I grew up in Vermont, where annual safety inspections are just part of life. You take your rig down to your local mechanic at least once a year. The mechanic checks the safety equipment is working, the suspension isn’t too worn, and the body is free of rust holes. Then they slap that year’s sticker on the windshield. So imagine my surprise when I first visited a state with no stickers and found it has no safety inspection! In fact, eleven states have no inspections whatsoever.

• Alaska
• Arkansas
• Iowa
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• Mississippi
• Montana
• North Dakota
• South Carolina
• South Dakota
• Washington

Those are the states with no safety, emissions, or VIN inspections. That doesn’t mean you can drive around a car without working turn signals or a big crack in the windshield. A police officer may still pull you over for a mechanical issue and give you a ticket. Or if you get pulled over for another reason, the tickets could pile up fast. A few states even do periodic checkpoints to look all vehicles over for mechanical issues.

The other 40 states in the union have every combination of inspections imaginable. Here’s an example.

When I lived in Vermont there was no form of emissions inspection to measure how much a modified or worn out car was polluting. Then I moved to California. I discovered emissions was the only inspection I had to pass. In sunny California, the government doesn’t worry about rusty body panels or worn suspension. But every passenger vehicle built after 1975 must undergo a famously strict biannual emissions test. In fact, 30 states and districts now require some form of emissions inspection. But many only require periodic testing, or only test vehicles in urban areas.

2 states have no safety or emissions inspections, but want to check your VIN

To make it even more complicated: An additional 27 states offer some form of “VIN” inspection. What’s that mean? Usually, if you re-register a car that hails from another state, someone visually confirms its unique Vehicle Identification Number is what you claim. This prevents you from shipping in a stolen car and registering it with a clean VIN.

So, there are states with no safety inspection and no emissions inspection, that don’t make our list of states with “no inspection” simply because you must double-check the VIN if you bring in a used car from another state. This is why some sources say there are 13 states with “no inspections.” They include Florida and Wyoming on the above list.

If you buy a car in Florida and register it there, you won’t face either an emissions or safety inspection. Same thing in Wyoming. No safety or emissions inspection. Wyoming only has a VIN inspection for out-of-state vehicles.