JEFFERSON CITY, MO. -- It was a point of considerable debate.

Do new cars really need to be safety inspected? 

Beginning New Year’s Day, the owner of a new car will not be required to get a safety inspection for new license plates for the first five years of the car's life.Lawmakers had already changed the law once, saying new car buyers did not have to get an inspection for two years.

“On the average, we would be safe in considering that a new car would be safe for five years,” Jim Lewis Tire & Wheel’s Phil LePage said.  "Most people are taking good care of their vehicles now. The economy is mandating that we keep our cars longer. So proper maintenance is a factor.”

Indeed, five years still sounds "new" to most car buyers. But think of it in terms of mileage. In five years, some people will put a hundred thousand miles or more on a car.

"There's tires that can be bad, ball joints that can come apart, tie rod ends that come apart, steering issues,” Kehoe Ford Service Manager Mike Wherle said. “I think I think it's too long a period of time to go without having some type of safety inspection.”

The change will cost the state some money, while the Department of Revenue gets nothing from the safety inspection fee, MoDOT and the Missouri Highway Patrol do. 

From each inspection, $1 goes into MoDOT’s Highway Fund. With an estimated 650,000 fewer inspections next year, the highway agency will have $650,000 fewer for road and bridge maintenance.

From each paid fee $0.50 goes to the Missouri Highway Patrol's inspection fund, the money used to certify the mechanics that perform the inspections, so the change would leave the fund with $325,000 less in 2010.

Safe or not, you won't have to inspect a new car for five years from the year of manufacture.

"If you sell the car, that doesn't mean it needs an inspection,” Revenue Department Spokesman Ted Farnen said. “The year of manufacture is the key.”

It could be confusing. 

Say a new car was bought in 2006. Under current law, the first inspection was required in 2008 and new license plates would be issued again in 2010, but you won't need another safety inspection until 2012.  Ted Farnen said you'll get an advisory with your next "licenses plate due" notice as to whether you need an inspection.

"This actually will require one less document that people will need to bring when they renew their license plates,” Farnen said. “I think that'll be a benefit and result in less confusion in the future rather than more.”