VT has some of the most stringent car inspections in the country. They take pictures of your car and plates and upload them to a website that basically restricts you from getting a second opinion. Pony up!!

You do not need new fenders for your car, but you do need them patched. On fenders you can do a bondo job or whatever you want but it has to be smooth. The reasoning is pedestrian safety(for fenders). If you hit someone, those sharp holes can do a lot of extra damage

I thought Bondo was out now and it has to be metal?

You are right. Once you fail, bondo is out. If you bondo before and hit it with a mediocre paint job, it will pass.

Welcome to Vermont. The local govt hates the poors. I drive uninspected until I get pulled over. It’s cheaper to just pay a fine instead of spending thousands of dollars in unnecessary bodywork.

Holy shit. Thanks for the info guys. I was sure it couldn't be worse than NY. I stand corrected. Frustrating is an understatement. Thankfully I have enough mechanical aptitude to change this out myself, but still over $200 in parts alone

I went three years doing this, worked out to the same amount of $$$. Just make sure you have insurance.

Or you can do what most people do now. Say fuck it! I'm not spending $800 for mindless repairs on an $800 car. Spend your money on brakes, tires, windshield wipers and oil changes.

My Subaru's have patches on the dog legs (over rear wheel wells) made from stainless steel serving trays I got at Goodwill. I riveted them on and patched with JB Weld. Cost $10 took me 20 minutes.

Patched the muffler with JB Weld and aluminum flashing held in place with a giant hose clamp.

This is what over regulation looks like. This law ensures that the wealthy can afford to live here care free and the working class suffers

Really? That sucks. I’ve always used fiberglass and had good luck. Didn’t realize bondo was not acceptable anymore.

Just fix it with bondo before you fail. Sand it smooth and hit it with some paint and you shouldnt have an issue passing

[deleted]

LOL Good luck.

I passed once with duct tape and spray paint. Ahh, the good old days.

Could it be that tin tape with some paint over it?

I wouldnt gamble on something that janky.

Vermont - Where your car has to be road worthy, but the roads don’t have to be car worthy.

But there is only 600,000 people i the whole state.. where exactly are these pedestrian obstacle courses? Lol

This stems from major local lawsuits regarding cars that have been inspected where someone died and people that inspected the cars in question get railroaded with giant fines and jail time. Mechanics do not want to fail your piece of shit that's already trying to kill you with carbon monoxide from a manifold leak. To be totally honest if I followed the law to the letter, no car over two years old would actually pass, and some new cars also would not pass. That being said a leaking exhaust manifold is super dangerous and you could all of a sudden lose consciousness in a moving vehicle as CO builds up in your bloodstream over time, so maybe 3-4 longer drives around an hour in a month could be all that takes to end your life. You might have gotten lucky up to now driving jalopies but when you let people drive cars that are unsafe for everyone no matter where you are, you can potentially be the one in a car that kills a bus full of kids.

Sounds like a car that won't pass at all under the new standards.

EDIT: Cars with that much rust showing have places you'd never think to look, but under the 2022 new standard the inspection shop has to photograph and upload to the DMV...

Holy crap dude. It's a tiny little pinhole in a flex pipe, not a direct route to my air vents. There is literally nothing wrong with the car mechanically. It's only a shitbox cosmetically.

It’s a ducking money grabbing racket. I’ve been here over 25 years. Been through the inspection process many times. Bought a brand new truck in 2019. It needs about “$800” to make it roadworthy? Fuckk you! I grew up out west, the only inspection was emissions.

Few and far between. I didn't say the regulation made sense given the rural nature, but thats the end goal of it

I hear ya

I did that too. The fine was cheaper than getting inspected.

A 17 year old kid died in Hinesburg from a cracked flex pipe under a Honda civic like 6-7 years ago for one, and for two, if the rot you can see is bad enough to fail you, how are the structural components that hold major components like the front and rear sub frame and safety components like the bumper rebar, and frame rails?

"Brand new" vehicles come with stickers.

I guarantee his leak was way worse than mine. And I'm not an idiot when it comes to cars. I just had it up on a lift at a friends place checking it all over. It's all fine

I mean if you're good enough at being a mechanic, get a job at a shop and get an inspection license so you can just slap your own sticker on whatever you think is safe and have it be your liability.

