Yesterday, I took my 98 V6 CC in for it's first inspection since I bought it
in 1998. I live in New Jersey. After pulling in and getting out of the
car, the inspector started going through his normal inspection routine.
Standing to the side I noticed that he paid special attention to the rear of
my truck. I have a Gibson split rear exhaust system. He then had another
inspector come by to take a look at the rear. The second inspector, a young
kid, then got down and took a look under the right side of my truck. The
first inspector then proceeded to take my truck through the remainder of the
inspection, emissions test, brake check, suspension check, etc. When he got
to the end the inspection lane he handed me a sheet of paper stating that my
truck failed for having an exhaust system that was too loud. When I asked
him how he came to such a conclusion he told me it was based on his personal
opinion and I could speak to a manager if I wanted to. I stopped
questioning him as I felt he wouldn't change his decision and the fact that
he didn't seem to have a good grasp of the English language. The inspection
stall is a large steel shell building on a concrete floor which pretty much
act like an echo chamber.
I then pulled by truck out and parked it outside in the employees lot to get
hold of a manager. Stepping in to the employee trailer, I asked one of the
inspectors in there to explain why my truck failed. When he read that it
was for a loud exhaust system he said come on out a let's take a listen. On
the way out he mentioned he would normally fail a car with a loud exhaust
system if that car was parked next to his house and started up everyday at
5:30 in the morning. Next to where I parked was an early model Camaro with
a split rear exhaust system and a rice cake with a coffee can sized exhaust
tip. I assume these cars belong to employees of the inspection station. I
started up my truck with the manager standing 5 feet behind it. After 5
seconds, he said my exhaust system wasn't too loud and told me to pull my
car over to the exit of the inspection lanes and have my new inspection
sticker put on.
What should have been a fifteen minute inspection ended up taking at least a
half an hour. I wanted to say something to the first inspector but decided
against it and headed on home.
Ken
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 11:54:32 EDT