Interesting. The Netherlands has mandatory vehicle inspection, too. We have our vehicles inspected as required (not mandatory every year for new cars) and fix whatever problems occur at that point. If something comes up, we'll have it fixed but we have had very few issues even with our twelve-year-old Mitsubishi. One battery that had the correct voltage when measured but failed a proper test gave us headaches a few times until we had it replaced. The road conditions are much worse here than in the Netherlands because the roads have to be salted 4-6 months out of the year.

We have both our cars serviced once a year prior to or after the mandatory inspection.