There are no problems with my Dodge, but I am required to prove this each year.
How does that work? Every state I ever lived in - you license a vehicle FIRST. Then get the inspection.
I can’t get my annual registration sticker without a passed inspection.
Just the opposite in the states I’ve lived in. Your vehicle MUST BE REGISTERED FIRST. Then you get it inspected (safety and emissions). The emissions testing system requires the inspector to put in the new registration number for that vehicle. Each state is different.
Then what’s to prevent you from driving around with a failed inspection?
Nope. You can not renew your registration or transfer title of a car without a passing emissions test. At least in areas that do emissions testing. If you license a car without the inspection, how do you get people to get the inspection? Once the car has current license plates you’re free to drive, right?
The safety sticker that’s on each windshield. When I register a vehicle it comes with new stickers that I put on each license plate. Then when I get it passed inspection a safety sticker is placed on the windshield. I have 20 days to rectify the situation. If you have a car that’s newly registered, but doesn’t have the current inspection sticker they’ll pull you over.
OK, then same result. Failed inspection = can’t drive, legally. That’s my point.
George - how is CA preventing you from driving your Corolla?
When my Ohio county had emissions inspections, the car was tested (every other year, good for 2 years) before the registration was renewed. The testing sites were spread across the county and communicated with the state DMV. I could re-register my car without the test site’s “check mark” showing I passed. They handed out test results on paper as a reciept.
No safety inspection!
California kept their inspections open during the worst of the Pandemic . Goerge was not willing to wear the mask , take disinfecting wipes with him to the station like most people did . That was his choice. I would think the inspection station also had guidelines to operate by .
OK, I thought I remembered a story behind it.
Maryland operates that way too. For OBD-II vehicles subject to emissions testing they will give you a discount if you run the test yourself. The test facility I use has a test kiosk on the side of the test bay building. Drive up, log in, put the OBD-II dongle on the port in your car and run the test. If you pass you get a certificate and the DOT is notified. Your registration with stickers arrives in the mail a week later.
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When Ohio rolled out the requirement, it was OBD1 and they actually tested on rollers. THAT little requirement caused issues when techs listened to the owners claim a FWD car was RWD and the opposite and tried to test it. Carnage occured.
AWD cars got an idle test.
Once OBD2 cars came out, for those cars a simple plug and go was acceptable.
I can only speak for myself in Virginia. Although not all areas of Virginia require emissions inspections. Mine does damnit! I can not get 1,2 (or even up to 3 depending on the age of the car) year tags for a car until it passes an inspection emission. I can get a 30 day non renewable tag to be able to get the emissions inspection done. Then there is the state safety inspection which is annually. Whole other story.
Same in MD. I have to give MD/DOT props for telling us how to pass the test. The car has to be capable of passing of course, and they tell us to take a nice highway drive of at least 20 minutes before taking the test to warm the car up. The test site is about ten minutes from home and I drive way too far south and back to bet the 20 minutes in.
Same thing in MD. Most of Western MD and the Eastern Shore do not require testing. The rest of us get tested. Fine by me. This is the fourth largest metropolitan area in the US and we should make sure that all vehicles that require testing are in proper working shape.
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Ohio required testing in only a few counties. Mine was the intersection of I-75 and I-70 and was in a valley. Many of us in the auto industry rolled our eyes thinking that MOST of the pollution didn’t live there, it passed through on these 2 major highways. After 5 years of testing, they gave up when the contract expired. Apparently our thoughts were correct…it was traffic. Air quality DID improve but more and more cars were catalyst equipped by then… that could have been the reason for the reduction.
Not b/c it ever failed an emissions test, that’s for sure. Dispute is about Covid safety of the emissions testing process, and whether the owner should be required to take on that risk. I hold the opinion: why should I take on that risk of death by suffocation, when I can just drive my truck instead? Seems basic common sense to me.
CA for some reason was able to apply common sense to the driver’s license renewal process. Before Covid, folks 65+ required to pass eye test. After Covid, eye test requirement dropped, could renew DL by mail. Why the same level of common sense couldn’t be extended to the OBD I emissions testing for 65+ owners — after all very few OBD I cars on the road with elderly owners — only theory I can think of is Calif wants to protect emission testing business’s revenue.