Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 12:09:06 -0600
Reply-To: Stan Wilder <wilden1@JUNO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stan Wilder <wilden1@JUNO.COM>
Subject: Re: State Inspection
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
I'm very tempted to pack a box lunch, tune up my video camera and hang
out at one of those inspection stations for the first few days after they
open on May 1st.
I figure I could win some kind of Funniest Video, Disaster Video or
something with the footage I would come away with.
If you recall last time around on the intensive testing; all of the TV
News channels were tuning their employees vehicles to pass the
inspections and getting them inspected and passed, then they took them to
several other inspections collecting rejection slips.
New cars and less than two year old vehicles are exempted, I'd like to
know what they're going to do about 20+ year old vehicles.
They chronicled one vehicle that they spent about $1500.00 on to get it
past the inspection and the repair facilities completely missed the
programmed in failure put there by the TV station. It was something
simple like a vacuum line on the transmission that they had split. It
passed finally because it maxed out the expenditure specified in the
regulations.
There were a lot of people that spent several hundred dollars to pass but
were rejected because they bought and installed the parts themselves and
could not prove the installation with an over priced repair shop receipt.
The toll road has "Smellers" at many exits that reports by capturing on
camera the license plate numbers of smokers or other conditions that
qualify a car as a polluter. Its enough to make you install a high water
tail pipe at about roof level.
The Police installed video cameras at one intersection (Preston Rd and
Plano Parkway) to record red light runners. They ran into a problem
......... they had more than 2000 cars that ran the red light before
lunch and the cameras ran out of tape. Oops...... back to get the budget
tripled. Lets see 2000 x $100.00 that sounds good, can I buy a Ticketing
Franchise for that intersection.
I've never had a vehicle pass an inspection at an inspection station that
was run by Asians, Arabic owners. I've always been rejected and when I
drove ten blocks away to another facility owned or operated by American
born individuals it always passed. Must be something to do with attitude.
Stan Wilder
83 Westfalia Air Cooled
On Wed, 20 Mar 2002 12:11:57 EST Chuck Mathis <CMathis227@AOL.COM>
writes:
> Stan,
>
> The news the past couple of nights has been full of this for the
> Houston area
> as well. Down here the tests will be done at privately owned
> facilities --
> they're having a little trouble finding facilities to pony up the
> extra $41K
> for the new dyno machines (many are still paying for the 'old'
> machine). The
> state wants to have a thousand test stations down here but has
> managed to
> locate on 500 so far. The local news also reported the cost for the
> new
> tests will be $39.
>
> Ohio went to a similar test a few years ago. These were done at
> contract
> facilities and were a great source of amusment. I watched the
> highly trained
> technician park the front wheels of my van on the rollers after he
> had done
> the underbody check with the mirror! He got the most surprised look
> on his
> face when the van lurched forward as he reved the engine. One of
> the
> stations managed to launch a newer Mustang out the back door,
> through some
> bushes, down a hill and into a pond without realizing where it
> went!
>
> I was happy to leave those inspections behind when I moved down
> here. Looks
> like I didn't move far enough.
>
> Chuck
> '85 Wolfsburg Westy - 'Roland the Road Buffalo'
>
> In a message dated 3/20/2002 8:23:19 AM Central Standard Time,
> LISTSERV@GERRY.VANAGON.COM writes:
>
>
> > Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 08:23:25 -0600
> > From: Stan Wilder <wilden1@JUNO.COM>
> > Subject: State Inspection
> >
> > Recently the State of Texas, in an effort to please the EPA, has
> mandated
> > intensive vehicle inspections for the Counties of Dallas, Denton,
> Tarrant
> > (fort Worth) and Collin counties.
> > From what I've seen on TV the inspection involves a wheel dyno,
> four lost
> > looking State Employees, $32.50 and guaranteed no waiting in long
> lines.
> > The last time Texas did this it turned and bit them. Only about 1
> in 8
> > brand new cars could pass the inspection (blamed on defective
> software).
> > They took a 700 million burn on liquidating locations and
> equipment.
> > To enhance the confusion they start this procedure on May 1st. (We
> got
> > notified on March 18th)
> > Looks like they could have given us warning, like when they
> started
> > building the inspection centers a year or so ago.
> > So far they haven't told anybody in the driving public what the
> > inspection consist of and have offered no web site referrals to
> > investigate the requirements to pass testing.
> > I'd estimate that 60% of vehicles in Texas are SUV's, MPVs,
> Pickup
> > Trucks, 33% Passenger Cars, 7% Other (1 ton and over trucks,
> busses,
> > motor homes are excluded) they failed to install the equipment to
> test
> > larger vehicles.
> > Texas is really great place to live; 10% of residents are either
> on
> > probation or parole, the Texas Prison system is the States
> largest
> > employer, we have more people in prison in Texas than the nation
> of
> > Russia.
> > The Dallas Independent School district claims that 40% of the
> population
> > in Dallas is Hispanic while the US Census bureau claims 22% are
> Hispanic.
> > We have the highest quality Bureaucrats available anywhere in the
> world.
> > My Westy is registered at my farm that does not fall into the
> intensive
> > inspection area but I'm sure going to have fun watching all of the
> Note
> > Lot Car Dealers meeting these requirements. Graft is going to be
> abundant
> > at these inspection stations.
> >
> > Stan Wilder
> >
>
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