Ecomodding Project Car Impounded...

[BurningDinosaurBones]

So I recently picked up this little volkswagen diesel to save money on fuel. My other vehicle is a Ford E-250 Van that gets about 8 MPG and costs me about $30 every time I want to drive into the city for food/water/etc (no running water where I currently live). The car has been sitting for months and needs some body work and a windshield to pass safety inspection to be legal for the road and to change registration into my name.

Well my girlfriend and I were pulled over when we took it for a drive yesterday and the car was towed to a garage where they were to do the inspection. The car is not to be released from the garage until it is inspected and registered with the department of motor vehicle. I know it's my own dumb fault for driving it without inspection/registration but I did it anyway since I am unemployed and I need to take a shower sometimes and my assisted membership at the ymca allows me to do so from time to time. I did have insurance at least, good thing I did, because that would be a $1500 fine I am told.

So at the end of the day, my car needs a windshield, a few holes in the floor and fender fixed to pass inspection plus a few other small issues. The shop where the car is sitting said that they can't fix it because they do not do body work. The shop claims the car needs hundreds of dollars of brake work and other things to pass but I know that they are full of **** because the brakes were just replaced last year and the car only was used for a couple of weekends since then. But the car is not to be released from that shop until it is inspected and registered. So I am stuck and at this point if I can't find some way around this they are simply going to sell my car for parts and probably make a decent amount of cash off of it since it has a hard to find (in my area) MK3 Volkswagen turbo diesel engine. I can fix everything myself for free, except the windshield. I have been collecting all the necessary materials to fix it myself. Currently my life savings is at $85 towards getting that windshield replaced lol.

What should I do?

Edit: I called the cop today and he said I could just drive it home and fix it. What a waste of time. End of story.

[Sven7]

Wow, I guess that's the last time you'll make that mistake?

[BurningDinosaurBones]

Yeah, sure is hard for a fella to save a dollar these days . Bring on the fiberglass!

[Ryland]

Sounds like you need to read up a bit as to what your options are.
Here you can drive a vehicle while doing "mechanical check and tests" within so many miles.
I also don't see why they are going to require you to have it fixed where it is only by the people who have it, it seems like you should be allowed to have it fixed by whoever you want, where ever you want and that it shouldn't need to pass any safety checks until you want to drive it on the road again.

[BurningDinosaurBones]

Wait, the story is not complete yet.

I called the cop this morning and he said "you can just go pick up the car and drive it home as long as he puts the rejection sticker on it, and you have the insurance and old registration with you". So I called the shop and let the guy know that the cop said it was ok to come get the car.

When I arrived at the shop I re-stated that the cop told me I could pick up the car. The garage guy says "that's not what he told me". So later I learned that this motherF@@@ called the cop right after talking to me and told him that he didn't think my car was safe enough to drive home! For some reason this shop guy decided to be a real dick about this. I was nothing but courteous to the guy throughout this whole ordeal and he turns around and sabotages it for me. He then said that his buddy in the back room has a flat bed truck and they can haul the car to my house for $100 lol. So I have no choice at this point and now I'm waiting for them to show up at my house tomorrow night with the car.

I really hate automotive shops, I've never met a straight shop owner yet.

Tangent/Rant:

I recall about 5 years ago I had a 1993 civic 4 door that needed inspection so I took it into a shop and let them have at it. Well when they were done the guy came out and was like "oh my god you should not be driving that on the road it needs all new brakes tie rod ends ball joints, that car is dangerous to drive etc etc" and then he gave me an estimate of somewhere around $1600 to get it inspection ready. So I said see ya later, drove down the street to the next shop I found, asked them to do an inspection and the car passed!

I've always stayed out of shops and done the work myself as much as possible but god dam. How do you find someone you can trust for the times you can't do the work yourself?

[Sven7]

Originally Posted by BurningDinosaurBones

Tangent/Rant:

I recall about 5 years ago I had a 1993 civic 4 door that needed inspection so I took it into a shop and let them have at it. Well when they were done the guy came out and was like "oh my god you should not be driving that on the road it needs all new brakes tie rod ends ball joints, that car is dangerous to drive etc etc" and then he gave me an estimate of somewhere around $1600 to get it inspection ready. So I said see ya later, drove down the street to the next shop I found, asked them to do an inspection and the car passed!

I've always stayed out of shops and done the work myself as much as possible but god dam. How do you find someone you can trust for the times you can't do the work yourself?

I took my Probe in to get an alignment in August. The shop refused to work on it because of the horribly deteriorated tie rod ends. That's when you know!

[BurningDinosaurBones]

Originally Posted by Sven7

I took my Probe in to get an alignment in August. The shop refused to work on it because of the horribly deteriorated tie rod ends. That's when you know!

Haha, good stuff, a tie rod end letting go could really ruin your day.

Speaking of which I came across an old acquaintance this summer on the main street in my town. He was standing on the side of the road with his car parked right in the middle, with the passenger side tire pointing straight out toward the curb!

[JasonG]

My wife has had a few of those "we legally can't let you drive out without blah blah blah" crap pulled on her.
One time it was for brakes, funny, they were replaced 2 weeks ago........
Shocks another time.
Other was for a brake/marker/tail/somethin/light. She's an electrician.... whips a screwdriver out of the trunk, pops it out, scrapes is on the concrete, shoves it back in. Fixed. Wish I was there to see their faces. :O

[Frank Lee]

Lots of those shop guys are shameless ********.

*Off on a tangent* It's not just automotive. I came home from a trip recently to find that my natural gas house furnace had failed. It was just pure luck that I came back when I did and all the plumbing wasn't froze up already!!! So I do some troubleshooting and decide that it has a cracked heat exchanger, which is under warranty because I had the furnace installed new not all that long ago. I called the installer and he wanted $500 to fix it and I'm thinking to myself, gee, that's what I'd expect to pay if there was no warranty at all! I called another plumbing and heating shop and explained my diagnosis and what the installer quoted me; they said my diagnosis sounded correct and if they'd do it they'd charge $200! I said how about if you just get me the parts and they agreed to do that... better yet!

So I got the replacement heat exchangers free under warranty and put them in there myself. Take that MFer installer! I'm gonna badmouth that sucka at every opportunity- if he wouldn't have been so greedy at the outset I wouldn't have thought twice about it and he'd have had the job. That's funny, I bet he doesn't have 8 years of med school loans to pay off but he sure charges like it.

I kept the house reasonably warm while all this was going on with several space heaters.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by BurningDinosaurBones

I've always stayed out of shops and done the work myself as much as possible but god dam. How do you find someone you can trust for the times you can't do the work yourself?

Like you say, if you want something done right and for cheap, do it yourself. For the other times, I demand to see the items they replaced. Very easy to tell if rod ends were garbage, or if spark plugs really were worn down, etc. Always, always have them show the supposed worn items.