Mississippi’s automobile inspections stickers seem headed the way of the Oldsmobile.

Senators this week passed a bill to repeal the requirement that vehicle owners get a $5 safety inspection each year, and the House passed a similar measure Thursday. Those pesky stickers on the bottom driver’s corner of the windshield soon could be as defunct as the popular car brand that went by the wayside in 2004.

Few auto shops in Warren County perform the inspections, which lawmakers have said outlived their usefulness. Those who do go through the licensing and bonding process to become state inspectors, have plenty of work.

“We’ve done as many as 500 in a week here. The average is about 50 to 75,” said Charles Pendleton who owns three auto shops including Texaco Xpress Lube on Clay Street.

He and other shops said they don’t expect any major financial loss if the state eliminates stickers.

Pendleton supports keeping inspections, but understands the $5 brightly colored stickers are the last thing on drivers’ minds. His own inspection sticker was out of date this week.

“Most people don’t remember them unless their service person tells them about it,” he said.

Lawmakers who want Mississippians to forget about inspection stickers also seem to have forgotten.

President Pro Tem Giles Ward, R-Louisville said he sent Senate pages out last month to look at vehicles driven by senators and staffers. Of those 88 cars and trucks, 23 had expired stickers and two had no stickers at all.

Many Vicksburg mechanics and service stations don’t performer state inspections for a variety of reasons, said Carl Smith, owner of Warfield’s Service Center. Smith’s shop does not perform inspections.

“It’s a safety inspection, but all they really check are the lights and horn,” Smith said. “We always felt if it was a safety inspection you need to check the car out.”

The brief safety inspection includes a check on whether headlights, windshield wipers, turn signals and the horn are working.

Proponents, including Republican Sen. John Polk of Hattiesburg, say too often no inspection is conducted. They also say cars are better-built now, and safety inspections are less needed.

“The things we inspect for have nothing to do with the make of the car,” Pendleton said. “No matter how good a car is made, those things are still going to go out.”

The current policy requires motorists to get their vehicles inspected every year by a certified inspection station. The sticker costs $5. Of that, $3 goes to the technician and the remaining $2 goes to the state’s general fund.

“It’s a lot of work for just $3 if you’re not selling something else,” said Tim McCarley, former owner of Texaco Xpress Lube. “For years, we thought it should be $10 — $5 apiece.”

Proponents of inspections stickers say the Department of Public Safety collects more than $2 million each year form inspections, but last year DPS officials told legislators that the agency loses money on the program.

The small stickers were originally introduced with the Sticker Inspection Act in 1977, but the inspection process has existed since 1960.

 

The Associated Press contributed to this report