Abstract
The purpose of this review of 41 studies and reports concerning periodic motor vehicle inspection was to seek evidence an to whether the costs of requiring all motorists to have certain safety components on their vehicles in inspected and repaired on a regular basis are less then the benefits gained from such inspections in terms of safer vehicles and fewer vehicle-defect accidents. There is credible evidence that existing PMVI programs are not as reliable in detecting degraded safety components and forcing their repair as was envisioned by PMVI proponents.