Tuesday, January 10, 2006

The Curse of the Gold Stratus Part II

While USAA told me my WRX would be ready last Wednesday (January 4th), it wasn't actually ready until Friday. I got there 20 minutes after they closed on Friday, so I picked it up Saturday morning before I went skiing.

The car came up for inspection and emissions right before it was hit, and my appointment for both was two days after the accident. Two different people told me I'd be fine, so I took it to the appointment where it promptly failed both. At that time (the end of November), they put a 15 day temp inspection on the car.

Once I picked it up, I had to get the inspection and emissions done. I took it at lunch over to a Shell station near my office, and it failed because two of the emissions sensors are "on" yet. Typically the battery is disconnected when body work is being done, and not all the emissions equipment is "Ready" until certain criteria are met (distance, time driven, heat, etc). In a 2001 or later car, if more than 1 computer is "Not Ready" your car automatically fails. Virginia DEQ has a website to explain why your child needs to come back later and take it's standardized test again later.

The problem is that I've already driven 60 miles since I picked it up, and it's been out on the highway, so I don't know how much more I need to drive it before all the emissions computers will be online.

What I do know is that I have 5 days left to mail in my completed emissions and registration payment in order to guarantee it won't expire on me...

2 comments:

AR said...

wow....who sold you that turd?

the Alpha John said...

You did IIRC