Roll with it: Window tint inspections on the way out

LINGSHANG TECHNOLOGY

Starting Dec. 1, North Carolina will no longer inspect tint on vehicle windows, although the law is still in force.

Testing window tint will no longer be a part of North Carolina vehicle inspections as of Dec. 1.

It means cars with illegal tints will be able to pass inspection and update registration with no issue, but the law has not changed. The legal limit is 32%, which measures the visibility to see in and out of the vehicle. Anything lower is considered too dark, which causes concern for not only driver safety, but law enforcement as well.

“If a police officer is approaching a car and they cannot see through those windows ten that police officer must treat that traffic stops in a completely different manner than they would if they could have seen in the car clearly and that is normally where all your social media videos come from,” said Sunny Williamson, a vehicle inspector instructor at Alamance County Community College and chairman of the Burlington police civilian advisory team for two years.

“These cops are all acting bad and duh duh duh. Well, you put them in that situation, right?”

Williamson is relieved about the change’s impact on inspectors.

“We are not here to enforce the window tint law. All we do is just go, is it within what the law says? And then we pass or fail it there,” says Williamson.

“So now, it is going to be more of an ‘OK, we are not going to hold you up from getting your stickers for your tags because of window tint,’ because that is a law and the law should be enforced by law enforcement, right? Not the person who is inspecting the car.”

Currently, cars with tint that is not made as part of the window’s original manufacturing must be tested to make sure it is within legal standards. An inspector may suspect a shade is too dark, but still required to test before failing the vehicle.

Granville County Police confirmed law enforcement have a right to pull over a car they suspect has tint that is not incompliant to the law since there is no other way of confirming the percentage of shade until it is tested.

“Whenever it comes to window tint, that is where you get the iratest customers,” Williamson said. “I had a guy, he almost pulled gun on me, and he refused to pay me and I was like, ‘fine dude, just leave.’ I had already failed the car in the system, so I am not going back in there to change it just because you want your windows black.” 

Although there are shops that may be more lenient or even pass a car that should fail, Williamson always made sure to follow the book. Overlooking a failed inspection can result in personal and/or shop fines, suspension of the inspection station or license.

There are exceptions to the law, though.

SUVs, limousines, minivans and pickup trucks get a pass when it comes to tint on back windows. They are tested only for the front window’s hue. 

Medical exceptions are made for the front windows when drivers with sensitive eyes obtain documentation issued via the Department of Motor Vehicles that specify how much darker the tint is allowed.

Doing away with tint inspection also means consumers will no longer be subjected to the additional $10 charge. Any additional charges would be considered illegal. There should be no changes in price due to inspections being tax deferred.

A state vehicle inspection should only cost $30 or $13.60. The difference in these prices depend on if the vehicle is required to get both a safety and emissions inspection or just a safety inspection only.

The type of inspection your car requires is determined by the year of the vehicle and which county it is registered in, but anything that is a 2005 or older only gets tested for safety and not emissions.

Electronic vehicles and heavy-duty trucks with a gross vehicle weight rating of 8,500 pounds or higher are also subjected to a safety-only inspection. Vehicles that are 30 years old or more do not require inspection.

According to Willamson, emissions testing looks to be the next big change in state inspections laws. Conversations about the abolishment of emissions testing have been circulated for years but Williamson believes it could change as early as next year.

Originally, the change was set to happen for every county except Mecklenburg, but paperwork has recently been submitting requesting a change.

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