You'd think that the law would set the inspection standards and the state police would have to adhere to those standards, applying the same rules to everything evenly.
As it appears to be written, the inspection standards can be arbitrarily applied unevenly by the state police, failing your vehicle and relegating you to second (last?) class plates while passing an identical vehicle belonging to his brother in law and issuing unrestricted plates there...
Please correct any misconceptions I have.
To summarize it, the VA Code is written to give the "Superintendent" which I assume is the State Police Superintendent the authority to define inspections. As legislators typically do, they punt the details of their legislation to the unelected bureaucrats in departments like the DMV, or VA State Police, or ATF, etc.
In the Administrative Code of VA, the Superintendent defines everything. Up until September of 2017, the administrative code said something bland like "The inspection program was developed to promote highway safety. Its aim is to assure all registered vehicles are mechanically safe to operate."
They updated it to say the same, but add: "
The program model is based on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. Vehicles submitted for inspection must be compliant with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards applicable on the date of manufacture."
It's my suspicion that they are targeting imported antique vehicles AND former military vehicles with this change. They are choosing to interpret it as "it must have an FMVSS sticker or a letter from the manufacturer that certifies it as applicable with FMVSS".
And they're choosing "Date of manufacture" to be the day a FMV leaves the military. Which blows my mind.
In any case, they're purposefully requiring an impossible test to hundreds or maybe thousands of vehicle owners across the state of VA. "Retraining" was heard to be taking place in June of 2018. I have a few people I know who are inspectors and I have asked them for details if they ever receive a bulletin update from the VA State Police in regards to this.