What's the Problem In Georgia?

Apparently not a new problem, although with renewed publicity. See this PriusChat thread and this PriusOnline thread.

My take based on these threads is that they don't seem to know how to test the Prius with its ICE cutoff. Since the car doesn't pass the test (regardless of whether it's the car's fault), then they consider it failed and require the owner to cut through several more layers of (totally unnecessary) red tape.

 

Seems to be a combination of a failure of the testing equipment, and an inflexible bureaucracy. Pretty amusing, unless you live in Georgia.

PlateWire Blog

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(JimboK @ Apr 16 2007, 09:24 AM) [snapback]423925[/snapback]</div>

Yes, this is the problem. CNN.com has a video about it. Apparently the testing centers don't realize that you can put the Prius into an "always on" test mode that will force the ICE to run. They should read PC.

Tom

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(paprius4030 @ Apr 16 2007, 07:52 PM) [snapback]424305[/snapback]</div>

Well if people knew that they could get their car to pass. Why is this not explained to the media so they can tell all the prius owners in that state or better yet make it part of the owners Manuel.

 

Let's see . . . a ga-jillion more Prius's sold in CA than in any other state . . . & CA having the worst smog, yet CA will waive the hybrids through (both our Lexus 400h SUV as well as our Prius) the smog tests here in Ca . . . yet SOME states can't figure a waiver is the only reasonable thing to do? (shaking head) I'd be all over those legislators like flys on stink! OH ! ... I forgot! .... there's $$$ to be made by the smog inspection stations . . . say no more!

 

One of my sisters lives in Virginia, and she constantly rails at how screwed up things are there and the "we've always done it this way" mindset of the east coast (especially New England)...California is just more forward-thinking than other states.

 

GA? GAH!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mcbrunnhilde @ Apr 16 2007, 08:43 PM) [snapback]424357[/snapback]</div>

Well, I live in Virginia and I beg to differ. As far as I can tell, our dep't of motor vehicles runs just about flawlessly. My experience has been one of convenient locations, no lines, no unncessary rules, emissions tests performed by private garages with computer links to the DMV, multi-year registration, rational rules to verify insurance coverage status. If you're of a certain age, they don't even waste your time taking a new picture for the driver's licence every N years. Having suffered through motor vehicle registration and licensing in a few states, Virginia is the best I've experienced.

I don't doubt that some garages may have had trouble figuring out how to keep the car running for the test. But we all know how easy that is, we all have the sequence memorized, no doubt -- all you need to do is --

press start twice with your foot off the brake, floor accelerator pedal twice, put foot on brake, shift to neutral, floor accelerator pedal twice, shift back to park, floor accelerator pedal twice, put foot on brake, press start again --

and you're in the right mode, ready to go. Assuming you took no more than 60 seconds to do that. And timed the button presses correctly. Perfectly obvious, really.

When I read the prior threads on this, Georgia's response seemed pretty rational to me. Test centers were screwing up the test, so they issued automatic waivers to every Prius owner (consistent with their waivers for alternative fuel vehicles), but required owners to get a rejection first to start the paperwork trail for the waiver. That doesn't seem too dumb to me, but ... I guess I'm one of those east coast people with a screwed up mindset. Rather than modify the system temporarily for the Prius, they made the Prius fit into the existing rules.

Serious, I know it's a lot more fun to think that the people of Atlanta Georgia (where the emissions tests are required) are just a bunch of stupid rednecks, but in practice, I'd class this story more as infotainment than as news. Please don't let the your prejudices trump your common sense.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(chogan @ Apr 17 2007, 07:17 AM) [snapback]424523[/snapback]</div>

As they say in the Geico Cave Man commercials, "I'd say someone woke up on the wrong side of the rock".
(joke)
but ... kidding aside, it IS lame to have to pay for a rejection cert ... only to then get a waiver. Unless one really has no life at all, there are better things to do with one's time.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hill @ Apr 17 2007, 10:37 AM) [snapback]424597[/snapback]</div>

Let me try that again, because that's not how I read this.

It's not that you have to go get your car flunked. What I believe they said is that if you own a Prius in Georgia, you have to get your car inspected just like everybody else. As long as the car is over 3 years old.

Then, if your garage can do the test right, on your Prius, no problem, end of story. Pay for your test just like everybody else.

But apparently a lot of garages were routinely screwing that up for the Prius.

So the state goverment said, if your local mechanic can't figure this out, just hand us the failure certificate and we'll take care of it for you. So, no big deal - Georgia took this minor problem and made it go away by making a special exception to accommodate the Prius. Eventually, garages will figure out out and the problem will go away.

Do I have that right? If so, that sounds fairly reasonable to me.

