Whomever came up with this idea, back in the 50's or whenever to have annual motor vehicle inspections HAD to have been a lobbyist for the mechanic's union. Lord have mercy is this a racket. I had my car inspected today...(let's ignore the fact that it took literally all day for an inspection & oil change)...$113. Yep...you know that if your car is more than two years old, you're not going to be paying just the cost of the inspection. At the very least you're going to HAVE to have a "bulb replaced" just to make it worth the while of looking at your ride. There's not a lot you can do about it...you're screwed because the first thing they do before looking at your car is take the old sticker off - so if they tell you all this stuff needs fixing and you say no...no sticker...you lose.

My cynicism has reached the point where I am certain this was all done with back room deals between politicians and some group and we have had to spend, I'll bet, trillions of dollars for it.

Of course if you REALLY look at it closely if hurts the poor the most. Rich folks always have new cars (even their kids) so they don't have cars that need all that crap, poor folks drive in parts of town where the roads suck, doing more damage to their older vehicles. So rather than just deal with a beat-up hooptie with bad this and funky that, you're literally forced to pay to have certain stuff fixed...all in the name of safety, of course. There's been many-a-time I've had to use rent money to get my car fixed to have transportation to get to the job in the 'burbs that I pay my rent (or now car repairs) with.

Too bad all the empasis is on cars...but we wouldn't have it any...other...way.