Wishing to Be Back Across the River
My first few years in Philly were student years, so my legal state-of-residence was New Jersey. Once I began working, it was sensible to officially “move” here, by changing my legal status, as acknowledgement of my now-12-months-out-of-the-year physical residency in Philadelphia.
When that change was made, I accepted the insurance hike (heck, NJ rates weren’t all that stellar) and the wage tax (I’ve never known any different) and made my peace with those changes.
The one change with which I have yet to make my peace is this state’s damned car inspection system.
Jersey requires an inspection for all registered cars that used to be an annual requirement, but once the inspections standards included emissions tests, and the whole process tripled in required time, each car was put on an alternate-year schedule for inspections. And these inspections are done (or at least were when I was still registered there) for free at state-run centers. State requirement, and the state provides the method to fulfill that requirement. Peculiarly logical.
And that tripling of required time? A five-minute inspection became a 15-minute one. (This does not, admittedly, count the waiting-in-line time, but get up early on a Saturday morning and it’s amazing how short that line is.)
Meanwhile, today was the day for my PA Vehicle Inspection. I dropped the car off with the mechanics at 8 AM, got the call to pick it up 8 hours later at 4 PM, and got to pay $80 for the privilege. And one year from now, I’ll get to do it all over again.
Can someone tell me exactly what coalition of auto mechanics paid off precisely which coalition of legislators in Harrisburg so they’d set up this particular racket? It’s as stupid as if PennDOT mandated that after paying our driver’s license fee to them, we were sent over to Kinko’s to pay $50 more to have the state-required I.D. printed and laminated….
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Sherri, I’m with ya. When I finally got a car, a year and a half into my time in Philly, I couldn’t believe the inspection racket. In Oregon you go to a state run inspection center every 18 months or so, it costs about $35, but that includes your registration renewal, which you can submit and complete at the inspection site.
It is one of the three things that makes we want to go back to Oregon, the others being that you can buy beer and wine in the grocery store, and there are brewpub/second run movie theater combos out there.
Sherri,
Don’t blame the mechanics. I used to work at an inspection station. The $80 that was brought in for inspections was all money that went to the state. Checks went made out to us and then we owed that money to the state. We were allowed to write off the cost of the stickers and had to keep a record of exactly what repairs were made and how much we charged for them. So while you may feel it is a racket set up by both the garages and the DOT it isn’t it is a DOT racket. Move to Florida, you can drive any hunk of junk there and no inspection either.
Chris: Thanks for the new information. I unreservedly apologize for unfairly tarring mechanics with my consiracy-seeking brush. I do find myself wondering why mechanics register themselves as state inspection stations since they get so profoundly shafted by the deal, but, as I’ve just demonstrated, I know very little about the necessities of running a mechanic’s shop. And none of this answers why PennDOT requires almost twice as much in auto fees compared to NJ for registration & inspection.
Marisa: Wine and beer in supermarkets. Oh yeah. When I’m vacationing up north (Maine) or down south (South Carolina), I very greatly appreciate THAT little slice of convenience.