It’s a Honda – all the way from Poland

We have quite a significant Polish connection in this area, so much so that there is a growing number of Polish shops to be found in some places (significantly, these have gone from little more than small shop units with stuff piled up on the floor, to shiny bright supermarkets which the owners can be proud of), and the big supermarkets now have shelves with Polish groceries.

There used to be a few Polish cars too, but having looked at the rules – apparently you can bring a car in temporarily, and use it on UK roads, but that only lasts for a few months. Stay longer and the car has to be formally imported and registered, which means it has to meet our MOT requirements, probably unlikely for anything other than a collector’s car, and probably also something that would cost more than an ordinary car is worth.

They usually disappear after a while, and I might say few appear now, but with the lockdowns etc, I don’t venture so far and wide, so just might be missing them.

I mention this failing on my part simply because I tripped over one of my past pics of such a thing, this Honda parked not too far from me.

It’s what made me think – not only have I not seen anything similar for quite some time, other than lorries with trailers, I haven’t seen ANY foreign vehicles on the road for ages.

Polish Honda – Polish Plate

Are you sure?

I know Trump’s insane ramblings have caused some people to have concerns about the general intelligence level of the average American, but this truck owner is not taking any chances.

Look at the bottom line of the licence plate – they want to make sure you know it will hurt if you crash into them :-)

Penn Truck Plate

Maybe not though…

To prevent ice from building up on the road surface, PennDOT trucks spread a mixture of salt to melt the ice and small stones called anti-skid to provide traction. In some rural areas, PennDOT will limit salt and increase the amount of anti-skid spread over the road surface because salt depends on a certain amount of traffic to be fully effective.

On higher traffic roadways, PennDOT may also wet or pre-wet road salt with salt brine to jumpstart the salt’s melting action. But even this tactic is most effective when the pavement temperature is 25 degrees or higher. Pre-wetting salt can also help keep salt on the road by reducing bouncing.

If you’ve seen the chassis and frame rails of trucks from so-called ‘Salt States’, then you may know the level of factory rust prevention is laughable compared to what we expect (possibly because there are so many ‘dry’ states) in this country, where salt is the norm.

I’ve seen videos of trucks on the lift for repair work where the mechanics avert their eyes and deal ONLY with the job instructed from the customer/owner.

A frame can crumble to nothing if they lean against it, or hold onto it for a bit of leverage, and can be so bad that they have to have it dragged out of the shop and dumped – and then have to deal with customers who blame THEM for “wrecking their truck”, which was fine when they drove it in!

Not all states have inspection.