In the old days of yearly auto inspections, the owner drove the car into the garage bay, operated the horn, blinkers, lights, etc., then waited in the car for the emissions test to be completed. No more. Now your vehicle is taken from you and after fifteen minutes, returned with a sticker the color of the month, or bright red, indicating failure.<\/p>\n
I assumed the BMW would fail, even after I slathered epoxy over the various holes in the muffler. It starts intermittently, the lights work only when they want to and those tires, if they were jars of jam, would be way past their expiration date.<\/p>\n
I intended to wait until Matt returned home from school, and then have it inspected but when he called to say he was going to lift weights for an hour with his buddies, I closed the hood, checked the tail lights one more time and raced out of the driveway. The closest garage is three minutes from our house and I was barely out of my car when the mechanic said, \u00c3\u00acWhere is your license plate?\u00c3\u00ae<\/p>\n
I jumped back in the car, raced home, drilled out the front bumper for the front plate (In our fair state if you have a white plate with green numbers you only need one plate, if you have a white plate with red numbers you need two plates), found screws to attach it, and again squealed (ah, that new clutch) out of the driveway. I was running out of time if I was going to get this done and present Matt with his stickered car.<\/p>\n
At the first bend on Central St., I heard something metallic hit the street. I looked back, saw a hub cap bouncing into the grass, not the license plate, and kept going. I knew how excited Matt would be to drive his friends home, in his car, legally. And a red sticker means you have two months to find a new muffler, replace the tires, whatever.<\/p>\n
Taking no chances, I left the car running for the mechanic. I plopped down on the flimsy plastic bench with my Diet Coke and Boston Herald, and waited for the verdict. Ten minutes later – no emissions tests on this antique-the car is backed out of the garage with a new orange sticker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the old days of yearly auto inspections, the owner drove the car into the garage bay, operated the horn, blinkers, lights, etc., then waited in the car for the emissions test to be completed. No more. Now your vehicle … Continue reading