Mark: Hi it's Mark from Top Local Lead Generation and we're here with Mr. Bernie Pawlik of Pawlik
Automotive in Vancouver.
An award winning auto repair shop 15 time winners of Best Auto Repair in Vancouver as
voted by their customers.
How're you dong today Bernie?
Bernie: Awesome
Mark: We're going to talk about out of province vehicle inspections.
So which vehicles need BC provincial vehicle inspection?
Bernie: Well there's a few different criteria for vehicle inspections.
First off, if it's a commercial vehicle over 8200 kg or it's a passenger carrying taxi
inspections are required every 6 months to 1 year depending on the type of vehicle.
But for light cars and trucks, you don't require an inspection in BC unless you're bringing
the vehicle in from out of province or you've been pulled over by perhaps a cop, or gone
through a road block, they've noticed something wrong with your car and they order you to
have an inspection.
Those are really the two criteria.
Mark: So what do you look at during a provincial inspection?
Bernie: Well a provincial inspection is basically a safety inspection, and it's also a compliance
inspection to make sure the vehicle complies with British Columbia and Canadian vehicle
standards.
As I say, it’s not a maintenance inspection so to speak, it's an entirely a safety inspection,
It's kind of a snapshot of where the vehicles at.
And interestingly enough, certain things that we might on a maintenance inspection recommend
repairs are not really recommended for a safety inspection.
An example would be brake pads.
There is generally a criteria that brake pads that are 2 millimetres or less are worn out.
If you brought a vehicle in for a safety inspection and had 3 millimetres on the brake pads, which
is for all intents and purposes worn out, it would still technically pass the safety
inspection, though we would recommend doing it.
But if you don’t want to do it, it will still pass the inspection.
Mark: So…
Bernie: Sorry Mark
Mark: Go ahead
Bernie: I was going to say, there is one area of the inspection that features very large
in the inspection, we have a big fat inspection manual and there’s one enormous chapter
and it features vehicle lighting.
And the reason for this is that there’s a lot of vehicles that are brought in from
out of province, from Japan, the right hand vehicles and some European vehicles and they
don’t meet the specifications for Canadian vehicle lighting.
A right hand drive vehicle actually points the headlights in a slightly different direction
that could blind drivers in North America.
So there is strict criteria on lighting.
There is different light placements and things like that.
But any vehicle that you’re bringing from another Canadian province should meet lighting
specs no problem and any American vehicle should do the same.
Other than, most American vehicles do not have daytime running lights and that’s a
required item in Canada.
So that’s usually something that needs to be retrofitted into an American vehicle brought
into BC.
Mark: So, I was going to ask about road salt because that is something that I have experience
with.
I bought a vehicle back when I was really young and inexperienced and it was incredibly
rusty underneath and it was from back east.
I’m not sure whether they still do a lot of road salt back east, but it can create
a great amount of damage.
So what about that, what happens with that when you’re finding that kind of issue?
Bernie: That’s an awesome question and road salt is definitely something that happens
in a lot of areas outside of BC, well there are some areas in BC that have a fair bit
of road salt.
But back east and Alberta, it’s enormous.
It still causes damage although cars are way better built these days than they used to
be so they don’t corrode and rust out like they used to but it still happens.
A lot of vehicles brought in from out of province, especially from Ontario or Alberta, and they’re
older, doing this provincial inspection can really be a life altering moment for the vehicle
in terms it might be time to actually take the vehicle off the road if there is enough
severe damage, rusted brake lines and any actual frame or structural rust.
So in some ways the inspection could be a blessing in disguise to make the roads safer
and not waste people’s money.
Unfortunately if you have a nice vintage car that has some value and it’s rusted out,
well that might be a sad parting.
Mark: So what happens if I fail the inspection?
Bernie: So if you fail the inspection, you have to have the vehicle fixed.
Now we can fix it, it can be fixed at any repair shop that you choose, you can even
fix it yourself.
After the inspection of course, we issue a list of what needs to be fixed.
Depending on who fixes it and where there may or may not be a re-inspection fee depending
on whether things need to be disassembled to verity that it’s all good.
Mark: There’s lots of inspection facilities around that meet the government criteria,
I guess, so do they all do the same thing?
what’s different about what you guys do?
Bernie: Well, first of all yes, every inspection facility has to meet certain criteria.
We all work the same manual.
I think really, it just boils down to who’s running the business and who’s doing the
inspection.
There has been in the past, media stings where they set up a vehicle with some severe safety
issues, go around to a variety of shops that easily hand out inspections.
There are some that just seem to hand the inspection out without even really looking
at the vehicle.
So there’s some like that.
On the other side, there’s some that are probably a little overzealous with their recommendations.
So you’ve got two ends of the scale, I mean it’s really about dealing with somebody
you trust like in any area or auto repair or life in general.
If you’ve had an inspection and you feel like there’s been just too much recommended
that you need to do, you can always call the province, the commercial vehicle inspection,
CBSE is what it’s called and they’ll have an inspector review the inspection if you
think it’s been done improperly.
So you know you always have a backup and that’s something you can do.
Mark: Well, what’s different from the provincial inspection compared to from say I was going
to buy a car and I brought it in to you to inspect it prior to me making the decision
to buy it?
Bernie: That’s an excellent question.
It’s really about the focus of the inspection.
The provincial inspection is very clearly a safety and compliance inspection, whereas
if we’re doing a pre-purchase inspection, we’re going to be looking at some other
items such as maintenance, what are the quality of the fluids.
For a provincial inspection, I mean as long as the oil is not leaking out of the engine
it really doesn’t matter what the condition or maintenance, or the transmission fluid
is dirty it’s not that important.
But if you’re buying a vehicle you’re going to be saddled with fixing those kinds
of things.
Certain things like oil leaks on a vehicle are not, unless they’re severe, they won’t
fail a safety inspection.
So that’s it, the big thing is the focus on: one is safety, the pre-purchase inspection
is safety and maintenance.
Mark: Great - anything else?
Bernie: No that’s it, other than if you’re needing a good, honest facility to do a provincial
out of province inspection or if you’ve had an unfortunate notice of order by a police
officer we’d be happy to do a good inspection for you and we can generally do most any repairs
that are required.
Mark: So, PawlikAutomotive.com an award winning website.
Pawlik Automotive voted 15 times now as Best Auto Repair in Vancouver.
Give them a call 604-327-7112.
Thanks Bernie
Bernie: Thanks Mark