Wow! I just saw a car with its front end all smacked in and the guy was still driving it around town. What’s the legal definition, offhand, for “still driveable” or “street legal”? Is it “as long as the headlights and taillights still work”? When do the cops pull you over and say, “Um…”
Jackie Chan drives cars like this all the time, but then he’s from Hong Kong.
And also, I’ve always wondered about the red cellophane over the broken taillight–is that legal? And aren’t there rules somewhere about how much of your windshield you can have cracked?
I think they put that on to make it legal, because it is illegal for a white light to show in the back. Except for backing lights, of course.
Too bad there is no law against ‘ugly’!
As long as there are no pieces of the car hanging or otherwise ‘unsecure’, there is a some kind of bumper, all the lights work, the horn works, and there are no cracks in the windshield, the muffler works and does not spew out lots of smoke, then the car is street legal. It can be as beat up, smashed in, and uglified as the driver can bear.
In Florida the back lights have to “display or emit” a red light. If a cop was an ass enough to write you a ticket for having the tape on your back lights, you would win in court since it does emit a red colored light. Besides, the people who tape up the back lights are at least making some kind of effort at staying legal. Some people just leave their broken tailights as is. These are the ones who need tickets.
As you can well imagine there’s some variance as different political bodies set the standards in their jurisdictions. In Texas, to be street legal a car must be able to pass a safety inspection and carry the minimum liabilty insurance. A safety inspection sticker is issued upon passing an annual inspection. If a car bears a valid sticker, but its condition has degraded to a point such that it would no longer pass an inspection then it is not really legal, although one could probably drive it for a while without being caught.
Inspection standards vary with the model year of the vehicle. Pre-1975 vehicles are subject to less stringent emissions requirements and I was pleasantly surprised when I took my 1955 Buick in for an inspection and was told the non-working turn signals were not a problem as pre-1959 models were not required to have turn signals.
Here you will not pass inspection with the red cellophane (actually the auto parts stores sell “taillight tape”) covering a hole in the taillight lens; but it may keep you from getting pulled over.
We used to have emissions tests here in Florida… Mr. Bush took care of those though!! Yippeeee!! Now we don’t have to bother with the yearly fees and hassle of emissions.
States with safety inspections generally make you fix some of this. I drove my VW bug in Montana with a small crack in the windshield for a couple years, then moved to Colorado and had to get it replaced.
PA used to have twice yearly safety inspections whose regulations were drafted, I think, in collusion with the muffler shops: “your tailpipe has a hole in it - gotta replace that” was a very common diagnosis. Any other state, bits of exhaust system tend to get replaced when they fall off. Even then, it’s amazing what you can do with a soup can and a couple hose clamps. I don’t believe PA has inspections any more. I haven’t lived there in many years.
Note - I’m well aware of the dangers posed by leaking exhaust systems, and I don’t really reccomend the soup can and hose clamp approach. But this sort of thing can be carried to the point of fanaticism.
A big trend in modifying Japanese cars is to have white lenses on the back. A lot of people use these and that’s OK, but they must replace the clear bulb with a red one. These are readily found in car parts stores.
In Washington State, the red cellophane is not legal. The law requires the light to be red (yes, it is illegal to show white light to the rear of the vehicle), but it additionally requires the lens to be reflective. This is so the car is still visible even if the light burns out.
There is no set rule about how much of your windshield can be cracked before it is illegal. Instead, the Officer makes a subjective decision on whether your vision is obstructed or not.
While my experience is with Washington State law, most states should be the same, since most have adopted the federal model traffic ordinance, designed to make the traffic laws substatially the same in every state.
A- Of course red cellophne is legal.
I can’t imagine the legislature would describe the specific red plastics that are permitted. (Besides, some classic cars had clear lenses and red painted bulbs, which are now a nuisance for collectors to maintain.)
B- Cars are not required to have windshields. That’s just a fad. If you do have one, though, you can’t put things on it “to obstruct your vision”, like all-over tints or window stickers. That also applies to shatter scars. How much is enough depends on who’s writing the ticket.
I know a guy that drove his truck home without a windshield after a rollover on the trail. It is legal, but the cops don’t like it when you wave at them through the space where the windshield was. 
Most people don’t know that this is true. Years ago my older brothers used to make VW dune buggies that were street legal. No windshield, just a little piece of plexiglass to put the reg & inspection stickers on. A cop once tried to give him a ticket for no windshield. He searched and searched but there was no such law! (boy was that cop pissed off!) As long as you wear eye protection of some kind it’s legal.
Here in Nebraska we had required annual vehicle inspections up until the late 70’s. IIRC they were finally dropped because auto dealers were NOT required to have their ‘stock’ inspected and it was considered to be against our constitution to have a law which only applied to part of the population. Of course, all the requirements that were inpected for are still law, (working headlights, signals, muffler, etc…), just no annual inspection.
In the UK every vehicle above 3 years old must undergo an inspection at a licensed garage.(Ministry if Transport test[MOT])
Since this is a way to get work MOT’s are usually pretty strict, tha garage is trying to get your repair custom but if you think you are being ripped off you can go to another testing station and have it done again.
If you have a valid complaint against the original tester then they could well become the subject of a trading standards investigation.
On windscreens there is no requirement for them in the UK but if yours shatters you are not permitted to carry on unless you remove the rear windshield too as these have been known to blast out backwards at speed.
You are not permitted to have any rust holes or seriously weakened panels as these have caused terrible injuries in the past to pedestrians.
Things like steering racks, shockers, brakes, wheel bearings, fuel lines, suspension and emmissions are all checked.You normally get told about any potential problems that will need attention in the near future.
If your vehicle fails its MOT you get a notice of vehicle rectification and it cannot be driven on public roads.The insurance companies may also withdraw some of their cover.
Our MOT does not guaruntee the condition of the vehicle fro the whole year, it is really a snapshot of its condition ar the time of testing.