A quick bit of googling shows there's a high correlation between the states that have annual or biennial safety inspections, and the states that have the fewest traffic fatalities per capita. So maybe that's the answer.

https://www.safewise.com/blog/safest-states-drivers/

https://headlights.com/what-states-still-require-car-inspection/

This needs to be abolished. Bipartisan issue.

HB 646 this year will abolish this mandate. Last year the bill failed because a bunch of mechanic shops showed up to testify against it (classic public choice theory). We can outnumber them.

Please show up and testify when this bill hits the transportation committee in the house.

Both of those are mostly just proxy measurements for lack of diversity in the state.

To collect the fee.

Take a look at how many cars have a brand new inspection sticker and tires with no tread on them or rust holes in the body. The garages pass em if they are a good customer. Lots of garages would go out of business without inspections.

Minnesota ranges between 7.3 and 9.7 motor vehicle deaths per 100K population and has no safety, emissions, or VIN inspections. It does have a climate directly comparable to that of NH.

NH ranges between 7.9 and 11.1 per 100K population and has onerous safety inspections. NH loses.

Comparing by deaths per 100M vehicle miles, Minnesota ranges from 0.6 to 0.7 and NH ranges from 0.7 to 1.0. NH loses again.

Comparing by deaths per 10K vehicles, Minnesota ranges from 0.6 to 0.8 and NH ranges from 0.7 to 1.1. NH loses 3 out of 3.

https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/state-data/motor-vehicle-deaths-by-state/

Read this

Key takeaway is that even if they did make us safer, vehicle problems only account for 2% of accidents anyway. It's almost entirely driver error that causes accidents.

Another point they mention is that there is no evidence that they are effective in the 30 years some states have required them.

And this

This too

This as well

( Hat Tip to /u/opuntina )

So the state can make money.

Did your car not pass inspection and now you’re frustrated because you have an unexpected expense to pay for? Because that’s my reaction whenever that happened to me. I feel your pain if so.

With no broad based taxes the state has to raise revenue with ‘user fees’ like inspection and registration fees.

That's actually not true. The government run study found that there was no correlation between traffic safety and inspections.

To make sure that your car is roadworthy and for revenue.

So that places like VIP Tires can scam unknowing people into doing unnecessary work on their cars to “pass inspection”. Avoid VIP Tires at all costs

We should pay attention to the shops that show up as they are probably the shady ones charging for ba repairs

I would honestly rather pay for yearly inspections over yearly registrations.

Bingo. In NH vehicle inspections are essentially just a tax without calling it a tax. They use “safety” as the justification.

So you can drive into civilized Massachusetts for your jobs?

Live fees or die.

Mass doesn’t require drivers from states without inspection laws to have car inspection verifications. That would be an illegal violation of state sovereignty. The driving to Mass for jobs part is true, given that almost a quarter of the state’s population works down there.

The 4 safest states are Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, & New Jersey. So, I'm not sure the lack of diversity rationale is going to be supported, here.

Yeah - be sure to wave at Lawrence and Lowell as you drive by.

Also failed last year because “Transportation Committee member Rep. Donovan Fenton, D-Keene, vice president of Fenton Family Dealerships in Swanzey, opposed the bill.”

What a shocker

I'm about 11 months overdue my inspection right now. I'm dodging all the cops in southern nh. Don't tell on me!

[deleted]

I'm conflicted. On one hand it's a money grab. On the other it keeps rusty old jalopies with bald tires and missing brake pads off the road.

2% isn't much. Unless of course you're one of the 2% who experience a crash as a result of equipment failure that would have otherwise been discovered/remediated by an inspection station.

Have you been to MA? Lol

I can see inspections happening each year, but why do I need to register my car each year aside from the fees.

Sadly people try to make janky car stuff work and is a danger to those on the road, i for one am okay with car inspections. I do not belive it is a tax on the people. Go to some states without it pretty scary stuff what people are driving around in literally busted up missles waiting for a disaster.

Personally I don’t really care about the inspection fee itself. My issue is more with being forced to trust a business with a clear conflict of interest to do an honest job inspecting my vehicle.

Well there is the retard comment of the day

So they can tell me I need new tires that they just sold me every single year. Dumped one shop for this offense, who's next? DM me for name of shop not to go-to in the valley.

Correlation is not causation

Lots of vehicle parts can fail in the year between inspections.

Could be worse.

You could live in Vermont where the inspections are tougher and registration is $76 per year.

To keep shitboxes off the roads.

Im right there with you. Got nailed last year a mile from home. Trying to make it to June for next year's sticker

Repeal of mandatory inspections doesn’t prevent anyone from voluntarily purchasing a vehicle inspection whenever they want one.

That money has to come from somewhere. If it’s abolished, taxes will increase on something else instead

Fenton is no longer in the House. He’s now a state Senator.

Personally, I think it should be required by all states. For the most part, when it comes to automotive maintenance, people are complete idiots. It's a safety hazard. I do however think it was a mistake by the state to de-regulate the cost of inspections.

