HUGE state inspection dilema, need some insight.

DanMan2k06

DanMan2k06

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Damascus, MD
Alright guys I need some input and help here regarding Maryland state inspections. I'll throw in a little background info here for clarification.

Some of you might know, but I work at a Lexus dealership. I work on the "internal team" which is basically used and certified pre-owned cars. The system the company has in place is not only illegal (pretty sure), but completely unethical.

There are 8 of us on the team, plus our team leader. Only ONE of the other guys on our team is a legit state inspector with his license. As well as our shop foreman. All 8 of us perform Maryland state inspections. We do the inspection, fill out the paperwork, and my team leader forges our shop foreman's signature on the certificate. The only exception here being the one guy who has his inspection license. He does his own thing, and does it by the books. But as for the other 7 of us, it's a huge hoax. We do the work, our leader signs the papers, and our foreman gets paid for all of it. He doesn't even so much as know what cars are being signed off on.

I have had no training in vehicle inspection, have no idea the extent of the regulations, and certainly don't have my Maryland state inspector's license.


All that being said, here's my dilema. I "inspected" a car on June 4th. Some time after it was sold, and the buyer I guess moved to Virginia. On September 16th, she took the car to a dealer in virginia, and they failed it for bad control arm bushings. Now MY dealership wants ME to drive to VA, pick up the car, do the reapirs, and drop the car back off at the dealer in VA. Of course, this is all unpaid because "I was the one who overlooked it in the first place".....

A few things on my mind here. One, I'm not a state inspector, therefor I should not be responsible. Two, the inspection is only good for 90 days or 1000 miles. The 90 days is up, and the 1000 miles probably is too. And three, I talked to 2 of my buddies, both of which are certified inspectors, and they said short of the bushing missing, or completely falling apart, it passes. Cracked rubber does not fail. And last but not least, state inspections are NON TRANSFERABLE!!! Just because something passes in MD, does not mean it will pass in another state...

What should I tell my shop? I'd love to find the regulation book online, but it's not available. Can anyone clarify what exactly passes and fails as far as bushings go? Also how should I approach the situation to my superiors. I sure as HELL am not going to waste a whole day completely unpaid on something that I'm not responsible for...
 
holly crap! I would tell your employer that it passed when you looked at it, thats it.
 
Sounds like they are covering their ass with this one and hope that no one else pops up. I would tell them that it passed during the inspection and go from there. Ask them to pay for you to get your MD license done and see what they say? It can't hurt to ask.
 
Yea I'm definitely gonna apply for the license from here on out. And I want to keep this as non-confrontational as possible. But at the same time I'm not in the wrong one bit here.
 
Sounds like it's the shop foreman's problem. He "signed" the inspection, after all.
 
Oh I know it's his problem. But it's being thrown onto me. By both the shop foreman and our general manager. The whole situation is completely shady.

If I had my license I could tell the customer hey, it passed when I looked at it. This is now your problem to deal with. But since my foreman's name is on the certificate, and he never even looked at the car, he's going to assume that I failed to properly inspect the car. I look like a bad tech, he gets paid, and I lose money.
 
I would stop working there and go to a more straight up dealer (if there are any) places like this get busted all the time and you don't want to be the one holding the bag when it does

and say they were fine when you inspected them
 
Take care of the issue, mean while, get a third party to report the illegal practices of the foreman and GM to the MD state police.

Dealers are always shady, I'll flip burgers at mickey d's before I'll work for another one.
 
Yea it's really a shame the lack of character/integrity some people have. In our shop meetings the GM always preaches honesty and good conduct, and I sit back and kind of laugh in the back of my head. I don't think the entire shop knows just how our team operates. The ethics really do suck, but it pays the bills at the same time.

I'm going to try and go in tomorrow without getting emotional. Keep an unbiased outlook. I'll approach my superiors fairly, and give them every oppurtunity to take care of it the right way. But if it ends up going sour and I take the shaft, something's gotta be done. I'll ask to be moved to strictly service first. No more pre-owned. If they won't do that I think I'll bite the bullet and work on my state inspection license. Having that would solve everything right now. But, if this does happen again anytime soon before I get the license, you better believe there will be troopers going through every RO in the filing cabinet wondering why there's 10 different people's handwriting on the certificates, all with the same signature...

Now does anyone have any codes or regulations that I can use as a reference? My thinking here is, what if I bring the car in tomorrow, and the bushings are completely fine and DO pass inspection.
 
Btw found the inspection code.

MD:
11.14.02.02 Steering, Alignment, and Suspension

Inspect all control arm, locator bar, and stabilizer bushings.

Reject vehicle if:
(d) Any control arm, locator bar, or stabilizer bar bushing is missing, any part of the bushing or is damaged, deteriorated, or dry rotted to a point where the bushing is broken or loose.


VA:

19VAC30-70-110. Steering and suspension.

B. Inspect for and reject if:
17. Any front or rear axle or suspension positioning parts are cracked, broken, loose, worn, bent or missing, resulting in shifting of an axle from the normal position. Any control arm or suspension positioning part using bushings for control, support and normal functioning is deteriorated , damaged or missing.
NOTE: All rear suspension parts including but not limited to control arms (upper and lower ball joints, radius or torque arms, stabilizer bars, and trailing arms) shall not have any damage or noticeable play when checked with hand pressure.
 
Legally they cannot ask you to do "unpaid" work.

I'd remind them of that. Then ask how far they want this to go.
 
so YOU knowingly disobey the law? seems like your part of the problem if you ask me-you put yourself in a shady situation then complain when it gets shady???

dont know the circumstances of how you landed there, but from a first time perspective, you've been comfortable there and sounds like its catching up to you. I wouldnt report to the police anything, what are you gonna say? "Hey i'm the non-licensed inspector thats been falsifying reports for a few years, and i think you should investigate that guy over there"??? Come on man just move on
 
I don't know about you guys but I'm not gonna let someone who I don't know take my car out of state. It needs to be fixed by the nearest dealership and then charged to your dealership. Sounds like a crock of shit to me!
 
go to the police, find a new job. You need to either have morals or not buddy, as mentioned earlier you can't start complaining when you are knowingly committing fraud just because you don't want to do something. Do the right thing, or keep your head down and keep doing the wrong thing. Either way you're up to your ears in crap now.
 
You put yourself in a bad situation. No real easy way out consequence-free. You can:
1) Refuse to do the work unpaid: This will either get you fired or flagged as a troublemaker. Either way, it's going to piss on your employment history.
2) Take the hit, do the work/travel: This will probably get you labeled as a pushover, and you'll start finding you end up with a lot of crap a work for some reason.


Considering how many dealerships went under/pushed out of business in the last couple years, I wouldn't want to be looking for a job in that industry right now. That said, if I found myself in your position, I'd have a sit down with the service manager, and explain that if they force me to do this, the state might come looking at their service records. I'd also start looking for a new job. The problem with the whole rule/regulation-breaking thing is everyone who is involved gets burned if it falls apart - including you.
 
Performing a vehicle inspection isn't illegal. I can look over something and check a few boxes on a piece of paper saying it needs this this and this to pass our standards. If it's a MD state inspection paper, that's different.

Where it gets illegal, is when my supervisor signs off on the certificate without even looking at the car. Along with issuing repair orders without looking at the vehicle.

I'm going to tell them today that when I inspected the car, it was to this code. And hand them the regulation paper. Then ask to be moved out of the pre-owned department. I talked to a few more inspector friends, all of which say
Sounds like a crock of shit to me!
Click to expand...

Time to update my resume...
 
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