You know, if I hadn't just found a job, I'd seriously consider it

Drive it till you get pulled over but there's such a shortage of cops that may not happen. I'm 2 years deep in my winter beater and I haven't had an issue. If you do get pulled over, you can tell the cop you're waiting on a part to come in to get inspected. They'll most likely give you a warning (it's worked for me twice).

I don't think the mechanic is being unreasonable here. Some will enforce the standards, no matter how stringent and others might pass where some wouldn't. I wish I had checked around at garages before getting my car inspected.

A large amount of underneath rust will also fail a car. I've tried to look into undercoating but I've heard it's worth getting done if just to be able to pass. I had a truck that failed nearly 10 years ago for too much rust.

AKA "Never-ending road/bridge work."

And a warranty

No it's fully dependent on where the vehicle comes from

I suggest people leave. The roads can't handle the giant influx hence the traffic issues and long lines. If everyone that moved here in the last 3yrs left, everything would be fine.

Vermont roads aren't car-worthy yet your car must be roadworthy of their car-unworthy roads.

Ever consider becoming happy by being disposed of owning property and eating bugs to fight climate change?

You think exhaust leak is not a serious problem? I do.

There's a statutory exemption from inspections for farm vehicles. My neighbor has a hatchback beater for farm use with an orange reflective triangle attached to the back that he uses to run errands in town for farm supplies and travel between crop sites (wink wink)

Been waiting two years due to a parts shortage. lol.

Lol, the newest vehicle I've owned here was a 2006. The laws aren't that strict or unreasonable -- having an honest mechanic can make a big difference.

The state has info about specifically what is/isn't acceptable. Good mechanics will repair things to where they're passable rather than going straight for the parts cannon.

Drive with the windows cracked, problem solved

Don’t inspect- send it :)

Ehh not entirely true, one mechanic failed my car for a ridiculous reason and a different shop passed the car. Had to pay for inspection twice, but you can certainly get a second opinion.

Thanks for an accurate response. Fixing an exhaust leak that far forward should be a no-brainer. Even without the risk of CO poisoning, no quality mechanic is going to pass something that noticeable, just begging for the DMV to pay you a visit.

OP, it's a very imbalanced system, as most of the inspection manual is open to interpretation. Not all shops log failures with the tablet, you could ask another shop to look it over and ask them if it was registered a failure in the system. I don't believe there's any problem with Bondo on fenders if they're not structural. That is more for rocker panels on a unibody car, which ARE structural and spray foam/Bondo won't do well in a crash. Exhaust, just gotta fix that one.

I failed inspection for rust holes in the same spot on my Subaru when I was in college. Patched it up with Bondo and PBR cans.

I’m sure you can also find your way out

Except I don't have a problem with the inspections. Just the people the transplants that don't understand.

You have a problem with the “traffic” and “long lines” … there’s the border. I hear Canada has a lot of open space , and they will probably be much more welcoming then you.

Many states do inspections differently. Some don’t do them at all. It’s a legitimate question for someone to ask who is new to the area.

You being a total twat about it is unnecessary.

Why should I have to leave? I was here first and it was fine. All the newbies brought their shit with them. Look at violent crimes before covid vs now. Point stands. As does inspections, taxes, housing costs, etc. If people left, it would be fine, once again. The land to admire, full of ice cream and maple syrup.

Let’s be real here…

1. Unless you belong to a native tribe from this area….you were not here first, and have no rights to any of the stolen “land to admire”
2. Being “here first” does not give you the authority to tell people to leave a place they just moved too. You do not own the state.
3. Your statement that “violent crime rate is up in VT” is just false. I am assuming you live in Burlington, which in that case, you are correct , but only in Burlington and it has risen only slightly and honestly in line with the violent crime cyclical data. (1960 was a violent year in B)
4. Looking at Burlington VT numbers, what was your stance on the number of Rapes doubling yearly in VT from 2017-2019? Did “outsiders” do that too?

Again, You can be proud of your state, advocate for your state, your culture and your passions … WITHOUT shitting on everyone else.

LOL

SOP New England vehicle standard.

