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.
mcclaud
October 4, 2007 at 4:11 AMGlad your car passed. I have a 1996 Toyota Corolla and I’m sure it would not meet the standards of Vancouver.
I plan on replacing it soon with a Jaguar.
Chris
October 4, 2007 at 6:12 AMWHAT! Just over $1 for gas?!?! Its like £1 here so thats over $2. Im not buying a car in Vancouver…gonna get myself a sweet bike and cycle like a crazy man!
Mark
October 4, 2007 at 7:46 AMThey should do this in South Africa, they do road worth tests, but not aircare tests. Over there you see some cars held together with duct tape, engulfed in a cloud of black petrol fumes. You turn your aircon off when you drive past one of em. Makes me mad.
I miss having my car, Goldlocks she was called, a champagne beige (not gold) bling VW Polo Playa. Here in London I rely on crowded tubes, smelly buses and my pair of New Balance runners :)
Nate
October 4, 2007 at 11:01 AMWow! Sweet ride!!! *cough* *cough* Too bad Apple doesn’t make cars, ehhh? I’m glad it passed so now you can alot more moolah to sweet tech devices.
Buenos Aires Me Duele
October 4, 2007 at 12:34 PMAmazing!!!!!!!!!!
Lisa Bettany
October 4, 2007 at 3:29 PM@mcclaud — rrrrrrrarrrrrr Jaguar. nice.
@Chris — Al Gore will def high five you for that one. bike lanes are everywhere here, although a proposed bike lane on the Burrard St. bridge got nixed on the last city referendum…
@Mark — yeah new balance runners! bet you truck past traffic jams with a smile on your face! when i lived in Toronto i used to rollerblade everywhere. i could make it to classes at the University of Toronto in under 5 min if i booted it. and i would just roll into class. was uber. but alas the transit system in Vancouver isn’t so great and i seem to need a car now and then… goldlocks hey? there must be a story behind that name? mine is called Sparks.
@Nate — apple car. now that would be sweeeeeeeet. i definitely put my money into things that help me create things. car just gets you places. and my lil car is great on gasssss.
@Buenos Aires Me Duele — gracias!
mcpaige
October 4, 2007 at 9:06 PMI totally left a message…I see, you are screening them, it didn’t post.
Lisa Bettany
October 4, 2007 at 9:19 PM@mcpaige — ha ! the spambot nabber gotcha! dunno why… have you secretly been selling viagra?
anyway, yes, i am pretty sure lifeforms from the galaxy and beyond are enjoying a little mostly meness from time to time.
the honda accord is pretty much uber sweetness. that’s fo sho. and just to make the re-branding more amusing, my first car was a 1992 white Suzuki Swift which was a zippy lil thing.. made it through a treacherous jaunt across the Rockies in January during heavy snowfall. could only drive 12km/h but got me save home.
Mark
October 5, 2007 at 1:59 AMOops was a typo. My car’s name was Goldylocks, as I constantly argued with my mates over the colour of her beautiful coat of paint. She was champagne beige, but everyone said she was bling gold. Either way she was a hotty.
mcclaud
October 5, 2007 at 2:17 AMActually I do believe the next Volkswagon vehicle is supposed to sport a Mac as part of the onboard navigation and hi-fi music system.
Of course, I remember that being promised for 2007, so I wouldn’t hold my breath. Although it would be cool to have a car that sports a computer that’s environmentally friendly and takes less electricity to run. And works totally bug free with my three iPods.
(weirdly enough, I have three iPods. I keep upgrading. So now I have three seperate types of music on each iPod, and a ton of empty memory space on them. Bugger all)
Chris
October 5, 2007 at 4:34 AM@LB – Ive cycled accross it before….wasnt the best experience of my life. Id been at the Micro Brewery on Granville Island earlier that day and ended up almost taking my life into my own hands!
My mums old BMW 1 series had iPod support. Had the ipod connection in the glovebox and could be controlled throught the steering wheel. Worked with my 3rd Generation ipod but not with my 5th for some reason. Maybe needed a software upgrade.