On Sat, 4 Dec 2010 16:43:06 -0500, "Ed Pawlowski" wrote:


"George" wrote
"Lick & stick" is the common name for the procedure of getting a sticker
without an inspection.

The inspection stations are now monitored by some sort of quasi police
force. According to the guy who owns the garage where I go most seem to be
retired state police. He won't do lick & stick inspections simply on
principle but he is sensible. One of our vehicles has a tiny chip in the
arc of the wiper blades and that should be reason to fail.

For some number of years I went to Frank's shop. The nice part was you
could not see into Frank's shop from the street. You cad to go into the
parking lot between brick garages and make a left. As long as your lights
worked, you were good to go. Brakes were checked by putting his foot on
the pedal while scraping off the old sticker.

I did not mind paying for legitimate inspection on my good cars, but as a
teenager, they would not always pass. I also object to the rip off tactics
of some garages that found expensive non-problems.

There is no evidence that inspections ever had an impact on safety. There is
ample evidence that they are consumer rip-offs and several states have even
abandoned them.