A lot of what the state house puts into law exists to funnel money or minimize competition for siblings, cousins and friends business. Annual auto inspections is that. The fact that NH requires more professional licenses than MA minimizes competition. Etc.

Each Republican majority tries to abide by their Republican principles by eliminating some of this stuff. Alas, their principles take a back seat to doling out favors.

The inspection fees don't go to the state they go to the shop who will make it up by not having to carry so much inspection infrastructure.

Woah hey slurs are very uncool, especially the r slur

Fair enough. Figured the state saw at least some of the money, be it through the fees themselves or the certification process. If the state sees nothing from it, then I agree it’s definitely pointless, especially seeing the kinds of vehicles that make it through anyways.

$76/year is a lot cheaper than in NH...

This! Please show and file testimony for this bill. I'm a cosponsor.

I'm on the same road as these cars. I'm happy that they get inspected.

Didn't realize there were all kinds of bullshit town fees on top of the state fees...

It's not really bullshit any more than a tax is, but it's NH so it can't be a tax.

My car cost nearly $1k to register this year. But I didn't pay sales tax!

And it'll be cheaper next year.

/Shrug

Lol no it doesn't. Absence of a sticker isn't going to stop people from driving the car. It just means they pay a fine for it.

The increased values of cars over the past few years doesn’t help the registration costs.

Deaths are only the most severe metric. What about non-fatal crash data? That would be more interesting and relevant

I suppose if they're super desperate.

The fine (and threat of impoundment) gives them incentive to fix the problem.

Check out some of the other subreddits of car repairs in states without regular inspections like Florida. Cars with rotors so worn they're missing, ball joints that have disintegrated, CEL on because of emissions issues. Scary stuff.

Oh, absolutely. I agree with you 100%. I just did a quick bit of googling and said this might be the reason. I've never spent much time looking into it.

I'm not worried about the people who choose to voluntarily purchase an inspection.

Those cars are going to be on average more roadworthy than cars of drivers who shrink from their responsibility to maintain their vehicle that's driven on public roads.

What slur?

$3.50 of each sticker is earmarked for state.

Ha. Used to do that as a kid in MA. MA inspections aren't linked to your birthday month like in NH. So you would gamble by driving into the expiration period and then get it inspected for a bonus month. Not sure if that still works.

No but they will pull you over if you have an expired plate/registration even from another state.

Yeah, but registration/plates are separated from state safety inspections. At least in NH and Mass.

Are you buying bottom-of-the-barrel tires and driving them 30,000 miles a year?

You can self test by using the penny trick or getting a dread depth meter which is probably like $5 on Amazon.

Only $3.50 from each sticker goes to the state. Rest goes to the inspection station.

VIP is free to veterans! Extra care in Manchester, Hooksett, Berlin is 14.95

Happened to me with the Midas shop South Willow. Tiny little hole where muffler joins to the exhaust pipe. $15 inspection fee.

Failed inspection. Wanted $1500 on a car valued around $4000 to replace entire exhaust system from the cat. Didn't want to patch which would have cost maybe $50.

So there are unscrupulous inspection stations out there. State should direct their ire on them, IHMO.

Depends on station. Some charge $20. Others charge $50. Highest I've seen is $65.

Combine that with drunk, distracted, or aggressive driving and it's a recipe for disaster.

That adds up to $4 million/year according to the article. If it didn’t come from inspections it’d have to come from somewhere else or we pave/plow less.

You can't inspect a vehicle in MA unless it's registered. At least 12+ years ago. Might be different now.

In NH you can buy an inspection on an unregistered car.

New Hampshire’s state motto is literally live free or die. If things like this matter then change the motto

Be glad you don’t live in MA. They’ve got registration fees, inspection fees, sales tax, income tax, etc. Once implemented, taxes don’t go away.

If a nuclear bomb were dropped on MA, the only thing left would be the taxes.

I mean do we really want trucks driving around with snapped frames? Although I agree it could be every 2-3 years.

As someone who used to work at a small auto repair shop, I can tell you from my experience, there are a lot of unsafe vehicles driving around this state. People come in with bald tires, broken suspension components and brakes with little to no pads left. When told their car doesn't pass inspection, they drive off and claim it will pass at another location. I feel bad for the person they slam into when a ball joint breaks and they can't steer or stop to avoid the collision. There is a reason why inspection was instituted. To get these idiots off the road.

The notion that you can just get regular maintenance and be fine is a little absurd. You need regular inspections, not just for your own safety but for others on the road. About 15 years ago I had an inspection and they found a very small leak in my gasline. I was getting 4-5 oil changes a year at that time due to the amount I was driving. No one caught it and I don't have a great sense of smell. Had it not been for the inspection who knows what would have happened. Could I have been fine until it got worse and I noticed it? Maybe. I also might have just blown up. Honestly I still think it's a little absurd that insurance isn't mandatory in NH.

