WoF rules

Poor Rocket has reached the grand old age of 7 and now has to swap onto 6-month warrants. Makes me feel like I’ve got an ‘old’ car. Truth of the matter is, it’s in excellent condition (one careful lady owner and all that) and so doesn’t belch black oily exhaust or have rusty bits that fall off or no indicators that work or whatever else is checked for the warrant. I only bring this up because when in Switzerland I found out that cars only need to go for a warrant every 7 years and the only thing that’s checked is exhaust emission. So does that mean that cars driving on Swiss roads are more derelict and unsafe than cars on NZ roads? Not that I saw. But having said that I never saw any cars that looked older than about 10 years and if so, they were fine examples of solid German engineering – old Mercs, BMWs, Audis etc. Not like the old Kingswoods or beaten up Civics that you see on the roads here sometimes.

Perhaps warrants should be given on basis of condition rather than age? Like teeth and trips to the dentist – depending on your level of and likely occurrence of decay, checkups are recommended at 6, 12 or 18 months – and that doesn’t necessarily correlate to age. As I get older, my checkups are scheduled less frequently as my teeth are considered to be in ‘stable’ condition.