In alt.home.repair, on Sat, 28 Nov 2020 11:06:57 -0800 (PST), trader_4
wrote:


Then just a few years later, the feds suddenly decided that the info from the car's
computer was sufficient, so they tore out the billion of gear they had just put in.
Surely the EPA had to know that the OBD method was available and either was or

Even after OBD was invented, there were a lot of cars not set up for it.
That number goes down every year.

soon would be available. That's why many of us are very skeptical of the environmentalists.

And today here in NJ that's all they check, emissions via hooking up to the OBD port on
the car.

That's the emission test.

Maryland has long had a separate safety check, although it's only when a
car is sold. If you never sell you car, and a cop never notices how bad
it is, it could be falling apart.

Pa. used to have safety checks twice a year, but they changed to once.

You can drive in with headlights out or pointed to blind oncoming traffic,
bad brakes, cracked winshield, loose suspension parts. None of it is checked or matters.
Just emissions. Pass and it's good for 2 years. And new cars are exempt for 5 years.
And in all my years, I can't recall reading about a single accident that was caused by
a fault on a car in NJ. Other states tested nothing and I don't think they had any worse
accident stats. So I guess all that testing was for nothing.

Required testing started because a lot of people were driving wrecks and
causing accidents. I don't have x-ray eyes but the number of cars with
visible body damage has gone down in the past decades, and I think so
have safety failings. But it's going to take an effort by someone to
change the testing requirements in any state.