Of course, my car has tags that need to be renewed next month. And to get them renewed I have to take my car to a government inspection station. The check the car for emissions compliance and and charge $10 for the hour long ordeal. The actual inspection itself only takes about 5 minutes. But since there are only a few official inspection stations here, that means getting into a very long lone and waiting your turn to pull into the big bay door and actually having the inspection performed.
One thing I learned last year, the hard way, is that if you have the Check Engine light on, your car will not pass the inspection and you cannot get your tags renewed. There are no exceptions to this on late model cars. You either fix the problem so the Check Engine light goes out, or you cannot drive the car until you get it fixed. Period.
That fun little requirement to get the Check Engine light fixed cost me $800 last year to replace a sensor. This is ridiculously expensive for a little piece of metal with a computer chip in it. My laptop doesn’t even cost $800!
So, of course, the Check Engine light has come on again and I already know that I can’t get it through the emissions inspection until I get the car fixed. I don’t have $800 laying around to get another sensor replaced. FML.