Every 6 months the New Zealand Transport Authority requires trucks to get their COF (Certificate of Fitness) renewed.
I’d been dreading this for some time as past experience from inspections in Australia have always been awful horrible soul destroying … I’d been forced multiple times to pay $$ to wait in line just for some old timer to tell me my car has a number of ridiculous issues, so I’d have to go get them fixed and then go back, wait again, pay more just to probably fail again.
So anyway a few days ago on a dark rainy gloomy day I courageously set out in the truck to go get inspected.
About $141 and an hour later the truck failed.
Here are the official reasons why:
So I went home and cried for a number of days, then got my shit together and started fixing shit.
The last point “All Roof Interior To Secure” was easy, part of the roof carpet was hanging down in the cab.. so I pushed it back up. Fixed ✅
For the first 2 points it was due to rust.. so I took the truck to a panel beaters and asked them to fix it for me. Here’s before and after:
And the 3rd item was just getting some new suspension bushes.
Anyway long story short, I went back a week later to get re-tested. Surprisingly I didn’t have to pay more $$ for the re-test.. (Kiwis seem nicer than Australians) .. and the truck passed !!
COF Inspection + $141
Fixing rust + new suspension bush + $700
Total: $13,980