emission tests? (insurance, inspections, utilities)

[cordoba11]

I am about to move to the county and was wondering if maine has emission testing for autos. I have looked at maine gov sites but couldnt find it. Any help would be appreciated.

[Maineah]

No there are no tests. They test gas caps in Southern Maine that's about it.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Nope.

[Zymer]

Cumberland County supposedly does emissions testing, but as far as I know, that's it.

[dramamama6685]

That's great news. They started those in Ohio, but only kept them for a few years due to innacuracy of readings etc. Now we have all these facilities sitting around vacant.

[Acadianlion]

I think they test in Cumberland and York counties. About fifteen years ago the State of Maine spent a bundle on emissions testing. Contracts were given to some company that invested a bunch of money in new buildings and very expensive equipment. The program was going to be state wide.

When it started, they found that the emissions gear had no ability to test all wheel drive or four wheel drive vehicles. They also found that air quality was not an issue except in the southwestern corner of the state...those two highly populated counties...so the emissions testing program was scaled way back, the contracts given to that testing outfit cancelled, and a bunch of tax payer dollars wasted by a typical legislative beau geste based on emotion instead of the public good.

[Bydand]

No emissions tests, but don't forget they do require yearly inspections. This is an actual conversation I had with a mechanic one year getting my truck inspected. They have to come up with something to make up for the pitiful amount they get from doing an inspection.

"Mr Gordon, it looks like you need tie rod ends."

"I just replaced all the tie rod ends less than a month ago."

" Oh I'm sorry, I meant Ball Joints."

"Changed them at the same time."

"Let me see what the mechanic looked at, I think he has your vehicle mixed up with another one he did another inspection on."

5 or 10 minutes pass

"Yes he did have it mixed up. You need front brake pads and the rotors turned."

"You did that 3 weeks ago for me remember? See ya, and you can stuff the inspection fee as well."

[Submariner]

No emission tests here.

We get an appointment to take each vehicle in each year.

We ask for an oil change, winterizing, and that while the vehicle works fine we want a mechanic to look it over to ward off future problems, and by the way to get a vehicle inspection done.

We feel that a vehicle needs an annual stroking by a mechanic.

And that if a vehicle is already in the shop for 'work' then the guy doing the inspection will not be tempted to make-up additional work just to pad the bill.

In Maine, a vehicle inspection requires a half hour of shop time. The shop only keeps $3 of the inspection fee, the remainder goes to the state. So each hour that a shop is doing inspections they are losing money. Most repair shops need to earn $60 / hour to stay open.

One or two hours a day, with a mechanic being paid $15 / hour, plus insurance, plus utilities, etc; the shop is obviously going to be feeling a push to pad the bills somewhere. Otherwise they are losing money.

When I lived in Scotland, we had the same type of system for annual vehicle inspections as we see here in Maine. I was told to leave a bottle of whiskey laying in the back seat. It worked, my bills were always low. However doing that, I had a Ford sedan that snapped in half once, it had so much rust that the front half and the back half simply snapped apart once when I hit a bump.

[Zymer]

A state emissions testing program was approved by the Legislature in 1992, and repealed in '95. According to the State Police, Cumberland is, in fact, the only county requiring emissions testing. Here is a link to the SP's info on the Maine gov website:

State Police: Vehicle Inspections & Crashes: Motor Vehicle Investigations

Also available on that page is a link to the inspection rules, a tint waiver (windows) and information on filing complaints against inspection stations/technicians.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Back around 1998 we had a big problem with MTBE, a gasoline additive that was supposed to make gasoline burn cleaner. It didn't work. Not only didn't it work, but it contaminated water supplies because it was hydrophyllic. It likes water. To get out of the federal mandate to use MTBE in Maine we had to do emissions testing in some counties as a punishment for a few years. That didn't work either. It was just big government gone amuck.

Just Google "Angus King gasoline additive" for the whole expensive ugly story.