Update: A MD state police inspector called Oursiman Honda and told them: pass my car
Dear all,
Here's the update:
Friday night:
When I picked the E up after it failed inspection Friday, I looked at the inspection sheet. The car passed on every single item on it. At the bottom right of the page under "Notes" there was a note that the backlighting bulb was burned out on the shifter column. Then in yellow highlighter they highlighted that the car needed to be repaired and re-inspected within two weeks or whatever.
I told the service dept's assistant manager that it wasn't right that the tech failed my car for something that wasn't even on the inspection sheet as something that needed to be inspected. He told me that according to MD state law, every single lightbulb in the car (original or aftermarket) has to work. Then he changed the subject and went off on tinting and how customers try to customize their cars in unsafe ways—and that it’s his job as a manager to not pass unsafe cars, whether the customers agree with it or not. I found this comment puzzling, because my car is 100% stock—no aftermarket parts or non-manufacturer tinting. I couldn’t believe he was trying to hint that I was pressuring him to pass an “unsafe vehicle.”
Saturday:
I had a friend, a Toyota mechanic, fix the dang bulb Saturday. It took about half an hour, not two hours as Ourisman Honda said it would. But it was a huge waste of my Saturday morning.
Monday:
I took the day off of work Monday to finish straightening things out. In the morning I took the car back to Ourisman for re-inspection. (The original tech who failed the car has to visually re-inspect it, according to the law. Fortunately, it was a visual re-inspection... but it still wasted yet more of my time as I waited for him to have a chance to look at the car.)
I told the assistant manager it took half-an-hour to fix, not two hours, and that I was not amused by their overblown estimate to repair a $2 bulb. He didn’t really say anything in response. In fact, he may have brought up tinting again.
In the meantime, the MD state police inspector called me. (This is the police officer who helps to regulate the county’s inspection stations.) He said that Ourisman Honda was definitely "fishing,” and that they should not have failed my car… that it’s not their job to read into and interpret the law the way they did in the case of my inspection. He said that if I can see what gear I'm in from the indicator on the dash, it doesn’t matter that the light is burned out on the console, especially if the console lighting doesn’t specify what gear I’m in. (Too bad I already went and got it fixed!) He told me he’d speak to the tech at Ourisman and straighten him out and tell him my car should have passed in the first place.
Right before I left, after passing inspection, the assistant manager told me that the police inspector just spoke with the tech. In a cheerful manner he said, “The tech says he’s failed hundreds of cars for bulbs being out just like that.” No apology. I told him I didn’t appreciate any of this, he changed the subject back to how people with tinting have to be very careful in Maryland. I almost hauled off on him for bringing up tinting again, but I took my keys and left instead.
I’ll never go back to Oursiman again… way to treat a fairly new customer! I’ll just take my car all the way back to Brown Arlington Honda in VA where I bought the car. Their service has always been excellent.
Within three more hours (and $495 later) I had MD license plates and was on my way home. I felt like I had just won an Academy Award when they handed me the plates.
The whole thing was even more frustrating because my VA registration had expired 12/31/06… but MD has a long titling process, so I couldn’t even register my car until last week when they sent me a letter saying they’d processed my title. I started the registration process in mid December not realize they couldn’t just issue me temporary tags. At that time, the MD MVA/DMV associate suggested I just renew my VA plates to prevent my car from being totally unregistered. I tried to, but VA wouldn’t let me because I had already changed my license over to MD. I had to restrict my driving for fear of getting pulled over and having the car confiscated!
So then when Ourisman failed my car for ambient lighting, I had just heard enough.
What a mess.
Thanks for all of your comments. And don’t let your safety inspectors take you for a ride!