Been in contact with the You Tube guy on Vice Grip garage. He takes wrecks with no sills /spring hangers etc fills holes in floor with old number plates then new motor and he is on the road. Tells me you only need tail/stop lights and headlights and you can run on the road in Michigan.
So how rusted out can your XK8 get before it gets illegal ? Road Tax? Insurance ?

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What state won’t let you drive a rusted out car? I’m in Michigan and we can drive anything as long as it has tail,brake,and headlights.

 

Some US States have no annual vehicle inspection, some have a limited inspection and some have reasonably rigid rules like the UK.
Several academic studies have been conducted over the years analysing accident, injury and death rates across the different regimes. The result of every survey has been that any difference in rates which could be attributed to the different vehicle testing regimes is not statistically significant. The overwhelming majority of accidents are caused by things like lack of attention, poor driving, inability to adjust driving style to prevailing road conditions etc etc.
If we scrapped the MOT entirely for all cars, rather than just old cars, we would not observe any meaningful change in accident rates. There was a recent UK Government public survey asking about the UK MOT rules now that we have left the EU. My submission was that we should either scrap it entirely or, if we had to have something, we should introduce a 10 minute, tyres, brakes and steering check.
It doesn't answer your question but possibly adds an interesting perspective to the issue.

Richard

 

Quote:

The overwhelming majority of accidents are caused by things like lack of attention, poor driving, inability to adjust driving style to prevailing road conditions etc etc.

I 100% agree.

However, I would change "inability" to "refusal".

Cheers
DD

 

not interested in what causes accidents but the regulations that allow unsale bangers on the road and how this reflects onto XK8.

 

The answer is, if it runs, has brake lights, working brakes, and can move under its own power, it's roadworthy. I have seen some cars that can truly be considered to be piles of junk being held together by nothing more than duct tape and prayers still be allowed on the roads.

 

in my state, Oklahoma, there is no annual safety inspection.

Previous I lived in Texas, where cars the age of the XK8 and XKRs just had to have functional lights, horn, etc. the brakes had to slow the car down from 10 mph to a stop. That’s about it. No structural inspection of any kind.

most states between the east and west coasts are mainly concerned that you are buying a license tag every year and that you have some sort of liability insurance. That’s it.

Z

 

I quite like the annual inspection, given I do pretty much everything on my cars myself. The youtube channel Just Rolled In shows you what shitboxes would be sharing the same roadspace as the rest of us if we didn't have annual inspections, but whether it makes the slightest difference to safety overall, I have no idea. I suspect that junking old cars and forcing the owners to buy something newer with newer safety systems is the biggest contribution to safety that the inspections make.

 

You will appreciate that the issues are two sides of the same coin once it is understood that "unsafe" or "safe" relates directly to "more or less likely to result in an accident".

Richard

 

I had an inspector fail my car at a safety inspection because the amber on the turn signal bulbs was flaking off. The bulbs still worked fine, and the lens are amber, of course. I guess I wasn't checking the indicator fluid regularly.

 

^^ Same here. That was maybe five years ago on my wife's 2006 XK8. I still take all of our vehicles to that same inspection station every year, but that nitpicky shop manager has moved on....

 

Oh, this is interesting. I lived there from the late '70s through the mid-80s. Back then they did have annual inspections and you put the inspection sticker inside the windshield, It was pretty lame, basically check the exhaust pipes for leaks, tire tread and IIRC lights.

Do you know when they did away with it?

 

I don’t know. When I left Oklahoma after high school an inspection was used.

when I moved back here (retirement) about 50 years later, the legislature had done away with it.

Z

 

In Maryland, USA where I am located, you need to get your used car inspected when you buy it.
That is unless you order "Historic" tags, which you can get for vehicles over 20 years old. You are only allowed or expected to drive Historic vehicles to events or perhaps on test drives.
I got Historic tags when I bought my '97 XK8 because it was an ongoing process to bring the car from non-running to a safe condition and reasonably good driver. When I was working on it, I only drove it around an industrial park, but wanted to have the car legal and insured during the process.
My car would probably pass inspection now as it has no rust, new brakes, tires, exhaust, etc. It stops and turns as well as my new cars. Sometimes it doesn't go as well, but it hasn't left me stranded, knock wood.
However, I only drive it to get togethers with friends or very occasionally from my shop (where I keep it) to home, perhaps 10 miles distance.
If I were to drive it regularly, I'd get it inspected, but then would have added expense from annual registration, added insurance and the cost of the inspection. Occasionally, I do see old cars on the road with historic tags which really don't appear roadworthy. But most of the historic vehicles I see on the road are driven by fellow enthusiasts who keep up with safety items.

 

This is the way PR does it. Officially they are supposed to check a bunch of things, but in reality, nothing more than emissions gets checked. They then provided you an up to date vehicle registration with a certificate of inspection and sold you a windshield sticker that was evidence that the process had been complied with and the car was roadworthy. However, now they have done away with the inspection sticker, instead transitioning to a digital one that also doubles as the e-sticker for toll stations. Instead of having a separate sticker that evidenced inspections, now the right lower corner of the windshield has no sticker. The "AutoExpreso" sticker at the base of the rear view mirror in the windshield now contains a chip that police officers may scan to check that you have complied.

 

So brakes lights exhaust emmissions but rusty as f..k

 

and many states (that have inspections) usually don’t test for emissions when the car is over 20 years old.

Z

 

Where I live there are no vehicle or emissions inspections. It's so nice not having to uselessly run the car through the X-100 code clearing drill anymore after I fix something that requires a code-reset.

I seem to recall a midwestern state enacting vehicle inspections after a group of teens died from carbon monoxide poisoning when their rust-holed car got stuck in a blizzard and they attempted to wait it out with the engine running.

 

Utah did away with the safety inspections in 2018 but still requires an emissions inspection annually.
Every year I try to get a waiver on the fuel cap because the test tool does not work. Had to resort to a bogus fuel cap.

 

Cars registered in Texas after 2025 will no longer need to pass a safety inspection, but owners will still pay the fee

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06...ction-changes/

It's all about THE MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Here in North Carolina, vehicles less than 20 years old require an annual safety inspection and emissions inspection. Total cost is $30.00.....

Vehicles that are 20 years old and older require only the annual safety inspection. Total cost is $13.60....

Not sure about vehicles registered in the Antique or Historic categories....