In my day that was called a “lick’em and stick’em”

What was the fine. I heard something about it only being like $6. I also heard that they can’t pull you over for no sticker on it’s own. Not sure if either is true

It should be like almost all other states where you are responsible for your own car. For example, Minnesota where I grew up has worse winters and rust issues and fewer auto deaths per capita. Unless the contention is Vermonters need to be babied more than Minnesotans for some reason, I don't get the point of these inspections.

"There are existing laws that allow police officers to issue citations for unsafe vehicles. There are statutes covering lighting, mirrors, mufflers, brakes, horns and tires. Comparison of insurance rates between those states that require annual inspections and those that do not show no significant difference in premiums. When fatality rates are compared, there is no correlation between inspections and fatalities. In short, the annual vehicle safety inspection has not been proven to benefit drivers in any way."

I would be happy to be proven wrong. The one study I've seen for inspections was being produced with ASA backing and I was less than impressed.

>The laws aren't that strict or unreasonable

It comes down to what you believe the purpose of the inspection is; IMO the primary purpose of the inspection is for safety reasons, not environmental.

For example my last car had an air injection valve get stuck occasionally. All it did was make the car run a little rougher, and use more gas for a month or two until it got un-stuck. But that was enough to fail inspection, so I would postpone my inspections for a month or two until it would pass.

While dealing with environmental issues is important, IMO it's not worth it if it would cause people to postpone safety checks (like it does in Vermont). Make it a separate sticker or something so people can still get their safety check and then deal with emissions later.

I know a lot of people that go multiple years without inspecting. Unfortunately they changed where the stickers go but you used to be able to just keep a boat on top of your car and the cops would never be able to tell what number was on your sticker unless you got pulled over.

That's the reason why the stuff is pointless. Shitty cars are being passed anyways.

"In one study, researchers in Pennsylvania intentionally created 13 defects in a brand new car prior to inspection. Among the many garages they visited, the detection rate of real defects varied widely, from 25% to 54%. Interestingly, while mechanics on average only found five of the 13 defects, they also “found” an average of two non-existent defects."

Ask around who does sketchy inspections. Expect to go out of town

Cheap sheet metal and some rivet. Call it a day. Exhaust leak is a different story. No easy way around that.

Neither of those is true. It was 125 or something the last time I got one. Pulled over for the sticker. I pulled the damn sticker, and called it a day

Be smart about it:

1. Install the rear plate.
2. Take the other plate, put it in the car under the seat.
3. Drive the car.

Inspection is only needed if they realize you are from vermont. If your driving down the road with no front plate, and no sticker, they don’t know you are a Vermonter till you pass. There isn’t a cop in this state who is looking at the front plate then the window THEN the back plate to notice you should have had a sticker.

Keep your lights in working order, and don’t crash, and stay within 12 of the speed limit and you can go years with no sticker.

Go to other states the inspection is strictly emissions, so be glad they check safety in vt

Have to have an active farm to do that, I too want to exploit the loophole

[deleted]

This is normal. I'm originally from Michigan and have had some gloriously shitty shitboxes that would probably have immolated when they crossed the VT border. Vehicle inspections are new to me too. What you are describing seems par for the course.

I don't think scarf cutting a beer can with two hose clamps is an acceptable exhaust repair in Vermont btw.

Yeah I mean you can have entirely missing lower control arm rear suspension bushings which on a Subaru for example can be 1.25" of play on just one tire both steering and braking are super impacted but it passes. Same Subaru has a failed intake air temp sensor which is a redundant sensor as it measures at the mass air flow sensor but trips the check engine light that fails. It's important to keep in perspective that our laws are largely made with media shock and awe tactics and law makers reactions to the emotional voting public, not based on experts in the field.

Is just getting a warning really that likely? I know there's a shortage of cops generally but my commute includes this spot on 91 where I see a state trooper like every other morning, which makes me currently nervous about having expired temporary plates

How long ago? These are pretty recent changes.

2 things I’ve learned since moving here from CNY:

1. Shop around for inspections. No 2 mechanics are alike.

2. 500 dollars in Harbor Freight tools, RockAuto.com, YouTube, and a close attention to detail can save you literally thousands.

It’s a given a shop will fail one of my cars annually for brakes and rotors and quote up 800 dollars in repairs. This is, max, 80 dollars in parts online and a few hours of work.

