Australian Car Advice | News Blog

With an estimated selling price of $700,000 - $780,000 this 1971 Ford Falcon XY GT-HO Phase III ‘Bathurst’ Sedan is the highlight vehicle of the inaugural Shannons Brisbane Motor Show Auction.

To be auctioned on the afternoon of Sunday February 10 this icon of the local muscle car scene, the fastest four door sedan in the world in its day, is one of an estimated 150 remaining and has become one of the most collectable production cars ever made.

2008 Brisbane Motor Show Gallery

Click here to see exclusive photos of the 2008 Brisbane Motor Show.

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The first of the 2008 Australian Motor Shows gets underway next week in Brisbane. Over 400 vehicles are expected at the show with over 10 cars making their first appearance in Australia.

The show runs from the 1-10th of Feburary at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Brisbane’s south. Show stoppers will include the all-new MY08 Subaru Impreza WRX STi as well as Toyota Racing & Development’s supercharged HiLux.

A new driving style is needed for some police in Queensland. The local wallopers have added a front-wheel-drive TRD Aurion to the pursuit lineup.

According to US site Autoblog, a reader just happened to be driving along, and came across this newly stickered police car. He followed it back to the station, where he queried officers about its dynamics, and whether it’s been worth having on the fleet.

The transport authorities’ obsession with the speeding  has taken aa step further. The Victorian Government will soon begin testing a device that can electronically slow a car using satellite technology.

The project is dubbed AISAI, Australasian Intelligent Speed Adaptation Initiative, and will be the first of its kind in Australia.

In what may be an ominous sign of things to come, petrol prices are set to hit a record $1.50 litre mean average within the next week.

Oil prices again hit the $100USD per barrel mark last night driving the pump price up as demand continues to outstrip supply.

The current pump average in Sydney is $1.44 whilst outer suburbs are already paying $1.50. Melbourne is paying well in to the $1.40 mark in what may soon become the norm considering political tensions in oil producing nations and heavy demand from new industrial giants like China and India.

Update: Figures corrected & Tasmania included

With another year over the national road authorities have began reviewing the road toll to examine if their tactics have proven successful. As a nation, Australia’s 2007 road toll was has increased by 11 over last year’s 1605. The bush saw a steady climb in deaths on regional and outback roads.

1616 people lost their lives on Australian roads this year with New South Wales topping the table with 445 deaths.

Update: we have been informed the photo is more than 12 months old.
Firstly, let us just say, Dick Johnson is one of Australia’s all time favourite racing drivers, and as a result, who else but Dick Johnson to be the QLD Government’s, Pacific Motorway Road Safety Ambassador.

What does Dick have todo? Not much really, he does have some handy tips though, he encourages motorists to keep the far right lane free unless overtaking and also gives some other generic tips - however he is after all, only human.

click for larger image

Unfortunately for Dick, a motorist managed to catch him breaking his own rules, dont use your mobile while driving.

We all use our mobiles once in a while when driving and surely, Dick Johnson, one of the best drivers in Australia, can manage to do two things at once?

QLD transport have been asked to comment. We are still waiting for their response.

Thanks to roadsmart for the tip.

QLD transport has started a TV advertising campaign introducing the new P Plater and Learner laws which come into force next month. The first ad in the series shows a group of mates driving a Subaru Impreza WRX.

The ad points out:

• lack of experience
• too much power
• too many distractions
• racing mates
• phone calls

As possible causes for the crash. So we decided to go through and analyse each point, one by one.

Lack of experience:

This is simply the most important reason why young drivers crash. No experience in understanding their vehicle’s characteristics as well as different road conditions. Now what would be the best method to encourage young drivers to gain some extra experience? Why an advanced driving course sounds like a good plan?

Not according to QLD transport (and RACQ) which recently opposed Advanced Driver training for young drivers - apparently young drivers gain a sense of over confidence after these course - so on one hand, you are inexperienced, but when you seek this experience, you become over confident. Excellent.

Too Much Power:

The ad shows a Subaru Impreza WRX. A symmetrical all-wheel-drive 2.5-litre turbo (2.0 for earlier models) with around 169kW of power - 0-100km/hr? 5.7 seconds. Not exactly a slow car. Too much power under the bonnet usually means a performance car. QLD transport believes that inexperience coupled with too much power results in accidents. A logical assumption.

The main problem though isn’t simply power alone. QLD transport need to introduce mandatory yearly roadworthy checks. There are far too many cars without proper tyres and brakes on our roads (and these are usually driven by inexperienced drivers) - QLD Transport’s own statistics show that older cars are more likely to be involved in an accident - mostly due to lack of driver aid technology.

