Eric L. Van Iderstine wrote:
>
>
> Whats all this talk about smog checks? Everyone mentions them, but I
> just don't understand.
>
> You mean that in your states/countries that the vehicle has to RUN
> CLEANLY, AND NOT SPEW OUT LARGE QUANTITIES OF SMOKE?? Jeeeeez, that's
> crazy...
*** A few days ago, the local news ran an item about a crackdown on
crooked smog mechanics who were giving out smog certificates to bad cars
by hooking up a known good car to the smog machine. They showed the
mechanics being read their rights, handcuffed, and shoved into police
cars. Smog is serious business here in California!
The smog machines are all hooked up to phone lines, and they
automatically phone in the info to the state capital with every test done.
I suppose the authorities there noticed that shop #xxxx had handled
umpteen cars all with the same readings. Heck, it wouldn't be any big
deal to write a computer program to check for that....
The mechanics were said to have deals with used car dealers, so
that the latter could sell cars with bogus certificates instead of paying
to have them fixed.
- Jerry "gotta change states" Kaidor
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