@TomTom the cars are registered to a small county that does not have such inspection rules in comparison to counties in major USA cities

Still. I simply would freaking NOT drive it. I run my cars through a full inspection once per year. I also have the basic checked every winter coming. THere is not a lot more dangerous than bad brakes. My insurance would run circles around the liability for doing something that utterly stupid on purpose. There may be no laws, and you likely have no insurance worth nothing either (note: US limits seem t obe jokes - people driving with 50k liability, while in europe you talk MILLIONS per person insjured. If you craeate an invalid and ahve to pay for the rest of his life, that significantly more.

Is this a multinational company? Where is it based out of? Where are you based out of?

@JohnEisbrener Yes it is multinational corporation with separate affiliated companies in Europe as well. I am based at a EU country. Headquarters are in USA.

@GePeace pretty sure no company can fire you for refusing to drive a deathtrap.

Refuse to use a company car not as safe as european work law presribes (which is relevant for you - you are an EU employee). Done. Be prepared for another job, but for me that would be a small thig compared to an accident in the USA.

I sure don't remember marking this as a duplicate.

@paparazzo I don't have the rep to vote to reopen, but this doesn't look like a duplicate of the currently linked question, and if you don't remember closing it, maybe a reopen is warranted?

In general a car must be registered where it's based, although exceptions exist for some fleet vehicles that don't really have a base. In your case I would be inclined to give OSHA a buzz and see what they say about it.

Just sharing a story that may influence your decision. My wife is working at an hospital for post heavy injuries and they had a case like this one. The patient refused to use the company vehicle that does not seem maintained. The peers at the company put pressure on this person: "you have to do it because we may loose our contract with this customer". The person took the car. At some point another driver cut his lane and the patient was not able to break in time. During exercises at the hospital, the patient share his/her regrets to not keep his stand.

Another question that is related to an employer asking to accomplish a dangerous task: workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/114761/…

@JoeStrazzere I don't know where you live, but the assumption that its absurd that a state or county doesn't have brake inspections is not absurd. I live in South Dakota. We have no vehicle inspections.

@SiXandSeven8ths - Thanks. That's why I asked about the state/county. I think it's a rather odd combination of a multinational company driving 27 year old cars with bad brakes and old oil in a county that never inspects vehicles. Maybe it's a South Dakota multinational. Seems like a pretty bad combination. And based on the OP's other grievances against this company, the real answer should be to get out now, IMHO.

@JoeStrazzere You have to admit it is fascinating to work in a company with cases that could be included as case studies in a thesis of some HR specialists...I am specialist , just I have to decide whether I have patience to find a job in the same sector or to follow a career change that would drop my salary.

@GePeace - every company has issues that could be case studies - for any specialty. I worked in QA for many years. I could write hundreds of QA-oriented case studies. But not as questions for The Workplace.