More annoyances

I am back on motoring, but on motoring with a slant. In previous moans I have pointed out the stupidity of those who text and drive, those who are stupid enough to purchase American cars and those who do not give way to cyclists.

Anyway, back to today’s grumblings. Firstly, I am not holier than thou, I am not able to chuck the first rock (as in having never sinned), but I am no bank robber or serial killer either. The group I intend to complain about are an insidious breed, some of the most annoying lot, the tax dodgers.

Here in New Zealand every vehicle on the road, be they a car, a truck, a motorcycle or even a trailer or a caravan requires two things. The first this if known as a WOF – the warrant of fitness. This is essentially an inspection test that is done every six months, checking the vehicle is roadworthy, the tyres have tread, it isn’t likely to fall to pieces and kill someone. It isn’t perfect; it doesn’t have an emissions test, it can be fiddled (e.g. sticking your mates tyres on instead of your bald ones), but it is a safety check.

There second thing is called the Rego, or vehicle registration (it is actually called vehicle licensing, but as most people call it the rego that’s what I’ll use). This is essentially a levy, paid to the government for a range of things, such as maintaining the roads, providing road safety training, but largely to fund ACC.

What’s ACC? Well in New Zealand we have this thing called the Accident Claims Commission, a state body that pays out for accidental injury – it prevents lawyers chasing ambulances like you get in many other countries. It generates income from levies from every worker, from insurance premiums on home property and vehicle policies, but mainly from the rego.

It currently costs about $250 for a year, of which about $150 per registration goes to ACC.

So why is it that such a large number of cars in Rotorua have neither? And more worryingly why are the police not actually bothered?


I take it when the drivers of these cars impale themselves on a tree they will happily forward the bill to the drivers and not ACC - or maybe they will give me a refund - yeah right!

A Few of my Least Favourite Things

Why exactly does it need a double axle? Don't they realise chrome went out years ago?

This one is endorsed by a Texan country music star - say no more!

The whole purpose of this blog was to enable me to get off my chest the annoyances that really grate me. I have been thinking about this for some time and decided to do a top ten of my least favourite things. This list will probably not surprise many who know me, and indeed it is not probably reflective of the level at which each of these things actually annoy me.

Anyway, I’ll start with this one – the American truck.

I could have focused purely on American cars – why? Because they are shite! They don’t look nice, are badly built, handle badly, etc. But that would be isolate the biggest part of the problem, the big Tonka truck monstrosities.

Let us consider them in detail. Firstly, they are gross, too big for NZ roads, in fact they are too big for most roads. They are fuel inefficient, designed, no doubt, for carrying buffalo that you have just shot on the plain, not for cruising around towns in the central north island. With their duff duff V8’s and chronic auto transmission they look foolish pulling away at traffic lights.

Why do people drive them? Who knows – the inadequacy in the trouser department theory springs to mind (big car to compensate for small manhood). Of course, they always have the fog lights on and have mirrors that would not look out of place on a Scania.

What is even more bizarre is what they actually buy - the list of their best sellers is quite comical! Taste, what taste?

So there, it’s out – I hate Yank pick up trucks!!