But of course, reasonable does not make for good infotainment. So, instead, we get this bit of infotainment fluff that somehow morphed into saying that Virginians are inflexible and ignorant. Kind of like using a thread to say that all Californians are drug-taking liberal weirdos. Fun but inaccurate.

The irony is that, of course, like California, Virginia exempts the Prius from smog tests.

(https://www.dmv.state.va.us/webdoc/citizen/vehicles/emissions.asp)

So I guess I was offended by the overarching stupidity of the thread.

Now, if you really wanted to question the rationality of some state's smog testing, you ought to ask why California, with the worst smog in the US, doesn't do smog tests until cars are 7 years old.

(http://www.dmv.org/ca-california/smog-check.php)

I understand that the yield from inspection is lower in newer cars. Most states wait 2 3 or 4 years. Is there some reason that California waits 7 years before requiring a smog test?

 

Funny, I have lived in Georgia for 9 years and have never had an emissions test? Guess I am missing something.

Could be that it is only a requirement if you live in the Atlanta area, I do not. Just curious :>)

 

I think they need to rev the engine at 2500rpm for 30 seconds or something like that for this test they are trying to do.

How easy is it to maintain a level 2500-2600 rpm with all the "defroster on, parking brake, car in D, floored gas pedal"? Seems I've tried to rev the engine on my prius when in N, and it revs up a bit, then backs off. I don't do it much, but that's what I recall.

This is where Toyota could have built in more things in the mfd. The tester goes into the maint screen, sets engine rpm to 2550, push ok, do the test, tap the brake pedal and this setting is now off. That would take someone in the interface department about 2 minutes to do.

Toyota needs to release a SDK for the Prius so we can build our own views and access so much of the abilities that are not exposed for us. They could easily lock down the critical elements, and have a 1 button reset to get the car back to stock. I'd love to be able to tell the mfd that it's off by at least 2mpg, and usually closer to 4mpg as compared with actual gas used. Why can't I go in to some set up screen and say "Hey stupid prius, you're guesssing too high, try a little lower"?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(GreenEarth @ Apr 18 2007, 06:26 AM) [snapback]425213[/snapback]</div>

Yes, the EPA-mandated testing is only in urban areas with air pollution problems. All in all it's a fairly rational policy, on average. Could be better, I guess. Details are left up to the states. In VA, I believe it's just the DC area that has the smog checks. I guess no other urban area in the state flunks the air quality standards.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(paprius4030 @ Apr 18 2007, 06:21 AM) [snapback]425211[/snapback]</div>

Yeah, yeah, it makes a hell of a lot funnier story if its some presumed gummint dweeb who can't do the test right, and gummint uber-dweebs who can't control their own work force. And, hey, no surprise, that's kind of the impression you get from the media, and then no surprise you might think that.

Only problem is, that's dead wrong. Just like Virginia, in Georgia, local garages get certified to do the test. You can see some examples here:

http://www.cleanairforce.com/locations/che...ball-ground.htm

If the testing were run by the state, I imagine they'd be able to notify their testers about how to get the Prius into inspection mode, and make the problem go away that way. But it's not, and I guess it was too much of a chore to educate hundreds of private garages about that. So I think Georgia did kind of a rational thing -- just process the Prius as another "exception" -- and they got pilloried for it.

The real story would be pretty short.

Many Georgia mechanics did not know the secret handshake necessary to put the Prius into inspection mode. So a lot of Prii failed emissions inspection. If your mechanic can't figure it out, the GA goverment will give you a pass -- just file their standard form for an "exception".

But that's hardly amusing. No infotainment value. So, ignore the facts, slant the story, and hey presto, you can ping two common prejudices at once (government is stupid, southerners are stupid) and you've got an instant winner of a "news" story, about stupid southern government. To me, that's an excellent example of modern journalism.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(chogan @ Apr 18 2007, 09:28 AM) [snapback]425250[/snapback]</div>

so ... the test is also random? Arbitrary ... geographical, and on a car that doesn't need the test, because it's multiple times cleaner than other cars. I've got not problem with that

 

Too complex. You don't *need* inspection mode, you can get the
engine running sufficiently to complete an OBD-II based test with
what Ken said and not have to power-cycle to get the car back into
its normal mode. [Remember, there are all kinds of hairy warnings
about inspection mode and disabled traction control and overspinning
the transaxle components if you lose tire grip -- yeah, *those* same
snow-traction threads.] Just use the run-up-in-Park feature [which,
incidentally, will sit at about 2400 rpm if you floor and hold it],
and flip to Neutral if you need to keep base idle indefinitely.
.
So someone needs to get this info into the hands of the GA inspection
administration [and any other state that needs it, like MA where I
had to teach the kid the same dance to get *mine* done last month].
.
_H*