Pennsylvania Scam?? Inspections
I have been marinating over this post for a little while and this weekend finished it off completely.
In Pennsylvania, you have to get your car inspected every year. Doesnt sound that bad does it? Good for the environment and good to keep the uninsured drivers off the road. Except that every year you have to send out about $90, plus you have to send out $30 bucks for registration. So, its about $100 a year to drive a car.
Whats worse, is that you can't take it to a free place to have the car inspected. In NJ, the state runs inspections, which are free. If you fail, they tell whats wrong and give you a month to fix it. With the Pennsylvania rules, you car is almost kidnapped, held for ransom until you get whatever they tell you to get fixed will cause you to pass. So Mrs Duck had to fork over $600 a few weeks back to get the car to pass.
So, since I had a new car, registered in NJ, I was inspected already, good for 3 years, which means it would not have expired until 12/2007. A whole year! But nooo, since I have moved to PA, I need to still get the car inspected every year. Which is what the police officer told me when he pulled me over on Sunday. So, I have a week to get it inspected or else!
So in the end, Pennsylvania I am sure gets a cut from the $90 that the dealers and garages and of course they get a cut from the tickets they give out for no inspections stickers. Sounds like a nice little setup to me.
6 comments:
Interesing post...Great blog..Cant wait to read more
It sounds like PA has it figured out.
You can't get around without a car, so if they throw a yearly fee at you, what choice do you have?
Eventually, they'll find you, either at a roadside checkpoint or just by being observant.
It is odd though, that the new car inspection doesn't carry from NJ to PA, but that just follows the "money grab" concept.
Pennsylvania has another weird thing, so a least they're consistent in their nonsense.
In Nova Scotia, we have to get our cars inspected every year also, but it only costs $15. We also have to register our cars every 2 years which costs $144. I guess it works out about the same as you...actually a little less. I thought we were getting ripped off. LOL Oh wait, we are...over 60% of the price of gas that we pay at the pumps, goes straight for taxes. It would be ok if the government actually used that money for fixing the roads etc. Don't even get me started.
Everything is a scam, I say. :-P
In my state, you have to pay $25 to have your car inspected every year. If you have a new car, you don't have to have it inspected for 3 years, but they charge an arm and a leg to renew your tags.
They do this, every year, on your birthday. Happy Birthday! Love, Your State Government.
Sometimes I think the United States needs to review its own history books and remember why we threw the tea into the harbor to begin with. Taxes suck. They really, really do.
HOLY COW! In Maine its about 30 or 40 bucks.
We know our mechanic very well and he hates doing inspections. He loses money every time he has to do an inspection.
What kills us is the cost to register our cars every year. Base price plus excise tax. my car is around 500.00 and we got it 3 years ago.
In Vermont, I think it is still around 40 or 50.00 a year to register a car.
Everything is a conspiracy!
In VA you have to register every year (with the option of 2 years) and inspect every year. I think. It's $40 or so for registration and $30 to inspect.
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