What's the point of drive-by car emissions stations in VA?

[Anonymous]

Like the roadway stations... I don't understand the point. You still have to get your inspection every year. If I have to take my car in for my inspection this month, how does an emissions report (from a road I drove on) help me in any way? Is it just so I can renew my registration a wee bit earlier?

[Anonymous]

My preferred garage doesn't do emissions inspections, only safety

[Anonymous]

You don't need an emissions every year, but every two, so if that's all you need you can go online and renew your registration without having to go to a testing station

[Anonymous]

Not everyone's emissions inspection timing matches their safety inspection timing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't need an emissions every year, but every two, so if that's all you need you can go online and renew your registration without having to go to a testing station

Right, but you have to get an inspection every year. So you have to take your car into a gas station/mechanic every year. The emissions is incredibly quick and doesn't add to your wait time. So what exactly is the benefit?

[Anonymous]

You don’t need to go to a garage if your car was checked by a roadside gizmo. When it comes time to renew you can type in your plate and it will tell you if your car has been measured recently enough. I tried it but I wasn’t in there so I still had to go to a gas station. You only need to do emissions every two years if your car is new enough.

[Anonymous]

If you have a check engine light, you won’t pass emissions at a gas station but you might pass the rapidpass.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don't need an emissions every year, but every two, so if that's all you need you can go online and renew your registration without having to go to a testing station

Right, but you have to get an inspection every year. So you have to take your car into a gas station/mechanic every year. The emissions is incredibly quick and doesn't add to your wait time. So what exactly is the benefit?

It would save us an extra trip. Our safety and emissions don’t match up on the calendar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don't need an emissions every year, but every two, so if that's all you need you can go online and renew your registration without having to go to a testing station

Right, but you have to get an inspection every year. So you have to take your car into a gas station/mechanic every year. The emissions is incredibly quick and doesn't add to your wait time. So what exactly is the benefit?

It would save us an extra trip. Our safety and emissions don’t match up on the calendar.

You can still do them at the same time. My safety is in June and emissions/registration in September. I did them both in June and renewed my registration in September.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don't need an emissions every year, but every two, so if that's all you need you can go online and renew your registration without having to go to a testing station

Right, but you have to get an inspection every year. So you have to take your car into a gas station/mechanic every year. The emissions is incredibly quick and doesn't add to your wait time. So what exactly is the benefit?

It would save us an extra trip. Our safety and emissions don’t match up on the calendar.

You can still do them at the same time. My safety is in June and emissions/registration in September. I did them both in June and renewed my registration in September.

Whether you should do that depends on how far off the two are. You have to do emissions testing within 90 days before the registration expiration date, or you can't register for 2 years, which means you'd have to pay for the emissions testing more often.

[Anonymous]

It saved us an extra trip when we were due for renewal. Cost was same. Net net we saved a fair bit of time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My preferred garage doesn't do emissions inspections, only safety

Same

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not everyone's emissions inspection timing matches their safety inspection timing.

This.