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Are Mandatory State Vehicle Safety Inspections Needed?

Joe Marconi
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bantar Community Regular

bantar

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Apparently not... in Texas.   The most common failures for the Texas Safety inspections are tires, followed by light bulbs and wipers.   It's a pretty mild inspection overall.  Your car must be really bad to fail.  It is a no-lift / no-disassembly visual inspection.  Most people don't look at their tires and thus don't know of impending danger.  Quite a few would not change their tires, even if bald.   Heck, we see quite a few MayPops too.   

Texas has a 2 pronged inspection program:   Safety and Emissions.   Safety may go away, but emissions will not go away.    Safety Inspections cost $7.00.  When this program ceases to exist, your car registration fees will increase by $7.50.  You will pay more and not have to do a Safety Inspection.   The police can selectively enforce light bulbs because they are obvious.  They will not stop anyone for tires, I'm guessing.  Maybe they'll make note of the tires at the scene of an accident.

Emissions testing is required in:  DFW, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso metro areas and not required in Austin (not an EPA zone), but Austin requires them anyway.  Rural areas only performed Safety Inspections.   Emissions testing is $18.50.  Failures are ANY Check Engine Light... even transmission codes that have nothing to do with emissions.   ODB2 monitors are examined for Pass / Fail.   You must have N-1 Emissions monitors passed to pass the Emissions test.   And this one, drives us crazy, we must test the gas cap for leaks.  Modern cars check for evap leaks, so this 60 second test is a wasteful part of the process.    Emissions tests are only required on cars 25 years or younger.  Once you car ages out of emissions, you can pollute away to your hearts content.

Edited by bantar
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