[88carrera]

Hi everyone:

I have given up getting snow tires for my only car 996TT and I'm now looking at a cheap daily diver for winter.

There are hardly any cars on Craigslist that are already MD inspected for sale. However VA inspected cars are plentiful and are mentioned frequently in the ads.

If I find a VA car that just passed inspection, would that car hopefully pass MD inspection too? I assume VA checks for frame and floor pan rust, shocks, brakes, tires as the major safety stuff.

Finally should I stay away from automatics and look for manuals if the car has high mileage (200k+)

[trytryagain]

Virginia checks lights, brakes and tires, plus obvious windshield cracks, noisy mufflers that would indicate an exhaust leak, windshield wiper function and blade integrity. Don't think they have ever checked my shocks or frame/body rust conditions. They might flunk a car on rust, but it would need to be pretty extreme.

[SilverStreak]

I've seen some real piles of sh!t driving around Virginia. I don't spend much time in MD to see if there are any similar cars, or what's left of them, on the road.

[Jazzbass]

MD inspection is way more stringent than VA. MD inspecting is a full 1 hour put-it-on-a-lift-and-look-at-everything kind of thing, where VA inspection is a 10 minute do-all-the-lights-work-and-are-the-tires-bald sort of thing. A cheap car that has passed inspection in VA is FAR from guaranteed to pass inspection in MD.

[88carrera]

Thanks guys

[Chopper Dropper]

I know MD check rotor thickness, pads, even had my 911 fail for a small steering wheel. MD inspection is only once, and when car trades, not yearly, but liable for inspections if ticketed by the constabulary for lights/noise etc.
Dirk

[Patrick3000]

Change your search parameters, try something like "Maryland Inspected" under Baltimore CL

Put 4 snow tires from tire rack on any of these and you should get through a DC winter

https://baltimore.craigslist.org/cto/5894864055.html

https://baltimore.craigslist.org/ctd/5904439341.html

https://baltimore.craigslist.org/cto/5884950354.html

https://baltimore.craigslist.org/cto/5891568307.html

https://baltimore.craigslist.org/cto/5883852921.html

[86911TLCAB]

va will also look for floor pan issues and leaking shocks...usually it just depends on the inspector...

[RV4Flyer]

Bottom line is VA inspection is pretty much a simple drive through inspection whereas MD inspection is very in depth and much more difficult to pass. You will find few if any VA dealerships will guarentee MD inspection on used cars so that should tell you something. This is the reason it is so difficult to find inexpensive used cars in MD. Typically cheap used cars require quite a bit of investment to get them through MD inspection.

I have been sucessful over the years in purchasing used cars from individuals to have them put it through MD inspection as part of the purchase. This accomplishes two things. First, the car must have a tag on it to put it through MD inspection which requires one of three things. The seller lets you drive it on their tags (which I would never do as a seller), you put tags from another vehicle on the car which is illegal, or the seller gets the car to the inspection station for you. The second thing it accomplishes is no financial surprises for the car repairs to get it to pass the inspection.

My understanding is that in MD the dealer is required to put it through inspection in order to sell it on their lot but individual sellers are not.

[racer]

my va inspectors always come back with brake pad thickness info fwiw. along with about 15 other checklist items.

Maybe because VA does inspections every year, there is less chance of big problems to develop, whereas MD inspections can become infrequent, depending how often the car changes hands...