Auguste
New member
I would love to hear other comments from other countries. The following happened to me this week here in Switzerland.
I notice that my "macarone" for emissions has expired. A macarone is the little badge placed by the testing facility on the rear window of the car.
I went to the Fiat dealer locally to have the Panda tested. This is after I replace the head gasket as written up in other threads.
After waiting in the show room for 20 minutes, the woman tells me that the car would no pass the test and that they mechanic thinks there are serious problems with the car. Great, I did all that work, it seems to run like a champ, and there is some serious problem. My French is not good enough to dig up more info so I leave, not having spent a centime but I have no paper work.
The boys at my office don't think this is how is should go. They suggest I go to the local gas station/garage which has no affiliations and have the test run again. I did that and there were no problems, the car passed and the fee was 10 CHF less than the dealership.
Lesson learned - don't have your emissions tested here by anyone with a vested interest in repairs. I would have know this in the USA and been suspicious, but here, I thought they would be above all that, after all they are Swiss!
Cheers,
Auguste
I notice that my "macarone" for emissions has expired. A macarone is the little badge placed by the testing facility on the rear window of the car.
I went to the Fiat dealer locally to have the Panda tested. This is after I replace the head gasket as written up in other threads.
After waiting in the show room for 20 minutes, the woman tells me that the car would no pass the test and that they mechanic thinks there are serious problems with the car. Great, I did all that work, it seems to run like a champ, and there is some serious problem. My French is not good enough to dig up more info so I leave, not having spent a centime but I have no paper work.
The boys at my office don't think this is how is should go. They suggest I go to the local gas station/garage which has no affiliations and have the test run again. I did that and there were no problems, the car passed and the fee was 10 CHF less than the dealership.
Lesson learned - don't have your emissions tested here by anyone with a vested interest in repairs. I would have know this in the USA and been suspicious, but here, I thought they would be above all that, after all they are Swiss!
Cheers,
Auguste
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