Don’t Forget These Two Vehicle Laws Hitting Texas in 2025!

I know, I know. We’ve all heard that Texas will no longer require vehicle safety inspections next year, but did you know there was another big vehicle law going into effect on New Years?

No Vehicle Safety Inspections… Mostly

As I’m sure you’ve already heard, Texas will be eliminating vehicle safety inspections for non-commercial vehicles only.

Just so Uncle Sam can still get his share, all non-commercial car owners will still pay the $7.50 inspection fee. It will just be automatically added to your registration fee through Texas DMV.

This does not include emissions tests, so the counties that have emissions tests will still have vehicle owners pass them, accordingly.

You can read about the full details involving this new law on the Texas DPS website.

No More Paper License Plates

So, the second law that is going into effect on January 1, 2025, is House Bill 718. This essentially eliminates those temporary paper license plates on newly-purchased vehicles and will replace them with metal plates.

It turns out that paper plates are relatively easy to replicate. Over the past year, Texas DMV actually suspended “dozens of licensed car dealers suspected of using the state’s own system to sell fraudulent tags on the black market,” NBC DFW reported.

It’s a whole lot easier to print out a fake license plate on paper than it is to press a brand-new license plate, so Texas legislature is taking action.