It used to be my daily driver and put 56K miles on it within 4 years. The past year it has been a garage queen.... try to drive it every couple of weeks on the weekend but I never go far or take it all the way into the city (about 50 miles to the city). If I put 1K miles on it a year I am lucky.

I am at the point where I need an inspection! My biggest complaint is I have to let some dopey kid sit in my car and test the breaks. The cost is real cheap in my state. It is just a safety inspection.... no emissions. I don't mind paying.... but do I have to drive 50+ miles into town just so a high school kid can mess up the inside of my car?

I also have to do an oil change and I am seriously thinking about doing it myself. However, there is a really good MB dealership not far from me. I heard they are the best. Wondering if I should just take it there for the oil and inspection!

 

I know exactly how you feel. I have to have my emissions test. Last time it was done the guy that did the test couldn't fit in my car, he weighed at least 300 lbs so he went in and got his supervisor then they spent another 20 minutes trying to find where to hook up the computer. Needless to say I am not looking forward to it.
The oil changes are easy. Just take your time, make sure you get the right gaskets (looks like different size rubber bands) on the oil filter. I've done the last three on my car and will be doing that in a few weeks too. By the way when you do your oil jack up the drivers side of the car, make sure you use a jack stand. the drain plug is on the passenger side of the car.
Good luck!

 

I'm sure glad that Colorado doesn't have these safety inspection things. If you license your car out of the six county area around Denver, you don't even need a smog test.

 

Inspections are just a way to make money!

I have so many projects to do in the next few weeks I may have to wait anyway.

 

Now that's just a load of bs.

An actual safety inspection, can point out actual safety issues a completely clueless owner of a car might not have any idea about.

I can't tell you how many vehicles I've seen driving around on worn out brakes, dead shocks/struts, hanging mufflers, worn out ball joints, and lots of other issues. They are a safety hazard to the rest of us on the road.

On Tuesday, on the way to work, there was a car on the side of the road where the front tires were both pointed inwards, and I would plainly see that the drivers side tie-rod had snapped off. An inspection would have caught that.

What does suck about required inspections is when the shop you take it to is crooked. Way too many of them out there. Nothing you can do when the shop hijacks your safety sticker, and wants to charge you for replacing things that aren't bad.

BC.

 

Actually, it is not a load of BS. An inspection is once a year. What good will one safety check do in bringing a problem to the attention of an owner. Chances are the car will break down leaving them stranded before the next inspection.

Not to mention 99% of the people inspecting the car are not looking under the vehicle or around the vehicle. They pull the car in, slam on the brakes and hit the horn. The inspection is over! That is all they do where I live. So what good does that do?

Inspections are just another way to suck money out of your pocket. Just like taxes! Just another scheme designed by the politicians to collect your money and waste it. Just like toll booths that they say will only exist for a few years to pay for road work (but they never seem to close down). If you can't see inspections as another way for your state to collect your money then you are just another sucker these politicians have wrapped around their finger. Why don't you pay me 30 dollars a year and I will make sure your car is safe If you think this is such a needed service I will be more than happy to provide it for you at 30 dollars a pop!

Besides, I don't need an 18 year old kid telling me about my car.

 

Well, then they way they do them in your area sucks.
Can't really help you with that one.

I have lived in places where they put the car up on a lift, and with a checklist on a clip board, go from each section of the car, and check off one of two columns on that checklist, and then hand you the results, letting you know what passes, and what fails.

They would check for brake pad lining thickness, excessive play in the steering system, excessive wear or play in the ball joints, signs of leaking shocks/struts, rusted brake lines, rusted gas tanks, rusted floor boards, rusted frame rails, rusted bumper mounting points, and quite a few other things.

An actual inspection is so much more beneficial than a brake stomp check, as I am sure that you can imagine.

There are way too many people on the roads who are completely clueless about how their car should actually feel, and won't know that something is falling apart underneath them until:

a- it breaks, and sends their car crashing into the guardrail at 85 mph.
b- someone points it out to them, and lets them know they need to get that fixed.

If they never have b happen, then a is most likely going to be the outcome.

I also don't like the idea of a 19 year old poking around my car, but if he's better at doing the job than I am (hahahhahaha), then who am I to care? So long as the car comes back to me in one piece, that's all I care about.

BC.

 

Back when I lived in NY they used to take tires off the car and check brakes. They looked at everything. Then they started using the dyno. Drive the car in place at 55 MPH wit a sensor in the tailpipe. What a ROYAL PAIN in the rear. Now I hear they stopped doing that.