I remember the days when you would have to get your vehicle inspected in Texas and get a sticker showing that the inspection was up to date. You then had to get your vehicle registered and get a sticker for that. Both of those stickers had to be displayed in the bottom left corner of your front windshield. Eventually, the inspection sticker was dropped even though you still had to get an inspection. Starting in January of 2025, you will no longer need to get your vehicle inspected in Texas. But as with a lot of good things, there's two big catches to this.

Cost of an Inspection

It used to be $14 to get your vehicle inspected. I know there were a lot of shops that wouldn't do them simply because they didn't get any revenue from that while having to use their manpower. When the inspection sticker requirement dropped, it went to $7.50 with another $7.50 tacked onto your registration cost. So does that mean we no longer have to pay either of those fees? Nope. That's Catch #1...we still have to pay those fees and the state isn't even hiding it.

It will be labeled as "Inspection Program Replacement Fee" (KHOU) on your registration bill. Seriously?! Call it what it is Texas, a tax with no representation. But I digress. My car's registration is due in January. When I get that paperwork in the mail, I am going to check for that "Inspection Program Replacement Fee."

That's the First Catch, What's #2?

So yes, there's a second catch to this...not every county in Texas will eliminate inspections. Select counties will still require a yearly emissions test before registering their vehicle. One East Texas county is one that list, Kaufman County. If you're a resident of Mabank, Kemp, Kaufman, Forney, Terrell or any other Kaufman County town, you will have to get that emissions test. Other counties that will have this requirement are Harris, Fort Bend, Galveston, Montgomery, Brazoria, Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Johnson, Parker, Rockwall, Tarrant, Travis, Williamson and El Paso counties. Basically the counties with large metros in them (KHOU).

dps.texas.gov
dps.texas.gov
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I guess the silver lining of all this is that we don't have to waste our time finding a shop that does state inspections, because not all of them did, and worry if our tires had just enough tread to get us by until the next year. We'll just need to make sure on our own that our turn signal bulbs are still good.

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