EU Parliament Pumps the Brakes on Annual Car Inspections for Older Vehicles
In a move that will have vintage car enthusiasts breathing easier, the European Parliament has voted to keep their beloved older vehicles on a two-year inspection schedule rather than forcing them into the garage every single year.
With 369 MEPs voting in favor, the Parliament has greenlit negotiations on updated roadworthiness testing rules—but not before tapping the brakes on some of the more aggressive proposals. The big win? Cars and vans over ten years old won’t need to face the dreaded annual inspection gauntlet that some had pushed for.
But it’s not all smooth driving ahead. In a clever strike against dodgy dealers and their suspiciously low-mileage “grandma cars,” MEPs are backing a new odometer fraud crackdown. Repair garages will now need to record mileage readings, and manufacturers of connected vehicles must feed this data into national databases. The catch? This only applies if your repair takes longer than an hour—because apparently, nobody wants to burden small garages with paperwork for a quick oil change.
The new rules also take aim at pollution, with roadside inspections now empowered to sniff out high-emitting vehicles across the board—cars, motorcycles, vans, trucks, and buses. If your ride looks like it’s auditioning for a smoke machine convention, expect a summons for further testing.
German MEP Jens Gieseke will captain Parliament’s negotiating team as they hammer out the final details with other EU institutions. The vote came after the Patriots for Europe political group threw up a challenge flag on an earlier committee decision, keeping things interesting in Brussels.