? for the Texans: inspections

[Ldub]

I wanted a native Texan to weigh in on this before I told my slacker inspection story...(none in ND)
I had to get my truck inspected when I lived in HI. (Kona)
I took it to the nearest small town to where I lived. (Kealakekua)
The guy had me pull it in to a stall, when I got out of the truck he said, "does everything work ?" I said "yes."
He said, OK that'll be $ x-amount (can't remembr) & gave me my sticker...
Needless to say, I always went there for inspection.
Gotta love the laid back island life !

[LittleBeast]

Yeah I have had a lot of experience in this department unfortunately. Most big cities monopolize on this kind of BS, and that is all it is BS. Tell your friend to go get it inspected somewhere else. I live in Houston and have my VX insured in Houston, yet I have it inspected on my trips home to see my family in Waco every time I need to why? Because of jerks at repair shops like the one you are talking about. The first time I went to get the VX inspected I had a few cracks in my belt and a check engine light and I went to two different places in Houston one which charged me $40 just to tell me that they could not inspect it, so I knew they were just trained to get as much money out of people as possible and I knew what the code was already and was completely fine to drive with this code, so I drove 20 minutes outside of Houston to Waller, TX and got my VX inspected for $10 and at the end they said oh yeah you know your check engine light is on right? And I said yes and they said ok drive safe! And I was on my way. This is a site by site thing, and I would just suggest trying some other inspectition places especially the ones in small towns with nice everyday mechanics. I know I am grossly summarizing big city inspection places as bad places, but that has been my experience more than just a hand full of times and at $40 for inspection in the city as compared to $10 outside the city I just make the trip personally! Just my 2 cents.

[kobie]

My Texas inspections experience is a little different. At each place that has told me that my car wouldn't pass inspection (not the vx), they didn't charge me. I've been to two that claimed my gas cap didn't hold a sufficient vacuum and tried to charge me for a new one. I've gone to other smaller cities and they claim that they wouldn't give me an inspection as I had to pass inspection in the same city that is listed on my driver's license- due to the smog check. If you can't pass inspection at one place try the next garage down the street. I went almost a year thinking my car wouldn't pass emissions inspection and found out I passed inspection with no work done at a garage a mile a way.