[alfa] CarFax / A Break in the Weather

[Charles King <chas_a_king@xxxxxxxxx>]

While I was shopping for my Spider, and had a CarFax
subscription, I ran a report on my wife's Rav 4.  It
has been the victim of two collisions, with a police
report filed in each case.  The CarFax report was
squeaky clean.  This showed me clearly what a clean
CarFax report does NOT mean:  it is not a guarantee
that a given car was never in an accident.  I had
gotten the impression that they checked police
records, but apparently not ALL police records. 
Certainly not all Illinois police records.

So, it's important to look for signs of an accident,
regardless of what the CarFax report says.  And
certainly, it won't catch chronic mechanical problems,
as another digester related regarding his ex-truck.

More legitimate Alfa content:  Last week I got my
notice to bring the Spider in for emissions testing. 
It has been sitting most of the winter, but we haven't
had any snow in a while, and consequently no recent
applications of salt, and last Thursday was a nice
clear day, so after gingerly warming up for a while I
took the Spider out to romp around on the expressways
for a bit, to give it an Italian tune-up and blow any
accumulated gunk out of its lungs.  After about an
hour of high-rpm zipping about I went to the testing
station---but they were closed for Lincoln's birthday.
 So I had to do the whole thing over again on Friday! 
Life's rough.  :-)

Chuck King
Chicago, IL
86 Grad

P.S.  It passed, to my infinite relief.
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