS

Every year it gets harder to get an old car to pass state inspection here.  My car didn't pass just because the muffler was slightly too loud.  There was no exhaust leaks, no hole in the muffler, nothing really wrong, just a muffler that's a bit louder than normal.  The hillbilly inspector sat in my car and revved the engine up to about 5000 RPMs, and said "nope, that's too loud."
My mechanic replaced the muffler for free because it was under warrantee.  He described the noise as "throaty."  OK, no problem, new muffler.
One turn signal bulb was burned out.  I replaced that at NAPA for a buck.
I'm still driving with a reject sticker.  There's just a little bit of rot above one rim on the passenger side.  I'm not talking about gaping holes and jagged metal sticking out, just some rust.  The one hillbilly says, "If I get caught giving you a sticker with that body rot, I'll get fined five grand."  He said it had something to do with fues possibily leaking into the passenger compartment.  I examined the location of the rust and declared that was obviously impossible.  He just shrugged and said, "It ain't me, the state sets the rules."
On a related note, my mechanic either installed the muffler improperly, or installed a defective one.  This became evident two days later.  When I start the car I can hear that familiar rumbling and coughing noise. 

So I have to spend more time and money getting a patch job and yet another muffler.

If you think this story is tedious, imagine how I feel!  I'm living it!

The state claims the stricter standards are about safety and  emission standards.  I think there's more to it, but I don't want to get too political on the non-politics side of the board.

What are the state inspections like where you live?

What are the state inspections like where you live?
We have none here in Minnesota. Unless they do in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area, but I don't think they do either.

They have this e-check thing here in Ohio, actually it's only in a few counties within Ohio. Mine is one of them. It's a simple inspection they hook some thing on the exhaust and test for levels of various pollutants, make sure you have a gas cap, catalytic converter, and they check pressurization of gas cap. It costs $19.50. You have to have it every 2 years. It's strictly for emmissions, they don't care about rust, thank god. I guess compared to some other states it's not too bad. You need to show an echeck certificate to renew your registration.

I don't have to worry about it because under Georgia law any car 25 years or older doesn't have to take the test.

We have both inspection and emissions tests.  I don't know if they are as tough as Mass, though.  Except for the stray bulb my car has always passed.

The county I live in, in Ohio, is phasing out the E-Check, (emissions testing) at the end of this year. I feel sorry for the people who have birthdays in December. They'll still have to pay the 19.50 to have it done.  :(

In Pennsylvania....we have both emissions and inspection. Most garages that you take your car too...are very anal and picky...and if you have one thing wrong with your car, they fail it...however, I go to this old guy with a little garage in a small town...and he passes my car all the time.



Erin :)

They have this e-check thing here in Ohio, actually it's only in a few counties within Ohio. Mine is one of them. It's a simple inspection they hook some thing on the exhaust and test for levels of various pollutants, make sure you have a gas cap, catalytic converter, and they check pressurization of gas cap. It costs $19.50. You have to have it every 2 years. It's strictly for emmissions, they don't care about rust, thank god. I guess compared to some other states it's not too bad. You need to show an echeck certificate to renew your registration.

Inspection used to cost $15.00 before they started emissions testing about eight years ago.  Now it costs $29.00 for every inspection even thought you only have to get it done every two years.  Massachusetts bureaucracy stinks in so many ways, you'd have to hire a team of bureaucrats just to keep track of them all!
>:(

GWB wrote
I don't have to worry about it because under Georgia law any car 25 years or older doesn't have to take the test.
Never mind that it's harder for a car to last 25 years up here, the state is trying to take as many old cars off the road as possible.  I think the there's an unholy alliance among Naderite liberals, the auto industry lobby, and poor-people-hating Romney Republicans.  The liberals are anal about safety and environmental issues, the car dealers want people to buy new cars (not hang on to old ones), and the Republicans think anybody who drives an old car must be poor and it's imperative to give poor folks a hell of a time about everything. 
What if I ljust happen to like being free of car payments?  I guess if I'd rather drive an old Accura sedan that's all paid off instead of paying $300 a month for big shiny SUV I must be crazy and don't belong on the road anyway!
::)

Quirk wrote:
In Pennsylvania....we have both emissions and inspection. Most garages that you take your car too...are very anal and picky...and if you have one thing wrong with your car, they fail it...however, I go to this old guy with a little garage in a small town...and he passes my car all the time.