After living in NH for 3 years, and before lived in CO; i'd say the real actual reason for inspections has something to do with new and used car industry, the salt industry, and the state.

All colluding, because they are all making a fuck ton of money on you having to either fix or more likely trade your vehicle in for a new or used one.

It's ultimately, a way to prop up the auto industry in NE, and consumers incur the costs.

I haven't researched any of this but just from observations, and personal experience, I'd say I'm 80Percent correct.

Not all states use salt fyi, most don't. Nebraska uses recycled glass pulverized to sand. Colorado uses magnesium cloride.

Honestly the salt industry should pay for it's proven impact on roads and vehicles. But like all things, you and I pay. I bet the salt co gets subsidized via your property taxes.

Cheers!

Magnesium Chloride is salt. People want to drive at highway speed when traveling on a highway. During the winter, that isn't going to happen without salt in some form. If the roads aren't treated, vehicles slide off the road or into other vehicles and travel comes to a stop.

Law breakers really don't like getting pulled over by the cops. Opens up a can of worms for the police find other things to fine or arrest you for. Like drugs.

Yah, but NA Cl is far more corrosive! No shyt it prevents the obv. But I think this so called solution is a means to make you buy a vehicle every 5 years...in Colorado this doesn't happen. Vehicles never die out here. Just saying, just because you are used to it, doesn't mean it's the best option. Complacency leads to acceptance, which the general public veiws as normal. When infact if we took our heads out of our asses we,d realized you don't need to stand forward in an elevator and there are far better less harmful means to de ice a road.

We aren't even getting Into the saline increase after a storm Into the marshes and tidal areas. Shit is a big ass elephant in the room and NH and NE will probably realize how bad it will be in like 10 years.

I have a serious question, where are the critical thinkers in NH? They probably left I imagine.

This feels a lot like waaaaaa…. Do you really want a dip shit driving a car with no brakes cause it will happen and you might be the unlucky driver who meets them.

[deleted]

What, you thought the Freedom of "Live Free or Die" was actually free?

Registration, not inspection.

Eh, it's more like of a money grab from the state and sleezy repair shops. I had a car recently fail because of a hairline crack in one of the taillights. Far from unsafe and wasn't letting any moisture in. Just a money grab and now I have to buy a 200 taillight for a car that doesn't need it.

it's irrelevant. how can it possibly be about safety when we don't even require seatbelts. it probably made sense in 1931 when it was enacted, but nowadays it's basically a scam.

the time and money spent on enforcing vehicle inspections would be better spent educating people on distracted/drunk driving.

there's not much recourse if you get failed for a BS reason though.

Conspiracy theories are fun but you must have never lived in a state without inspections. Sharing the road with a ton of polluting wrecks gets old, fast.

Good quality tires. Not premium but not the cheap options, much less than 30k miles. They once replaced a 6 month old tire that they put on for me without calling first. I didn't check or have proof that it was okay so battle lost.

The next time they tried this they slipped and told me in person but I was prepared with the receipt of when they put it on. Oddly enough they switched to "it'll be good another season but we'll want to change that next time."

My fault for not checking myself but I'm done with them. Dishonest and trying to pull a quick one.

Do you maybe think that being one of the dryest states in the Country may have something to do with the decreased rust in Colorado?

WHERE ARE ALL OF THE CRITICAL THINKERS!!! NO ONE WANTS TO THINK ANYMORE! /s

It's personal responsibility.
I believe I have it myself, why should I mistrust my neighbor?
I would never drive a defective car, why do I need to pay the government to check on me? or my neighbor?

Have you not driven around this state recently? For a state with safety inspections our roads are also littered with clapped out polluting rust boxes.

https://www.des.nh.gov/land/roads/road-salt-reduction

Chloride from salt impacting 19 water sources in NH.

Money grab

Does anyone know if car insurance in NH is cheaper than states without a inspection requirement?

Only thing I can think of is maybe really bad alignment. Or a foreign object in the tire? Tires don't go bad that quick otherwise!

I had a shop fail my 2 day old wipers, said the streaked my windshield. HE Wanted to sell me a new pair for 89$ installed. I couldn't install them myself cuZ the car was in their shop and if I had them pull out out of the shop they'd charge me a $50 retesting fee. He washed my windshield and wipers and passed me after I showed him the receipt....

Add $25 for each inspection a shop does. That's your answer.

I had an out of state plate and got pulled over for having a headlight out, then proceeded to see approximately 9 other NH plate cars with a headlight out lmao

How much is it usually to register a car in New Hampshire and why do you have to register it every year??? Like if it’s registered it’s registered…

Link to the study?

OP linked to the studies I found last time this came up. They are here in the comments.

We just call them redditors now, more PC

Ahhh PC talk…never got a hold of it lol

Doesn't it make it safer? States with inspection have less accidents. I mean, I'd also say our weather just hits different too, if you don't need to get inspected you'd just never change your tires like Michigan and that was a disaster no?