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Virginia is a little weird for, until literally last month, allowing either car insurance or paying a one-time fee. Unlike most states, where you're often required to show proof of insurance or can have your license suspended without it, even legitimate dealers wouldn't and often couldn't check insurance status.
((A lot of the temp tags are just entirely fake, produced in Photoshop or MSPaint. Others are from 'licensed dealers' that sprout up, print a ton of tags, and close immediately after.))
Virginia also has much laxer vehicle safety inspections, mostly just an eyeball inspection on tires/brakes/mirrors/exhaust (though, to their credit, they're done annually); Maryland requires them only on transfer of a vehicle but can involve upwards of an hour on a vehicle lift, and no small number of marginal cars will flunk MD inspections consistently.
Both states have smog and emissions testing, though I don't think VA temp tags require it.
As an aside, it will never cease to amaze me that some states require vehicle safety inspections. Coming from a state that never requires any inspections ever, it’s completely jarring to me that people find such an intrusive policy not only normal, but actually a positive good.
It's not hard to come up with support for a minimal version -- every mechanic worth their salt has had some customer come in with a car where the brake pads have dissolved, the tires are bald, and the frame is about to fold in half, and the customer decides that they'll just drive it home. There's a libertarian argument that these problems solve themselves, and it's not wrong, but no few of these people end up taking out innocents with them. There's a pragmatic argument that the costs are huge and the benefits small, and it's probably right, but it's an ugly one to make.
The trouble's that even accepting that minimal version, it quickly turns from a 'is this car remotely safe' into a 'does someone who only buys new cars like how this one looks', or even a 'how do we get a guaranteed easy job for a handful of schmucks who can't be trusted with a wrench'? And even people who do recognize how bad the ugly versions of these programs get don't care that much about them, so it's a hard political problem.
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Bold of you to think those of us stuck with such thing actually view it as a positive or good.
At least, that's my take on it. I view them as less than worthless and more an annoying road-tax that I have to pay so often(on top of getting my windshield replaced, again) and a punishment for being a good little citizen that criminals just skirt on by without a care.
Assuming that a critical mass of residents in an inspection state hated inspections, they'd get rid of it. There's at least some people who support inspections or it wouldn't exist.
Have any states gone from an inspection regime to a non-inspection regime?
Oklahoma axed them some time back: https://oksenate.gov/press-releases/mandatory-vehicle-inspections-abolished-repeal-will-save-oklahomans-12-million
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Texas voted to phase them out, but hasn't abolished them yet.
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https://www.nashville.gov/departments/health/environmental-health/vehicle-inspection
Metro Nashville (TN) abolished emissions inspections in 2022.
I lived there and suffered through those for many years. There was MUCH rejoicing when it went away.
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The steelman: cars are dangerous heavy machinery and neglect of maintenance causes a significant amount of death and destruction. Public safety is substantially served by requiring cars be kept in good order. Just like how it's reasonable that cars be required to have working head and tail lights, its reasonable to require they have working brakes and suspension, and checking those requires a mechanical inspection.
Oh, I get the argument for it, but I have a similar instinctual response as I would toward a law requiring annual housing inspections or mandating preemptive parenting classes before couples are allowed to have children. It just seems weirdly invasive.
Driving already requires a license, although I’m not sure if inspections specifically do anything.
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I mean, at the end of the day, operating a motor vehicle on public roads paid for via taxation is a privilege, not a right. You can drive a car in any condition on your own private property.
I’m not arguing; I’m just conveying my impression from a state with fewer restrictions and more freedom.
It’s starting to feel like talking about freedom of speech with Europeans. You make the merest mention that you appreciate America’s freedom of speech, and they start tripping over themselves to tell you why their much more restrictive version is actually better and more socially responsible. I get that the states that require vehicle inspections have their reasons. I just find the requirements bizarre, intrusive, and off-putting. No amount of argument is going to change my mind, as mine is an instinctive and emotional response, not a carefully-thought through rational one.
In other words, it's an argument from dignity (liberal) against an argument for safety (traditionalist-progressive).
That’s it precisely. Regular vehicle checks seem freedom-impinging, which is bad enough on its own. To make matters worse, they also seem unnecessary, which therefore also makes them degrading.
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