Saturday is the last day the state will inspect motor vehicles for mechanical problems. New Jersey will become the 30th state that doesn't look for bald tires, silent horns, or non-working lights and turn signals.
Inspection stations will just check emissions on vehicles five years or older starting Monday.
School buses, limousines, jitneys, taxis and other commercial-plated vehicles will still be checked for emissions and mechanical defects.
The changes will save the state about $17 million, Motor Vehicle Commission administrator Raymond Martinez said. Most of the savings come from scrapping 2.4 million inspections and re-inspections performed each year and by shifting new car emissions testing from four years to five years.
The state pays a private company to do the inspections and is charged per inspection.
In addition to the more than two million inspections and re-inspections the MVC conducts each year, an additional 578,000 are done for a fee by more than 1,100 licensed, private facilities.
The MVC said data from other states, educational institutions and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration were inconclusive whether non-emission inspections made roads safer.
