Quote:
Originally Posted by John V
My latest adventure in inspection... I took the white car to my new favorite place for its state inspection. I suspected it would fail, but it's not worth my time to go check anything beyond the easy things (tread depth, lights, horn, etc); I just rely on the shop to tell me what's wrong and I go fix it and bring it back for the re-inspection.
The shop called me and said it failed for all four brake rotors under the minimum thickness spec, bent front wheels, wiper blades and alignment.
When I pressed them on it, they admitted that the front wheels being bent is not technically a failure. When I asked them for the measurements on the rotors I pointed out that those measurements are not under the BMW specified minimum thickness. They conceded but said, "they really need to be replaced." 
I'm in favor of safety inspections, but how do you set them up so they're not just a money extraction service? |
You can't, unless you do what DC does and have them all at a government run facility. Otherwise, there's no way a shop is going to overlook the "business development" opportunity that comes with some poor sucker bringing their car in and asking what's wrong with it. I mean, your experience is probably the best you can hope for--at least they were identifying legitimate issues that should be fixed, even if they don't constitute a failure.