The downside to no inspection is a lot of junk not safe parked in the driveway much less on the road.....
About ten years ago I was driving across northern Montana and most of the signs said
SAFE AND PRUDENT I'm doing 80 and some cars went by like I was standing still.
I agree with you that state inspections do keep the unsafe junk off the road. But the problem is that state inspections turn in to legalized robbery. I think that lights, horn, wipers, brakes, tires, ball joints/tie rods/wheel bearings (& I guess frame condition) could easily be the maximum safe requirement for a pass. But even if that was universally that way, state inspection stations would still screw over customers who didn't know their vehicles by changing good parts.
The speed limit right before I got my Mt. driver's license in '75 was R&P (reasonable & prudent) & right about then Mt. was getting pressure from the feds to drop it to 55 or lose their federal highway funding. So they did that, but they called it a "conservation law" or some such, and a daytime speeding on a highway was NOT a moving violation & it only cost $5. It was like "who cares if I get pulled over driving like hell?" Over the years it gradually came up, & then I remember that in the 90s I would fly out there to visit my Dad & it was 'R&P' again. Although I was living somewhere else, I understood that it was like the Autobahn out there. I would have loved that. Then in the late '90s & into the '00s, I got to driving out there about twice a year & the limit was 75 which basically meant 80 wouldn't get you pulled over, and I thought that was nice. The last time I was out there was '16, in my 5.9 Dak, & it was 80 on the interstate & I was thinking this is great & I set the cruise on '85 & got pulled over by a MHP in a Charger with backwards facing radar when I came up on him over a hill doing 86 He gave me a warning.
