Tesla Stories - NJ Inspection

One peculiar aspect of buying a car from the internet, with no dealership to interact with, is that technically you are buying a car from another state. In the case of a Tesla Model S, you are buying it from California. I picked up my Tesla Model S on a Monday and by Friday I had new tags, registration for 4 years, and new plates arrive at my door. Tesla exceeded my DMV expectations, handling everything as well as a local dealership would have. However, there was one pesky detail. I needed to get an inspection sticker for the car. The form included indicated I didn’t have to actually have the car inspected as long as I brought the car and form to the NJ inspection station within two weeks of purchase. If you didn’t bring the car in within two weeks then you were required to get the car completely inspected. I wasn’t particularly concerned about a Tesla failing inspection. After all, what’s to inspect? Maybe the lights and brakes could be inspected, but I don’t think much else.

The reason for my immediacy was more because I was concerned driving with the temp tag and didn’t want to put the permanent tags on the car without the inspection sticker. My friends at Philadelphia’s DMV would have no problem writing me a triple digit ticket for not having an inspection sticker. So while two weeks is certainly a fair amount of time to get it taken care of, I felt the urge to get it done immediately. This meant making a special trip to visit the inspection station on a Saturday. Anyone who takes ownership of a Model S will concur that once you have it parked in your garage you will look for excuses to drive it. So the 12 mile drive to the inspection station wasn’t the issue. It was the fear of how busy they would be on a Saturday. Fortunately, it wasn’t the last weekend of the month. I hoped it wouldn’t be too busy and I lucked out to relatively short lines.

It was awesome to wait in line with the Model S and not have to turn off the engine, restart, move forward for each car, and the turn it off again. However, the best part of the experience was the reaction of the staff. Instead of the usual curt responses, they treated me as a celebrity. More importantly, they put on the proverbial white gloves. When they closed the door, they might as well have had white gloves on, because they did it with such care. Questions peppered in my direction. The only pause in the pleasant, verbal assault was interruptions by the staff calling their peers over to check out the Model S. Overall, I was in and out in about 15 minutes with a shiny new 5 year inspection sticker and a huge Tesla grin across my face.