To Test or Not to Test? A Matter of Vehicle Safety
Wednesday, April 11th, 2007There has been considerable debate over the last twenty-five years regarding the elimination of the Vehicle Testing Facilities in British Columbia.
Up until around 1980, every motorist was required to run their vehicle through the government run City Test once a year prior to renewing their insurance for the upcoming twelve months.
As shop owners, we would wring our hands with glee as we watched bewildered customers walk across the lot toward us with their test cards that had a million holes punched in them for items that were rejected.
It was widely thought that the corner service stations were in cahoots with the vehicle testers in Vancouver, and that all the headlights and mufflers we sold were somehow not required by the customers. That certainly was not the case. Why? Because headlights either work or they don’t, and mufflers either leak or they don’t. They aren’t subjective parts.