I agree with many of your comments concerning 'doing-up' one's favourite car. The only thing I can add to the discussion, never buy an ex. police vehicle despite how low the mileage may be on the odometer, and how well kept it might appear. They usually put them out to public Auction around the 50,000km mark?

I can only advise you why one should not purchase any ex-police vehicle as you're purchasing a heap of trouble. The only real exception is an ex. police pursuit motorcycle, which is carefully serviced and most have never been dropped. Former Command vehicles aren't too bad either.

Most former patrol M/V's are utter crap and have been thrashed endlessly. Easily detectable, by the worn front seats at the lumbar area, bearing the marks, scratches, and blemishes, caused by the members' accruement belts. And the various body apertures that have been drilled that previously held communication antennas. Most 'urgent duty' warning lights & 'Police' signage, are fitted to removable roof racks, evidence of which, can be easily detected by the marks left by the anchor points around the roof gutter.

Check behind the rear seats, for all manner of contraband and crap that's been surreptitiously tucked down the back of the seats, and remember, the number of drunks who've been arrested and vomited all over the seating area as well. The stink is hard to remove.

Good advice o sung wo, in fact country cop a mate, used to drive his general duties ute on to the beach,to fish with me
Great bloke good cop, but zero respect for the car
Long moved on so ok to say it was airport beach at Evans Head northern NSW be up there soon for a couple of days taunting the Taylor on that beach

Hi there BELLY...

I hope you have a marvellous break up there in beautiful Evans Head. Should I send a message to all the Taylor to stay in deep holes, while you and others fish for them? Enjoy yourself old friend.

indy even ebay is worth trying I
Belly,
Unfortunately, that doesn't work anymore these days. You see, each car has its unique Pin Code which the manufacturers do not divulge to the buyer of the car. The owner is required to take the car to a Service agent for that brand car where a new key has to be programmed for THAT car. If your car breaks down a thousand miles from the nearest service agent then you have to get the car transported at your cost. I called an automotive locksmith for a spare key this morning & was told I have to present the car to program the key. $256. I can get a spare for $900 from the dealer/agent by mail because they have the Pin code. Now, I have to juggle the viability of driving 350km each way to the locksmith or order from the agent for more than three times the cost.
If this is not extortion than I really don't know the meaning of the word.
Enjoy Evans Head, great place, used to go scuba diving there. I was there the day they lost an F111.

Never fished there, but in my younger days I reckoned Evans Head was about the best body surfing beach I'd found.

Be careful what you do with those Taylor. There was a bloke living on a little Hood 23 fiberglass yacht at Cammeray Marina Sydney in the late 60s. He was a very good fisherman, & would often go out early on weekend mornings, & come back with a heap of Taylor. He would wander up & down the marina with a bucket full, giving them to all who wanted some.

Now the Hood was a small boat without a proper marine toilet. It had an enclosure between the V berths up forward, with a toilet seat, & a bucket under it in the enclosure.

At a marina barbeque one night this bloke mentioned his boat had such a toilet, with a "universal" bucket. The next time he tried to give away some of his Taylor from his bucket, strangely no one wanted any.

It took a couple of days walking the marina with his fish in a bucket, & another bucket which he assured everyone was his "universal" bucket, & even them some people were right off Taylor for life.

Sorry if this is too much information, but I thought it was quite funny, particularly as I don't eat fish, other than Spanish Mackerel.

I have a whinge on car parts. Westfield car parks have high concrete
stops to prevent you going too far into a park.
Well they broke the plastic air dam under my Volvo.
So I rang the local dealers, $450 for a bit of plastic !!
I got onto ebay and the cheapest was a dealer in the US, US$95.
So I ordered it. Back came an email; Volvo does not allow sales to Australia.
My first experience of GARO; The Great Australian Rip Off.
Got a buying company in US to order it and forward it.
Got it landed for $200.

Then electric cars came on the scene. Well the Nissan Leaf sold for
US$27,000 plus a bit in the US, About equivalent AU$32000 in UK.
but $51500 here. About $20,000 ripoff. I priced one in UK and freight
at that time was less than $2000 plus couple of odd hundred dollars.
Then Nissan had trouble selling at that price and many took years to sell.
When they then brought in another batch, they thought they had trouble
selling them last time, so they increased the price to $57,500 !