Did you know that automakers can come knocking on your door to ask if you’ll volunteer to turn your car in for a whole month to be tested? It’s called the “In-Use Verification Program,” and it exists to make sure that cars still operate the same — emissions wise — after a few years as they did when new. If you participate in this program, you get a few perks, it turns out. But are they worth it?
I spotted the post below on Reddit from user Virtual_Substance_36. It’s titled “Is this legit? Can I send my car?” and shows a letter from Honda asking if it could borrow Virtual_Substance_36’s 2024 Honda Accord 1.5T Ex.
“American Honda Motor Co., Inc. is conducting emissions and fuel economy testing of privately owned Honda and Acura vehicles as part of the government-mandated ‘In-Use Verification Program’ (IUVP),” the letter begins. “This is a long-standing US regulatory requirement that all auto manufacturers must test customer vehicles after approximately one year and five years in service.”
Is this legit? Can I send my car?
byu/Virtual_Substance_36 inHonda
As the letter states, Honda is gathering 2020 and 2024 model-year vehicles, testing them after one year and five years on the road. If Virtual_Substance_36 chooses to volunteer their vehicle, Honda will compensate them with the following:
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A $150 check
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Use of a fully insured, size-equivalent loaner vehicle with unlimited mileage, free of charge while your vehicle is being tested
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A full tank of fuel in both the loaner vehicle upon delivery and your vehicle upon return
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Your vehicle washed and vacuumed upon return
After mentioning that the company will pick the car up from an owner’s house or from work, Honda’s letter gives details on what the vehicle will be subjected to while tested by the company’s partner, Automotive Testing and Development Services, Inc.:
Your vehicle can be conveniently exchanged with a loaner at your home, place of business, or another agreed-upon location and will be fully insured while in our care. Testing will be performed by Honda at our lab in Ann Arbor, MI and normally takes 1-4 weeks, however occasionally extra time is required. Your vehicle will be driven indoors on a chassis dynamometer (treadmill-like device) to simulate city and highway driving. This will add approximately 100-150 miles to your vehicle, plus mileage accumulated in transit to and from the test facility. Emissions-related parts and fluid samples may be taken from the vehicle — if so, they will be replaced by a Honda dealership using only Genuine Honda parts and fluids.
The In-Use Verification Program is, of course, not specific to Honda, with pretty much all automakers having a website devoted to information on it. Toyota”s site, which includes the video below, breaks down the history of this program
Why do we test?
In the early 90’s we began to voluntarily monitor and test emissions of our vehicles. We also began to cooperate with the EPA’s in-use surveillance program to ensure emissions compliance. At the end of 1999, the EPA adopted the Compliance Assurance Program (CAP2000). This introduced the In-Use Verification Program (IUVP) as a requirement for all manufacturers.
The IUVP is a vehicle testing program that monitors emissions and fuel economy for low and high mileage owner vehicles. It allows the government and industry to identify potential concerns that may require further investigation. At Toyota and Lexus, the IUVP is managed by the Powertrain Certification & Compliance team at Toyota Motor North America Research and Development (TMNA R&D) in Ann Arbor, MI.
Toyota discusses the “low mileage” and “high mileage” groups that it tests, and how they’re chosen:
A small sample of vehicles are randomly selected and tested annually based on sales volume. The vehicles are grouped and tested by model, mileage, and age. Vehicles with at least 10,000 miles and 1 year of service are tested in the Low Mileage group. Vehicles with at least 50,000 miles and 3 years of service are tested in the High Mileage group. Using randomized customer lists generated by Toyota Motor North America Sales (TMNA Sales), an invitation package is sent out to Toyota and Lexus owners. This package includes a letter explaining the program, a questionnaire to help determine eligibility, and a return envelope with postage.
Toyota has five facilities around the country — some Toyota and some belonging to contractors — that will conduct two types of testing: “exhaust testing” and “evaporative testing.” Here’s a breakdown:
Exhaust Testing
All selected vehicles are placed on a chassis dynamometer, also known as a dyno. The dyno simulates various driving styles, and allows the vehicle to be driven while remaining stationary, like a person running on a treadmill.