A different shop failed my Subaru for ball joints and wrote up a 4K dollar quote. Well, guess what? After-market control arms are 100 dollars a piece online. So, with some breaker bars and torque specs, I fixed it myself, and bought some fresh wheel bearings to boot. This literally saved me thousands of dollars, and investing in your own DIY repair skills is priceless.

This may not apply to you currently, but it’ll pay off in the future. Just follow the golden rule: if you repair it, are you comfortable with your family driving in it? If not, learn more and fix it better.

April of this year after the new inspection stickers were released

It’s all fine until someone else’s muffler falls off into you car. I’ve seen this happen in a few states but not VT.

Dang. Well at least I got away with it all summer

Sooo many of my friends were ridin dirty on inspection until this year when they put the inspection stickers on the left front instead of the middle

What percentage of car accidents are caused by faulty cars and not faulty drivers?

So make the state do the inspections.

It's super easy to read the expiration date on a paper plate on the back of a car traveling 65mph.

I had these same issues. Dealership wanted $3500 for all my issues (I had a few others).

I don't care how my car looks, so I got some bondo, automotive spray paint, and sealer and fixed the holes myself (after sanding the rust away in the first place).

They also got me for a small rust hole in my muffler. I ended buying a new one from Oriellys and installed it myself.

Saved tons of money doing the work, and a bunch of other things myself.

Also, anyone who said the dime sized hole in the runner board under my rear passenger door is a safety hazard GO FUCK YOURSELF YOU TWIT.

I hit mine with bondo after and it went by no problem

Honestly, the shit-boxes that come to VT from NY are hazardous at best. Giant gaping rust holes all over the body, so much so that you can see through the car. Imagine how close the suspension is to failure.

I can't believe you didn't include a /s with that, it'd have been a fantastic sarcastic joke.

My sketchy inspections guy got shut down with the new rules a couple years ago. My newer sketchy inspections guy told me to go else where with my rusty dump truck as he was only one enforcement away from losing his certification.

To be clear, the truck is fine. Just a three inch crack in the upper left corner of the windshield that I’m not inclined to replace.

You need to get one every year. It was last year the truck has almost 50,000

Vehicle inspections in VT have gotten pretty crazy in the last few years. Certainly makes it harder to keep an older, cheaper car on the road. And I'm sure it's by design. But my big question is, if you're driving an $800 car that failed VT inspection, what the hell are you doing moving to Vermont in the first place? This state is not kind to those who don't have means. And to come from Central NY? I am originally from CNY and I know that it costs much less to live there, in general. You're fighting an uphill battle. Unless you're intentionally living below your means, driving this POS, I'm going to assume that you're probably going to take more $$$ in services from the state than you pay in taxes. Maybe that's the point.

> unnecessary bodywork

So you'd rather get whacked with fines rather than spending a sunday afternoon with some bondo and sand paper? man you're basic.

it's funny how ya'll turn republican when it comes to car inspections.

YOU WILL OWN NOTHING AND BE HAPPY!

less than $50 dollar sunday afternoon activity. You can even drink while you do it.

> and have no rights to any of the stolen “land to admire”

People like you can fuck right off. Do you own land use the roads or do anything here in VT? If so according to your retarded logic you must leave as it's "stolen land". Anyone who pushes this shit is a moron.

I've never understood the reasoning. I had a jeep I couldn't sell because it wouldn't pass inspection due to a few minor things. I ended up selling it for parts.

This is the answer

I have kids. An entire afternoon dedicated to any, one task sounds like a Vacation.

Think of it as an opportunity to stimulate the local economy. It's the Vermont way.

As do I. I still do stuff. I got 4 kiddos in our household.

