North Carolina's compulsory annual motor vehicle inspection program has been in operation since February of 1966. The primary purpose of this study is to examine the trends over the five-year period of the program and to present a follow-up to a previous HSRC report that presented statistics for the initial year of the program relative to failure rates and repair charges, and their relationship to vehicle age, mileage and presumed driving environment. In addition, this study examines differences in various car models with respect to failure rates for selected inspection items. Inspection receipts of a special sample of 76,668 privately-owned passenger cars inspected in December 1968 were collected to provide statistics for comparison with those in the 1966 sample. Not only has the overall failure rate decreased from 70.1% in the 1966 sample to 33.8% in the 1968 sample, but the average repair charge (per vehicle with repair charge assessed) is generally lower for this sample than for the previous sample. Both samples indicate a position association of both vehicle age and mileage with the percentage of vehicles failing inspection. A questionnaire was sent to owners of a number of automobiles spotted on the highways throughout north Carolina. Results of this questionnaire reveal that (1) 70% of the 459 respondents considered the state's motor vehicle inspection program either of considerable or at least of some value and (2) 60% felt more confident in the safety of their car after inspection, with females expressing significantly more confidence than males.
Abstract