car inspection

[leafspice.livejournal.com]

Sorry if this has already been asked before..I couldn't find a post about it.

Need to get the car inspected, as I finally registered/insured my car in MA. Has anyone has a good experience at any of the inspection stations in Somerville? Just as important, have you had a particularly BAD experience somewhere?

Thanks a ton! :)

Comments

[dj-daeva.livejournal.com]

there's one on the mystic ave....it's pretty much right across from the highway off ramp.

i was in and out in like 5-10 minutes and they were really nice :o)

<3

[dj-daeva.livejournal.com]

yes english *is* my first language... there's one ON mystic ave :o)

<3

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

I've been there myself. They're usually pretty speedy (unless, presumably, it's the end of the month and they're very busy). Since they only do inspections and not repairs, they have no incentive to fail your car to sell you repairs. (Although, to be fair, I haven't heard of a whole lot of that going on in Mass., unlike NJ and PA, where it seems to be rampant.)

[dj-daeva.livejournal.com]

right. i made sure to go to a place that was solely an inspection station :o)

i should've probably mentioned that :o)

<3

Teele Square Auto

[nhradar.livejournal.com]

I've had a good experience with Teele Square auto, up broadway just past Teele.
Pretty stress-free, in general. And, convenient to Davis.

Re: Teele Square Auto

[leafspice.livejournal.com]

Is Teele Sq. Auto solely an inspection station, like the one on Mystic? I live right in Teele, so that would be ideal. (That rhymes).

I'm actually from Pennsylvania, so I can relate to the issue of an inspection station getting away with selling repairs, whether you really need them or not. They pretty much have you caught, because if you don't get the repairs, you fail inspection! Last year I had to fork up $600 in one inspection in PA. It's so good to hear that it's not as big an issue up here!

Thanks so much for your helpful replies. :)

Re: Teele Square Auto

[nhradar.livejournal.com]

It's not solely an inspection station; they do repairs, too.

They certainly didn't look for reasons to fail me, though. That much I guarantee.

Re: Teele Square Auto

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

they did look for reasons to fail me.

i asked them some questions about their policies, and explained i had had the things that they failed me for looked into by a mechanic and had spent lots of money on them. they said the shop i went to probably wasn't a five-star govt rated shop and referred me to the mass state website for car inspection info. i looked up the info and found that the shop i had previously went to is 5 star rated and has done 14 emissions repairs, while teele sq auto is 5 star rated but has only ever done 1 emissions repair.

when i went back to teele sq with some new evidence from the website and documentation about prior repairs, the owner got very angry at my questions and insisted that the other shops's 5 star rating did not mean anything and that they probably had just passed the government tests but had not had any experience doing actual repairs, and said that his shop has extensive experience in emissions repairs.

i chose to trust the mass website instead, and returned to my original shop in framingham, where people do not yell at me when i ask questions. i have since not been back to teele sq auto, which is a shame, because their gas prices are very reasonable and they are full-service, but it turns out that shield gas in ball square is also cheap and has full service, so now i go there.

Re: Teele Square Auto

[nhradar.livejournal.com]

Man, that sucks.

Gas with a Smile

[allthefishies.livejournal.com]

Gas with a Smile on Mass Ave near Porter is somewhere i WOULDN'T recommend. They wanted to charge me $30 to take off my old plates and put on my new ones before they even started the inspection. (I wasn't able to do it myself since the bolts rusted to my old plate) I was put off by the whole thing - i felt like they were trying to scam me.

I ended up going to... my brain is failing me. It's on Beacon Street in Cambridge, across from the Academy of Arts and Sciences near the intersection of Beacon/Washington. Again, they only did inspections, no repairs. And were nice enough to switch my plates without a fuss.

Re: Gas with a Smile

[cos]

That's Beacon Street in Somerville. It becomes Hampshire Street when it enters Cambridge (but the place you're talking about is in Somerville).

Re: Gas with a Smile

[julishka.livejournal.com]

dodakin, i think.

[noire.livejournal.com]

I had a bad time at Jack's Gas on Mass. Ave. The place on the corner of Boston Ave and Mystic Ave (right where one gets off the ramp from 93 for exit 31) is great--very nice people and very fast.

[cos]

Jack's gas is where I've done inspection most often.
What was the bad experience you had with them?

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

http://www.vehicletest.state.ma.us/testinginfo.html

[turil.livejournal.com]

Aris gas station (and repair shop) is great. It's on Somerville Ave near the intersection of Elm and Somerville, and across from the blue car wash place. A friend has a very old collectable car that otherwise probably wouldn't pass inspection, but they are really nice to him and pass it anyway. Not that I'm saying that this is a good thing, but clearly they are decent folks who aren't out to harass people with funky old cars.

Oh, and I've never heard of anyone getting failed for something that wasn't actually wrong with the car, at least not in Mass. Not that it doesn't happen, I suppose, but I've never heard of it.

getting rejected for stupid reasons

[cos]

A couple of years ago my car got hit while parked, and they broke off a small ragged-shaped bit of the fender just above one of the front wheels. Other than that, no functional damage. I played phone tag with the person who hit me over the insurance to fix it for a while, and in the meantime my inspection was about to expire and I was about to go on a cross country trip. I went to an inspection station and they failed me for it - they said the sharp edge it created could hurt someone if they ran their hand along the side of my car, or something, and Massachusetts disallowed it. I asked if I could put duct tape on it and they said no, they'd still fail me. I'd already gotten an estimate of $1800 to fix it, and wasn't going to do that 'til I got the insurance information, but I needed to head out of town. So I just went to a different place, got an inspection, and they didn't even mention it.

Last year, the inspection station on the corner of Mass Ave & Alewife/rt16 failed me for having a loose tie rod on one of my wheels - again, just as I was about to travel. I had just been to Saturn for regular service a couple of days earlier and asked them to check everything out because I was going on a trip, and they hadn't reported any such problem, so I was suspicious. I went back to Saturn, they talked to the mechanic who'd worked on my car (who was out for the day - they called him, IIRC), and he said he'd checked the tie rods and they were fine. But just to make sure, I asked them to put my car on the lift again and show me. They poked about, and found that yes, the tie rod was very slightly looser on that side than it was on the other, and tightened it a bit, but assured me that it was within normal tolerance and wouldn't have affected anything. They didn't charge me for the repair, and I went back to the place on Alewife and had them look again and pass me.

So it's not quite so cut and dry. There are ways to pass or fail the same car, and what's "wrong" or "right" with the car can be a bit fuzzy.

[logt.livejournal.com]

If you still need to do the inspection or just any kind of service on your car, I highly recommend Aris Auto on Somerville Ave and Craigie St. corner (close to where Elm St. and Somerville Ave merge). These guys are really great and very honest! My car is very old and is falling apart, they honestly told me to just drive this car into the ground without putting money into it and didn't charge for a few minor things they did. First place where mechanincs didn't try to rip off a girl who knows nothing about cars!