It's for the cows. The city folk that make the rules don't realize yer average cow will just about push over a barbwire fence, just to scratch those hard to reach places, so they are worried about fender holes cheese grating some poor cow in an automobile accident/s

All joking aside, I've been a mechanic in rural Oregon and Vermont for over 20 years. I'm not into hotrods, rolling coal, or any of that idiocy, I believe in climate change, I've built street legal electric vehicles from scratch, owned approximately 20 geo metros, lol, and bike commuted 14 miles to an auto repair job for years. Rural poor people need cars, in our current society. x100 in a "cool" rural place like vermont. They gotta be way over here where they randomly found some janky old house they can afford to rent. They gotta drive way over there to the job where the boss is slightly less exploitative of their desperation. We need to punch up, as a society, not down. Several recent studies show our "carbon footprint" is directly tied to how much we spend, it's like Elon musk being all "we need everyone to use electric cars", then bopping all over in his private jet. We are all out of time on climate change, we need our climate change mitigation to be numbers driven, not just make us feel good, because of classist propaganda we vaguely remember from our childhoods. If you are mad about climate change, punch up, not down.

My car is nearing 20 years old. If a few lil rust spots were my only issue I’d strap on my big boy pants and become an esteemed weekend bondo mechanic like yourself.

The reason we have inspections is because of people like you who who cause accidents to yourself and others. Vermont is the most expensive place to live. Thanks bud

Aww =(

VT Life hack!

So it wasn't brand new?

As others have mentioned, you do not need to replace the fender...but you do need to patch the holes. The issue, from the state's POV, is that rusty holes are dangerous and can hurt someone. Tape is not allowed, but I've definitely riveted some sheetmetal over my pinch welds to get past inspection.

Good God I hate this state, sorry bud.

So you don't need new fenders, but you required them to be welded up. They are not upselling you on the exhaust. You need a new gasket and will need any holes repaired or the pipe replaced. 800 is a bit high, but if you do the fenders yourself with a welder or bondo and good paint it will get you two years, just let them do what they need with the exhaust.

And yes, this is very normal.

Metal tape may be used to repair torn metal or perforation smaller than two inches in diameter located on any nonstructural area of the vehicle.

This is a recent update but it is verbatim from the inspection manual given to technicians.

No inspection tech will pass that in fear of being sued. If the state didn’t crack down so hard on us we’d certainly pass a lot more. But losing my inspection license or risk a manslaughter charge is not worth it.

Put the temporary plate inside the rear window. Don’t ever scrape the dust or frost off the rear window.

That’s not brand new

Believe it or not they have actually relaxed a lot of the rules. For example, no front plate in 2016, fail. Tinted windows, fail. No registration sticker, fail. They have gotten rid of all those useless rules, even relaxed some of the brake requirements. Don’t get me wrong, some more work needs to be done. But public outcry has helped.

The poors have spoken!

Minnesota is flat by comparison. Literally that's enough to make it matter.

My recollection of past inspection rules was that tint on the front driver/passenger windows had to be very minimal in order to pass inspection. For example, I had dark limo tint applied to the back 7 windows of my van back in 2012, but my front driver and passenger windows could not be tinted. If I wanted any tint at all on the front windows, it was essentially nothing, and all my other windows had to be tinted to the same minimal level.

Another change with vehicle inspections has to do with dummy lights on the dashboard. For example, if your vehicle came with TPMS tire sensors, and you were running aftermarket wheels that didn't have TPMS sensors, the dummy light on the dash would be illuminated. This was grounds for failing inspection, because it was essentially a factory safety feature that had been disabled. Now though, the TPMS dummy light can be on and your car won't automatically fail inspection. This is helpful because, when I run snow tires on separate rims, I don't have TPMS sensors installed. I used to have to get my vehicles inspected every year before I swapped out my summer rims/tires for winter rims/tires. But in January 2021, I bought a car, which had just been inspected prior to sale, so inspection wasn't due until February 2022. Of course I put new steel rims with snow tires on the car, and the TPMS light is on during winter. My mechanic said this was no longer a problem.

Still do:) I use bedliner though the rough stuff covers the tape lines.

Cool story. Ever notice all the exhaust parts on VT roads? It happens all over.

Correct. TPMS lights can now be on and still pass. That wasn’t the case a few years ago. A change I was very happy about. They did get rid of the tint rule. It used to be any tiny applied to front windows was a failure. The inspection tech must notify you that you can be pulled over and ticketed for it though. It’s an advisory item now. Not a rejection item.

Throw a hay bale in the back. The law says nothing about an "active farm" just need to be doing farm related stuff like moving hay or picking up stuff at the store for the farm.

Try that with a cop, I'll wait.

Ya cause those would cause an accident. FFS

But you will still have to pay for zee bugs.