The WRX used in QLD transport’s example has the benefit of All-Wheel-Drive, as well as ABS with EBD - it has a four star safety rating (ANCAP) and comes equipped with brakes far superior to many day-to-day cars.

Compare this to the new 2007 Holden Barina, the type of car QLD transport would encourage new P platers to buy - 76kW 1.6-litre engine - 0-100km/hr? About a week. The car comes with no ABS - uses drum brakes on the rear wheels and has a two-star safety rating!

Which car would you put your child in?

Too many distractions:

QLD transport believes accidents are caused by young drivers distracted (or motivated) by their friends. This is true, no doubt about it. To tackle this issue, QLD transport have put passenger restrictions for new drivers (emergency situations and immediate family are exempt).

Perhaps we can help reduce driver distraction by banning high visibility roadside advertising, reducing the emphasis put on Speed so drivers can concentrate on the road as oppose to the speedo, and more importantly, educating young drivers about the real dangers.

Racing mates:

Okay, this one really gets us going. QLD transport doesn’t support car enthusiasts, yet, they are blaming street racing as a cause of accidents. Perhaps getting behind the car community and opening more race tracks at a cheaper rate as well as encouraging drivers to take their enthusiasm to the track would be a better solution?

However, why be proactive and find a long-term solution (and spend money), when you can simply blame street racing and forget the grass-root cause.

Phone Calls:

Come July, QLD P platers will no longer be allowed to talk on their phones, even using bluetooth accessories. We have no objections to this so to speak, but we do find it interesting how QLD police intend to, well - police this!

If you wear a bluetooth hands-free while driving, and you begin to sing to your favourite song, you might get in trouble. However, what if you put your accessory in your left ear? It becomes near invisible. Also given that nearly all new cars come with built-in bluetooth capability, it will be a nightmare to police.

Even more strangely, just how exactly can the police determine if one of the passengers (or the driver for that matter) was using speaker phone function on their mobile? Will they employ a set of new speaker phone detectors?

It takes roughly 10 seconds to clear your “call register” - perhaps QLD P platers should get better accustomed with their mobile phones…

In our opinion, fiddling with the stereo is far more distracting than a mobile phone, perhaps all young drivers should be forced to listen to “enough is enough” for the first year of driving?

Less than one month (July 2007) remains between new Queensland drivers and the new draconian P plate restriction laws set to destabilize the transport system in QLD.

All the details regarding the laws can be found here, this is has been discussed countless times before on Car Advice and all of us agree that the new laws will send QLD into the dark age. However, we only realised this morning just how bad the new laws really are.

QLD transport sent out a letter to all those affected last week and the first word reads “Tragically”, which is ironic, because the laws are truly a tragic event for new QLD drivers.

All new learners will need to conduct 100 hours of driving prior to booking their practical test. This is great, in theory, but here is the problem. Firstly, driving with a driving instructor (credited - from a school) will count 1 hour as 3 hours, (maximum of 10 hours), so that means, if you do 10 hours with an instructor, it will count for 30 hours. So you still have another 70 hours to go.

For those lucky enough to have access to a family car, this shouldn’t be too hard, after all, how hard would it be to convince parents to “sign” the log book confirming your hours? For those who don’t have access to a car, 80 hours of paid driving is a massive amount. Specially given it will cost you $45/hr. So roughly $3,600 to gain the hours.

Some argue that it is necessary for the well being of young drivers to undergo this many hours, and we agree. It is crucial for young drivers to gain as much experience prior to driving solo. However there is a better way.

QLD transport are in denial. They have refused to admit that Driving Courses will help young drivers become better drivers. They have done this by snubbing the driving training centers with the new laws. While it will cost you roughly $45/hr for a lesson with a driving instructor, it will cost you around $250 for an advanced driving course (whole day).

So if an hour with a driving instructor will count as three hours (to a maximum of 10 hours), how many hours will you be credited for attending an Advanced Driver Training Course? None! Brilliant.

QLD’s most recognized driver training centre is SDT, Safe Driving Training. The company’s manager Joel Nielsen is not at all happy being snubbed,

“This is a slap in the face to defensive driving courses, we are not necessarily asking for the same triple-credit deal as driving schools but surely an hour spent learning emergency car handling procedures in the safety of a supervised training facility should be credited to logbook hours.” Mr Nielson said

Of course QLD transport were fully aware this issue would arise, so they’ve worked hard to come up with an excuse as to why learning how to handle a vehicle in an emergency situation is not useful to new drivers. Queensland Transport young driver project team spokeswoman Linda McIntyre said the new laws were to :

“encourage young drivers to interact with and be exposed to a range of traffic, road, and weather conditions. Therefore, supervised driving undertaken in an artificial driving environment , such as a driver trainer centre-facility will not count towards the completion of the 100-hour driving experience requirement.”