There are notorious garages in every given area.  "Yeah, don't go to Joe's Mobil station, those guys hassle you about everything!," and so forth.  There used to be more easy garages, but even the easy guys are cracking down because the state's doing sting operations and fining everybody a zillion dollars!  I wish the "fair and equal credit" clause applied to vehicle inspections!  That way I could just cruise on over to Rhode Island.  They'll give any sh*tbox a sticker in RI!
;)

In England any car older than 3 (yes three) years has to have an inspection every year. This covers absolutely everything from brake pads to indicator lights. A car obviously has to pass and it is quite stringent. Garages and mechanics make a fortune, as they must do in Massachusetts!

MASSACHUSETTS

Every year it gets harder to get an old car to pass state inspection here.  My car didn't pass just because the muffler was slightly too loud.  There was no exhaust leaks, no hole in the muffler, nothing really wrong, just a muffler that's a bit louder than normal.  The hillbilly inspector sat in my car and revved the engine up to about 5000 RPMs, and said "nope, that's too loud."
My mechanic replaced the muffler for free because it was under warrantee.  He described the noise as "throaty."  OK, no problem, new muffler.
One turn signal bulb was burned out.  I replaced that at NAPA for a buck.
I'm still driving with a reject sticker.  There's just a little bit of rot above one rim on the passenger side.  I'm not talking about gaping holes and jagged metal sticking out, just some rust.  The one hillbilly says, "If I get caught giving you a sticker with that body rot, I'll get fined five grand."  He said it had something to do with fues possibily leaking into the passenger compartment.  I examined the location of the rust and declared that was obviously impossible.  He just shrugged and said, "It ain't me, the state sets the rules."
On a related note, my mechanic either installed the muffler improperly, or installed a defective one.  This became evident two days later.  When I start the car I can hear that familiar rumbling and coughing noise. 

So I have to spend more time and money getting a patch job and yet another muffler.

If you think this story is tedious, imagine how I feel!  I'm living it!

The state claims the stricter standards are about safety and  emission standards.  I think there's more to it, but I don't want to get too political on the non-politics side of the board.

What are the state inspections like where you live?


Too loud is too loud.  If the people of the State of Massachusetts wanted cars with a loudness level like yours ("slightly" louder) then the law's standards would reflect it.  Change the law if y'all don't like it.

Meanwhile for the past 20 years I lived in Indiana, they have ZERO INSPECTIONS.  As long as your car has enough rust on it to keep the 4 wheels pointing in the same direction you're good to go.  Oddly the only inspection I ever had to endure was for a BRAND NEW CAR which I purchased out of state.  No doubt a scam to discourage buying cars from anywhere other than Indiana.

Now I live in PA, which requires an annual inspection.  Needless to say I will milk the Indiana registrations on my cars as long as possible.

Seems like you have run into a problem with your mechanic.  If he just decided that it sounded too loud to
him I'd ask for a printed out decibel reading.  I've never heard of anyone being rejected for rust, all this sounds like a scam to me, take it from someone who has had some serious rust buckets in her day.

New Jersey has strict yearly inspections with part of them being emissions tests...

And in NJ taxicabs and jitneys undergo 'spot inspections' too!

In England any car older than 3 (yes three) years has to have an inspection every year. This covers absolutely everything from brake pads to indicator lights. A car obviously has to pass and it is quite stringent. Garages and mechanics make a fortune, as they must do in Massachusetts!


In Utah it is cars older than 8 yrs I believe that have to have it every year.  We have a company here (I am sure they are everywhere) that only do inspections and emissions.  They don't do repair work, so you don't have to worry about them not passing your car so they can fix it and make more money.