Some of us just suck at body work. I can rebuild a motor in my sleep but bondo holy freaking disaster.

Clearly you have never drove behind someone whose exhaust has fallen off on the highway bud. It’s not easy to dodge in the snow! Maybe one day you too will have the blessing ! Have a great day!

yeah - i've gotten better at it since getting into wood working... takes time, patience and ambition. Rebuilding a motor is no easy feat though, props to you for getting to that level of mechanical mastery.

you will sleep in the pods where our advertisements run 24/7.

Lol Been pulled over a few times in my plow truck. No problems at all. You do have to have insurance though. I did not know that and thankfully he told me to show up at the barracks with proof and he would pull the ticked. He did. That was years ago been running that shitbox ever since then and not been pulled over. Probably because I was new in the area.

It's just numbers really double triple checking everything. Now performance work like head porting and other stuff is an art kinda like bondo IMO.

:)

Agreed. It's definitely crazy shit when you get into the nitty gritty of things.

I had a buddy that did some crazy shit to his late 90's prelude. Dropped an H22 in it, super charger, and all sorts of goodies.

We would spend hours on the highway tuning air / fuel rations with honda shop cat doing pulls on 89.

Fun fucking times.

You think this never happens in VT?? Please guy

It all in the context though. A tiny pinhole in the muffler so what a big tear in the flex pipe near the fresh air intake is another story.

Well how about Washington state? Surely you can't say it is flat compared to Vermont with the major mountain passes and multiple ski resorts. They don't have inspections either and have lower road deaths per capita.

So you are agreeing with my first statement and retract your statement, “ya cause those (rusty manifolds) would cause an accident. (Annoyingly sarcastic) for fucks sake. Because you realized you were wrong? Thanks guy!

One problem there at least in my county the freaking sheriffs pull over every car with a temp tag they see. Assholes.

No snow in the valleys, no ice in your daily commute, no road salt. When you can still buy a Toyota from 1971 there, there is nothing trying to actively eat your car into nothing. It's almost like the high desert.

What rusty manifolds like every car in vt? You make no sense. I didn't retract shit pal.

Wow how stupid. No snow in valleys no salt use lol they use a fuck ton of salt. Not as much as here to be sure but come on this just blows all your credibility. No snow no ice GTFO

You sound like you have never been there, I have, and I asked friends parents there and such as I considered the move there 20 years ago. They literally said 3-5 " of snow total per year, none of the ice of the north east. Explain how they have salt use and cars from the 40's just sitting in people's lawns.

Beat it. I lived there for years idiot. Plenty of snow and ice also needed chains quite a few times. They use chloride pre treat just like here as well.

https://wsdot.wa.gov/travel/operations-services/snow-and-ice-plan

https://infogram.com/road-salt-use-by-state-1h8n6m1971nm6xo

Edit: Cute you get called out for lying and downvote the truth and delete your post. What a clown. Oh not deleted just blocked me. Even more stupid.

Unfortunately, the cost of not doing it is so high now with inspection failures. rust repair is never cheap and most of the time you only want to buy another year or 2 on the vehicle, not restore it so it lasts 15 more years

You are missing the point regarding the now deleted posters stance on “why should I leave I was here first” in reference to the same deleted poster telling OP to leave VT if they don’t like car inspections.

You'll pay more for zee bugs when your social credit score gets dinged for publicly complaining about it.

I miss the days of driving a car into the ground.

I personally don't think the government should be telling me what I can drive. If they want us to maintain our cars better, they should use more carrots and less sticks.

I think there is a happy medium. One trip to michigan would show you what it could be like to allow people to do this in a state that has roadsalt. You'll see truck bedsides flapping in the wind as you go down the road. Cracked frames on vehicles, broken windshields, non-functional lights, etc.

For me the happy medium is allowing more budget friendly fixes on non-structutal/safety related components. Rusted cab corners on a truck is not a big deal, just let the owner bondo it and it will hold for a few years.

Keep looking for a reasonable mechanic, in the mean time... just run it. The inspection requirements in VT are an absolute joke. I haven't had a current inspection on one of my daily drivers in 13 years. I'm already enough of a revenue source for those greedy fuckers.

