Less frequent motor vehicle inspections for passenger vehicles and light trucks is one of the changes to the inspection program announced today, Feb. 26, by Richard Hurlburt, Minister of Service Nova Scotia and Municipal Relations. The re-designed program will be implemented in two stages, the first to begin April 1 with the final changes after June 1. "We are making changes that will reduce the burden on vehicle owners without compromising road safety or consumer protection," said Mr. Hurlburt. "These are the foundation of our program and too important not to get right." Effective April 1, new passenger vehicles that have had a dealer pre-delivery inspection will not require an inspection for the first three years. Other passenger vehicles will require an inspection every two years. A process will be added to allow vehicle owners with valid inspection stickers to get a second opinion if their vehicle fails an inspection. There will also be a change to the complaint process that will make it easier for Nova Scotians to have their complaint reviewed by government. Effective June 1, there will be a reduction in the number of elements to be inspected once an initial inspection has been completed, and there will be more road-side vehicle checks. The program will still require motor vehicle inspections when vehicle ownership is transferred and when a vehicle transfers into the province. Mr. Hurlburt added that, "the program's re-design brings it more in line with national and international programs." Government heard concerns from many vehicle owners and industry representatives about the passenger and light truck motor vehicle inspection program. As a result, the province called for a full program review in December 2008. The first phase in the process was to evaluate program effectiveness and conduct a jurisdictional and literature review. Once this phase was completed and findings analyzed, it was clear that a program re-design was needed. "We listened to Nova Scotians, we reviewed our program and those in place across Canada and around the globe," said Mr. Hurlburt. "From this, there was no doubt that our program needed to change." Industry training sessions on the new inspection program will be held between March and May to ensure a consistent application of the program. The re-designed program applies to Type 1 vehicles, which include passenger vehicles, trucks or trailers with 4,500 kilogram registered gross weight and under, motorcycles or motor-driven cycles, and recreation vehicles such as motor-homes and travel trailers. Nova Scotia's commercial motor vehicle inspection program remains unchanged. For more information visit www.gov.ns.ca/snsmr http://gov.ns.ca/news/details.asp?id=20090226002
Well you're almost catching up to Alberta where inspections are only every 10 years. Soon you won't get your roads plowed for an entire winter.
So what I read is: -Mandatory inspection every 2nd year instead of annually -More "random" roadside inspections. As someone who has no intention of driving an unsafe car, I'd much rather have my car checked over once a year, than be pulled over and gone over by someone determined to find a problem.
Also, they will be checking for less things than currently as part of inspections. Right now, it has kind of snowballed into the car almost needing to be as good as when it rolled off the lot in a lot of cases. And no inspection for the first three years on new cars with pre-delivery inspection done.
Thats what worries me I think, I'd rather take my chances getting ripped off by a garage than some government power hungry, cop like, mechanic like douchebag.
Yeah that's the only part that concerned me. The rest of it is certainly good news. I guess it will remain to be seen how much of an increase there is in the road-side checks.
+1 My inspection sticker is only valid until March, so I'll only see the benefits of this next year, right? That being said, my car is 15 years old. I like having it inspected every year. I'd like to know if something was about to break or is already broken and needs immediate attention.
Yeah, but inspections as they currently stand are a little over the top (for the stuff required and all of the subjective stuff in the rules).
Now my car, is an 07, low milage, doesn't really need a yearly MVI. Our van however is a 99, with 200,000km. That will be a target for roadside checks, and more likely in need of a yearly MVI. I think they should have had a milage, and age limit to the 2 year MVI change.
Exactly what I think. Not needing an MVI for 3 years on a newly PDI'd vehicle is fine. But only requiring an MVI every 2 years on all vehicles, I don't agree with. Like you said, have a certain range, like 1-5 years of age; MVI every 2 years and vehicles over 5 years of age; MVI every year or something like that. Having ancient, high-mileage vehicles on the road only being inspected every 2 years does not fly with me.
It seems to work in other places just fine. * * Yes I realize we may have a more corrosive environment, but that also helps to control how many REALLY old REALLY high mileage cars are on the road, because they're rotted out and undriveable.
I am always checking out the van, and fix shit as it breaks or before it breaks. Its been a long time since i've had a vehicle that had issues and maybe unroadworthy by their terms. There are a lot of people who neglect their vehicles, and its scary as fuck they get an extra year driving them neglected.
That's very true, but we're still going to have the problem of seeing really old and rotted cars on the road with illegal stickers on them or stickers they got from a friend's garage. That's what worries me; the fact that they have an extra year in between inspections. Exactly.
I saw a lot of cars that passed inspection, but barely, over the years that I worked at the Esso. Some of these cars, I know for a fact would fail inspection the following year. Knowing that, it makes me shudder that these vehicles can go an extra year making the roads unsafe.