Again, absolutely brilliant. From all of us at Car Advice we would like to congratulate Mrs McIntyre for winning the 2007 Absolute Rubbish award. Seriously though, it must take a lot of courage to label advanced driving courses as having no benefit to young drivers.

The problem doesn’t stop there, Mrs McIntyre will have to share her award with RACQ who have also jumped on the bandwagon, supporting QLD Transport’s stance on driver training.

“We do not believe that off-road training, especially that most commonly described as advanced driver training is an appropriate form of driver education for learners. At worst, such training could, in fact, encourage even greater risk-taking behaviour in younger male drivers, in particular,” RACQ exsternal affairs general manager Gary Fites

Its obvious that RACQ and QLD transport do not understand the most important and basic principle of human behaviour. Knowledge is power. The idea behind driver training is to teach young (and old) drivers how to control their vehicle in an emergency situation. RACQ believes it is better for drivers to be unskilled in an emergency situation in case they take advantage of their new found confidence.

We have mentioned before how QLD transport hates car enthusiasts and this again comes through here. The comment regarding “off-road training” is nonsense. It seems that no one from RACQ or QLD transport has ever visited Mt Cotton driver training centre (which is government owned!). The idea behind the centre is to familiarize drivers to a whole range of driving conditions that may occur on actual roads.

In other words, RACQ believes its better that drivers experience an out of control vehicle on the road for the first time, (and most likely the last time) as oppose to in a safe training environment. Thank you RACQ for simply bowing down and following QLD transport’s lead.

While QLD’s road toll continues to grow and campaign 300 fails, miserably, QLD transport (and now RACQ) fail to see the bigger problem. RACQ’s argument follows the same thought pattern of “If we teach our children different political ideas, they might use it against us” - After all, all under 25s are hoons and a menace on the road? We might as well just ban all under 25s from driving?

Recently, BMW put its weight behind Driver Training. BMW’s own research has shown that drivers going through the driver training program are far less likely to crash. Dr Draeger who is in charge of the BMW driver training says:

“Governments should make it compulsory to go through driver training schools”

Now here is BMW and the majority of the motoring world in one side yelling and screaming (and even begging) to make driver training compulsary for all new drivers, and on the other side you have QLD transport and now RACQ who discourage training.

Our hearts and minds are with those affected by these new laws. Let us be the first to say, there is absolutely no merit for improving road safety in these laws, it is a simple band aid solution to a problem which requires MORE education for younger drivers, a system which should force drivers to undergo driving training - not discourage them!

Yesterday we happily reported the nation wide vehicle stamp duty fees which showed that QLD came out as the winner with a small 2%, but its all about to change!

Queensland Premier Peter Beattie today announced the Queensland state government will increase stamp duty on motor vehicle transfers by as much as 2 per cent (can you tell its not an election year?), but the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) is not happy.

“This is a clear and patent grab for a bit of extra tax revenue by the Queensland government, it is a poorly thought through tax increase and amounts to an attack on Australian jobs, the manufacturing industry and Queensland families.” FCAI President Mr Sturrock said.

The current drought conditions in QLD have led a considerable number of farmers to suicide and Mr beattie says the increased rates will help fund the states failing mental health system to combat this trend.

“Queensland has underfunded mental health for too long, we can’t continue to have a higher percentage - 14 per cent higher when it comes to suicide - than the national average,” Mr Beattie said.

So just how much have the rates increased? The simple 2% system no longer applies. The new system will tax car enthusiasts even more (as if the state’s ridiculous speed traps were not enough). V8s will cost the most while hybrids the least.

The 2 per cent rate will increase to

• 2 per cent for hybrid cars (unchanged)
• 3 per cent for four-cylinder vehicles
• 3.5 per cent for six-cylinder vehicles
• 4 per-cent for V8s and above

In a state renowned for going backwards, FCAI boss Mr Sturrock said

“Premier Beattie’s announcement should be contrasted with recent decisions by the Victorian and Western Australian state governments to cut stamp duty on new motor vehicle purchases.”

Apart from the extra cost for new car buyers, the higher the stamp duty, the more the likelihood of older (unsafe) cars remaining on our roads.

The QLD Government expects to raise an extra $200 Million dollars a year from this latest scheme to help pay for the states mental health system.