During each drive cycle, analyzers are connected to the tailpipe to measure exhaust gases and fuel economy.
This is broken into three sections:
City
City driving is simulated by a cycle called the Federal Test Procedure (FTP). The cycle has an average speed of 21.2 mph, lasts approximately 30 minutes, and is conducted in three phases.
Highway
Highway driving is simulated by the Highway Fuel Economy Test (HFET or HWY). This test has an average speed of 48.3 mph and lasts just under 26 minutes.
Here’s the description of the evaporative testing:
Oddly, Toyota says its vehicles are returned in one or two weeks, on average — so, quicker than Honda’s letter indicates. Toyota also says that “a monetary incentive is provided based on make, model and sales volume.” Otherwise, the two companies offer the same incentives: volunteers get a loaner, plus their car is cleaned and filled with fuel.
Here’s Hyundai’s website describing the program:
Here are some screengrab’s from Porsche’s website:
Every automaker has an information site about the In-Use Verification Program, because every automaker is required to participate. Just google IUVP and you’ll find Audi, Ford, Mazda, Subaru — the whole lot:
Interestingly, he EPA’s own website has an FAQ that promises $20 per day plus a loaner or $50 a day without a loaner. At an average of two to four weeks, that could yield someone $1,400 plus a car wash and a tank of gas!
That’s not bad!
What’s more, the EPA makes it clear that the car will be insured while in their care, and the testing — which will add 300 miles (oddly, that’s more than the 100-150 miles that Honda and Toyota say) — is meant to “duplicate everyday operation.” So it’s not going to be abused.
And that leads me to the question being discussed in that Reddit thread; is it worth it?
I think $150 and a clean is pretty cheap, especially given the value of currency these days. If the $20/$50 a day rate that the EPA mentions were still applicable, that might change my mind, but a buck 50? I don’t know; maybe it depends on the loaner. If BMW pays me $150 and cleans my BMW i3, and gives me an M5 for two weeks, that’d be a deal-and-a-half.
What do you think; would you ever participate in the In-Use Verification Program?
Hmm, this sounds like a government program designed to hold corporations accountable, keep our air clean, and to generally benefit people.
It should be instantly stopped, and everyone summarily dismissed, for “corruption”; thereby costing the government far more in lawsuits, payouts, severance, etc.. Our corporate overlords must be appeased!!!
I would gladly sign up for Nielsen tv ratings test. I don’t think they do it the same way anymore. But if they invited me tvland would be a vastly different world. Think investors looking at the data creation of a Top Gear Porno channel. Yeah scoff but everyone here would be watching that shit. Perverts
I was a Nielsen family in college. I would leave my TV on TechTV all day when I was out. I think I helped their ratings, as when I moved and was no longer a Nielsen family that whole network went off the air.
As of the end of January we were a Nielsen household for 3 years and they came to remove all the hardware last week. I don’t know how they did it back when you were participating, but these days the “People Meter” requires you to confirm you are still watching or listening every 42 minutes by pressing a green button on the remote.
They modified our TVs, but there was never a people meter. This was nearly 20 (YIKES) years ago.
As I understand it, as a now-former Nielsen household after 3 years, they choose prospective participants based on addresses. I could theoretically be re-invited after 5 years, but if I wasn’t living here, the invitation would go to whoever was currently at this address.
Do makers of diesel pickups participate in this program? Round here, they’d find seriously degraded emissions performance on nearly all of them – most of which happens shortly after purchase. Then again, coal rollers are unlikely to participate in the testing program, so that aspect of performance deterioration is likely missed by these programs. How convenient for everyone.
In defense of people that delete their truck’s emissions systems, the systems are unreliable and cost a fortune to repair. So many owners, if they plan on keeping the truck for a long time, just get rid of the emissions systems altogether especially because most places don’t require emissions testing for diesel trucks for inspection.
