OT, Is there any sanity in....

Well, in CA they test the cap last, fail you and take your money. Then charge you again to retest when you return... (although some give you a discount if retested within a certain length of time)

Better yet, they do a visual inspection first. Then they run the test...(knowing it's going to fail) and they fail you, and they take your money. Because the first thing they looked at during the visual was the heat riser hose had come off. You slip it back on and they retest, and take your money again.

(best part is, an an Andrew Jackson will usually get either of the above resolved during the first test)

They did away with the test in Ohio (except the Cleveland area) Pretty much the only cars that were failing were ones that qualified for existing exemptions.

You need to get your politicians to stop taking kickbacks from the testing companies....

Another reason to live in the mountains, far from any "Clean Air Program" area.

Earle

clay wrote in news:SdQCg.5431$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com:

California certifies repair shops to do the testing, they tried that here and everybody failed until they spent money!

Now they contract an independent company to run the testing, they are paid a percent of the testing fee and are not allowed to do any repairs or recommend any place.

Retests are free.

"billy ray" wrote in news:6bd19$44dbd3ef$48311eaf$ snipped-for-privacy@FUSE.NET:

Impossible, Arizona has a testing program mandated by the EPA. If we don't have a program compliant with their rules we get fined bunches of bucks on a daily bases. Fortunately, it only applies to two counties here.

Up here in Canada we just call it the extortion test. If you fail, you can pay them money for a pass. The money is supposed to go towards emission repairs, but once you have spent the money, you don't need to 'pass', you get a conditional one. On the condition you pay the extortion fee.

Mike

Mike Romain wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@sympatico.ca:

It's not extortion here, you pass or junk the car. If the car can't be repaired to pass emissions, you can get a waiver for one year and one year only, then the car can never again be registered in this state nor can it be sold w/o disclosure.

Since the emission test stations do not do repairs, the system is fairly honest except for deluding the public that pollution is actually being reduced which isn't happening as far as anyone can tell.

XS11E proclaimed:

Of course not, why do you ask?

Hmmm, lucky before I had my last smog, the parts guy at my dealer warned me that stations were checking this more closely in Kalifornia lately, so picked up a new cap. For grins, asked the tester to check both old and new cap, and sure enough the old one would not pass.

I suspect a plot by the cap makers myself.

Sadly, they could lose their tester status for this if you happened to have been an auditor.

Dunno, suspect the total amount over the lifetime of your vehicle is about the same as given off by one of Ronnie Raygun's infamous pine needles.

Tsk tsk tsk, you are attempting to apply logic to a government bureaucracy. Think how much more fun you will have if the greenies get into office.

The folks who make the equipment appear to be doing well. Not entirely sure the stations themselves are. Know a couple who have decided to stop testing due to the ridiculous way the testing can drive up their costs without re-imbursement.

Lon wrote in news:i4SdnUypKv8VlEPZnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

In California you allow shops to test, here the state contracts to a company who builds, equips and runs all the stations. They get most if not all of the fee and are not allowed to repair or recommend. It seems to be pretty darn profitable but they don't care if you pass or fail, they don't do the repairs and the retest is free so failing does nothing for them. In California it's profitable for the shop to find a failure or make one up...

I'm surprised the public allows independent shops to test in California but there doesn't seem to be much protesting. Here, we had independent shops do safety inspections years back. After thousands of complaints, undercover investigations by the local newspaper, etc. the program was dropped and you can bet independent shops were never even considered when the emission program was started!

"L.W.(Bill) Hughes III" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@cox.net:

Top posting corrected:

I know that, that's why it pays for the station to fail you.

Minnesota had a testing program with stations run by independent contractors. Small fee was added to your car tabs, test was mandatory but "free" (already paid for). Later on, the state did an analysis of the number of cars that passed and failed based on the age and the model year. As the FI cars with O2 sensors and better computers took over, the number of failures started getting smaller and smaller. Program was shut down a few years back since the cost benefit didn't justify the expenses.

Keep > ...government programs?

Did you write anything? God Bless America, Bill O|||||||O mailto: snipped-for-privacy@aol.com

On Thu, 10 Aug 2006 17:13:35 -0700 in , XS11E graced the world with this thought:

Probably about the same amount or somewhat less than goes into the air while you're out cruising around for pleasure any given weekend. Try and stay in the realm of reasonable excuses while whining.

bizbee wrote in news:KJODg.3479$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net:

Actually it would be considerably more.

Don't know what brought that on, there's neither excuse nor whining in my post, do you have a reading disability?

tree huggers just keep,winning!!

writesoon!