My car is "It's ok that the check engine light is on, you can still pass state inspection" years old.

However, "the computer" won't pass it. My mechanic thinks it's because my car was built in Oct. and is 15 and 362 days old. Cars must be "over 15" to pass w/ a check engine light on (just an EVAP code, not a safety issue).

I think some programmer made the computer look for a number that was 16 or over in the "car age" slot. Got a new appointment on Monday. Wish me luck! #ComputersWereAMistake

Update from November: the build date of the car was not the problem. No one knows what the problem actually is.

My mechanic's scheduler/admin person (out today, her sister's having a baby) needs to call the inspection software's IT staff to figure out what went wrong and, if possible, to manually override whatever brokenness is going on so that my car passes inspection, a thing everyone agrees it already does in every way but in the software, the final boss.

Update from the state DMVs IT staff (supposedly, as relayed by my mechanic who I both like and trust). No one knows why this is happening, my car should be passing inspection but the software is saying it has failed. They are now suggesting I come back in January so that my car is fully 16 years old according to calendar years.

This is, of course, a ridiculous thing to suggest so I have (politely) escalated this to the DMV Commissioner, my local representative and my regional DMV inspector.

I did ask Reddit (consensus: don't bother with inspection) Later on (5:30!) I heard from the regional DMV inspector who said that yeah the big deal is that cars 16 yrs or NEWER need emissions testing, so it's a bit of a fencepost error where we were understanding the rule wrong. So he said I can easily get a temp waiver and once it's expired my car will be old enough not to need it. But also suggested that in 2026 my car will be the "right" age according to the software, so still slightly weird.

Actually, I can not get a temp waiver. The inspection machine takes in my VIN and says it doesn't qualify for a waiver. My mechanic called the people who make the software and they said they do not know why it won't allow me a waiver. Common reasons are

1. already got a waiver before (no)
2. car is eligible for warranty repair (called Honda, no)
3. cost of a repair is less than $200 (hell no)
4. car didn't fail emissions (no)

Feeling a bit like this at the moment, will keep working the problem