New (Old) DD.

[kiwi303]

Bought a new car to get too and from job interviews in, so I don't need to keep running off in the farm van.

 

 

Had to hitch hike south to nearly the far end of the island for it, drivign home had 750Km on the tripmeter when I arrived back home.

 

Started at 8:30 in the morning with my thumb out on the side of the road, by 7 hours later I was only 60Km away. At that point a truckie picked me up and played pass the parcel, handing me over at the depot to another truckie heading further south who later handed me on to another truckie. Ended up in Dunedin at 2am...

 

Pulled my cash from the credit union in the morning and took the bus to the suburb and started driving home. No WOF, not Rego, no insurance. Seeing cops go past or lights flashing ahead was something to make the heartbeat speed a little in case they pulled me over and dished out an enormous fine + demerit points.

 

Managed to make it home uneventfully, I just need to do some little minor repairs and get the WOF and Rego next week. A strip of exhaust tape to cover a hole in the pipe, a small tin of bondo and a can each of white primer and white paint and all will be sweet as.

 

 

$305 + petrol for the trip + bandage, bondo and paint. Not a bad price for the condition it is in, the rust is minor, if it had been WOFed at a friendly local garage instead of at the VTNZ shop I reckon it would have passed... but since it has those locations listed on the database I need to remove the evidence before the next WOF.

 

1985 Honda Accord EX-S CA2. B18A DOHC, 246,XXX Km.

 

 

 

Too old for Vtec, do y'all think I should rice it out with neons, a flouro paint job and 20" rims? It would fit in with the rest of the Honduh crowd then, as it is it fits in with the grannycar mob

[BluDestiny]

2 things, what is WOF? I'm guessing its some sort of safety/emission test for the car. Also I can't believe you hitchiked 750km. But I guess it's safer in New Zealand. Europeans do the same thing

[kiwi303]

1) WOF, Warrant of Fitness.  As you guessed, yes it's a safety test, checks the car against a list of what the regulations say should be there to make it safe for the roads. All lights working, brakes work, rust is not threatening to cause the car to break in half hitting a pothole and cause a pileup on the road, legal tread depth on the tyres... lots of stuff like that.

VTNZ is Vehicle Testing NZ, Government run testing centres that take a hard line yes/no view of any doubtful stuff. Local garages and private testers tend to look at whether the rust is affecting anything structural, or if it is just cosmetic, VTNZ just sees rust and fails you.

No emmissions, no SMOG or CARB testing in NZ, only a visible check, if a cop sees you belching out clouds as you drive past you get ticketed, but there're no sniffer tests as part of WOFing.

 

2) 750Km is not a long way to hitchhike. that is only within the same island, It's no unknown for people to hitchhike the length of both islands and back. Tourists do the holiday thing with no car, just their thumb out on the roadside. No biggie. I guess we must be safer that over there if you worry about a mere 750Km

[NCchris]

Too old for Vtec, do y'all think I should rice it out with neons, a flouro paint job and 20" rims? It would fit in with the rest of the Honduh crowd then, as it is it fits in with the grannycar mob

Don't forget the fart can exhaust and a 3-tier wing for the back! Honestly, I've had good luck with Honda/Acura products. My current daily driver is an 01 Accord 2-door. I've also  built a couple of Honda hot rods.

Enjoy your new ride.

chris