In Nebraska they haven't had vehicle inspections for at least 10-15 years, so I never had to have a vehicle inspected when I was up there. When I moved down to Missouri I had to get my car inspected to get it licensed, and they made me replace my windshield first (and to be fair, it needed to be replaced). The actual inspection only cost about $15. Thankfully there was no smog test because my car was starting to burn oil pretty badly by then.
  But for the most part I wasn't too concerned, because I take good care of my vehicles and after seeing a few of these turds that they allow on the road down here I figured I wouldn't have any trouble passing (save the windshield).

In Utah it is cars older than 8 yrs I believe that have to have it every year.  We have a company here (I am sure they are everywhere) that only do inspections and emissions.  They don't do repair work, so you don't have to worry about them not passing your car so they can fix it and make more money.


There are one or two places locally like that who will test the car but don't do car repairs. 

Another garage in town has a reputation for failing the car if they don't have a lot of work on.  However if they are busy then it has to be a serious fault before they fail the car.

I don't have to worry about it because under Georgia law any car 25 years or older doesn't have to take the test.
lol, when I lived in Atlanta, my old car wouldn't pass, and I got a ticket for no current inspection.  I went to court and they wanted $14 fine, I said I want to explain to the judge why the car wouldn't pass inspection (I was 19).  I tried to tell the judge and ended up in the Dekalb County jail.  My parents bailed me out, and I had to go to the magistrate and they threw the whole case out.  I didn't have to pay the fine and got a free lunch on the County while in the slammer  :)

Too loud is too loud.  If the people of the State of Massachusetts wanted cars with a loudness level like yours ("slightly" louder) then the law's standards would reflect it.  Change the law if y'all don't like it.



State vehicle inspection standards never came up in the last election.  You can bet your bottom dollar an inspection scheme like the Bay State's would lose on referendum everytime.  Democracy in Massachusetts is dying, just like everywhere else in the country.  In our state it's government of the people by the bureaucracy for the greedy private interests.
Don't give me this rubbish about state inspection rigor being the will of the people.
Somehow when the state raises your property taxes, it's not the will of the people, it's Big Governmen run amock!  Just keep drinking that GOP Kool-Aid!

lol, when I lived in Atlanta, my old car wouldn't pass, and I got a ticket for no current inspection.  I went to court and they wanted $14 fine, I said I want to explain to the judge why the car wouldn't pass inspection (I was 19).  I tried to tell the judge and ended up in the Dekalb County jail.  My parents bailed me out, and I had to go to the magistrate and they threw the whole case out.  I didn't have to pay the fine and got a free lunch on the County while in the slammer  :)

OMG!  Typical Southern authoritarianism.  "Sure, you can explain it to the judge there, boy, just step into the waitin' room!"

OMG!  Typical Southern authoritarianism.  "Sure, you can explain it to the judge there, boy, just step into the waitin' room!"
What happened was, the clerk said the fine for out of date inspection for my jalopy was $14. I said I wanted to tell the judge, well he didn't let me say anything, he just said $20 fine.  Then I spoke up saying these famous words, "But judge, it would have been $14 out there."  Then I remember the judge got kind of upset and said something real fast, and these nice gentleman in suits took me to jail.  I learned several lessons from the experience that in a way were quite memorable.  That's just me though, I love new experiences even though I don't recommend going to jail, plenty of better ways to get good experiences!  

What happened was, the clerk said the fine for out of date inspection for my jalopy was $14. I said I wanted to tell the judge, well he didn't let me say anything, he just said $20 fine.  Then I spoke up saying these famous words, "But judge, it would have been $14 out there."  Then I remember the judge got kind of upset and said something real fast, and these nice gentleman in suits took me to jail.  I learned several lessons from the experience that in a way were quite memorable.  That's just me though, I love new experiences even though I don't recommend going to jail, plenty of better ways to get good experiences!  

I have never even been put in the holding tank, I don't ever want to!