My 17 RDX is ready to go, but she’s too old for their testing. I’d do this in a blink if I could.
It sounds like it would be a nice way to keep a car out of the winter weather for a few weeks rather than paying for storage
Pretty much anyone that makes an epa certified engine for road use in the US does this. The semi truck engine OEMs will frequently buy an engine out of a chassis and replace the engine with a new one for free to get the data off the old one.
This sounds like the fabled unicorn Nielsen Box for TV ratings. I have never seen one in the wild. Is this a nationwide operation? I live in the high desert in the Mountain West, and I hope they include us in the testing. 6000 ft altitude, arid, 40+ degree daily temperature changes, constant wind that you can chew, and a cloudless piercingly blue sky, enabling a merciless UV bombardment from our local star. Hoses, gaskets, weatherstripping, seat fabric, interior panels, glass and paint don’t stand a chance when the car is parked outside.
It’s rough out here. DT, long live the i3 Rex!
In about 1990 I was selected for the Nielsen TV survey but I didn’t get one of the boxes. Instead an envelope arrived, unsolicited, in the mail with a diary for keeping track of what I was watching, when, and with how many other people, a set of instructions, and some cash, which I think was something along the lines of one or two dollars. As I recall I was supposed to use the diary for a specific set of dates extending over a week or two, then mail it back to them. I was in college and was watching almost no television at the time but I figured, hey, here’s my chance to be my very own Nielsen Family, so why not? I doubt they learned much from me other than “watched almost no television.”
That might have been pretty valuable info!
We got be a Nielsen family for a bit! We didn’t get the box but we had to keep track of everything we watched. It was kind of neat. I wasn’t old enough to smartly put down all of my favorite tv shows whether I watched them or not though
I was a Nielsen “family” for a bit in the late 1980s. I think first there was a mail-in survey, but some time after there was the box. There may have been a small amount of money, but they also said they would repair the TV if it needed repairs, which seemed like a good idea since it was a thrift-store TV. Of course I was conscientious, and left the TV running with the sound turned off for PBS programs I thought should get a high rating. The guy who installed the box said he did installs for several states.He had to fabricate an umbilical cord for the TV, since it was a small TV mounted on the base from a swivel chair with casters.
Then I moved, and it turned out that the Nielsen selection was based on my phone number, which changed, so no more Nielsen.
Like JunkerDave and the others who commented about this, we did the Nielsen rating thing in the 70’s as well. We didn’t have a “box” though – maybe those came out in the 80’s? We had paper “ballots” to fill out indicating what we watched. As a kid, it was kind of fun!
Nielson now has wearable “fitbits”
The metal of the car doesn’t stop the UV rays from causing hose degradation, but being parked inside does? Just curious.
Also, I’ve been a Nielson radio survey participant a couple of times, but like so many others here it was the diary format.
Thanks for catching that! should have clarified that direct UV exposure, constant arid (~10% humidity) conditions, extreme temperatures (over 90F summer, sometimes below 25F winter) all combine to create an inhospitable habitat for soft parts. That part of the post was poorly written, my apologies.
I was solicited to do a mail-in Nielsen survey for radio some 20 years back.
It was pretty repetitive: 8-5 NPR at work, so I just kept track of hours I drove (also NPR ), but got to plug the NPR weekend shows I always tuned into.
Iirc, the solicitation envelope had a single dollar in it, and their reply after submission included a sawbuck.
WE were a Nielsen family with the box -approximately 2010-2016. Although with 3 younger children, at times the viewing definitely shifted towards certain children’s programs in our house. It hooked into the DVR as well, so they could monitor what was rewatched or viewed on days other than broadcast date. So many Backyardigans episodes seen over and over. But didn’t track what was just recorded and never watched. We got $100-150/month and any TV repairs were covered. Also had the option of a percentage of purchase price of a new TV if repair wasn’t viable.
My parents did Nielsen ratings for while around 2010. It was like a wall-wart plugged into the family room and connected to the internet through their router. My parents had some pager-like things they wore that listened for hidden tones encoded into show audio which then relayed that data to the wall-wart and back to their servers.
