Well, your first point is great except we don’t have yearly inspections on vehicles in North America or anything. Inspections happen when cars are registered, then never again until ownership changes hands and it needs to be registered by a new owner.
Add that to the fact that inspections are done by mechanics, and they don’t generally give a shit about it, and it’s a recipe for failure. Last time I got a used car inspected, the mechanic looked at the car through the window and said “is that it?” I replied “yeah”, and he went through the list and checked all the normal stuff without glancing at the car again. So most inspections here are void from the get go.
The second point is valid and a design problem which I covered previously.
Well, your first point is great except we don’t have yearly inspections on vehicles in North America or anything.
I can say that, at least in Texas, we require annual inspections as a condition of yearly vehicle registration. We just don’t test for the impact of headlights on incoming traffic, because… TxDOT (and the Texas legislature/governor by extension) doesn’t consider it worth regulating.
Add that to the fact that inspections are done by mechanics, and they don’t generally give a shit about it
Mechanics test what is on the regulatory code. Add headlight brightness to the list and they’ll test for that, too. This isn’t an unsolvable problem by any stretch.
Well, Texas DID requre annual inspections. This is the last year. On Jan 2025, annual inspections will no longer be required, although, some counties will still require emissions testing, and you still have to pay the fee.
Well if you like your mechanic then keep quiet about it, because what you just described is a felony, which carries a fine and loss of inspector’s license. And vehicle inspections are dependent on the state and county in question. Most US states require vehicle inspections. Some don’t.
Oh, I wouldn’t rat anyone out over it. I’m just saying that it happens. I’m also in Canada, but I think the same applies (felony/fines/loss of license for inspection).
I’m a bit of an amateur mechanic, I’ve done a lot to cars in my time. I’m nowhere near the skill of an actual mechanic, but I know enough to know when something isn’t safe. I see significant rust/rot, I’m probably not going to even try to get it certified/registered until I’m happy that it’s safe enough for me… I know that many are not as knowledge/discerning. They’re not my concern though. I wouldn’t bring it to a mechanic to be inspected unless I felt safe in the vehicle.
That said, that was a former “beater” vehicle that I no longer have. I kind of killed the motor on it… I think that’s the one that the motor died on me. I was pushing the old beater well past what I normally would because I was in a rush. I got well over the speed limit on the highway. When I came to a stop, the poor thing stalled and would not start again. I never found out what actually went wrong, and the vehicle went to the scrap pile soon after afaik.
I currently drive an off-lease vehicle, it was about 2 years old when I acquired it and I’ve kept my eye on its condition since then, about 10 years now. I do regular maintenance, and all the things I need to in order to keep it in good condition. There’s a little rust now, but it’s pretty limited. Nothing that concerns me. I don’t have a desire to replace it, as the car market is nuts. How is my 12+ year old car still worth like $9k? It’s a civic!
Anyways. I don’t have any desire to make anyone’s life harder than it needs to be. I knew the car was safe, so I didn’t have a problem with it. My only concern is that others that don’t know better are going to end up driving around in unsafe vehicles because their mechanic can’t be bothered to actually inspect the cars during an inspection certification.
I don’t know why he did it, maybe he just knows that vehicle doesn’t really have the problems that would cause it to fail an inspection? I have no idea. I think that one was an older accord. Maybe he knew that car specifically? IDK. I didn’t ask. I took the win and went on my way to register the car. I was a broke college student/grad at the time (I can’t remember if I had graduated at that point or not).
