Abandoned XC60
 

You know you are living in a small country when an article like this makes a major newspaper!

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/124...for-six-months


The $20,000 value estimate mentioned is a bit optimistic though, especially for a car imported used from Japan, nearer to $12-15,000 is more realistic.

Id rather read about that all day long. Definitely beats listening to Covid news consistently.

Abandoned XC60 update
 

An update.

After sitting for a year the abandoned XC60 has been towed away!

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/124...eet-for-a-year

One photo shows the registration plate as KTR420 and there's a free website that gives a bit of useful info:

https://www.carjam.co.nz/car/?plate=ktr420

My assumption about it being a Japanese used import (which the vast majority of used imports into NZ are) was wrong. It's actually an ex Singapore used import - a T5 with the petrol 1999c Ford engine (B4204T7) and the fragile Powershift transmission (MPS6).

Singapore imports have a bad rap with many NZ mechanics as their usage (low speed, lots of idling) and high humidity conditions allegedly give rise to mechanical and electrical problems. When I got my XC60 into NZ from Australia back in 2018 the guy who did the compliance checking (his firm does thousands of checks a year) said that he personally would not touch ex Singapore used cars with a bargepole as he had seen too many problems with them.

One other interesting piece of trivia I discovered was that there are approximately 2000 XC60s in NZ in total. (including 1 solitary example from 2008)

https://www.carjam.co.nz/nz-fleet/?o...LVO&model=xc60

OK, that's enough trivia for one day.

Volvo XC60 - yet more info
 

OK, the final chapter in the saga

Blame it on Covid 19 - the car owner is stuck in India apparently

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/124...due-to-covid19

You'll need to keep us updated on the Honda now.