My car is fit

My car is fitter than I am, if for no other reason than that it’s certified fit. Getting to that point consumed a chunk of my day yesterday, and yet, it was better than in previous years. It may also have suggested a way forward for next year.

Most vehicles used on the road (including trailers) are required to get a safety inspection, and a "Warrant of Fitness" (usually called a WOF or a Warrant) is the version for cars (there are different versions for different vehicles). It has to be done every year for most cars. The inspection involves inspectors looking for rust in the car’s body, whether the brakes are good, whether the wheels rotate freely, whether the indicators (“turn signals” in Americanese) work, whether the seatbelts all lock (or whatever it’s called…), and even whether the horn works. They also look in the boot (“trunk” in Americanese) to see if there’s a spare tire, and to make sure the metal at the bottom isn’t rusting through (that happened to my previous car, and it failed it’s inspection because of it).

I went to a testng company called VTNZ, because of reasons I'll get to, and the first thing I needed to do was check-in at reception (about which more in a bit). After I was done with that, I went and sat in my car until the inspector was ready for my car. All up, the whole thing was over roughly 1:40 after I arrived, which is actually faster than it’s been in the past. Of that, around 10 minutes was waiting to pay (and it felt like an hour…), and 40 minutes was the test itself (all of which I know because I took notes to ease the boredom). The rest of the time was spent waiting in my car for its turn to be checked, but it’s air conditioned, has a radio, was a good spot for my selfie (above), and that also gave me a chance to charge my phone.

The guy who did the test was VERY nice—they aren’t always—and they had the air conditioning on in the waiting/reception area, where I waited, so I was pleasantly cool.

I think I’ve said before (here or on my personal Facebook) that the most annoying thing about the whole process is how ultra slow the check-in process is, mainly because of slow computer systems. Still, I suppose it’s nice to see that VTNZ found a use for antique CP/M computers, WordStar, and SuperCalc…

I had little choice but to go to VTNZ because I forgot my warrant expired yesterday, so I didn’t have a lot of options. VTNZ recently began accepting bookings for these tests, though I couldn’t do that because it was last minute. There was a guy in front of me who’d booked a test, and he had to go through the same check-in process as everyone else, so at first I thought it wasn’t a big improvement. However, it turned out he was gone well before my car was tested, so it definitely seems like a good option for next year.

After I was done, I went to Woolworths (supermarket) on the way home “to pick up a few things” (yeah, right…), and I went a more direct route avoiding Te Rapa (the main North/South road in my part of Kirikiroroa-Hamilton) and a very busy roundabout. It was so much faster! So, all joking aside, it was a much better experience this year than the past two. I take that as a win.

I think safety inspections are important, though Im not sure that every year is necessary for relatively new cars. However, I continue to be appalled that New Zealand doesn’t do tailpipe emissions testing (or decibel tests for tailpipe noise, especially for motorcycles…).

Still, I do think these inspections are both necessary and important. I do think the whole think could be improved (especially by VTNZ—it’s 2025: Computers should not run so slowly). The important thing is I got my warrant done on time. Another year sorted!

The Warrant of Fitness testing cost me $85 (around US$47), plus an additional $1.70 fee because I used payWave (contactless payment). Using payWave is much faster than swiping a card and entering a PIN, and getting to that point had already taken too long, in my opinion.