This September, our car is due for the New York State Inspection. Incidentally, it also turned 5 years old last September 23, the day we drove it off the dealership. Currently, the mileage we have put in is 9,980.

Every year, whenever it’s due for inspection, we also bring it to the dealership for service at the same time. The past four years, it had passed the inspection. This year, since we just had it serviced at the dealership two months ago, I was lazy to make an appointment with them so we opted to go to the nearby licensed inspection site.

Guess what? This five year old car failed the inspection. The reason? The OBD(on board diagnostics) Monitor is not ready.

Back in February this year, the battery died in the middle of the winter. I had a new battery installed at the dealership. The inspector told us, this is the culprit because the car is not driven enough. We were told to drive 100 miles and bring the car back for re-inspection. Since the replacement of the battery, we have only driven 1,500 miles.

So, off we went driving around a 100 miles that day. We brought it back and still it failed. It was then that we were told to bring the car to the dealership. By then, we were already charged $64; $37 for the 1st attempt and $27 for repeat inspection.

I made an appointment that same day and brought the car to the dealership the following Monday. What was the initial diagnosis? There’s NOTHING wrong with the car. In fact, it’s in perfect shape. The only problem is that, it’s not driven enough. The service advisor told me they have to run the car using the dynomometer which would cost us $110 + tax ($9.21) and inspection fee again at $37. I didn’t even want to understand the issue anymore, all I wanted was for this to be over and the car getting that sticker.

Would you rather prefer to take a leisurely long drive, over driving around and not get the result needed anyway? Add to that, having to shell out $220 plus fuel cost from driving around. This was really one long, exhausting day. I wanted to share this experience FYI.