Car Inspections

Editor’s note: This is a guest post written by Pete Strub.

Car inspections make me sweat. I procrastinate; I avoid; I worry. And when the mechanic hands me the list of repairs that need to be made with the price tag at the bottom, I feel more used than… let’s not finish that comparison. Every year, I left my car inspection feeling this way until this year when I discovered Delta Sonic. Before I tell you why Delta Sonic was such a revelation to me, I have to explain where the intense hatred of car inspections came from.

The go-to guy: Growing up, my dad was a farmer, and it seemed like he always knew a guy who would do work on cars for dirt cheap. This guy, without fail, worked out of a garage that was surrounded by the remains of dented, deflated, and decrepit cars. He had a flannel shirt, possibly a Wal-Mart belt buckle, a cigarette hanging out of an unshaven face, and would speak in short pessimistic grunts. Customer service wasn’t exactly high on the list. The beautiful thing about these places, however, is that we never had to worry about some outrageous price tag at car inspection time.

Safety first: Considering the cars I drove, the leniency of these mechanics was quite appreciated. They passed cars with gas leaks, cars with metal wrapped around the muffler, cars with no emergency break, and a car that had no side mirror (I broke it off on a construction sign while sleep-driving). One of my inspections consisted of the following conversation, which took place in the mechanic’s office without him ever seeing the car:

Mechanic Guy: “Do the breaks work?”
Me: “Yup.”
“Do the lights work?”
“Yup.”
“Here’s your sticker. Just scrape off the old one and use some water to put this one on.”

The real mechanics: So, you can imagine my shock the first time I went to a real garage for an inspection. I had a more reliable car, a Ford Escort that was only five years old, so I figured that I didn’t need to use one of my Dad’s go-to guys anymore. Then the mechanic handed me a failed inspection report with a $1300 price tag. I nearly wet myself right on his floor. It would cost me 25% of the cars value just to get it to pass inspection! I immediately had the cheap, dirty feeling like I’d been used and I realized that I was naïve to think that the mechanics had my safety on their minds. I discovered the awful truth that the more problems they could find on my car, the more money they could make. I drove my car off the lot without paying a dime and had my dad call up one of his guys.

A couple of years later I decided to try a franchise and went to a Meineke. The mechanic told me my brakes were bad, but my father and I had inspected the breaks just weeks before while repairing a wheel bearing and we knew they were fine. This time I was so upset I took the rotors off my car and marched them into Meineke to show the mechanic how dishonest he was being. I think I made him nervous waving my brake rotor around and he eventually just walked away from me. Considering that confrontation makes my knees shake and my stomach turn, you can get an idea of how upset I was.

Delta Sonic: On Monday I took my wife’s car to Delta Sonic for an inspection. Delta Sonic is a car wash and detailing company in Western New York. This past year, their business has branched out to include conducting New York State Inspections. I have been impressed by their speed, service, and prices in the past, so I decided to try the dreaded inspection there. Even though my wife’s car is reliable and in good shape, I was still nervous because I have heard some squeaking in the brakes and, like I already said, inspections make me sweat. When I got the bill, though, they only charged me the twenty-one dollars that the inspection cost and didn’t even try to tell me anything needed repair. The mechanic simply suggested watching the gas tank for future leaks.

Driving away, I didn’t have that used, taken-advantage-of feeling, and I realized why. Delta Sonic makes money from car washes and car detailing, not car repair. In fact, I am pretty sure that they aren’t even equipped for car repair. This means there is no incentive for them to find mysterious problems to repair. I am in love. This is how all car inspections should be. No more driving away with my tail between my legs. No more waving my rotor at the mechanic. No more shady guy handing me a sticker without even looking at the death trap I’m driving. If I were in charge of the world (the day is coming, I can feel it…) I wouldn’t allow garages that do auto repair to do inspections. It is a conflict of interest and it’s almost begging mechanics to be dishonest about the inspection because more problems = more money. I would make it so that inspections were done by completely independent inspection companies and these companies would not be allowed to repair the cars they inspect. Alas, I am not in charge of the world, so until that day comes, I will continue to give my twenty-one dollars to Delta Sonic or any other place that does inspections without collecting on the problems they find.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!