I was already away at college, so I only saw the setup briefly when I was home on a break, but I remember thinking it was kind of creepy that a microphone on the internet was always listening.
We were a Nielsen household from February 2022 through January 2025. Just this past week my Nielsen representative came to remove all the equipment.
Households are invited based on an address. Nielsen somehow plots out different addresses in a given area and sends invitations in the mail that way. As soon as I got it, I accepted by calling in. There was a brief phone interview asking how many TVs we had, etc, and after a week or so some Nielsen techs came out to the house and installed a cellular modem and other equipment to all 5 TVs in the house.
When you turn on a TV, the Nielsen gear detects the audio signals and turns on a “PeopleMeter” which is a small display that is mounted near the TV. Whoever is watching TV presses a numerical logon button on the special Nielsen remote corresponding to their name. So for example my name was next to the “1” and my partner’s name was next to the “2” and any guests who were visiting could anonymously login by pressing an “A” button and typing in male/female and their age. Next guest was “B” and so on.
That’s all you do. Every 42 minutes the PeopleMeter displays a message on its screen asking if you are still watching and you press a green button to confirm. When you are done you just turn off the TV and that’s it. If several people are watching and someone leaves or quits watching, he or she presses the name/number button on the remote to log out while the other people just continue to watch.
Every single piece of A/V gear connected to your TV is tracked, including DVD/Blu-ray players, set-top streaming boxes, video game systems and so on.
In my case I have a Happauage TV antenna tuner on my XBox (used it to most recently watch the Super Bowl via the local OTA Fox affiliate broadcast) and that was apparently something new to my Nielsen rep (he’d never seen one in a household before) and they tracked the TV signals going through the XBox that way as well.
Over the last 2 years I steadily got a $40 check from Nielsen without fail. In the first year the amount started with a $100 check (I think) and then each succeeding month it started around $20 or so and went up $5 each month after.
Every few months the Nielsen rep came over to the house by appointment for an equipment check and to ask us some survey questions. Occasionally they would just call for the survey.
It was a very interesting experience and I’d definitely do it again. We were very fastidious about properly logging in every time and my Nielsen rep was very happy with that.
This sounds great. Loaner car with door service, cleaned car with fresh fluids, and a check… why not. Possibly even a new catalytic converter, or whatever else they may want to auto-psy…
What’s the chance the EPA’s program or the requirement for manufacturers will last through the end of the year? It doesn’t look likely that emissions standards of any kind will be in force much longer.
I’d be worried about my car getting stuck in some testing warehouse after a couple 20-something’s led by a Nazi show up and fire everyone while stealing all the computer files
This smells to me like a reaction to Dieselgate, but I wouldn’t bet money on it. My car is a 2017 with ~61K on the clock, so I’m not eligible on pretty much every level.
So, these programs will take your two year old away and pay you? for a month or more and bring it back clean! Oh, its cars, again, on a car website, dammit.
I get one of these from Roush every few years for my Fiesta. I actually just got one towards the end of last year. I forget exactly how much they were offering but it was an amount that would be worth it to me. I always fill them out but I’ve never gotten selected to actually have one done.
Even EV only manufacturers?
Still made of plastic, rubber, and have petro based fluids in them, I’m sure they still need tested for some of the listed things.
Tesla will be exempt for obvious reasons, should this program continue to exist.
Seems unlikely.
I’ve gotten two of these letters in ~5yrs. I tried to do it for my 2016 CX-3 but never heard back. Ford just sent me one for my 2020 F-150 and I decided $200 wasn’t worth it.
I also very much doubt that you’d get to pick the loaner.
If they want to get my 1976 Maverick running again so it can be tested, I’m interested.
Never heard of it, neat. I don’t think they are coming to my door though. Im not sure I would give the government my car anyway for a “size equivalent loaner”.
Very interesting. Sadly I don’t know if I’ll have an eligible vehicle anytime soon as far as age is concerned, but I do think there’s something nice to having a totally different vehicle to discover quirks and such of for a month.
