I can hardly believe it’s actually happening. The sunset for New Hampshire mandatory state inspections on safety and emissions is ending less than 40 days. Something I had wished for but never thought it would actually happen. Hooray!
Why am I happy about it? Couple reasons-
In New Hampshire, all of your registrations come due in your birthday month. That means you have to get inspections for all your vehicles within the same month. If you have more than two vehicles, this becomes a scheduling and time sink problem.
The program is run using independent car repair shops that have a bit of a conflict of interest. They make money on repairs, hold all the cards and have a captive audience. Too many times I have experienced shops finding all sorts of issues, some minor for which they charge inflated prices to resolve. Already consuming lots of your time, you are often inclined to just pay the inflated prices to get the vehicle through inspection and be done with it for another year.
Finding a decent shop is difficult. There are precious few that do not attempt to gouge you or spend inordinate time doing inspections looking for anything to cite and generate a repair.
The cost varies significantly from shop to shop. The lowest I have found is $45. The highest was $75 but that is not the maximum they are allowed to charge.
The other gripe is that we are seeing an increase in registration fees this next year. Ignoring the fact they were going up regardless, people are saying this is the result of eliminating inspections. To that I say so what? You were paying $50 per car for an inspection so who cares if that now goes directly to the state instead of lining the pockets of the repair shops? BTW- the increases are actually much lower than the typical inspection cost but don’t let that interfere with the griping about it…
Not all. If your vehicle is in a Trust (like ours are), then it comes due based on the First initial of your last name. My wife’s Crown and my Highlander and Corvette along with our house and other assets are in a Trust. All three vehicles registration is due in April (neither of our birth months).
My wife gets free state inspections for 3 years on her 1yo Crown. So - we lost some money on that deal..lol
This is the case of finding a good trusted mechanic and sticking with them. I’ve come across those shoddy mechanics and just walk away and never return for anything. $45 is the lowest I’ve seen also.
Good point about the trust Mike. Unfortunately, since you both have the same last name, they are still due in the same month which is what causes me so much angst. In MA, they were due based on the month you first registered them so they would be scattered throughout the year. My birthday is during one of the coldest months so that doesn’t help either.
Is the Crown deal something the dealership provided as part of the sale? Kind of a nice side benefit if they were still required.
I certainly agree and have tried to do just that. Unfortunately, my first place the guy retired and the last place, the guy was seriously injured when he was hit crossing the road. His business closed down and hasn’t reopened. I have the same kind of luck with Doctors I like…
Before putting in trust we registered on our Birth Month. Wife and I have different birth months. All our kids have different birth months. I kinda like registering all the vehicles at once especially now since I don’t have to worry about getting them inspected. The one caveat to this is my Camping trailer. It’s too small to have a title, so it can’t be in the trust. I have to register that in my Birth month.
Boy! I wish NC would do away with inspections also! I have my Chevy dealership that I’ve been mostly happy with. But a few years ago during my inspection the guy came out and said: “I’ll have to replace your wipers.” I had just replaced them 2 weeks before! I let it go because 20 bucks and I was done. ■■■■■■ me off tho.
About your cost in NH, in NC the state sets the cost at $13.50 (repairs are extra). It’s been that price for over 10 years! The garages are not happy, some try to rip you off by finding problems. But most locals where I live find an honest guy who knows you and just signs you off. I give them a twenty and say keep the change.
At one time, I took my car to a repair shop that highly specialized in BMWs. They had no interest in repairing little or big things on my Mazda. I also do most of my own work, so my car was always in good repair. After a few years of passed inspections without even a bulb replacement, they kicked me out because they had lost money on me because inspection costs were fixed by the state.
It took the third party wrestler, Jessie, to get rid of th3binspections in Minnesota. Said it just benefitted the shops and nothing else. After seeing the Minnesota fraud, I suspect the shops might have been kicking money back to the other parties.
The annual inspections in Hawaii gave grandpa a reason to take both cars for service. Shop was only 1/4mi from the end of his street, worked on his cars from 1975-2006. Inspections are a fixed price. Friend who’s living on her family’s land in a newer house uses the nearby Toyota dealer
Never had smog or safety inspections in thurston county but in pierce County you could go to jiffy lube for smog if you needed to.
Never lived in place where safety inspections were required. My county smog checked cars for a few years but dropped it after it, had no measurable reduction in emissions.
I would like to see safety inspections in Florida, in principle, but I have not found any systems that don’t lead to corruption of some sort.
Some cities in Texas still require inspections but not, happily, my San Antonio, where the cost of inspection used to be – the requirement ended last year (this year?) – only $7, and in 17 years living here never once was told anything was wrong with my car, a 2011 Toyota Venza, if it matters.
I’ve looked into doing HPDE track days when I figure out what fun car to get. The last of track prep is pretty much a basic safety inspection. Nothing a mechanic wouldn’t check.
Florida did have those up until 1981. The inspection stations were operated by the state, no selling of services. The ‘inspectors’, as far as I could tell were not mechanics, just rec’d some minimal OJT.
If cars were operating with obvious safety defects, LEOs ignored it if the safety inspection sticker was current. Had a motorcycle rejected because the inspector could not see the high beam indicator light during a bright day. Glad they got rid of it. The inspection buildings are still around but have either been repurposed or sold. One near me is now a fire station, another is a tire store.
No financial incentive for the inspectors. That is a good start.
Those are the type of people hired by the emissions inspection stations in SW Ohio when those started.
Not sure why you would avoid professionals (other than cost) when staffing those jobs. The pros would at least know what they are looking at.
Exactly what they do today. I watched a sheriff follow a ghost car - no tailights, just DRLs in full dark - and not pull them over for at least a warning.
Same with left lane loafers, LEOs just pass them on the right. In my neighborhood hood FDOT added some crosswalks with traffic lights. Where do the pedestrians cross? About 20-50 feet away from the crosswalks.
We have a crosswalk exiting my neighborhood. Legally, cars have to stop for pedestrians, but they don’t. The county added flashing lights on the sides triggered by the pedestrian. Cars still don’t stop.
+1
In my last career, as a Paralegal for a couple of Deputy AGs, after writing the Court Complaints, I had to hand-deliver them to the Courthouse. The 5 block walk was a nice diversion from office drudgery, but the crosswalk that I had to use to go to the Courthouse was not a pleasant situation.
Despite the zebra-striping on the crosswalk and a sign in the middle of the roadway stating, “STOP for pedestrians”, I had close calls on many days.
When my kids were little and into Soccer and baseball - one of the parks in town had parking across the street. Speed limit is 30, but cars come barreling down that road at 40+. More then once I had to yell at a driver ignoring the crosswalk with kids in it. One time I hit the guys door with a soccer ball. He slammed on his brakes and was about to get out of his car when he noticed there were at least 5 fathers yelling at the jerk. We got his license plate and gave it to the police but was told not much they could do if they didn’t witness it. No one’s been hit yet, but some close calls.
