So I took the old car for its Roadworthy Certificate in preparation for sale. I thought there might be minor problems to be fixed.

But no. It failed in a most spectacular way. With fireworks, a brass band, a ticker-tape parade and 20 metre-high letters.

It’s a write-off. Good for parts and scrap only. A whole raft of minor faults, but the whopper is that apparently the engine is burning oil. Which means it needs a new one. Which means spending about twice its value to get it roadworthy.

I’m a tad miffed as I had lined up a probable buyer, but that’s the way it goes.

On the bright side, I didn’t need the money, the replacement is already happily here, and I might get a couple of hundred bucks for scrap.

And of course by me switching to a more efficient car, and having this one scrapped, it means nobody who would drive it more than me will be out on the roads with it. And the parts will get re-used and recycled.

Something I’ve been meaning to blog about for… oh, over a month. At the Climate Change forum last month, a question was asked about the car pollution impacts on cyclists. Elliot Fishman from the Cycling Promotion Fund (and who looks uncannily like my sister’s husband) replied that because cyclists are higher up, they don’t get that much car exhaust. In fact more goes to other car drivers.

As this New Zealand article says:

ETA (1997) reviewed over sixty studies of pollution exposure by different transport modes, and found that cars offer little or no protection against the pollutants generated by traffic. Most of the studies indicated that motor vehicle occupants face pollution levels inside a car two to three times higher than those experienced by pedestrians and cyclists, with larger public transport vehicles somewhere in between.

Partly it’s because the emissions stay close to where they come out of the exhaust, only to be brought into following vehicles. For myself, when driving in traffic, I often set the ventilation to recirculate — preferably before catching up to cars in front — and if needed I open the window a snadge to get some (hopefully) less-polluted air into the car.

Evidently a better way to avoid the foul air is not to be in a car at all.

On a related topic there was a comment on Top Gear a while ago joking about hybrid cars, along the lines of that you can stop your car engine when the car is stationary. Actually I do that at places like level crossings, where I know I’m going to have to wait a while — especially if I can hear a slow freight train coming.

The Age today has a give-away poster of the Art Deco exhibit Spirit of Progress ‘Matthew Flinders’ picture.

It’s not quite as massive as the poster on the side of the gallery.

Hmm, that’d make a great framed print for my house. Err, slightly smaller that is. Not sure where I’d put it though.

Damn. After scouting around car insurance last week, and finding their premiums were all pretty similar, I went with AAMI, as they seem to have a good reputation, and they gave a grant to the PTUA a couple of years ago, so I know they’re (hopefully) good corporate citizens.

But given I drive something like a third of the Australian average, I have wondered in the past if any insurance company would offer a deal taking that into account.

Inevitably, after paying AAMI, I found one that does. Pay As You Drive.

Most of the others came out with a premium of around $550-$580. PAYD, based on 5000 kms per year, comes out at up to $200 less. And they have an option to offset car emissions.

Mind you, I haven’t yet read the fine print, nor am I absolutely sure that’ll be my usage for the year. More research required; maybe I can go with them next year.

Also found during the car shopping experience…

Keys… I was curious to find out how much it’ll cost to get a duplicate of my new car key, if needed, as newer car keys have electronic bits inside. This 2002 Drive article suggests about $80.

LMCT… Looking at car ads online, sometimes they don’t tell you the dealer’s details, just the dealer number. I’d like to know where they are. I found I can use the Department of Justice Licensed Motor Car Trader search to find who and where they are. Handy.

Most unexpected question from the media pack at 1 Treasury Place this morning: Should Premiers Lane have a possessive apostrophe?

(That Brendan is a joker.)

I gave a mock answer for that one, which wound up proceedings, and a quick discussion followed on the merits or otherwise of punctuation in street signs. As it turns out, the Guidelines for Geographic Place Names says apostrophes shouldn’t be used, or that the possessive “s” at the ends of words shouldn’t be included.

And of course we were never going to get a lightning bolt in ACDC Lane.

Oh, the real topic of discussion? Congestion charging. It works in other cities. London is obviously the shining example, where the funds have gone into public transport — primarily buses — and usage has jumped. Provided you give people a viable alternative to driving into congested areas, why not encourage them to use that alternative by charging them extra?

Here, the government has ruled it out. I suppose they know it’d be unpopular. But the thing is… it works.

Congestion pricing “has worked around the world in about 100 different places, 100% of the time.” — Martin Wachs.

As with most transport issues, it’s a political problem, not a technical one.

Like apostrophes in street signs, I suspect it’ll never happen.

Obviously I can’t predict any better than anybody else, otherwise I’d be rich, but I wonder if now might be a good time to put any Amazon orders in, before the dollar drops any further.

(Source: Reserve Bank)

PS. Cameron recently pointed out this company, which ships worldwide from the UK for free: The Book Depository. (I haven’t tried them yet.)

Yes, I’m selling the old beast.

It’s a 1993 Mitsubishi Magna TR Executive sedan, dark grey, manual, 4 cylinder 2.6 litre, air-conditioned. Built in sunny Adelaide, it’s got about 215,000 kms on the clock. The tyres were replaced about 10,000kms ago.

Rego is until late October, though obviously a Roadworthy Certificate needs to be obtained — will probably arrange this next week.

No major dents or damage. Some paint is peeling, particularly on the roof and boot (a few Magnas of this age have this if they’ve been out in the rain). One hub cap is missing. Inside is comfortable, though a small tear on the back seat. Comfortably sits 5 people. A baby seat mounting bolt is fitted.

It’s got central locking, cassette/radio (but FM doesn’t work), power mirrors. It runs fine (though a little smoke on ignition when starting from cold). It’s had regular servicing and maintenance, mostly from a dealer (have the books), and is right up-to-date, including oil changes. The engine was fully re-conditioned about 5 1/2 years ago.

But it is getting to the age when from time to time it has mechanical issues. Overall it’s been very reliable, but each scheduled service seems to result in things being found that need preventative maintenance. So it would best suit someone who has more mechanical knowledge than me, and is able to do small repairs and oil changes etc themselves.

This model of car is very safe for its age — the TAC database says it gets 4 stars out of 5. If I were a car dealer I might describe it as good cheap motoring.

Drive/Glasses Guide info on this model: They say a vehicle of this type is worth $1800-2200, but make me an offer.

I’ll include the “PTUA - More trains = less traffic” sticker at NO EXTRA COST!!! (Or Trams or Buses if you prefer; a Trains one is on the bumper right now.)

Make me an offer! Email danielbowen at gmail.com

Feel free to pass this web page to anybody who might be interested.

Update. Sale no go.

“I’m just going to Woolies.”

“I need something from Woolworths.”

Doesn’t quite sound right. But I guess I’ll get used to it, just as I did with Melbourne Central Station… and yes, I’m even getting there with Southern Cross Station (even though I still think that name change was silly).

Age: Woolies shelves Safeway brand.