Dec. 27, 2019—According to Virginia State Police data, almost one of every five vehicles inspected in the state last year had defects that required immediate repairs or a rejection sticker, reports the Fauquier Now.
The state police data show the program forced fixes to be made to more than 1.6 million vehicles in 2018.
More than a million vehicles were found to have a “critical” problem and had to be repaired before they could be driven away from the shop. Almost 579,000 vehicles failed inspection and were marked with a rejection sticker that allows repairs to be made within 15 days.
In total, of the 8.2 million vehicles inspected, 1.6 million had defects, or roughly 19.9 percent.
The most common type of defects in 2018 were problems with steering and suspension, followed by emissions/exhaust systems. Almost 725,000 vehicles had faulty brakes.
The Virginia Automotive Association, which represents auto repair and tire shops throughout the state, said those numbers show that scrapping the inspection program would put more than a million “unsafe” vehicles on the roads that weren’t there before.
Eliminating the mandatory inspections and the $20 fee could save Virginia motorists about $150 million a year, according to Gov. Ralph Northam's administration.
“It seems like it’s a very popular, populist position to take,” said soon-to-be House Minority Leader Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah County).
“I heard it for the first time yesterday that 34 states don’t do it,” said Del. Vivian Watts (D-Fairfax). “You can’t prove it in any of the accident rate figures. So I’ll be looking at it with heavy scrutiny.”