I personally don't mind the once a year bit. Just hearing they are laxing off a bit is good news for me.
Personally, I think it is a step in the right direction. More roadside inspections is not something that the everyday person has to worry about. The DOT guys generally target vehicles that appear to a bit sketchy just by looking at them. Leaky exhaust, clearly cracked glass etc are things they will likley be looking for as you pull up. Personally I never had a legit inspection for the last 5 years living in NS, since I have been in Alberta I have always had a good newer vehicle as well as a decent second vehicle that may not pass an inspection in NS but is still safe to drive.
I've seen a lot of scary shit in my time in the automotive industry, Its unbelievable how little attention people pay to their cars. My friends mom is the worst I have ever seen, about 2 years ago she had a problem with her car blowing black smoke, I checked the oil, and such and it was black and clumpy...so i had to ask...when did you last have the oil changed? Well, she never knew oil had to be changed . She would go through one $200 car after another her whole life without spending a dollar on them. Since the new MVI laws came into affect shes been forced to spend more on cars, her last Cavalier cost her $600. I actually bought one of her cars off her for fun one winter for $20, it was an 84 celica, I could not believe how unroadworthy this thing was!!
We had an older lady come into the esso pretty much daily for $10 gas. Just seeing her car was hard to believe, because it was in such bad shape. One day she came in, said the steering wheel was wobbling, and asked us to check it. The car was an 84 Tempo. This was 2001-ish. I tried to put the car on the hoist using the jacking points to check the front end. There was no rocker lip left. While looking for a solid place to lift, I noticed that there was NO floor left whatsoever. So I moved the hoist arms to lift by that floor/body bracing under the floor. That started collapsing. We could find no place to lift this car. We had to jack it up by the front subframe. The front wheel bearing was so bad that it wore into the axle shaft. She needed an axle, hub, bearing...and a tire because of the bad bearing, the wheel was on a slant. Further inspection showed the balljoint gone, and the outer tie rod. That was just the drivers side. I looked at the inspection sticker -- it was 2 months old. And she got fuming mad at ME when i informed her that her beloved shitpile was unsafe to drive. "I drove it HERE, didn't I?!" was her reply. I wrote up a bill for checking the car over, and in large print on her invoice I wrote "CAR IS NOT SAFE FOR USE, CUSTOMER LEFT GARAGE ON HER OWN, DESPITE OUR WARNINGS" She was driving an old Dynasty the next week. And it wasn't in much better shape.
The problem with illegitimate stickers will get no better with the laws the way they were. Under the new rules maybe those road side inspections getting done more often will catch those people. I'm sure there will not be too much problems for people who actually care for their vehicles and get proper inspections.
I don't mind going every year. I like the idea of going there year after year and getting everything looked at....just in case.
Cars here are inspected when ownership changes, that's it. E-tested ever 2 years unless the car is over 20 years old.
For further info, the province has prepared the following PDF file with a bunch of Q&A's in it. It's useful for figuring out the details: http://www.gov.ns.ca/snsmr/rmv/inspection/pdf/faq.pdf
So now with change of ownership a car HAS to get a new inspection, even if it still has a valid sticker on it with time left?
It can be expensive when you fail due to some sensor or what not and you have to start trouble shooting to figure out which one is bad. Or you start modding and some of your mods make your car fail. I personally do not want e testing, just my opinion though.
ok so having in-bay experience with pre delivery inspections....they dont mean much more than fiiling washer fluid jugs, peeling plastic off and screwing antennas in.... mechanics are not paid for enough time (i believe its only about 20 mins) to do this....aaaaand they dont usually put the car in the air at all. this is what i have experienced. if they were paid for more time then yes they could check the car over top to bottom for a full inspection etc. but i also know from experience that 3 years on a new car is way too long for their mass produced junk they usually put on new cars. sway bar bushings.....less than 6 months.....need i say more. i have had lots of types of vehicles over the past couple of years, i always get new stickers and have them checked over well. i like having one a year.... mostly because there are so many things that can go wrong....even after one pot hole. 3 years, way too long. 2 years yeah maybe for the amount of stuff they put in to brakes and such now but now mechanics are gonna see something kinda wrong thats not bad yet and suggest you change it now because it will be toast before two years are up? or at the road checks, what if your tie rod was fine at your check and a year and a half into it a cop pulls you over roadside? bikes, it would be nice for two year checks since on a bike here your only riding for 6 months of the year and waiting for an inspection is killer...and there arnt nearly as many parts to break.
We get almost 2 hours for a pdi. To be honest, this new MVI law will be bad for business. A lot of work at shops is created because of MVI checks. For the sole reason that 99% of people are so fucking cheap that they will not put money into maintenance unless they are forced. Unfortunately there is a certain portion of techs in the trade that do a great job of giving the rest a bad name. This will lead to more unsafe vehicles on the road.
