gjm

f**king oblivious idiots. That's the drivers in their little metal boxes, and the NZTA in their offices decreeing roads should be bounded by wire ropes. Heading to work yesterday, I see an emergency services vehicle exit a roundabout, about 400m behind me. Headlights flashing, emergency beacons doing their thing. And useless f**kwits in their cars paying ZERO attention, blocking progress. Maybe not deliberately, but just because they are so unaware. When I pulled to the left, a couple of vehicles overtook me, looking across at me and shaking their heads. Only then did the wailing of sirens, flashing lights and so on get through into their little worlds, and one truck actually hit a barrier when he pulled to the left so violently he lost control. Paramedic driving the vehicle was remarkably calm, and the vehicle slowly makes progress up the road, fighting every single car it comes up behind, until it encounters a large truck and trailer, who has nowhere to go. Barriers mean there's nowhere for him to pull over or get out of the way. Slow vehicles in front of him are stopping him accelerating at all (I heard his horn a couple of times, but that was probably a bit pointless), so there sits our paramedic, waiting for an opportunity to make any sort of progress.

Saw pics of the i4 today. The X7 looks OK-ish from the back, but the i4? Well, here's the front. And the back...? It just looks... Unfinished? Certainly not something that'd make me want to take a last glance as I walk away. Probably a great car to drive, though.

I like two tone! Mercedes from the 1960s looked superb, imho. In the ugly vehicles department... Anyone else seen one of these on the road? I've seen smaller vans!

😮 Could be. Looks too snug to just be sitting in the corner there.

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/listing/3555911173 Reads - lack of info and wording used - like someone who has picked up a E30 cheaply and is flipping it. Of course, I could have massively misinterpreted that! Decent car, in what looks like decent condition. $25k decent...? No idea. There have been several $25-30k cars listed recently but most appear to be being relisted.

They are a great car. So comfy. Timing chains are fun. So many guides...

Tools. The price of them, in NZ. Take hose clamp tools. https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/marketplace/building-renovation/tools/hand-tools/pliers/listing/3546065846, for example. I'm buying an identical set from Germany. EUR37 + shipping. Less than NZ $100 all-up.

I'd never be allowed to work there. I'd be taking them all out for a drive.

Given where you work, it has to make for a much faster commute!

New rant. People whose default reaction to any question - any question - about a car, any car, is 'scan it'. No actual knowledge-based suggestion. And typically no help at all with "I get code 68 from my M50B20-equipped E36." (Yes it's a valid suggestion in some cases but there are often more straightforward answers.)

Always been the case. I paid $2500 for our 1989 Mercedes 500SE. That was $200000 in 1989. In the UK, most new cars could lose up to 40% of the screen sticker price just by driving off the forecourt.

Same here. Matt red-looking Honda Accord on SH2 southbound from Napier - first came screamin up a sliproad and used hard shoulder to pass a couple of cars before diving into the line of traffic, then zigzaggng through traffic along SH2 before heading off to Flaxmere. Very, very noisy car, coupla young 'uns (they all are these days ) in it. I had a pic of the car. Thought about *555ing them but... Where's the point? At home I checked and both WoF and rego are out byt over 6 months. 105 form, and... Yup - same pointless result. Maybe it is just a 'feel good' form for people who've felt strongly enough to report bad driving? In the meantime, the TV ad tells me the police are keeping speeds down to make our roads safer. 😡

Disappointment. Read about the new Tesla Model 2, some vague rumours of Li-S batteries (500wh per kg) and saw this pic. Winner! 🥳 🥳 🥳 Then I saw that they'll be made exclusively in China, and are likely to look like a watered down, more ordinary version of this: Not actually terrible, but very disappointing.

I was thinking it was much less scary viewing on a screen than it would be from underneath a vehicle...

It was good to see some sort of adherence to safety, although the typical ham-fisted "lret's see how far a car can lean before it falls over" roundabout manoeuvre suggested less of an unwillingness to break rules, than an inability to do so. Boosting past was not an option. There was the usual slower vehicle in the inside lane which was just fast enough to keep mad Prius drivers at bay. So that'd be a max speed of 81km/h, over a ~20km stretch of cheese-wire constrained, 100km/h speed limit single carriageway, punctuated by roundabouts with 200m-long two-lane stretches either side.

Not a BMW, but does show the potential versatility in use for hydrogen fuel sources. https://www.visordown.com/news/new-bikes/bold-hydrogen-powered-segway-apex-h2-not-only-here-its-bargain-too

Doesn't support coding for "E46, E39, E38, E53, E85 and anything older". Does do all the diagnostic stuff, though.

Got my Whanganuis and Whangareis mixed up. 🥴 20 years or so ago now, but we were able to buy every part for a W123-series Mercedes (end of production in 1986) from the dealer. Including a bodyshell (which we were offered at a MASSIVE discount! Wish we'd bought it...) I know that parts for the Porsche 928 are now NLA from Porsche, and that there are no official plans to reproduce them. Third party only. Manufacturers can't support vehicles indefinitely, but it seems that the need for that support is happening sooner. Stuff just seems to wear out much, much faster than it used to. Built in obsolescence?