MorrisItalSLX

Queenslanders have always been an odd bunch… Generally speaking, you vehicle will only get inspected by the police if it is obviously and blatantly unroadworthy, if you are pulled over for another matter and the policeman really wants to punish you or if there is an operation targeting unroadworthy vehicles (modified, decrepit etc.) underway.

It depends which state you live in, In New South Wales where I live there is a yearly roadworthy inspection. It is true that there is an expectation that vehicles are completely roadworthy. The police can stop you and inspect your vehicle if they believe it to be unroadworthy, and if it does not meet the standards they will issue you with a defect notice (with a hefty fine) and ground the vehicle until it is inspected by an authorised inspector and the defect cleared. This can be anything from structural damage to a dead tail lamp.

And as if by magic, this appeared in my Facebook feed this morning. It’s been years since I’ve been to Canberra, I think a trip is in order.

They were very popular with ACTION, the government run transit body in Canberra. The last ACTION PR100 was retired exactly 2 years ago today, 1/7/2020. CORRECTION: the last MK3 was retired in 2020, but there are still 74 MK2s still in service!

What colour do you get if you mix all the good ones together? BROOOOOWN

50 shades of orange

You will fit right in.

Toyota Soarer or Lexus SC300/400

FTFY

Excellent choice of music, I must say.

This.

My office at work had a clump of speaker cables hanging out of the cable trunking on the skirting board that seemed to serve no purpose, so imagine my surprise to find an old Realistic PA amplifier and microphone in the back of the storeroom. Connected it all up and is only bloody works. It even has a phono input, so I could bring in my spare turntable and treat* everyone with some of the excellent* records from my personal collection.

Still would.

Jesus wept, I have never heard of such picky, pedantic bin services. Australia has a (predominantly) standardised system of wheelie bins, Red lid for general waste, Yellow lid for recycling and Green lid for garden waste. When bin day comes you put your bin out by the kerb and it gets emptied, I’ve never had any bother about what I put in my bin or how I put it in there. The truck simply pulls up outside, the arm swings out, grabs the bin and tips it in the back. Simple. It just goes to show that there is no need for waste collection to be such a song and dance.

What an insult!

The Royale had an interior to match any outfit.

Australia’s most popular van, the Toyota Hiace, had a forward control layout until 2019. Now, with snout.

Currently on a week long holiday in Tasmania, which is a grin in itself, but I just drove past a workshop with at least 20 Chrysler PT Cruisers in various states of disrepair littering the forecourt. If I had an Autoshite business card I’d have popped it in the letter box.

Aussie Ford Falcon XG Panel Van! They’re getting rare here now, a local builder I know has one and keeps it tidy, he’s had it from nearly new. They suffer from rust, much more than an equivalent Aussie car if the time. Mainly because it’s a 1970s Ford that kept being made in the 90s with minor updates, rather than develop commercial versions of the new Falcon they opted to facelift the existing commercials and run them alongside the new body style. I checked the number plate on the dash but it’s from a Ford Ka(ck), not the Falcon.

Toyota decided to save $0.0001 cents per radio unit (see unit above in picture) by not running traces in the PCB to the rear speaker connector. Which is a real pain in the arse after spending the afternoon fitting rear speakers to the pre existing wiring loom and changing the head unit to one with the seperate rear speaker connector present which must obviously mean that it is compatible with rear speakers? Because why would you fit the connector but not wire it up? TOYOTA, I’M SPEAKING TO YOU! *rant over*

Exactly the same failure I had on the Corolla, I’ll be watching with interest to see how you fix it (I presume your repair will less dodgy than my many loops of strong string around the seat frame).