Who lives in Virginia?

[Samckitt]

What are the rules & laws on cars in Virginia?



Thanks

[RKHiPerformance]

We lived in northern Va (Woodbridge) and middle VA (near Fredericksburg) for several years.
In northern VA, which is considered the Commonwealth of Virginia, the required annual inspection includes the usual check of brakes, tires, lights, visual inspection of emissions equipment, and a tailpipe sniffer. I had a car that passed the sniffer by a mile but failed the visual test, so I had to maintain outta state registration.
Outside the Commonwealth (most of Virgina), the annual inspection does not include the sniffer. A couple extra bucks to the tech at inspection time would get us past the visual check, which we'd outright fail with most of our projects. One benefit of the inspection requirements is that you won't see dangerous heaps lumbering down the road, with wobbling wheels, one or no head lites, and a long trail of blue smoke. That is something that drives me nuts, and I saw it all the time when I lived in Tennessee (no inspection at that time).
All in all, and despite the fact that Virginia requires both a front & rear license plate :bsjerk:, it's a good place to live. The roads and infrastructure are definitely top notch. There's a good car culture, with lotsa shows on the weekends and good access to a number of dragstrips.

I hope this helps,
Rick

[BonzoHansen]

You make ole virginny sound even nicer! God I want out of NJ.

Are there 'old car' exclusions? Here in NJ with historic plates I have no isnpection.

[RKHiPerformance]

Historic plates are available, and with those plates the inspection requirements are waived. The car must be 25 years old. My '84 SS woulda qualified this year...

[Samckitt]

A couple extra bucks to the tech at inspection time would get us past the visual check, which we'd outright fail with most of our projects.
Rick

That a common thing, or did you have to search out a tech on the down-low? Anyway around the front license plate? I am not drilling holes in the front of the Monte nose to put a bracket on for the plate.

[RKHiPerformance]

We found a guy at a local repair shop to do all of our inspections. He made a bunch of money off of us each year (5 cars), but it was pretty easy. He liked seeing our cars come into his shop.
We always used the same guy, and I can't say how easy it would have been to find someone else.
In all the time we lived there, we never hung a front plate on any of our cars. We got ticketed once in our truck on Memorial Day, but we just snapped a pic of a front plate mounted on it and showed it to the judge in court. The ticket was dismissed.
Local results may differ, I suppose.