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My JLPT book has this question:

> ドライブの前{まえ}に（a.まともに b.念入{ねんい}りに）車{くるま}の点検{てんけん}をした。

I chose `a`, thinking that a reasonable translation was, "Before driving, do a
proper check of the car."

The answer turns out to be `b`, which I guess means, "Before driving, do a
careful check of the car."

I suspect that part of the problem is that my English definitions for "proper"
and "careful" are close enough that I'm translating `まともに` and `念入{ねんい}りに` too
closely.

Even still, the two words are pretty similar. What differentiates `まともに` and
`念入{ねんい}りに` that should make `b` the clear choice in this question?
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word-choice
Why choose 念入{ねんい}り over まともに in this question?
I find that all too often these kinds of questions stem from people trying to
translate a word into English rather than investigating the nuances in a J-J
dictionary. Borrowing from snailplane's advice, we will avoid translation into
English and look at the nuances as explained directly in Japanese.

For [まとも（に）](http://www.weblio.jp/content/%E7%9C%9F%E9%9D%A2), we see the
following definition:

> (2)道理にかなっていて、他人から非難される点のないこと。きちんとしていて、いかがわしい点のないこと。また、そのさま。
> 「―な商売」「挨拶すら―にできない」

See an alternate definition
[here](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/jn2/209100/m0u/%E3%81%BE%E3%81%A8%E3%82%82/).

This is a word that deals with correctness or fairness. It refers to something
that is logical, something that cannot be criticized, something that is done
carefully and with nothing fishy about it. It's proper in the sense that it
is. If you go from the second link, it basically describes a process that is
done straight and with no monkey business. No bullshit, just get it done. This
isn't the kind of meaning that you normally associate with something as simple
as inspecting a car, and especially in your example sentence there's no real
complicated meaning going on; it just refers to checking your car before you
drive. If there were some well-established social procedure involved in
checking your car, and it was imperative to some sort of business venture or
something, or otherwise connected to something for which other people are
depending on you, then maybe you could say まともに. But you just want to say to
check your car carefully, _not_ with this sense of cosmic correctness. If you
look at the examples in the definition, it includes business and greetings. If
business is done まともに, you can expect that it's by the books and a smooth
process. If someone _can't even_ give a proper aisatsu, though, you know
they're probably messing a lot of stuff up beyond just saying hello. Also of
note is that there is another definition for this word that involves facing
someone or something squarely, so you might be able to think of the more
metaphorical meaning of this as an extension of the act of looking someone in
the eye, or something along those lines.

Now, if we look up
[念入り](http://www.weblio.jp/content/%E5%BF%B5%E5%85%A5%E3%82%8A) on the other
hand:

> 細かい点までよく注意すること。念を入れること。また、そのさま。入念。 「―な仕事ぶり」「―に点検する」

It's exactly what you're looking for, and even the example sentence includes
念入りに点検する. The meaning isn't nearly as ambitious: it's just paying attention to
details. You could probably translate your example to "careful inspection" in
English.

The moral of this story is that if you are trying to translate two very
nuanced words into English and compare them based on their English
translations then you are easily setting yourself up for confusion. Use
Japanese dictionaries as much as you can.
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answer
I like this question because I have never really seen these two words as
similar and often struggled to remember the nuances in the use まともな／に. The
above advice to look at the definitions in Japanese is correct but if you want
a more English oriented explanation, my understanding of these words for JLPT
(with some analysis of the kanji) was as follows.

> 念入りに：thoroughly/with special care [or literally **"with some thought put
> into it"** ]

For example:

念入りな 計画 is a "well-prepared plan"

> まとも:
>
> 1:〔正面〕〔じかに〕directly; 〔まっすぐに〕straight; 〔面と向かって〕to one's face
>
> 2: 〔誤りのないこと〕〔正直な〕honest; 〔妥当な〕proper; 〔ちゃんとした〕respectable

The examples in my notes were:

まともな生活をする: live a decent life

まともな人間なら、そんなことはしない: a decent person would never do that

まともな 仕事：a decent (or proper) job

風を まともに 受ける：face the wind

Hopefully from the above next time you will choose "b" as I did when I read
your OP.

_References: Most of these examples came from 総まとめ語彙N１._ *The definition of
まとも from the Apple dictionary which seems to borrow from the Progressive J-E*
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