Yeah. When you get your license sticker renewed in southern Ontario the vehicle owner must provide proof that the vehicle has passed an exhaust emmissions test at a local test centre. They check the amount of pollutants coming out of your exhaust pipe...parts of this and that per million. It's CO2 and something else, I forget what. If you're over the limit, then the car must either be fixed so it passes the test or taken off the road.

It's a great way for the car repair people to get another $36 from you each year...at the minimum. I frankly doubt it's had much effect on the environment, but who am I to say? ;-) My van failed the test once, and I had to spend about $350 bucks on some kind of catalytic converter or something to get it to pass...plus take the test twice. $36 each time. Total cost of emissions testing in that case came to about $430 or thereabouts.

It helps if you take the car out on the highway and run it hot and fast for twenty minutes right before doing the test. It blows out all the crap. This is not really necessary with the Subaru, but I did it anyway just to be safe. It also helps if you put hi octane gas in the car, and I always do that as a matter of course. It burns cleaner and you get better mileage.