Out of province inspection

[climer]

Hi,

Does anyone know a good place for Out of Province inspections in Calgary ? Or are they pretty much the same ? (ie. Anal retentive scum suckers.)

I recently brought my old 1990 Subaru Legacy to Calgary from Ontario and I took it to one of those Petro Canada Certiguard places because it was close by.

One of the "door open" lights in the dash was intermittently coming on for the passenger side door and I figured it wasn't a big deal. Maybe a bad switch or something. Well, the mechanic tells me I need to get a test done to check the alignment of my car to see if the door is closing properly. WTF is with that ?!

Well, in any event, I've decided to scrap the car since it's not worth maintaining anymore.

In the meantime, I'll be flying back to Toronto in May to buy my friends car and drive it back to Calgary. And I'll have to go through the process again.

Any suggestions on where to go ?

Oh yeah, the car I'm getting is a 1993 Civic DX coupe with a 99 CR-V (B20B) engine. Hopefully I can't fail a test because I have the "wrong" engine inside !

[CokerRat]

All kinds of places are qualified to do it. Easiest and most obvious is Canadian Tire. You go to the Registries office first, pay your $ and get a form. Take that and your car to CT -- they need to form to even do the inspection. Get that signed off, back to the Registries with proof of insurance and Bob's your uncle.

There are many places that can do it. Some new car dealerships can do it... hmmm... IIRC there are some tire shops that do mech work that are authorized too.

[ehos]

They changed the OOP recently.

It's a much tougher examination now. They can ask for your car to be laser aligned (not just the front end, but the WHOLE body).

People were too lax in their previous exams, so in May the whole thing was redone.

[CokerRat]

Originally posted by ehos
They changed the OOP recently....People were too lax in their previous exams, so in May the whole thing was redone.

Wasn't that way as of June 2003 as I imported a vehicle from Ontario then, but I concede it may have changed since then. Sounds like a real PITA and an expensive one too.

[ehos]

REAL PITA!

Don't expect cars in accidents to pass (frame damaged ones), I know they really did tighten that down.

And they check everything now (before, heh heh, it was like, oh you drove it in? good, $50, it's a pass!)

CT charges like 190 for one.

[PatrickM]

Tomorrow (April, 2010), I'm taking my RV to Mike's Hi Tech in High River. I phoned around and he's WAY cheaper than any others for an OOP inspection ($115 versus $750 for the RV shop on blackfoot and $325 at the next cheapest place!!! I made him repeat the price a few times.). I previously took a Hyundai to him for a clutch repair (again after phoning around quite a bit) and he did a great job for much less than anyone else. And there were no surprises - he stuck to his quoted price. He was a lot nicer in person than he sounded over the phone and he even took the time to explain the repair and show me the old parts he took out. He seems to be an actual HONEST mechanic! Thank God!

I've had a couple of OOP inspections before. The previous one was for a Windstar that I took to Okotoks Ford. They wanted to zing me for a bunch of repairs that had nothing to do with safety. Once they have your vehicle and identify something wrong, they won't let you drive it away! What a great scam! I almost towed it to the next guy I was so mad. In then end we agreed I didn't need some of the repairs, so I let them do it, but I didn't leave with a fuzzy warm feeling.

Yeah, try Mike's in High River for sure - well worth the trip!!! I've got my fingers crossed on this RV inspection and if he comes through, I think I'll slip him a few extra bucks and tell him he should up his price a bit! I'd like to see him stay in business.

p.s. I will NEVER go back to Canadian Tire!

[Twin_Cam_Turbo]

Thanks for the 6 year bump.