About three years ago, a car blogger named Bajie applied the floor oil on his feet while experiencing the Koenigsegg Agera R+. But because the engine oil temperature did not come up, the oil pipe of this one of the six supercars in the world exploded.
Looking at the motor oil all over the floor, everyone felt sorry for the tens of millions of luxury cars, but at the same time, they basically had a fun mentality, laughing at the car reviewers who didn't understand cars, while calculating how many houses they would need to sell to repair the car.
But when another top luxury car was recently trampled to pieces, instead of watching the fun, people showed more confusion and anger.
Because the place where it was trampled this time was the annual inspection station that people complained about countless times.
Just last week, a Rolls-Royce Ghost owner in Guangzhou drove his car to a testing station to prepare for an emissions test. However, for unknown reasons, the Ghost suddenly exploded during the test and the engine oil leaked all over the floor. The damage was probably considerable.
Later, the inspection station responded that the Dali was about 10 years old and was not a new car. Because it is not yet certain whether it is a problem with the car or the staff, it will take some time to investigate.
This means that there may be a problem with the car itself that causes it to fail the standard test procedure.
Although at first glance, this explanation seemed quite reasonable, it didn't take long before it was drowned in the anger of netizens.
As for the matter itself, some people questioned that the 10-year-old V12 engine of DaLao was in its prime. How could it be blown up after just one annual inspection? If the monitoring station knew that Da Lao was older, why wasn't it gentler during the testing?
But more voices still point to the "violent annual inspection."
It can be seen that everyone has strong opinions on the annual inspection, and it must not be a day or two.
The reason why everyone has so much resentment is mainly because the annual inspection, a seemingly simple routine, has really caused a lot of trouble to many car owners over the years.
For those who have not bought a car or have just bought a car, the annual inspection may be an abstract concept that is only heard but not seen. But no matter from the definition or process point of view, the annual inspection is actually not that complicated.
As the name suggests, the annual inspection is an annual inspection of the vehicle to confirm whether the vehicle can meet the basic standards for driving on the road.
The items included include checking whether the appearance is damaged, whether the core components such as brakes, tires, and engines are working properly, whether there are any illegal modifications and violations, and whether the exhaust emissions are up to standard.
The most complicated part is to drive the car to test the power and exhaust gas.
And because new cars basically have no major problems in these indicators, the latest annual inspection regulations stipulate that new cars are exempt from inspection for 6 years after they are launched. They will be inspected once every two years from 6 to 10 years, and after 10 years, they will be inspected once a year.
To put it bluntly, the annual inspection is a bit like a basic physical examination for older "middle-aged and elderly cars".
But such a simple physical examination process has left a huge psychological shadow on many car owners over the years.
The most common situation is that the car was in good condition before it was sent for annual inspection, but after the inspection, a bunch of new problems popped up.
I noticed that all the lights on my car came on after the annual inspection.
I once saw my car's water tank being stepped on and exploded during the annual inspection.
What's more serious is that just like that big car, the core components such as the engine will be damaged, and it will be taken to the repair shop for a costly overhaul as soon as it comes off the annual inspection line.
And not only family cars, some truck drivers also encountered vehicle damage during annual inspections. It seems that as long as it involves annual inspection, it will have something to do with damaged vehicles.
There are so many similar things, plus the annual inspection costs hundreds of dollars. Over time, the annual inspection is no longer as simple as a simple basic physical examination in the eyes of car owners.
Instead, it's more like paying someone to give you a beating. If you can withstand the beating, you'll be issued a certificate and continue on the road, with a beating once a year.
Really vivid and abstract.
But logically speaking, the annual inspection contains some very simple tests. How could it damage the car?
In Neck Brother’s view, there is actually nothing wrong with the annual inspection regulations. What is more debatable is the way in which annual inspections are carried out.
Take the exhaust gas test that everyone has the most opinions on. According to GB18285-2018 "Gasoline Vehicle Pollutant Emission Limits and Measurement Methods (Double Idle Method and Simple Working Condition Method)", the test requires starting the engine and gradually increasing the speed from 0 to 70% of the rated speed.
Since the maximum rotation speed of most family cars is around 6000-7000, the testing station will usually step on around 5000 rpm, which is the legendary "5000 rpm for one kick" floor oil.
However, although it is said to be floor oil, because the transmission was in neutral during the test, there was no actual load on the engine. Therefore, compared to actually stepping hard on the road, the theoretical intensity in the test is actually not high.
