There is no national vehicle inspection program here. It's all up to the individual states. Some states have a periodic safety inspection requirement, and the way they are administered and how in depth they are varies widely. NONE of them are anywhere near in-depth as a UK MOT. Illinois does not have a safety inspection except for large commercial vehicles, and there is an emission inspection requirement only in certain counties.

In looking through the FAQs, I see the inspector will NOT personally test-drive the vehicle, but instead MAY do a ride-along for UP TO 5 miles. I personally find it hard to evaluate steering, braking, suspension behavior, transmission behavior on a ride-along, and 5 miles strikes me as a short test-drive.

The inspectors only inspect the underside of the vehicle IF the seller has a lift and IF the seller agrees to lift the vehicle.

There is no opportunity for a compression test.
With that in mind, I think you are going to get a better inspection at the Ford dealer, because YOU can specify how in-depth you want it to be, and they have all the tools and equipment right there to do it. The sky is the limit - at around $100/hr.

If I understood you correctly, you are going to be registering this vehicle in Montana? If so, that's one of the easier states and they have no inspection requirement.

I have already spoken at length with the Ford dealership, and sent them an email with the list of things I want looked at. But they will not do it till the cheque from friend arrives and is cleared. OMG! I find that so hard to cope with. I don't know anyone who still uses cheques. Here all banking and payments are done by electronic transfer, from bank account to bank account - regardless of which bank it comes from or which bank it goes to... even credit unions, etc. So I am totally dependent on calling my friend, tell what cheque to write, mail it, and wait for USPS to deliver it, then wait for the bank to get back to the issuing bank to clear it.... and a couple of weeks have gone.
Your friend could have done this electronically through various means - credit card, debit card, wire transfer.