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Old 08-08-2013, 09:14 AM
jrsmitchell jrsmitchell is offline
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Default Emissions testing - Invalid VIN

Hi folks,

My Alpina is registered in Ontario with the Alpina VIN, rather than the BMW VIN. Several times now this has caused problems with government systems thinking this is an Invalid VIN. Presumably they don't recognized the Alpina letter prefix, or the # of digits?

I just went in for a DriveClean emissions test, and the computer system returned that usual error message. The tech was ready to turn me away since he wasn't comfortable. With a little reassuring and an entire crowd gathered around my car, we determined that:

a) Techs can move past this error by manually entering the details of the car into the system, rather than by VIN
b) After the test the tech is likely to get "audited". When this happens a representative of the MTO will pop up on the screen, and ask to be shown (via web cam) the car, the VIN, etc.

So you may have to push a little to get the test done with the Alpina VIN - FYI for those who might run into the same.

P.S. I passed no problem