~ The Dreaded Inspection Sticker ~

While I am sitting here waiting for my car to be serviced, I thought I would make a post about how much I hate having my car serviced!! First of all, the picture is of my car, I took that picture last Autumn while on a drive up the Blue Ridge Parkway. It's a 2006 Toyota Highlander, I bought it brand new 3 years ago this month. Previously I drove a 1990 Honda Accord that I bought brand new while pregnant with my now 19 yr. old baby and gave it to him to drive when he turned 16! He drove it for a year then bought a car on his own so then the Honda was passed to his big brother who needed a car and he's still driving it....truly a family car that ol' Honda!

Anyway, back to my current car....after driving an Accord for nearly 17 years, I wanted something a little different and went for the Highlander and I love it! Here in Virginia you are required to have your car inspected annually and have to display the current inspection sticker on your windshield....here's where my story gets ugly. The first time they put the sticker on they put it down so low that it was virtually impossible to remove the next time and when they did they left a bunch of goo all over those black dots that are down there on a windshield which bugged the crap outta me....I tried to clean the goo off myself but it was REALLY difficult, so the next year I told them to please be careful about placing the sticker....I even asked them if they could just give me the sticker to put on and they said no because a state certified inspector has to do it....ok so here's the really ugly part....last year when I picked up my car from being serviced and inspected, there were gouges and cut marks on the dash up there underneath where the sticker is placed, OMG!!....I freaked out!....I try to take REALLY good care of things so they are like new as long as possible so to have damage occur was beyond upsetting to me! Of course I complained and they told me that they could either have it repaired or give me a whole 'nother dash. So I went back with an appointment to consult with their interior repair specialist and he told me that the windshield would have to be removed for him to properly get to that area....I'm like, yeah right, I'm really gonna let you guys remove my windshield. My fear was that it would never be as good as new so I declined the repair and no way was I going to let them rip my dash apart so the damage is still there, it's not horrible, but it's there and it shouldn't be!! So here we are in May once again, time for another inspection which I am TOTALLY dreading and here I am holding my breath, waiting to see what condition my car will be returned to me in. I took it back to the same place, which is the dealer, because believe it or not, it's actually the best place around here to have it done!

Well there's my rant....it feels good to let it out....happy Friday everyone!

**UPDATE** so far so good, above mentioned vehicle has been returned with no further damage detected!