A former tire store in Brooklyn Center has been repurposed into the state's newest vehicle inspection station, where owners of salvage vehicles can get them examined to ensure they have been repaired with proper parts and are safe to drive.

The Department of Vehicle Services (DVS) signed a 10-year lease on the Big-O Tires building on Xerxes Avenue across from the former Brookdale Shopping Center. After spending several months retrofitting the shop, officials held a ribbon-cutting on Friday to mark its official opening.

Motorists who have bought salvage vehicles — those involved in crashes, damaged by weather or for any other reason declared a total loss by insurance companies — and had them repaired can bring them for a checkup at the new station. Under Minnesota law, motorists driving salvage vehicles must have them inspected to ensure their wheels are safe to drive and to renew their license tabs.

That has not been an easy task as the demand for salvage vehicles has ballooned in recent years, said Bob Jacobson, the commissioner of the Department of Public Safety. After the COVID-19 pandemic hit, salvage vehicles became popular since new and used car prices shot way up, and people found it cheaper to buy cars that needed major repairs, Jacobson said.

The DVS had only one metro area inspection station, on Starkey Street in St. Paul. And with just two bays for vehicles, availability was limited. By moving to Brooklyn Center and closing the St. Paul location, the DVS will have five bays, and each will be able to handle 18 vehicles a day. That is 90 vehicles on every weekday.

So far this year, the DVS has inspected more than 23,060 salvage vehicles across the state, which represents a 32% increase compared to the same 10-month period last year. In the past two weeks, inspectors in the Twin Cities have looked at 588 vehicles, DVS data shows.

Those numbers reflect the growing number of salvage vehicles on state roads and the need for more inspectors and longer hours at locations to verify vehicles were repaired using legal parts, said Greg Loper, director of the DVS Inspection Program.

Besides Brooklyn Center, which will be open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays, the DVS operates eight other inspection sites across Minnesota. But most are overbooked and understaffed. That is changing.

In December, the DVS expanded hours at its Marshall, Minn., station. The agency is working to open locations in Bemidji, Rochester, Fergus Falls and Mankato. The agency also has hired additional inspectors to carry out the work using money appropriated by the Legislature.

"We are here to ensure that Minnesotans have confidence in the vehicles that they drive," Loper said. "If you buy a salvage vehicle, we want to make sure that vehicle was repaired legally, and we do that through the inspections that take place here."

Inspections last about 20 minutes, are available by appointment only and cost $35.

SouthWest Transit to debut autonomous vehicles

Next month, SouthWest Transit will be the first transit system in the state to launch a fleet of autonomous vehicles to be used for its on-demand ride service, Prime. SouthWest plans to start using the vehicles along the I-494 corridor in 2025, the transit agency said.

A driver will still be at the wheel, but the minivans equipped with cameras and sensors will basically drive themselves.

The vehicles' debut comes as the Minnesota Public Transit Association named SouthWest the Transit Agency of the Year earlier this month during the Minnesota Public Transit Conference in Rochester.