I don’t know how happy you should be about lost jobs repairing and maintaining automobiles. The byproduct will be a reduction of safety on the highways.
With the real intended end result being less fossil fueled vehicles running we have here another green initiative foisted upon us thinly veiled as it may be.
“The byproduct will be a reduction of safety on the highways.”
I call bullshit.
Cars pass inspection one day, and can be dangerous the next and stay that way for a year. Inspection is just a money grab for the state, and a chance for mechanics to generate income.
Removing mandatory inspection doesn’t make it legal to drive a dangerous car, they can still require good tires, good brakes, etc. without forcing you to prove it one day per year.
Other states have no annual inspection and you don’t hear about carnage due to everyone driving around on bald tires and no working brakes.
Anchorage and Fairbanks used to have vehicle inspections. Once that ended there's never been a single instance where highway safety was impacted. It's just government overreach. It reminds me of all the wailing and gnashing over doing away with concealed carry permits. How the streets will run red with blood. It's all just a bunch of bull crap.
IMO, Texas went too far when it linked the state vehicle inspection system with the vehicle registrations. The result is now vehicle year-model driven, with an OBD computer scan being mandatory on cars so equipped.
Lots of cars can't "pass" a state inspection because their owners are waiting months to get the parts needed to extinguish the "Check Engine Light". Therefore, they can't proceed to re-register the car for the coming year. Some beancounter probably raised the alarm over drop in registration payments.
Perhaps the *emissions* inspection should be removed from the Texas process. The damned CEL is mostly to tell you that something related to emissions control needs service, not that there's an unsafe condition. Keep the safety inspection part (tires, brakes, wipers, horn, etc.) and let people proceed with their registrations based on that.
The inspections are scams anyway. Finding every little thing to charge me over or not pass. They got me for a broken back seat belt. I have never used the back seat in my car and never plan to and if I did I would know that belt isn’t working.
I’m on the side of freedom and personal responsibility on this issue. F them telling me what to do.