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Two Posts in One Day!
The first post was just to say how happy I am to spend time with my car and even when doing a task that most would find annoying and in the end my car is better than it was before the process.
Now I am going to go through a detailed account of Chinese DMV services. I hope it is enlightening.
First the place is huge, there is one main road running the whole length with about 4 warehouse sized building on either side. You go to a check point at the front gate and they check your papers and drive to lot "A" on that lot the attendant takes pictures of your car and makes sure it matches the photos on record. I can't get my rear carbon fiber spoiler off so they were giving me some trouble, but when they looked at the records it was on there last year so they said it would be ok. After the photos I took a piece of paper and my car's book into a building to pay the fee and start the process. I handed my papers to a worker and she stamps it tosses it to the person next to her who photocopies it, then it gets passed across their tabes to another worker who inputs the information into the computer. Then it goes to another worker who asks for money. There are about 8 workers in that building, each who have one task to do.
Now that my car matches the photo and records and I have paid I take my paperwork to the lot where my car was photographed and it goes into the first warehouse onto a rolling road where they test emissions. The attendants who are used to sitting in Jettas and work vans really enjoyed the sound of the Borla exhaust and I don't blame them for driving it a bit aggressively into and out of the station. I liked hearing my car as much as they enjoyed making my car sing.
After the smog test I drove my car across the street to another station where they did a few other tests such as headlight aim and brightness after that the tests were basically completed. I took the paperwork and went across the street again to another building where at least 8 people looked at my paperwork and either stamped it, scanned looked at it or just stared blankly at it. There was one middle aged women working there who was kind of looking down and bored, tired or unhappy. I asked her a question and she was surprised how well I spoke Chinese. (I try to be modest when people compliment me, but I have lived in Beijing half of my life, I am married to a Beijing girl, went to a Chinese university and have been studying Chinese for 20+ years, so by now my Chinese is pretty good) It was really nice to see her become very awake and alert when she started talking with me and we had a great conversation while I was waiting on another station to fill out the last bit of paperwork before I could go. She also looked at my car's paperwork and commented on how clean my car is. I was shocked to hear that. I never thought of our Camaros as "clean cars" but if you look at the acceptable levels of pollutants and what my car made it sure does seem to be a clean fossil fuel burning machine.
Finally with all of my paperwork input I was given a sticker to go on the windshield to prove that my car is road legal for another year. After that I went home and re-modded it until it was dinner time, and thats how I spent my Saturday.
Some explanation of the table
First column legal limit, second column my car, third column Pass, fourth column I'm not too sure how to say it.
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