Certified roadworthy

Today was all about getting M2 ready for 2025. I'd originally planned to get everything done over the next few days, but because of good timing and a convergence of locations, M2 is physically roadworthy for another season of zipping around town.

Although a little premature, we went to the dealer for periodic servicing. Here's where I learned something new about car tyres:

It's upside down, but the last two of the digits encircled by this oval shape tell of the year of manufacture: 2021. The preceding "20" means it was manufactured in the 20th week of 2021. The mech told me this so that if I ever need to get an after-market replacement, I can insist on purchasing new stock instead of old.

In the afternoon, we went to our bi-annual LTA inspection which we had to pass. That's the other reason for today's servicing -- to get everything pre-inspection ready. Among other things, brakes, emissions, drift, and alignment were all parts of the test, and we got a clean bill of health which will last another two years.

The next thing was to get the new ERP 2.0 On Board Unit (OBU) installed. Coincidentally, I could get it done at the test centre itself. I actually planned to get it done tomorrow at an authorised agent I'm familiar with, but since I could get it done today, why not? One odd thing is that I should have been notified of my 2-month free installation window period, but that notification never came. It was only because of curiosity that I checked a couple of days ago and discovered I was eligible. Had I missed this window, the cost would have been mine to bear, and that would not have been nice. 

Anyway, now I have a GPS-looking device permanently glued to my windscreen, and that's just the touchscreen display. I turned off the annoying huge-ass digital clock display, preferring this mostly blank screen. With this thing installed, M2's movements are constantly and persistently tracked by overhead satellites, effectively wrecking his potential as a getaway car. The touchscreen will now give me real-time traffic updates based on my location, kind'a like Waze, but since the sats are tracking every vehicle on the road the info is spot-on accurate.

What remains is to get the necessary documentation done: renew insurance and road tax. Since the systems are all online, that will be easily done. Tomorrow. Correction: Done.