Inspection sticker crack down.

[ar0ck]

This is all just hear-say but word on the street says a lot of towns in Bergen & Passaic county are cracking down on Inspection stickers on all cars.

My friend Colin was recently pulled over in Hawthorne (my town) for having a "fake" inspection sticker. I know that the sticker wasn't legit, and my friends kind of stupid for using it, but the Cop immediately pulled him over after passing him and the first thing he did was rip off the sticker. The cop gave my friend a ticket for Falsifying State Documents, and its a mandatory court appearance with possible fines up to $500 and loss of license for 6 months. He also told my friend that if the car was spotted on the road again without a sticker it would be towed on the spot. He drives a 85 Mustang GT, its not loud at all (for no cats) it runs clean, and its only lowered on black wheels, I would think its a pretty harmless car.

I don't know what to make of it, but my friend is constantly telling me to get my car legally inspected, but it isn't that easy. I just wanted to give my fellow "modified" f-body owners a heads up on this and to warn you guys to keep your eyes & ears open.

[98tadriver]

how was it fake? he print one out at home?

[SteveR]

go to a junkyard, take the vin off a 58 plymouth, glue it to your dashboard, whamo!!! inspection exempt!!!

[maroman88]

in the record w hile back there was an article about a cop in elmwood park that specializes in fake inspection stickers, half of that 500$ fine goes right to the police dept/town so they have insentive

[ar0ck]

Originally Posted by maroman88

in the record w hile back there was an article about a cop in elmwood park that specializes in fake inspection stickers, half of that 500$ fine goes right to the police dept/town so they have insentive

Officer Myers, AKA RoboCop. He rides his motorcycle around town all year round

[heavy_chevy29]

dam i know that kid to. ill have to call him and see what happend. that really sucks. that car is really harmless. its your average fox body stang. good thing i have a collector sticker

[iamsickofitall]

Originally Posted by heavy_chevy29

good thing i have a collector sticker

yup

[Jared1970Chevelle]

whats the rules and regulaions of a collector sticker? and where can i go to get mine? and will they give me one with a race gas car with 12 point cage?

[j0n]

How do they determine that it's a fake sticker?

[WildBillyT]

Originally Posted by Jared1970Chevelle

whats the rules and regulaions of a collector sticker? and where can i go to get mine? and will they give me one with a race gas car with 12 point cage?

You can do a search, but basically you need a working odometer and collector's insurance. You will probably have a 3000 mile limit.

[Slow Z]

Originally Posted by Jared1970Chevelle

whats the rules and regulaions of a collector sticker? and where can i go to get mine? and will they give me one with a race gas car with 12 point cage?

There are 2 classifications "historic" cars and "collector" cars. Historic cars have to be 25+ years old and have QQ tags. Collector cars can be of any year - The only rule is that you cannot drive more than 3,000 miles per year and the car has to be insured as a "limited use" collector vehicle. You go to the DMV and buy a voucher for $25 then take it to the inspection station - You go straight to the front and present them with the docs, show them you have insurance, and they'll take an odometer reading then ask you to drive around the block to verify the odometer works. No safety or emissions inspection whatsoever - race gas, slicks, loud as hell ...they don't care. You then get one of those triangle stickers and you're on your way.

Now the loophole in this is that a lot of people keep their regular insurance when registering as a collector car and although you are breaking the "rules" of it you aren't really breaking the law (apparently). That means that any car that you don't put 3,000 miles a year or more on can become emissions/safety exempt. BUT, the other thing you gotta keep in mind is that just because you are exempt from inspection a cop can still give you a ticket for stuff like loud exhaust, no cats, illegal tires, etc.

[WildBillyT]

Originally Posted by Slow Z

BUT, the other thing you gotta keep in mind is that just because you are exempt from inspection a cop can still give you a ticket for stuff like loud exhaust, no cats, illegal tires, etc.

Great point!

Noise violations are not excused. Neither is the lack of cats or non-DOT tires- those are federal regulations that trump whatever the state says you can do.

[Frosty]

Originally Posted by j0n

How do they determine that it's a fake sticker?

That's what I want to know.

[ryanfx]

Um <hijack>

I REALLY REALLY need a sticker soon

</hijack>

[qwikz28]

Originally Posted by j0n

How do they determine that it's a fake sticker?

not sure about jersey, but i know NY has vehicle info on the inspection sticker. do you guys have that?

[someGTOguy]

i heard that ours have some sorta symbol only visible under a UV light (like whats hidden on the new driver licenses).... now how a cop would spot that while passing you on the road, I don't know.

.....robocop indeed.

[GP99GT]

Originally Posted by qwikz28

not sure about jersey, but i know NY has vehicle info on the inspection sticker. do you guys have that?

year, make, model, and VIN

[j0n]

Originally Posted by GP99GT

year, make, model, and VIN

I had a dream where I had an illegitimate sticker on a trans am and all of that information was on said sticker...but this was only a dream of course

[JL8Jeff]

I believe the stickers are tracked by their number to which inspection station or shop they belong to. So a car that is passed illegitimately can be traced back to the shop. Obviously the shop can claim it was legal when it passed and the owner made the changes. But I have no idea what would be so obvious with the fake stickers, but knowing they are obvious, I would want to get rid of it pretty quick.

[The Fixer]

Originally Posted by WildBillyT

Great point!

Noise violations are not excused. Neither is the lack of cats or non-DOT tires- those are federal regulations that trump whatever the state says you can do.

Maybe so, but they can't give you a federal ticket for it, so how would they write it up? If the state says the car qualifies, the police really shouldn't be able to write you for anything other than a moving violation. I've only been pulled over once since I got my Collector Sticker, and the cop didn't say boo about my tinted windows or testpipe. I also drove right through a random motor vehicle checkpoint by the Englewood PD without being stopped.

[Slow Z]

you guys are correct... There is NO WAY a cop can tell on-the-spot if your inspection sticker is authentic. They do all have identification numbers on them but there is no centralized database they could look into... You'd have to trace it back. Have you guys ever went through a used car lot or parking lot and looked at all the inspection stickers on cars? They are extremely inconsistent in quality. It's just a simple colored decal with a hand-cut peice of paper stuck to the middle with your info on it. Half the time the inspector cuts off the numbers on the edge, there are variations in font, size, and even location of the information depending on the place that inspected it. You can also tell wether or not it was inspected by a public or private station. The identification number will start with "CIF" for public and "PIF" for private. A private sticker also lacks the "Inspected by" at the top. Making an extremely real looking fake sticker isn't hard at all as long as you have a good decal and some photoshopping skills.... However, I cannot say I have ever done such a thing or condone anyone try to - just a casual observation by me, a law abiding citizen of NJ.

I plan on registering my car as a collector as soon as it gets running. I can easily go a year without driving 3,000 miles. Gotta figure out why my odometer doesn't work though first...

[BonzoHansen]

Originally Posted by Slow Z

you guys are correct... There is NO WAY a cop can tell on-the-spot if your inspection sticker is authentic. ...

..assuming it is a good fake. That is a big assumption. There are a lot of idiots out there. Or if it says VOID VOID VOID VOID across it.

[Teds89IROC]

Originally Posted by iamsickofitall

yup

X2!

[NJSPEEDER]

hmmm, i shoudl pick up a new car soon then. my ford was last inspected in 2004 and i didn't renew the registration this year because i am going to be picking up something else to drive soon

[97Formula]

Speaking of inspection stickers, why is it that I see some cars with current inspection stickers with just a number on it (like the 2001 and older stickers)? Mine always had the month#, the VIN#, facility#, the year, make, model, and something that looks like a bar code. Oh, and it also says PASS.