"Street legal" definition? (And I know it varies wildly by state)

Toyman! said:

In reply to theruleslawyer :

We had annual safety inspections up until 1995. It was determined that the inspection process did nothing to make vehicles safer and mostly led to corruption and the fleecing of people who didn't know better. 

For the longest time, I would stop at the local inspection shop late in the afternoon when the owner was 3/4 drunk, offer him $20 in cash and he'd hand me a sticker. The only inspection was to make sure the $20 was real. 

 

Yah, that would be about my expectation with independent ones. You'd have to have in house inspectors to make it meaningful.

OTOH there are plenty of people running around with stolen/expired/fake plates and no license or insurance. You'd probably just drive a lot of the people who can't pass into that camp.

cyow5 said:

As distracted driving becomes more prevalent, I imagine that further reduces any correlation between accidents and inspections. Whether your brakes work or not doesn't matter if you don't hit them...

But more cars will also have AEB, I think that prevented a guy in a new Audi from rearending my Toyobaru a couple years ago.

GameboyRMH said:

cyow5 said:

As distracted driving becomes more prevalent, I imagine that further reduces any correlation between accidents and inspections. Whether your brakes work or not doesn't matter if you don't hit them...

But more cars will also have AEB, I think that prevented a guy in a new Audi from rearending my Toyobaru a couple years ago.

Yeah, the OEMs have absolutely been working towards combating distracted driving. That does raise an interesting point though - should these systems be added to safety inspections? As drivers' aids become more prevalent, so does driver complacency. And that's fine when the aids are working but we may start to see cars with signficant age and some dead radars. Radars are expensive, so people who buy a cheap luxury car may put up with it, all the while being used to a system that used to work. 

NJ used to have a safety inspection that was surprisingly thorough.  They would check headlight aim, brakes, and front suspension.  Brakes were tested with four plates in the floor - the inspector would drive forwards and brake abruptly.  That test actually caught a problem in one of my cars.  They had lift in the floor that would raise the front end so they could check for looseness in the suspension components.  That one caused some anxiety when I had a 996 GT3 with a plastic tray underneath.  Fortunately, they had an exception list and my car was on it.  They had another machine that tested if shocks were still working.

They had a separate test for lifted pickups too, with angled ramps of some kind.  Wheels poking outside the bodywork was an instant fail.  Rust holes were a fail.  Bald tires.

It's emissions only now.  I recall when they updated the law, they announced annual savings of ... $17MM.  A rounding error.

At the time, I expected to start seeing the kind of derelict hoopties I've seen in FL but it never really happened.  What DID happen was that every 3rd pickup and Jeep is now lifted with tires sticking 6" outside the body to make sure rocks get thrown as far as possible.

In Kansas, if it's not TOO loud, no one cares.

Unless you kill someone with it, then the lawyers will care.....

codrus (Forum Supporter) said:

Paul_VR6 (Forum Supporter) said:

Insurance and tags. The rest is just arguing on the internet. 

If you have to bribe the inspector to get a sticker, it's not street legal.

Driving a car with a cage on the street is legal -- dumb, but legal. :)

 

Here I can tag as an antique and as long as it has a title and insurance, I get tags. The only reason I don't tag my car is that I can't breathe with the doors shut unless my air blower is on then I have to wear my helmet.. it gets annoying. 

This is an interesting thread.

I think the part about inspection and emissions can be a tricky one.  When I lived in CA, emissions tests were every 2 years.  If I passed and then got a misfire CEL the next day, I could legally drive the car for two years with crazy HC coming out the tailpipe.  The enforcement was every two years.  If it passes, it passes, and you don't get checked for two more years.

I knew a lot of guys who had two engines.  Swap in the stocker for the emissions test, swap for the hot engine the day after.

Same goes for inspections in PA.  If my brake pads and tires pass on inspection day, I could drive it until the steel belts are showing and the brake pads exit the chat.  Enforcement?  Not a chance.  If I get pulled over for some infraction, even if the cop happens to see it, I don't get in trouble, but the inspection station probably will.

In reply to Andy Hollis :

Been awhile since I was an emissions tester, but here it is 0 readiness allowed to be not ready. Unsure what's changed over the past 14 (WOW!) years but I'm having some stress about deleting the problematic SAP system in my BMW. 

I kept the Datsun street legal for a while. I simply kept everything on the car; lights, wipers, horn and even the 3 point belts. It was a shade over 35lbs worth of stuff so not really a big deal.

The downside is I did get pulled over a couple of times. 

I have to admit it would be handy to be able to do small test drives.

As far as I can tell both of these forms of conveyance qualify as "Street Legal" in various states.

So the broader question would be "What is NOT street legal?" Have you watched "Roadkill" or any  of the YouTube "Will it drive...?" videos?

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

In PA in the '70s, inspections were good for 6 months.

I mean I posted Leroy the master mechanic's yellow tube framed "thing" in my recent Drag Week thread... Florida classifies that as street legal.

I'm under the impression if you can make it fly within your states rules, the only thing holding you back from street driving your vehicle is your testicular fortitude.