Well, you'd be wrong.
Below is the reply I got from Mr Journalism School Dropout. Funny how his beef in his reply is now the "unfairness" of we antique car scofflaws not having to pay for inspections while the common man has to. That isn't what the thrust of the article was about that I read. I sent him another reply, not really worth posting here, just sort of saying I disagree with his assessment and that this is really a non-issue considering the miniscule number of cars in the grand scheme of things. I suggested he take on PA's lousy licensing requirements if he really wants to accomplish something useful.
Dwight,
I stand by my story. PA’s inspection law is flawed by allowing one group of car owners to police the condition of their own vehicles, and requiring others to subject to a paid third-party inspection. Any car that’s 25-years-old and up to manufacturer standards can get antique plates. That means I can buy a 1982 Datsun that’s in good condition now, let it rust in my driveway for 10 years and drive it back and forth to work each day if I can keep the engine going. That’s not right, and it does have the potential to be dangerous. It was not my intention to single out “classic” show cars. The column never uses the word classic. It uses antique, which is the PA licensing definition. Classic was a term used by the headline writer that shouldn’t have been used. The photo also shouldn’t have been used.
Paul Muschick
Reporter
The Morning Call
101 N. Sixth St.
P.O. Box 1260
Allentown, PA 18105
Office: 610-820-6582
Cell: 484-948-0426
Fax: 610-820-6693 paul.muschick@mcall.com
My race car gets inspected annually at the truck shop down the street from me. It involves the owner asking me what the brake pad measurements are and checking that all the lights work.
He spends more time checking my car trailer than he does the vehicle I tow it with. Now, a lot of that has to do with him knowing that I do my own work and several years of seeing my vehicles and their care level, but it just illustrates how useless this system can be.
The state inspection system sounds like it is pretty onerous. I wonder if it actually does any good. Is there any data to support that states with safety inspections have fewer accidents?
Here in the People's Republic of California, we don't have any regular safety inspections. We, do, of course, have smog inspections for vehicles of 1976 and newer.
