Several Canadian tires stopped doing aircare this year

[mtseymourguy]

My dealer also stopped. I thought aircare was a cashcow?

The last two aircare garages I went to refused to conditional pass. Do they lose business if their pass rate is low?

[Pete_Coach]

The investment for the equipment and training can only be recovered if the shop gets to do the repairs too. If folks are just asking for conditionals (which is the farcical thing about the whole aircare business) then no one makes any money. So, no cash cow, just a hope for new business and when that did not happen, time to bail out.
The goal was to get clean the air in our cities but, if you can get one exception after another, year after year, what was the point? The cars are still spewing pollutants and all ya gotta do is pay a little more.
As you described in you other post, your car was the worst they had ever seen so maybe it is just your car they won't give a conditional pass to? They are saving the planet one car at a time, starting with yours??

[mtseymourguy]

I dont hear anybody on the net talking about getting conditional passes. I have a feeling people use some trick to pass otherwise there would be tons of posts on net about failing aircare. Aircare publishes a book that lists aircare stations but most garages only have 30 transactions and the pass rate is usually like 99 percent.

I only had a condtional pass once and that was at nissan dealer when my injectors leaked. I guess I could just put my leaky injectors in and get conditional pass every year?

[notanexpert]

I guess CT found e-testing a PR nghtmare, and not without good reason.
Every car they fail ends up being an upset customer who not only gets angry at CT instead of their own maintenance habits, but also goes to Walmart the next time they need to buy a lawn chair or whatever. Just not worth the peanuts they make on the e-testing.

[ES_Revenge]

I guess CT found e-testing a PR nghtmare, and not without good reason.
Every car they fail ends up being an upset customer who not only gets angry at CT instead of their own maintenance habits, but also goes to Walmart the next time they need to buy a lawn chair or whatever. Just not worth the peanuts they make on the e-testing.
While I don't know about BC's Air Care, ON's Drive Clean really is a cash-cow. So while I can't comment on why BC garages may have stopped testing, it seems odd that ON garages would.

As for CT finding e-testing a "PR nightmare" I barely think CT cares. CT has such a horrible reputation for auto repair in general, and they've done absolutely nothing to my knowledge to repair or lessen that repuation. They just keep on truckin'. I really doubt CT cares about any falling out over Drive Clean, given they don't get a rats behind about any of the other falling outs that countless customers have had, totally unrelated to Drive Clean...

[Pete_Coach]

I dont hear anybody on the net talking about getting conditional passes. I have a feeling people use some trick to pass otherwise there would be tons of posts on net about failing aircare. Aircare publishes a book that lists aircare stations but most garages only have 30 transactions and the pass rate is usually like 99 percent.
I only had a condtional pass once and that was at nissan dealer when my injectors leaked. I guess I could just put my leaky injectors in and get conditional pass every year?
And why would you, for all intents and purposes, the car has a pass to drive again. That is the whole problem with this aircare (or whatever Provincial equivalent) crap. You can buy your way out of it annually. Pay a little and get maintenance done on the car, if it still does not pass, you get a conditional till the next time it is due. You can do this repeatedly and does it help the environment as it was intended? No.
Besides, you are just P'd because your car won't pass :)

I guess CT found e-testing a PR nghtmare, and not without good reason.
Every car they fail ends up being an upset customer who not only gets angry at CT instead of their own maintenance habits, but also goes to Walmart the next time they need to buy a lawn chair or whatever. Just not worth the peanuts they make on the e-testing.
That is very well said. They don't need the aggravation of someone coming to a forum like this saying that CT screws with the tester or falsify results to make money off them (oh, did that really happen :lol:).
Around where I live, there are places that do the testing but will not do any work, if required, and stay right out of that business. They hire a 10 year old to hook up the car and plug in the computer and pay them $5. Away you go or, off you go to a shop to get it fixed.