Well, they've changed the laws, now exempting inspection for cars until year five of their model. Everyone else two years. The decal on the windshield declares your status to every passing police cruiser and can cost $$$ if it's either not there or outdated.
This puts me in the Nonconformist group. Having to get the decal but not eligible for the inspection which the dealership has to do in order to issue the decal. And not a new car, which would simplify it.
Three visits, two phone calls to the dealership before they grasped this. And found that after all I had to go to Motor vehicle with all the dox, including the vital green and white card the dealership lost from my windshield on a previous visit, which is required to get the decal in exchange.
After I bellowed I'M NOT LEAVING WITHOUT IT, the manager stopped mansplaining an entirely different subject he assumed I was talking about, and did a vague gesture at searching.
The tech did a bit better. Guys. They kept saying we didn't take it away.. trying to get me to leave. I ended up throwing all the car doors open once I figured out how to, still learning the car, and found it stuffed between the passenger seat and doorframe. Red hot glare at them all, the manager ran back to his office, and the tech and I burst out laughing.
Then I called weeks later, as requested, to see if they had the decals, they said yes, come right over, they arrived. I explained mine should read March 2023. Long silence. Then consultations. Then they realized I had to wait for the State agency to reopen in July.
That gave me and a lot of people three weeks before the deadline to get four months of backlog processed. After scenes of mass confusion and people camping overnight, they extended the deadline to September for March and later people. Our tax dollars at work.
So today, despite great anxiety, motor vehicle being an ordeal at the best of times which this isn't, and a cool day for waiting, I went to a less traveled station.
After missing the building, which is nothing like the picture on their helpful website, and having to go all over the Eastern Seaboard to find a u turn, divided highway, heavy traffic, I got there.
And the hardest part was done. Ten cars ahead of me, nothing to the several miles of lines last week, at every agency in the State, friendly inspector with an islands accent, reggae music going, few minutes while he sorted the dox, and now I am legal till I'm basically too old to notice.
That little postage stamp size thing on the windshield is the cause of turning the rest of my hair white. Note the spare mask hanging from the mirror. It's the thing now.
Then home, perfect afternoon on the deck, reading Gish Jen, dozing, watching turkey vultures dancing in the sky.
So, all in all, it averages out to a Pretty Good Day.
And I'm going to stitch hexies this evening after my Centering Prayer meeting, excellent timing for it, come to think of it.
Woo hoo! You must be so relieved to have that ordeal over with. So much angst for a little tiny sticker. We watch turkey vultures dancing in our sky over the river every night. Ugly birds, but poetry in motion in the sky.
ReplyDeleteThey're very primitive looking when you see them on the ground. That red featherless neck, for obvious reasons, since they dine on carrion, and the smell, same reason.
DeleteThis sticker had had me losing sleep! I feel so much better now.
WOW! Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteThank you. I definitely feel they're in order! Now I can just enjoy the car.
DeleteWe have yearly inspections here too. A new car doesn’t come off the lot without the garage getting an extra amount for inspecting what they are selling you. I figure someone in government had a relative who owned a garage and put that money grab in place for the relative. Every year the inspections has to be done by a certain date which is noted on the windshield like you have.
ReplyDeleteOf course Covid changed this years process but we didn’t have as much problem as you did. The population here is smaller I imagine. Working around the Covid accommodations is bad enough. You don’t need extra frustration besides.
You were brave to try a new location. I would be nervous about an unfamiliar place too.
Nj has the largest number of cars per highway mile of any State in the Union. Hence the outrage that motor vehicle didn't grasp what a tsunami of processes would be unleashed after a total four month shutdown.
DeleteWhat are hexies?
ReplyDeleteGood for you for getting through all that craziness for a decal.
Six sided patches, stitched over templates. See my art blog https://beautifulmetaphor.blogspot.com for more than you wanted to know!
DeleteWoo hoo from me too!!! I'm so glad you got that all sorted out. We have a hawk that visits us when we sit on the balcony. It watches us watching him/her. We can watch it soaring on the thermals.
ReplyDeleteI do love the big birds. We have a thriving population of them.
DeleteI do not understand why the dealership you bought the car from does not have the capacity to inspect and provide the sticker required for the cars they sell. I must be missing something.
ReplyDeleteAdding I thought the same thing, too. So did Michael in the maintenance section. It came as a surprise when they checked and found they weren't eligible for the one I needed. They're not allowed to do the exchange of the official green card the State sent me when I registered the car for the decal. That has to be done by a motor vehicle official.
ReplyDeleteWhat an ordeal! I know it wasn't fun, but it made for amusing reading. :)
ReplyDeleteThat's the good thing about writing -- everything is copy!
DeleteWow - all that with the car - DMV - dealership and you didn't strangle anybody! Good job!
ReplyDeleteYes, no charges for assault at all. Pretty good.
DeleteSorry you had to go through all that!
ReplyDelete