New York vehicle inspection

[Sanity Claws]

Hi folks. I moved to NYS several months ago and because it looks like I'm staying, I finally re-registered my car here. Now I have to get it inspected. Can anyone tell me what is inspected and how much it costs? I wouldn't mind a referral to a good place here in NYC too.

Thanks

[Fredda Weinberg]

1. Last time I checked, it was still done privately.

http://www.nydmv.state.ny.us/vehsafe.htm

[ashandaurynsgramma]

2. It doesn't have anything to do with safety anymore

You bring your car in, they stick the computer on it, and a couple few minutes later, you get inspected, or not. If not, you have to drive your car some miles and try again. It doesn't cost much.

[nealmhughes]

3. NYC? Car? I am assuming you mean to drive in Brooklyn or the Bronx or Queens, of course!

Garaging a car in Manhattan is rent in most of the country. Alternate side parking. Don't bother to lock your doors and open the windows if it isn't raining and keep nothing of value in the trunk or glove box.

Don't plan on "zipping" across town unless it is a rainy Sunday morning. Cross town traffic will eat you alive. Do not block the box. You'll fly on the avenues uptown and downtown, but crawl across.

They hook you up to a little box, and you mash the brake pedal and the turn signals and turn on the headlights. I'd go to somewhere in the Bronx or out to Queens or Nassau or Suffolk for the inspection. Do not count on having a corner gas station anywhere in Manhattan and they are rare in Brooklyn.

There is an ethnic parade nearly every weekend when the weather is nice in Manhattan, tying up traffic. When the UN has huge sessions, forget about getting around the East Side, which ties up the rest of Midtown and then the West Side.

If your car is nice, sell it and buy a "beater" also known as a "station car" for use in town. You will find out that old Cadillacs and Lincolns go to NYC to die, and that you won't care after the trunk lock is drilled out the second tine during the 5 minutes you were in the deli.

But hey! You only live once! It is an adventure and you will be immensely popular with coworkers and neighbors when they see you in a car every day! Get ready to take you coworker's girlfriend's aunt to the cemetary on Staten Island to her husband's tomb occasionally. . . and many trips to big box stores in NJ and on LI.

[Fredda Weinberg]

4. I'll second that n/t

[Book Lover]

5. You're telling her to go all the way out to Suffolk for her inspection?

Don't listen to him; go to Astoria and you'll be fine.

You will also learn that this is how New Yorkers talk - we contradict each other and give dueling advice. You'll soon learn to sort it out.

[Sanity Claws]

6. My report back

I am astounded by the level of incompentence at NYC garages.
I got the name of a garage in Manhattan from posters at Car Talk. Among other things, damn garage put a dent in the side panel of my car. The dent was on the passenger side and it was lucky I walked around to that side before I took the car. I had to find it and complain before they accepted responsibility.
In December, I brought my car to a different garage, one with a AAA recommendation, to get a new battery. They didn't know where the battery was located in my car and had to ask me. Doesn't exactly instill confidence, does it? The battery is behind the back seat; they removed the back seat and got it very dirty only then to find out they don't have the battery needed for my car. Wouldn't a minimal level of competence require one to check for the part before taking everything apart? Wouldn't a minimal level of competence require taking some kind of care to keep the interior of the car clean?
Apparently the largeness and anonymity of the city allow these idiots to continue operating, despite their incompetence.
I'm kind of disgusted, as you can probably figure out.

[Fredda Weinberg]

7. Well, we tried to warn you about the city's garages ... and I meant to

include my own boro. The private system is a bad joke, only better than none at all.

[HamdenRice]

8. It's called the auto mechanic full employment program

Once a year you have to take your car to a private mechanic to get it inspected. That mechanic will without fail find something wrong with the car, that prevents him from approving your car, especially if the inspection deadline is near, and it looks like you have no choice.

The idea is they have set up a system in which the mechanics can extort work out of you in exchange for the inspection sticker. They don't make money on the $30 or so for the inspection; they make money on the work they try to force you to have done to earn the inspection sticker.

Ultimately, to have a car, you have to have a mechanic you really trust. Mine will not sell me anything I don't need, and will pass the car with the minimum work needed. Unfortunately he lives in Long Island.

Because everyone knows it's a racket, certain entrepreneurs have entered the breach and specialize in letting your pass inspection, no questions asked -- except you have to pass the computer emmisions test, which creates a paper record. When I can't get to my regular guy, there is a little shop nearby that does this kind of "inspection" for a small additional gratuity.