HI ROy,   
      
   On Wed 2011-Oct-26 13:24, Roy Witt (1:387/22) wrote to Mark Hofmann:   
      
      
      
    MH> It could be worse.  I have heard that in Missouri and a few other   
    MH> states you have to get your entire car inspected every year!  Now   
    MH> that is crazy!   
      
   RW> That's not as crazy as you might think. We do that here and it's a   
   RW> breeze. It's a good way to get the bald tired, clunkers off the   
   RW> road. Not to mention making you safety aware of your car. Of course,   
   RW> it makes a big difference if you don't have to smog check it too.   
      
   YEp, Louisiana has the "brake tag" as they call it, once a   
   year as well.  THey're quite strict with it, and woe be to   
   the inspector that takes an under the table to put that tag   
   on your windshield if you didn't pass.  ONe of those   
   scandals still in the news when I first moved to NEw   
   ORleans.  Iirc they're not that expensive in Louisiana   
   either.   
      
   Louisiana is quite strict with theirs in fact, a hairline   
   crack in a windshield or lots of other little issues and you won't pass.  Xyl   
   and I had a FOrd Aerostar that the driver's side door couldn't be opened from   
   the inside, you had to   
   crank down the window and open the stupid thing from the   
   outside, guy wouldn't pass us until I went and got the   
   parts, took the stupid door apart and repaired it.   
   IT stopped in the required distance at the required speed,   
   lights and horn worked, tires were good, but he wouldn't   
   pass us without the ability to open that door from the   
   inside.   
      
   IN fact, getting its windshield to pass that year entailed a bit of a fight   
   with one of those "we fix your windshield on   
   the spot" services.   
      
   WE were rolling down interstate 10 in NEw ORleans east when   
   a dump truck belonging to ORleans parish without a tarp lost some gravel, got   
   a nice little ding in the windshield which   
   would start to expand.  Lady called this service, because we had like 30 days   
   until annual brake tag inspection time.   
   GUy comes out, but it's only in the mid forties that day for temp.  I ask him   
   if he doesn't want to wait on that, because as I've been lead to understand   
   those fixes don't cure   
   properly at low temps.  HE assures me we're in good shape,   
   but then puts in a new windshield as that crack's growing   
   too much.   
      
   NOw remember it's colder than I thought you could do that   
   job in the out of doors.  GUys in the upper midwest I knew   
   that did that work had you bring it to their climate   
   controlled shop.   
      
   So, wife's running me to work, I'm wearing one of my nice   
   suits, and it's raining buckets, and I'm drenched by the   
   time I get there.   
      
   I call the company.  GUy says "yeah yeah we'll fix it ... "   
   and comes out, it still leaks.   
   Finally I told him to either fix it right, or I'd run a full page ad in the   
   TImes Picayune telling folks of my   
   dissatisfaction with his company.   
      
      
   Third time, he fixed it right!!!   
      
      
   Regards,   
              Richard   
   ---   
    * Origin:  (1:116/901)