Foo, failed vehicle inspection for this?

We had a kit for the used car dept.
As I recall it consisted of a heavy duty rubbing compound, a fine polish then a liquid we put over the lens that would dry to a brilliant clear lens.
Safe-cut worked just as well.
 
Janderso said:
We had a kit for the used car dept.
As I recall it consisted of a heavy duty rubbing compound, a fine polish then a liquid we put over the lens that would dry to a brilliant clear lens.
Safe-cut worked just as well.
Click to expand...
Was the liquid a uv protectant, or just a good clear coat?
 
Janderso said:
We had a kit for the used car dept.
As I recall it consisted of a heavy duty rubbing compound, a fine polish then a liquid we put over the lens that would dry to a brilliant clear lens.
Safe-cut worked just as well.
Click to expand...
Jeff, what is Safe-cut?
 
There are a ton of headlight restoration kits available online. They range in price from a minimum of around $15.00 to over $60.00 depending on the brand and the number of items included. The better ones come with a UV protectant. The entire process for a badly fogged light takes between 30 and 40 minutes according to the manufacturer.

While the quoted price is high it doesn't sound like it's out of line given J Andersons quotation of current labor rates. With the kit at $60.00 and the technician making Slightly over $36.00 plus benefits the dealership will be making about $40.00 to cover overhead and other fixed costs. I would bet the dealer profit would be in the $10.00 to $15.00 range when all was said and done.

Keep in mind the dealership or repair shops have to guarantee their work for a set period of time. Around here the dealerships usually guarantee their work for a year while private shops are between 90 and 180 days. Should the process have to be repeated within the specified time period it would be at the expense of the repair shop.
 
projectnut said:
There are a ton of headlight restoration kits available online. They range in price from a minimum of around $15.00 to over $60.00 depending on the brand and the number of items included. The better ones come with a UV protectant. The entire process for a badly fogged light takes between 30 and 40 minutes according to the manufacturer.

While the quoted price is high it doesn't sound like it's out of line given J Andersons quotation of current labor rates. With the kit at $60.00 and the technician making Slightly over $36.00 plus benefits the dealership will be making about $40.00 to cover overhead and other fixed costs. I would bet the dealer profit would be in the $10.00 to $15.00 range when all was said and done.

Keep in mind the dealership or repair shops have to guarantee their work for a set period of time. Around here the dealerships usually guarantee their work for a year while private shops are between 90 and 180 days. Should the process have to be repeated within the specified time period it would be at the expense of the repair shop.
Click to expand...
Perfectly reasonable argument.

Still feels like a terribly convenient way to use ultra strict enforcement of state standards by a private company to personally benefit the same company. If the inspectors didn't benefit from this, it wouldn't bother me. But they are allowed to benefit their employer to steer rejection work to them. This system feels like it is ripe for abuse. Most people, would pay the ridiculous fee. I won't, unless I was under total duress.
 
projectnut said:
There are a ton of headlight restoration kits available online. They range in price from a minimum of around $15.00 to over $60.00 depending on the brand and the number of items included. The better ones come with a UV protectant. The entire process for a badly fogged light takes between 30 and 40 minutes according to the manufacturer.

While the quoted price is high it doesn't sound like it's out of line given J Andersons quotation of current labor rates. With the kit at $60.00 and the technician making Slightly over $36.00 plus benefits the dealership will be making about $40.00 to cover overhead and other fixed costs. I would bet the dealer profit would be in the $10.00 to $15.00 range when all was said and done.

Keep in mind the dealership or repair shops have to guarantee their work for a set period of time. Around here the dealerships usually guarantee their work for a year while private shops are between 90 and 180 days. Should the process have to be repeated within the specified time period it would be at the expense of the repair shop.
Click to expand...
Which raises the point that most of these places that do inspections do so at a loss on the inspection part, but the inspection price is often capped.
 
rabler said:
Which raises the point that most of these places that do inspections do so at a loss on the inspection part, but the inspection price is often capped.
Click to expand...
Have to admit, that inspection requires a lot of work for the fee. Which in my opinion, leads to a very strong motivation for the shop to reject, so they can get the repair business.

State law requires at least one wheel to be removed to physically inspect the condition of the brakes. Think they look at different wheels every year. Typically the car goes on a lift and the backsides of the tires are inspected, along with classic checking of ball joints, and all the rest of the normal stuff.
 
Back in the 1970's the state of Wisconsin was wrestling with whether or not to require annual automobile inspections. They sent out hundreds of thousands of inspection forms asking the recipients to voluntarily have their cars inspected. At the time I owned 2 Standard Oil service stations and was asked to participate as an inspection station.

The form was lengthy and took up to 1/2 hour to complete depending on the age of the vehicle. The Wisconsin DOT was paying the inspection stations $2.00 per form. As you might expect it wasn't a money-making endeavor in that the average hourly rate for service work at that time was between $15.00 and $20.00 per hour depending on location.

I literally did thousands of the inspections. There were a few vehicles that wouldn't have been able to be licensed should passing the exam be a contingency for renewal. However, the overwhelming majority had few if any problems to be concerned with. As a result of the voluntary program and the overall condition of the cars being inspected it was determined that as annual state inspection wasn't necessary. However, since that time some cities and counties have implemented mandatory inspection programs.

Maybe it was a function of automobile construction and road maintenance of the time. Winters were much colder with an average of 2 or more weeks with high temperatures below 0* and lows of -20*. Add to that the rust prone metals used, and the tons of salt poured on the roads and most cars that were in poor condition either rusted away or refused to start. The average lifespan of an automobile in this area at that time was 7 years. I must say I was a bit disappointed in the new vehicles I bought during that time period. I had the bodies literally rust away on a couple and had to rebuild the engines in a couple more.
 
I guess I should feel lucky where I live in Northern Ontario there are no mandatory vehicle inspections.
That being said the ministry of transportation and or the police can pull you over and demand an safety inspection within 24 hrs. This rarely happens unless there's an oblivious safety defect.
 
I failed a smog once. Tech said "idle speed too low" - 400 rpm. Wait a minute, I said- the engine won't even stay running if the idle was
set that low.
Turned out the 4 was actually a 9, his viewing angle was such he couldn't see the whole digit on his tach
Passed on retest
 
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