Virginia Annual Vehicle Safety Inspection

We didn’t get anything in the mail. But we got a CarFax reminder that our vehicle safety inspection was due in April. Plus, there is a sticker on our windshield that says it expires on 4/20. I tried opening an account with VDOT and for whatever reason it doesn’t let me - even after talking to a representative to get a new password. I wanted to do as much as possible on line. On top of that the Virginia Governor extended the deadline for two months due to the weird situation we all find ourselves in. Since we moved to Northern Virginia last year we aren’t familiar with all the requirements. So I researched the how’s and where’s and found a gas station down the street from us that performs the safety inspection. And rather than wait for everyone to finally figure out they need to renew, we decided to go yesterday after lunch. We followed the yellow arrows - there was one car ahead of us. We were both waiting for quite some time. We found out the mechanic was at lunch - so we just waited until he came back. The car before us took about 25 minutes. Finally our car was driven in to the garage and we waited outside. Thank goodness our renewal doesn’t take place during the winter months. All told, it took about 90 minutes, and by the end there were three cars behind us. There was no paperwork required, just a twenty dollar fee and a report of the inspection you need to keep in the car. We used to have vehicle emissions testing in the Midwest, didn’t need annual safety inspections in DC, and now we do. Thank goodness we passed with flying colors so we don’t need to get something repaired and start all over. Luckily we didn’t have anything else to do. But I’d prefer spending time doing something else.