California implemented its Vehicle Safety Systems Inspections Program earlier this month after years of development from the Bureau of Automotive Repair (BAR). 

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 471 into law in 2021, which required BAR to create and implement the inspection program by Jan. 1 of this year. Following passage of the law, BAR held multiple public workshops where it received input about the program from the collision repair industry.

The law received support from multiple organizations including the California Autobody Association (CAA), California Automotive Wholesalers’ Association (AWA), and the Automotive Service Councils of California (ASCCA). 

“We applaud Assemblymember Evan Low, BAR, and Gov. Newsom for recognizing there is a safety concern with respect to salvage vehicles and taking action to protect consumers,” said Rodney Pierini, CAWA president & CEO in a news release. “Many of the revived total loss salvage vehicles could have additional safety concerns beyond lamps and brakes, including cracked windshields, illuminated or damaged air bags, faulty seatbelts, etc. Yet they still pass inspection and are sold to unsuspecting consumers who think they are purchasing a safe vehicle.” 

Jack Molodanof, CAA attorney and lobbyist previously told RDN the state’s former inspection program only required a brake and lamp inspection and smog check. 

The new program replaces the brake and lamp inspection program, he said. Other inspections, such as body structure, steering and suspension, tires and wheels, and passenger compartment have been added. 

Technicians performing the inspections will require either a National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence certificate or an active brake adjuster license and an active lamp adjuster license, according to BAR. 

Andrew Batenhorst, CAA Glendale/Foothill Chapter president and body shop manager at Pacific BMW, previously said the program is important for consumers and shops.

“In California, and most of the country, there are a lot of people who buy salvaged vehicles from auctions, repair them — usually incorrectly — and put them back on the road,” Batenhorst said. “Now, there is a program in place to check those vehicles and make sure they are safe to be on the road.”

The inspection process will track these vehicles, ultimately protecting future shops that come in contact with the vehicles, Batenhorst said.

“The auxiliary benefit is good recordkeeping,” Batenhorst said. “So you aren’t held accountable for something you weren’t involved with.”

Batenhorst said he’s interested to see what the data captured by the program is. The data could help provide information about rebuilt salvaged vehicles.

“It is a little frightening that it has gone on this long without anything,” Batenhorst said. “It has been long overdue and I’m grateful that BAR has taken the time to work on doing this. There was opposition. Those who would oppose this are the ones not repairing vehicles correctly.”

AB 471 also allows BAR to collect additional information from the automotive repair dealer application, including educational and training certifications that are nationally recognized and generally accepted by the automotive repair industry e.g., Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) & Inter-Industry Conference on Auto Collision Repair (I-CAR) certifications, a CAWA news release says.

“Automotive Repair Professionals spend a considerable amount of time and money training automotive service technicians to properly and safely repair vehicles. Under this new law, these training certifications would be included on the BAR public website to assist consumers to easily identify auto repair shops that have proper training and certification credentials. I think it’s a win-win for both consumers and automotive repair shops,” said Dave Kusa, chair of the ASCCA Governmental Affairs Committee, representing Automotive Service Professionals, said in CAWA’s release.

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