Quick rant thread.

[kwhelan 232]

8 hours ago, Palazzo said:

I know, clear change. 
54.6% of 5.7% of the voters, or 3.11% of the total. 

its almost as if the news has an agenda rather than mirroring what people think or want, lucky we have such good journos here/sarc

[Hazzy 56]

On 2/5/2024 at 4:04 PM, Bruski said:

Has anyone tried Cove for car insurance?  Shopping around after receiving the same shock - from Tower = up from something like 640 to 880 on the family shopping trolley is outrageous.  And that is after raising the excess last year post a fairly hefty increase in 2023.  Cove came out the cheapest.  All the others were close to or a lot more than Tower.  Cove seemed one of those 'too good to be true, probably is' moments.

I've got my insurance on the my Prado with Cove and haven't had any issues with them yet. Although I haven't had to make any claims so hard to know up until that point. I think I have claimed some stone chips in the glass with them which was pretty easy. They have some annoying exclusions though like any business use negates your cover and a few others. They're quite finnicky on named drivers as well, e.g anyone using the car once a month is considered regular use . They are pretty open about these but best to look through and make sure you're all good with them.

MAS has been good as well, I didn't have any increase on my premium on my last renewal and they have been easy to deal with in the past. But again haven't made any major claims with them so hard to know. I'll likely move the prado over the MAS if the premium is the similar to cove, my first year with Cove gave me one month free which made it more competitive.

Edited February 6 by Hazzy

[Bruski 23]

On 2/5/2024 at 4:38 PM, Palazzo said:

Captures your Audi and most mid sized cars.  Plus a big chunk of evs. 

eek!

Not an suv in sight 😉 Place Vauban On Any Given Sunday Morning - Speedhunters

[MD13 459]

US shipping costs... Wanted a zhp shift knob. Price $100 US. Cost of shipping $200 US...

Edited February 28 by MD13

[Harper 465]

34 minutes ago, MD13 said:

US shipping costs... Wanted a zhp shift knob. Price $100 US. Cost of shipping $200 US...

https://www.schmiedmann.com/en/product/6216-new?product=25-11-7-896-886

97.67USD shipped from schmiedmann

[MD13 459]

16 hours ago, Harper said:

https://www.schmiedmann.com/en/product/6216-new?product=25-11-7-896-886

97.67USD shipped from schmiedmann

Found it for $40US shipping on ECS. Thanks though Harper.

Edited February 28 by MD13

[Harper 465]

2 hours ago, MD13 said:

Found it for $40US shipping on ECS. Thanks though Harper.

Still much cheaper to get from schmiedmann.  167usd shipped from ECS, 98usd shipped from Schmiedmann. They are almost always by far the cheapest for genuine parts like this in my experience. 

Edited February 28 by Harper

[Eagle 1525]

Shipping for multiple small\light stuff usually only $20 euro. Arrives quicker than average US parcel too with less stops.

[gjm 3194]

In the same theme, but more of a disappointment than a rant...

Selection of items from the Rockauto site. So much - massively - cheaper than anywhere in NZ.

Until shipping is added.   Note to self: Rockauto source from multiple locations and shipping is paid on each location.

Now checking if MyUS will change the situation from my perspective.

Edited February 29 by gjm

[KwS 2377]

On 2/29/2024 at 7:23 PM, gjm said:

In the same theme, but more of a disappointment than a rant...

Selection of items from the Rockauto site. So much - massively - cheaper than anywhere in NZ.

Until shipping is added.   Note to self: Rockauto source from multiple locations and shipping is paid on each location.

Now checking if MyUS will change the situation from my perspective.

Yeah always check which warehouse it's shipped from. If you get everything from the same warehouse it shouldn't be too bad (although post COVID shipping has been more expensive anyway)

[balancerider 704]

Apparently BMW buyers are cross shopping with the Omoda C5 these days. This thing can get in the sea

[Cement 785]

That is potentially the worst looking vehicle I've laid eyes upon.

[Neil McCauley 251]

Come on, Robin; to the Batcave! There's not a moment to lose!

[aja540i 1903]

I was wondering when they were going to do something to make the grilles more noticeable.....

🤣🤣

[gjm 3194]

Parts ordered from the US.

Expected delivery date is still a week out.

But it's took 2 days for the parts to get from source, through multiple places in the US, to a plane, stopover in Honolulu, get to Auckland airport, clear customs, and get sent to East Tamaki.

And sit there for 3 days.

So I called. "Tracking says my package has been with you for 3 days. Any idea when I will receive it?"

"Naah mate. Docs say delivery around the 25th. Spose it'll get to you by then."

