So after i filled my sweet 1995 Pontiac Firefly with premium gasolina, i headed to auto insurance place to re-insure my car for another year, but it just wasn’t my day…
for starters it was pouring with rain, second i was super hungry, third it was rush hour which in Vancouver is pretty much any time between 8am – 7pm… but from 3pm – 6pm, rush hour becomes uber. uber lame. so i walked into the auto place and was told that i was unable to re-insure my car until my car had passed the AirCare emissions test.
In Vancouver, all cars must be tested for levels of hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions every two years for cars 1992 or newer or every year for cars 1991 and older. Cost is $45.
so i had to trek all the way to the nearest AirCare station which was in Burnaby (a fair distance away)… finally got there thanks to Blackberry GPS. a lovely lovely thing. i wasn’t allowed to take pictures or vids in the AirCare place, but i was sneaky and grabbed one before i got yelled at by an angry Russian man.
i felt kinda nervous about my wee little car during the test because if you fail to pass the emissions test you have 2 lovely choices:
(1) send your car to a mechanic and make it more environmentally friendly (cost is approx $600… yikes);
(2) send your car to the scrap heap and take the bus (boo public transit. i’ve been scarred ever since being BC Transit Bus girl for a year.)
Fortunately, my day turned a bit nicer as my little zip zip firefly passed with flying colours (see below).
Since 1992, AirCare has reduced vehicle emissions by 71%. Al Gore would be so proud. Just to balance things out, i’m gonna head to my local duck pond and throw some old batteries in the water just to even things out. that was a joke. don’t hate me.
