Vehicle inspection — Delaware Permit Test
Vehicle inspection on the Delaware permit test — 6 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
Vehicle inspection is the second step in getting a Delaware title and registration, and a performance brake test is given to every vehicle inspected.
Brakes that look fine can still fail to stop the car in time, which only a real stop test shows.
A performance brake test is given to all vehicles presented for inspection.
To pass inspection, tires must have no bulges, fabric, bald areas or cuts, and tread depth must be at least 2/32 inch.
Bald tires cannot push water away and slide on a wet road.
Tread depth must be at least 2/32 inch measured in two adjacent treads.
At inspection, bumper height on passenger cars must not exceed 22 inches from the ground to the bottom of the bumper.
A raised bumper rides over a small car's bumper in a crash and hits the people inside.
Bumper height on passenger cars must not exceed 22 inches from the ground to the bottom of the bumper.
A windshield must be free of cracks, holes or breaks; cracks over five inches or star chips over one inch fail inspection.
A long crack across the glass can hide a person at the edge of the road and weakens the windshield in a crash.
Cracks over five inches or star chips over one inch are mandatory failure items.
Vehicles seven model years old and newer no longer require inspection, except a VIN inspection for vehicles never titled in Delaware.
Without the VIN check, a stolen car brought in from another state could be titled with no questions asked.
Seven-year-old models (and newer) vehicles no longer require inspection, except for a VIN inspection on vehicles that have never been titled in Delaware.
A vehicle rejected at inspection must have the rejected items corrected and be re-inspected and passed before a title, registration card and plate are issued.
A car with failed brakes could otherwise get its plates and go straight back on the road.
These items must be corrected and the vehicle re-inspected and passed prior to the issuance of a title, registration card, and plate.
On the test
Which vehicles get a performance brake test at Delaware inspection?
All vehicles presented for inspection. Brakes that look fine can still fail to stop the car in time, which only a real stop test shows. Delaware Driver Manual, p.64: “A performance brake test is given to all vehicles presented for inspection.”
How this works
Most practice tests hand you a bank of questions and leave the manual somewhere else. This one puts them together.
You read one law and the reason behind it, then answer a question on that law while it is still fresh. Get it right and you move on; get it wrong and you have found the gap while it is cheap to fix, not on the morning of the exam.
Learning one rule at a time, and proving it immediately, is what turns a manual you skimmed into something you actually know — and it makes studying feel like getting somewhere rather than like waiting to find out.
What it costs
- One payment, once — not a subscription. Nothing renews and there is nothing to cancel, for an exam you sit one time.
- Free to start: a 10-question test and the first section of cards. No sign-up and no account.
- Paying opens the rest of the cards, unlimited full-length practice tests, and retests built from exactly the questions you got wrong.
- Every level up to Prepared — 3 tests passed in a row.
- Do the work, fail the real exam, and we refund you.
Where these come from
Every rule here is checked against Delaware Driver Manual, published by the Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-10-05.
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/DE.pdf (Delaware Driver Manual, July 2026, Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles, retrieved 2026-09-14; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/DE.pages.txt (scripts/de-text.sh: plain pdftotext cropped to keep the section tab out, physical 47 under -layout; the fixture every citation here was cut from and verified against; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/DE-exam.html (Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles, Driver's License Exam, https://dmv.de.gov/DriverServices/drivers_license/index.shtml?dc=dr_lic_written, read 2026-10-05; states both exam figures; sha256 pinned under examSource)
- https://dmv.de.gov/menu/forms_manuals.shtml (read 2026-10-05; links the manual)
- https://dmv.de.gov/DriverServices/faqs/index.shtml?dc=dr_faq_general (read 2026-10-05; its 30 and 24 are the exam page's figures before 2024-12, per the Internet Archive)