Mechanic speaks about possible changes to vehicle inspections

Vehicles safety inspections could soon change in Missouri.

The Missouri General Assembly on Friday, its final day of the session, approved a bill that could relax the rules of vehicle inspections.

If Gov. Mike Parson signs the bill, drivers would only need to get their vehicle inspected once it was 10 years old or reached 150,000 miles. Currently, new vehicles up to five years old are exempt from inspections. After that drivers need to get their vehicles inspected every two years.

Allen Fischer owns AJ’s Automotive Air Conditioning, Inc., and has done safety inspections for about 22 years. He said the state provides a book of things inspectors need to look at when drivers bring in their vehicles.

“The main things are like brakes, steering and suspension parts, lighting for safety reasons, glass crackage, cracks and mirror cracks. Things like that,” Fischer said.

Fischer said his mechanics typically see issues arise in vehicles before they reach the 150,000 mile mark, but it depends on the vehicle.

“For safety issues like ball joints, tie rod ends, brakes, things like that, we’ve seen as young as 15,000 to 20,000 miles and a couple of years old, to over 100,000 miles before they have problems,” he said.

He also said the condition of vehicles is dependent on the driver.

“If you are a very aggressive driver you’re going to wear out your brakes much quicker than someone who drives like a grandma going to church,” Fischer said.

Other things are dependent on drivers’ surroundings. Potholes and gravel roads, for example, can wear out steering and suspension parts more quickly.

Fischer said if the changes go into effect, repairs could be much more expensive for some drivers when they get their vehicle inspected.

“If you’re somebody that doesn’t really maintain their vehicle, does bare bones oil changes, and doesn’t fix anything when shops recommend things to be fixed, then yeah, you’re going to get a pretty good sticker shock, potentially a pretty good sticker shock when that hits,” he said.

Fischer said right now, the number of wrecks caused by complete mechanical failure is relatively low, but that could change if Parson signs the bill.

“I would assume that number would go up. I don’t know how much but I would assume it would go up,” he said.

He said the changes would not have any major effects on automotive shops, but it could for the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

“If this goes like this and an accident occurs … I think there’s more responsibility for the highway patrol to be monitoring the things that would be caught in inspection process,” he said. “You know, you’re going to see more pull overs for broken tail lights, more pull overs for, you know, failed lighting stuff that wouldn’t be occurring because inspections fix all that.”