But the problem is that theory is theory and reality is reality.
As we just said, most of the models that require annual inspection are old cars that have been running for more than 10 years. Because of the long age of the vehicles, it is inevitable that the parts on these vehicles will undergo a lot of irreversible aging and damage.
For example, the engine bracket rubber pads will become hard and brittle after aging, causing the engine's sealing and shock absorption performance to decline significantly. Core components such as the intake manifold and chain tensioner arm are also made of plastic-like PA66 resin. If they are not replaced for a long time, they will harden, crack, and otherwise age.
Long-distance driving and intense driving are conditions that new drivers struggle with, which can be very fatal for these old cars.
Friends who have watched the Top Gear program should be familiar with this situation. With an old car that is getting older, it is really hard to predict why it will suddenly stop working.
Of course, taking a step back, if the parts fail to pass the annual inspection because of aging, it can be considered that the inspection has played its due role. But operations like slamming on the accelerator when the car is cold are somewhat outrageous.
Because when the car is cold, not only the water temperature is not high enough, but also the engine oil does not fully lubricate the engine. At this time, a sudden kick of floor oil may cause the insufficiently lubricated cylinder to wear out or even cause the cylinder to pull.
The above combined together lead to frequent accidents during the annual inspection process.
At this point, some of my colleagues must have said that you should be careful when testing old cars, and don’t step on the accelerator hard when the car is cold. Aren’t these basic knowledge in the automotive field?
But the problem is that in the final analysis, these testing institutions are not that professional.
For example, I found a motor vehicle testing agency in a certain province, and its business scope stated motor vehicle exhaust testing.
Coincidentally, they are currently recruiting technicians related to exhaust gas detection.
When I thought about how these technicians must have high professional standards and technical reserves, I saw their requirements for qualifications.
I won’t talk about the educational requirements. Please take a closer look at the third and fourth points of qualifications.
Does this mean that you can join the job first and then obtain the job qualification certificates for the driver and exhaust operator?
And when I expanded the search scope to the whole country, I found that the responsibilities and requirements for similar positions were actually quite similar, and almost none of them explicitly required job seekers to hold certificates to work.
Although the specific interview situation may be different, I think it can explain some problems.
To take a step back, even if the testing agency is extremely professional in all aspects, when people test a car, they are only completing their work tasks, and most likely they will not take the same careful care that we take with our own cars every day.
It’s not surprising that problems like this will arise.
So what Brother Neck wants to say is that although our annual inspection policy has been optimized to a considerable extent over the past decade or so.
For example, in 2014, the scope of inspection exemption for new cars was changed from sedans and some passenger cars to all cars and passenger cars; in 2019, the six-year inspection exemption for new cars was changed to six-year inspection exemption.
Recently, there is news that starting from next year, six inspection items including headlight deviation detection, vehicle noise detection, suspension detection, electronic handbrake detection, speed detection and speed error detection will be cancelled, further shortening the detection process.
But just like this major labor incident, there are still a large number of unprofessional, careless and even irresponsible testing agencies, which are using the same method to mechanically repeat the annual inspection system that should be tailored to the vehicle conditions.
The annual inspection system that was supposed to keep more old cars running healthily, under their influence, has become what car owners call the "source of all evil" that hurts both their cars and their emotions, which is somewhat disappointing.
Therefore, while hoping that the policy will get better and better, as a car owner, on the premise that there will be no significant changes in the annual inspection for the time being, it is most important to make preparations as much as possible before the inspection - such as confirming the detailed condition of the vehicle, personally observing the inspection process, contacting the insurance company immediately if there is a problem, etc., which is the most important.
After all, although everyone is complaining about the "violent annual inspection", if we are really unlucky and something goes wrong, it will be quite difficult to clearly divide the responsibilities afterwards.
As Song Shuangyu, a senior engineer at the School of Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering at Beijing Institute of Technology and an expert at the China Automobile Dealers Association, said:
(Division of responsibilities) This needs to be analyzed in detail based on the specific situation. It depends on the specific cause of the vehicle damage, whether it is a failure to follow the engine maintenance requirements, a lack of maintenance, a problem with the vehicle itself, or an incident during testing.
Taking out any one item from it would be enough for us to struggle with the testing station for a while.
Therefore, in order to avoid trouble afterwards, we still have to spend more effort beforehand to make our car pass the annual inspection as stably and safely as possible.
Of course, another idea is to find scalpers to build a tram without an engine...