Motor vehicle department
Pamela Winterroth of Bennett writes:
This letter has not been edited.
Since it's such a hardship to be here, you should go back to wherever it is you came from, but let's not get me started on that issue....
Posted by RickyLee on May 3, 2007 02:05 PMI can't believe that this state is only concerned with emissions testing and not safety inspections.
In Missouri, when you go in for an emissions test, the mechanic also checks your brakes, tires, windshield wipers, turn signals and horn. If any of them are not in good shape, you fail
We live in a mountainous state here with unpredictable weather and horrible traffic conditions. Doesn't it make good sense to inspect cars for safety instead of only worrying about smog?
Posted by Ponder This on May 3, 2007 08:20 PMAs a Colorado native who spent a year in New Hampshire I can tell you the safety inspections are a crock. Every mechanic and shop will use it to make money. When we had to change our Colorado tags to NH tags, we had just had new brakes put on our van. The local Meineke shop that was doing the state inspection said our brakes wouldn't pass. We stood up to him and took our van elsewhere to be told that our brakes were fine. We don't need that here.
BTW, talk about archaic - NH's system is so slow and filled with town, county, state bureaucracy, that it took FOUR months to transfer our title. We are the original owners! I'll take the system, although flawed, here over that one.
I've never heard of a "vertical" driver's license or a "horizontal" drivers license. As far as personalized plates, that's a vanity item, not an essential function of government. Get a life or go back to whatever state it is that has vertical drivers licenses and instant vanity plate service.
Posted by karen on May 4, 2007 12:20 AMWe used to have a vehicle inspection program here and ditched it for the reasons stated. It was common knowledge that station A would rip you off with phoney "it failed" while an extra five dollars would pass anything at station B.
But don't despair. We bought a car that had been broken into several years ago. The shift lever (for an automatic transmission) had been broken and was replaced with a regular steel rod. They refused to do an emissions inspection because of this. It is totally arbitrary and legal for them to refuse to inspect a car for just about any reason you can name. We finally sold the car to someone going out of state. And while we had it we had temporary plates on it and got a "GOOD" every time we passed one of those mobile testing units. So the Colorado government still has its hands deep in the matter it's just wearing gloves.
If we want to make it better at the DMV just add a few locations with Saturday hours and remove the restrictions that require you to go to your county DMV. If you could go to any DMV office how much easier would it be for us all? Computers are here but in our wonderful state they don't want to use them too much. (After the noise over the Welfare computers I don't really blame them though.)
Posted by momma y on May 4, 2007 06:11 AMmomma y,
On the other hand, when we had a safety inspection in place, there were always good, reputable and efficient places where one could get the sticker. When you found one, and stuck with it, you also got a mechanic who took interest in keeping the vehicle up to standards; and you went on the streets knowing that you had a vehicle that could be trusted to perfom.
Today, however, there are few repair garages left - gas stations now being "convenience stores" - and even fewer mechanics to be found outside the dealerships own in-house facilities. Which is not at all the fault of either gas stations, or of mechanics; but rather, the result of the immense complexity of computerization that has made automible repair into something far different today from what it was back when a good teenage hot-rodder could put together a better engine than often came out of Detroit.
The trade-off, emissions for safety inspection, was, and is, by no means either equitable or even realistic. But that is only one part of the whole problem.
DMV comes in way down the line in priority for funding. And with TABOR in place, it most probably will never get much further up in line. The theory - now put into practice - of strangling Government out of existence is beginning to show its inevitable results. And Colorado will continue to drop, further and further, on the scale of providing needed services as time goes on. Much to the joy and delight of the likes of TABOR supporters, of course; but much to the sorrow and frustration of those who seek services.
Posted by Old Grouch on May 4, 2007 08:47 AM