Oh I’d totally be game. Sign me up
Tell them to F themselves.
If this is anything like when a movie production wants to use your home for filming but will totally return it to the original condition when they’re done (which I assume it is) then they’re just full of shyte.
They make the things. If they want to keep an eye on them long-term, just give some away to end users with the provision that they need to bring it back for testing at some point.
Much simpler to randomly select a group of candidates from ownership records than dealing with some kind of giveaway program. Giving away specific vehicles to later be tested would also enable the manufacturer to cheat by making those cars cleaner.
I did this with my Volt a few years back – ended up being something like $700? Wish they’d call again!
DEAL OF THE CENTURY, do you guys watch Top Gear? My car rented for $150 with cleaning and probably amounts to the most thoroughly done inspection. Plus what amounts to a fully insured rental car. Let’s talk about track days, 4 wheeling, a trip to see the relatives. I am sure the cars you get are new so relax masturbate in the luxury put the car out on the rental sites and take the insurance money for more cash. This is a gold mine. Am I the only one old enough to remember the slogan f it it’s a rental?
So basically make this the modern equivalent of Hertz Shelby rentals from back in the day. That’s a hot take!
That is the tip of the iceberg my friend. Think let’s get mental it is a rental.
Hell, it’s worth it to me just for the detailing.
I didn’t know this was a thing. I wonder if they mine data from the states that do dyno emission testing. It’s certainly not as thorough or consistent as these programs, but it’s probably worth something.
See? This is precisely why I prefer to own vehicles from companies that no longer exist.
Well, okay, there may be other reasons.
Please take care of the Studebakers. I need one someday.
I wouldn’t trust them with a manual transmission, that being said I wouldn’t trust most people with one, especially not my manual transmission equipped automobile.
Yeah on the trust vector I wouldn’t trust me
If you have a Subaru, the throw-out bearing is on borrowed time from the day you bought it.
I am on my third Subaru. I have yet to have a throw-out bearing last for the life of the clutch. This drastically colors my opinion, but that is not my fault.
Local Subaru dealer parts department proudly displays their most ‘f’d up throw-out bearing’ on the counter like it’s something to aspire to. I long for the day that Subaru has to be better to get customers.
To Subaru that’s just an opportunity to sell more cars. I have a Subaru relative and it’s a clear case of Stockholm syndrome, “I got this and this and etc repaired but I love my Subaru!”
For me it’s a 24 Jeep Wrangler Sport 2 Door, not that Jeep is doing great in the manual transmission category in any way, but still.
I love the idea of a Subaru, and I really enjoyed the 1996 Legacy Wagon I rented…in 1997. I drove a friend’s Outback the other day, and I was…whelmed. I live in the Mountain West and Subarus have achieved mythical status here, similar to the IPhone and Starbucks cults, yet no one I know seems to really…like their Subaru. They all seem to be on the edge of another time-consuming repair, as if they were made by British Leyland in the 70s. I truly hope you enjoy yours, and I empathize. I drank the Flavor-Aid at the altar of the XJ, and I suffer from Just Empty Every Pocket.
I did genuinely enjoy the BRZ / FR-S. I also enjoyed the Outback when I first got it, because I liked the novelty of driving a ‘normal’ car for a while. The cars before it had been a Purple xB, orange FR-S, an SR-swapped S13 and a fart canned red Civic.
The love quickly faded with the Outback when things started breaking. in fairness, it only really stranded me once, but that’s because we had spare vehicles.
I have never really loved the Forester. Bought it when the FR-S was written off in an accident. The only manual AWD hatch/wagon/suvs available at the time were the Forester, Mini and Jeep.
Every Subaru service desk seems to have pistons on display too. Maybe they are ej though I’ve never looked close enough. The service writers love to say oh yeah that’s what happens when you don’t use us. They don’t like it when I say this is why they you need a 6 pack of engines. They also put the wrong oil and filter on for a free oil change so I stay far away from them.