The worst part is Vermont made me pay $900 sales tax on a truck I first leased in 2016 and then bought out at lease end in 2019 in North Carolina (had a ton of equity).

That means I've now paid sales tax three times on one truck. In addition to property taxes on it. That's borderline fucking criminal.

With an expired inspection? Yes. With an expired registration? Not so likely.

Bummer. I'm screwed if that happens

OK, my registration is expired 😞

[deleted]

Haha. Good point. Ive also seen cops parked on the side of Route 5, so it would probably be more readable there

All the trashy comments are why VT isn't the place it used to be. It's not the newcomers, it's the new generations of 'good enough' Vermonters who don't have the pride their five in the ground had. Cars falling apart, homes half painted, outbuildings in ruin but not demolished, broken rusty equipment beyond the point of repair littering the property, and complaining when someone wants them to do something about it.

Downvote away, fellow woodchucks, but it's your fault the state has declined. You owe your parents' and grandparents' legacies better than this.

For a very long time, an expired inspection sticker was not a "primary" offense, meaning police couldn't pull you over for it. There had to be another reason for a stop. Somewhere in the 2010s, they made it a primary offense and it was used to initiate stops which obviously could be abused by law enforcement.

I suspect after the increased scrutiny of law enforcement in 2020, police departments pulled back from using the sticker as a means to initiate a stop, but I don't believe the primary offense ever went away.

Once the scrutiny subsides, they will start cracking down on stickers again. Only hope is to contact your representatives about it.

Let them know this should not a primary offense and no penalty to your license.

First new truck I ever purchased, thought it would make it more than two winters.

Far more are likely caused by faulty drivers, but that's just because people don't pay attention.

Just because a ton of accidents are caused by faulty drivers doesn't mean we should let safety issues slide on vehicles (especially in a state that salts their roads profusely).

You have the correct user name to make that statement.

Welcome to the Grn Mtn Police State! Your tribute is appreciated and will be wasted on some nonsense dept or program. Enjoy your stay!

Reminds me of the "click it or ticket" patrols my corrupt sheriffs dept. does. I even asked the sheriff directly how he can do such when it's a secondary offense he gave me some bs line basically he can do what he wants when federal grant money is on the table. Wrong but you get the picture.

Had this happen to my wife. She bought a new car in NH while she lived there some ten years later we come to VT and they wanted thousands in taxes as she bought it new that's the value they used. Well we found a loophole she just sold it to me for nothing and I paid no tax as family transfers are exempt. There is a form for it as well.

Dude....If that's the case I should start raising my own crickets now:)

No I could care less about that fight with you two. It's the stolen land crap. Pretty clear about that.

Nice! Wish I'd have known this a few days ago lol

Well lucky you then. Spend much of those miles in Essex Co?

Ugh sorry it was actually the lady at the DMV who told me about it go figure. But at least in the future it's something to consider especially if you give a car to your kid or whatever. Immediate family and that includes parents as well. Edit there is also a form you can still use to get some of it back if you can prove you paid tax in another state. That didn't work for us as NH has no tax but of course to make up for it a new car reg is insanely expensive for the first few years. They get ya anyway they can. Bloodsucking bastards really.

Ah Geo Metro, 3 cylinders, no waiting.

Yeah, the $900 was based on what was left of the 6% in tax that VT charges - essentially it's after they subtracted what I paid in NC. But that was based on my current estimated value, not new price or even my end of lease buyout price. Strange.

As far as shopping around for inspections, what's the best way to find someone who might be more willing to overlook a not-so-great homemade rust repair job, and maybe some hazy headlights (hazy on the interior, unfortunately)?

It's an 09 Honda that I believe is still mechanically sound and safe, and has brand new tires (Xmas gift from a parent).

I'm already pretty darn overdue for an inspection and I've already gotten a couple of warnings for past due inpections years ago, so I feel like I'm running on borrowed time at this point.

I'm not great with my hands, have no garage to do car work in this winter, and can't afford to pay someone to do body work because I am already living just barely in the black mostly because of high rent rates around the Upper Valley. So I'll do some sort of homemade rust repair as I'm able, but it probably won't come out pretty.

How do I go about finding a certified inspection place who might be a little less on the strict side as far as passing a vehicle?

No