Beginning January 1, 2025, Texas vehicle owners will no longer need to obtain a safety inspection prior to vehicle registration. House Bill 3297, passed during the 88th Legislature in 2023, eliminates the safety inspection program for non-commercial vehicles.
We'll all be free, free, free of the oppression of the safety inspection process. However …
Under the new law, the $7.50 fee that drivers had to pay as a safety inspection fee has not gone away. The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles has simply given it has a new name: "Inspection Program Replacement Fee."
They want to keep collecting this fee because the money goes to state programs such as construction and expansion of state highways, which they previously collected from the Safety Inspection Fee.
And while the safety inspection is gone, state law will still require that drivers in 17 counties must pass an "emission inspection" on vehicles that are 2 to 24 years old, in order to get your vehicle registered.
But what does an "emissions inspection" mean?
The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) details the following changes:
Safety inspection out, emissions testing in
Safety inspections are currently required for vehicle registration in all 254 counties. Beginning January 1, 2025, noncommercial vehicles in Texas will no longer be required to have an annual safety inspection. But emissions inspection requirements will remain after January 1, 2025 on gasoline-powered vehicles that are 2 to 24 years old.
What is no longer going to be "inspected"?
Texas Transportation Code §548.051 specifies the list of old-school inspection items which will no longer be checked including tires, wheel assembly, safety guards or flaps, brakes, steering, lighting, horns, mirrors, windshield wipers, sunscreening devices, and front seat belts in vehicles on which seat belt anchorages were part of the manufacturer's original equipment.
What will still be inspected are listed as Items 12–15: exhaust system, exhaust emissions system, fuel tank cap, and emissions control equipment. These will be part of the emissions inspection process in the 17 counties.
Where will emissions inspections be obtained?
Emissions inspections can be obtained at DPS-certified vehicle inspection stations in the 17 emissions counties. These are the same inspection locations we've already been going to all along when it was called a safety inspection. Emissions inspections are not available in the other 237 Texas counties.
DPS offers an inspection station locator online.
What is the estimated cost of an emissions inspection?
Vehicle owners will pay an emissions inspection fee of $2.50 annually to the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (TxDMV) at the time of registration. The actual fee you'll pay at the inspection station (as listed on TCEQ’s website) will be $25.50. Just like an inspection fee.
The 17 counties where this is relevant include
- DFW: Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Johnson, Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall, and Tarrant
- Houston: Brazoria, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, and Montgomery
- Austin: Travis and Williamson
- El Paso County
Beginning on November 1, 2026, emissions inspections will be required for vehicles registered in Bexar County.
