There was this one tiny mechanics shop north of San Francisco which was rumored around my office to pass every vehicle inspected.
I think california (or maybe this was illinois??) had a system of separation between places that only did the inspections and places that did the repairs. You actually could not get your car inspected initially at the repair places, or something like that. I found this annoying at the time, but perhaps it is needed to avoid it turning into a protection racket.
However, I’m not sure that some of these things would show up as ‘corruption’, partly because its not government officials doing it. Its more like fraud enabled by a regulation. It may well be counted, its certainly essentially the same from the point of view of an individual.
The best emissions inspection regime I have ever experienced was the one in Washington state 15 years ago. The state ran the inspection places. You showed up without an appointment, paid your little fee and they gave you the inspection sheet with all the numbers on it. It was privatized somewhat later. Cost more, you needed an appointment, the sheet didn’t have the numbers anymore, the employees were a bit more surly (probably paid less). In either case inspection was completely separate from any repair. Even privatized this is the way to do it, making the whole thing a little add on business for mechanics is really dumb.
