Don't these cars pass the mandatory yearly review? In my country I passed mine recently (yearly, because the car is older than 10 years) and the first thing they said was "ok let me in the vehicle". If there is anything so utterly broken like in the article or the comments here, you got an insta-failed checkup, which means the vehicle's license to drive in public roads is removed, with the sole exception of going to/from a mechanic shop.