If you have ever lived in Virginia, you probably know what a headache car registration can be. In addition to normal DMV hoops that you have to jump through, Virginia makes you pass a state inspection, before you can put your vehicle on public roads. In theory, the state inspection is a good idea. After all, not allowing people to drive around with no brakes, one bad headlight, and only one working brake light is beneficial to us all, right? Unfortunately, as with most government regulations, the end result is hardly what was intended.

Each year, residents must take their car to a state inspection station to have it inspected. The inspector usually checks all the signals and lights, the brakes, the shocks, and various other parts of the car. If you pass, you get a sticker to put in your window that is good for one year. If you fail, you also get a sticker for your window, but it says REJECTION. Once your car has been branded as a reject, you have 10 days to make the proper repairs and get it re-inspected. The whole process costs $10 $15, which is the limit under state law.

At the core of the problem is how Virginia implements this inspection process. Instead of Virginia inspectors being agents of the commonwealth, they are auto mechanics who are certified to inspect vehicles. This of course creates a huge conflict of interest, whereby auto mechanics have a vested interest in your failing the inspection. Instead of losing money by tying up a mechanic for a measly $10 $15, the auto shop stands to earn hundreds or even thousands of dollars on cars that need to have work done. To put it plainly, the state is basically forcing you to take your car to a mechanic and ask him to poke around and see if he can find any work that needs to be done. Who, in their right mind, would do that if the state didn't make them?

Of course, some inspection stations are completely honest. However, there are enough dishonest ones out there to ruin it for everyone. I recall one encounter I had with an inspector back in 1995. My car was only two years old, so I expected it to pass. Rather than slap my $10 $15 sticker on the window, however, the mechanic handed me an estimate for over $500 worth of work that needed to be done. He claimed that my tires needed to be replaced, that I had "moisture" in my headlight caused by a tiny hole (which would require the whole assembly to be replaced), and that I had an unknown electrical problem that kept the hazard lights from working properly.

Rather than give the bastard the satisfaction, I took the car down the road to another mechanic, to get a second opinion. The mechanic there could find no electrical problem, and both sets of hazard lights seemed to work just fine. I did need new tires, which he sold me for $150, and he told me how to fix the headlight myself with a hairdryer and a dab of caulk.

Recently, a friend of mine has had her own horror story with a mechanic. She took her aged 1989 Honda in for it's annual inspection, and had it come back rejected. From as far as I can tell, they gave her a four figure estimate. Rather than pump thousands of dollars into a 14 year old car that drives just fine, she has been risking a ticket by driving around on the rejection sticker for several weeks. The last I heard, she will probably end up having to buy a new car.

Of course, while the annual inspections go a long way to pad the pockets of dishonest mechanics, they do very little to actually keep unsafe cars off the road. Whenever you're out on the road in Virginia, there are still plenty of folks driving around with bad brakes, mispointed headlights, and no burned out tail lights. Yet another case of good intentions ending up being a huge nightmare for everyone.