[balancerider 704]

On 12/22/2023 at 10:04 AM, Neil McCauley said:

@balancerider don't accept anything less than like-for-like. It's an OE screen that's cracked so that's what should go in, no ifs or buts. Definitely dig in your heels when they try and cheap out with a non genuine item.

Then there will be the inevitable argument about re-using the original sensors rather than new, which will never work as well as they did from new.

Dealing with insurance companies as a supplier to them almost killed my soul - the commerce commission needs to take a blow-torch to the entire industry.

So the end result of this is that the car now has a new correctly installed OE Pilkington screen courtesy of CCBMW after S+S had put 2 new aftermarket screens in, awful whistling above 50kph with both. I swear the inside vehicle SPL is about 10dB less with the OE screen. Very happy 

[Neil McCauley 251]

Fractured pelvis. So that's golf and snowboarding done before the season began. Stable fractures so no surgery, but I was teased fairly aggressively by the ED nurses about being under 40 and suffering an "old lady injury." Priority parking for the next 6 months though!

Edited Tuesday at 09:58 AM by Neil McCauley

[Spinner99 53]

All the "raised pedestrian crossings" aka judder bars that are going in on main arterial roads in Lower Hutt.  One popped up on Fairway Drive a couple of months ago, I've seen two going in on Oxford Tce and Cambridge Tce this week.  I hate having to slow to 15km/h when there isn't anyone near the crossing.  

[Driftit 1953]

1 hour ago, Spinner99 said:

All the "raised pedestrian crossings" aka judder bars that are going in on main arterial roads in Lower Hutt.  One popped up on Fairway Drive a couple of months ago, I've seen two going in on Oxford Tce and Cambridge Tce this week.  I hate having to slow to 15km/h when there isn't anyone near the crossing.  

They are all through the Wairarapa towns now.  They are inconsistently built, cause a huge increase in noise for those who live around them (truck acceleration etc) are poorly lit and pooly marked, I have seen unsuspecting people hit them at 50kph.
This is all on SH2.  99.99% of the time they are unused.  They should have lights and a button.  I think there is meant to be 18 of them installed just between Masterton and Featherston.

The roads here have been choked.  At one stage between Featherston and Masterton there were 22 posted speed limit changes.
And to top it off there are No passing lanes.  Only Slow vehicle bays.
 

[gjm 3194]

We've got them in Waipawa now. Well, 'sleeping policeman'. This is the main road south - State Highway 2. Not only are the road repairs the work of poor quality patchwork quilt deployment teams coupled with seeming dozens of cone shufflers, but when there is a smooth surface it gets broken up.

The sheer lack of foresight, and complete absence of quality control, on the part of NZTA is truly staggering.

[Driftit 1953]

2 hours ago, gjm said:

We've got them in Waipawa now. Well, 'sleeping policeman'. This is the main road south - State Highway 2. Not only are the road repairs the work of poor quality patchwork quilt deployment teams coupled with seeming dozens of cone shufflers, but when there is a smooth surface it gets broken up.

The sheer lack of foresight, and complete absence of quality control, on the part of NZTA is truly staggering.

They seem to be so focused on protecting their decisions than keeping our roads to a safe standard.
A recent example down here would be the road between Masterton and Carterton.  SH2.  They spent a ton of money buying some ladies horse paddock to add a U-Turn bay.  This is due to the Motorbike rider slicers they installed nearly the entire length.
However the two corners on this road were not addressed.  They didn't use there land purchase (which was right between the two corners) to straighten out the most deadly piece of road.  They just dropped the speed limit, installed wires and left the crumbling surface.  It actually didn't stop someone dying just after they dropped the speed limit....
Just a warning to anyone going through there.  Don't trust that the surface won't damage your car.  There has been several huge wheel killing potholes through there each time it rains.

[KwS 2377]

On 5/4/2024 at 9:49 AM, Spinner99 said:

All the "raised pedestrian crossings" aka judder bars that are going in on main arterial roads in Lower Hutt.  One popped up on Fairway Drive a couple of months ago, I've seen two going in on Oxford Tce and Cambridge Tce this week.  I hate having to slow to 15km/h when there isn't anyone near the crossing.  

They're planning that shite for a major intersection on SH2 northbound towards Upper Hutt. A "Raised safety platform" they call it, on the main road. Add to that, dropping it from 100kph to 60kph through the intersection. They have the same style intersection just up the road, but without the platforms and its 80kph, and its fine, so why not just replicate that?

 

[balancerider 704]

@KwS ironically when they're going to spend several tens of millions to remove one set of traffic lights further down SH2 (Melling) - which I am in favour of. JFC NZTA are terrible. The public service cull should've started with them

On 5/4/2024 at 3:12 PM, Driftit said:

They seem to be so focused on protecting their decisions than keeping our roads to a safe standard.

So much this.