Drive Clean is over as of April 2019. I believe its intentions were honourable but it turned out to be a joke.
While Drive Clean effectively reduced vehicle pollution, auto industry standards have significantly improved since the program was created in 1999 making this program no longer necessary. ~Drive Clean website
Failing the tests sometimes resulted in costly repairs. And once I was told about a workaround, I never paid a dime over the test cost.
My previously enjoyed Honda Civic, a car I loved, failed the test once. The mechanic told me to go to Canadian Tire, buy a bottle of Sure Pass, use up that tank of gas and come back. Sure enough, the Civic passed. It cost me less than ten bucks. The product seems to have undergone a name change, but it’s still available for about $15 a bottle. It’s a legal work-around and it’s guaranteed.
Fortunately, I haven’t driven a car old enough to require a test since those days. But how many people have? And how many have used such a product to get out of costly repairs? It’s right there on the shelf, not some Internet-only solution from another country with looser rules. Drive Clean was a silly program. Buh-bye. And credit where it’s due. This is the first decision our Premier has made that makes sense!
I don’t know where the compromise is but here in BC there’s no testing, as will soon be the case in Ontario. We were surprised to say the least and could have easily been injured or killed when the old jeep that sat idling next to us at a red light on a busy Victoria street, began pouring – literally GUSHING – gasoline from a rotted tank. Its passenger had a cigarette dangling out the door; I screamed at her not to put it out (on the street). Where’s the happy medium? Why did this piece of garbage make it out onto our shared roads? Who’s to stop the pickups spewing black poison into the air? Are we now on an honour system? I despair for the air, that’s all. Newer models should never have had to undergo the testing – obviously – but older ones?