Journalism hits rock bottom - 'car enthusiasts' labelled as criminals

A Current Affair is the best show on television. Period.


/sarcasm. I, of course, have never watched it but it sounds pretty bad.
 
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TroyWK said:
/snip/
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P Plate Restrictions are even worse.

Big V6 VN Commodore death trap? Perfectly legal; Saab 9-3? Not a chance in hell.
 
Can someone please explain what's up with these P-Plates, as far as I found out they are for Beginners - but how does that work with the Car restrictions, is the just a list of cars that are suitable, or how do they decide what's okay, and what's not?
 
In Australia (or at least NSW, but I believe other states are the same/similar) you get your Learner licence where you have to drive under the supervision of a fully licenced driver. Once you have held that for the required time, and recorded a certain number of hours in a logbook (around 120 hours now, I believe), you may sit your driving test. Pass the test and you get your provision licence or red "p plates". Another year and a theory test and you'll get your green p plates. Then another 2 years and a theory test and you get your full licence.

P plate drivers have a range of restrictions. Red Ps and Green Ps are restricted to 90km/h and 100km/h respectively (the extent of the restrictions when I had mine 5-8 years ago). They can't carry more than 1 passenger after 11pm or something ridiculous like that. Getting caught for any speeding offence means a suspended licence for a few months. And then there's the car restrictions: no V8s, no turbos (of any kind) and no other "high powered" cars.
 
Checking vicroads ( VIC roads department) the Q7 tdi is illegal. An Aston Martin DB5 or even the old Nissan 300ZX, however, is fine :lol:
 
The list is a joke. First car on the list: "ALFA ROMEO MITO 3D HATCHBACK 4 1368 cc TURBO Multi 5M".

A 1368cc city car :|

The prohibited vehicle condition restricts provisional (P1 and P2) drivers from driving certain high performance vehicles. The condition applies to provisional licences issued on or after 11 July 2005. The scheme aims to prohibit young driver access to vehicles that are overrepresented in young driver crashes. (emphasis added)

Prohibited vehicles are those with:

Eight or more cylinders (except diesel).
A turbocharged engine (except diesel).
A supercharged engine (except diesel).
Engine performance modifications that require an engineers' certificate.
Certain high performance six cylinder engine vehicles or other vehicles as described in the publication Novice Drivers - High Performance Vehicle Restrictions.
The following vehicles are not prohibited vehicles and may be driven by provisional licence holders:

Suzuki Cappuccino 2D Cabriolet Turbo 3 698cc (released between 1/01/1992 - 1/12/1997).
Daihatsu Copen L880 2D Convertible Turbo 4 659cc (released from 1/10/2003).
Smart vehicles (all models).

P1/P2 licence holders are also restricted from driving the following 6-cylinder vehicles:
BMW M and M3.
Honda NSX.
Nissan 350Z and 370Z (including private or 'grey' import variants eg. Infiniti G35, Infiniti G37, Skyline 350GT (V35), Skyline 370GT (V36)).
All Porsches from 1994 models onwards (except diesel).
Mercedes Benz SLK350.
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I'm genuinely surprised that the 1.4L Mito is overrepresented in crash statistics!


The list:
http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/licensing/downloads/200909_prohibited_vehicles_list.pdf


Hahaha, the only Honda on the list is the "HONDA CITY 2D HATCHBACK 4 1231 cc TURBO Multi 5M". So no 2 door 1.2L car, but go nuts with an Integra or Civic Type R!
 
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Suspense said:
The list is a joke. First car on the list: "ALFA ROMEO MITO 3D HATCHBACK 4 1368 cc TURBO Multi 5M".

A 1368cc city car :|



I'm genuinely surprised that the 1.4L Mito is overrepresented in crash statistics!


The list:
http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/licensing/downloads/200909_prohibited_vehicles_list.pdf


Hahaha, the only Honda on the list is the "HONDA CITY 2D HATCHBACK 4 1231 cc TURBO Multi 5M". So no 2 door 1.2L car, but go nuts with an Integra or Civic Type R!
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Also, you can't have that viciously fast Mercedes E200 Kompressor, but an E350 is fine.

"VOLKSWAGEN GOLF 90TSI TRENDLINE VI 5D HATCHBACK 4 1390 cc TURBO F/INJ 6M" is banned, but you can have an R32 no problem at all.

The whole system does nothing to stop hoons. They just buy different cars to get around it, or pay the money to get an exemption. I've seen too many WRXs and HSVs with P-plates to think that the system is a particularly difficult one to get around. Or like 90% of the burnout-performing teenage population they drive V6 Commodores which the government doesn't dare to ban.
 
TroyWK said:
Last I was aware turbo DIESELS were allowed. Thats for N.S.W
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And the are no Cylinder Restrictions on Diesels? Nice :D

Also, the BMW M550d will also be a Straight Six, so that's no Problem then :D

And also, they can just do it like all the Idiots here an buy a E36 325i ;)
 
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Why wouldn't they just restrict you to cars with less than say 250hp that are FWD or AWD only?

What are the speed limits on the highways over there? I can't quite grasp why they would have 90-100kph restrictions on new drivers... Forcing some people to go slower than everyone else seems like a fantastic way to cause crashes to me.
 
^ You're right, it is very dangerous. Everyone else is cruising along the freeways at 110km/h (or more) then all of a sudden you find people swerving into the overtaking lane or doing stupid things and then you find it's a learner driver doing 80-90km/h acting as a moving road block and affecting traffic for a couple of kilometres behind. It's dangerous because people don't accurately calculate their closing speed on the learner or they get impatient when they're stuck behind.
 
*sigh* All thees Australian laws feel weird to me too.

Also, I drove through the M1 expressways in Melbourne 2 years ago and noticed that they charge to use because it's tolled. Ok, so I stop over and call the 13 xx xx number (can't remember) and then successfully buy a 24-hr toll pass for the day. The guy on the phone specifically says that it'll cover for the incident just now when I passed the toll.

Then 4 months later, the Victorian government sends me a fine worth $400 because I didn't pay the toll. I wrote a letter back showing proof of the bank deduction from my credit card for the payment on that day. Naturally, they let me off with a 'last-chance warning'. Sheesh!
 
Talus said:
Why wouldn't they just restrict you to cars with less than say 250hp that are FWD or AWD only?

What are the speed limits on the highways over there? I can't quite grasp why they would have 90-100kph restrictions on new drivers... Forcing some people to go slower than everyone else seems like a fantastic way to cause crashes to me.
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National speed limit is 110km/h, except in remote parts of the outback. It is an excellent way to cause accidents. A few weeks ago there was a horrific crash where three people were killed when a truck drove the wrong way up a dual carriageway and hit a family in a Mondeo.

B-Double-headon-on-Hume-Hwy-at-Menangle-20120124.jpg


Why was the truck on the wrong side of the dual carriageway? Allegedly, because it swerved to avoid a learner driver (whom are restricted at 80km/h). In my time as a learner driver, I didn't stick to that speed limit for long. After I saw a truck, similar in size to the one above, lift up its outside wheels trying to get around me and nearly roll over, I decided it was much safer to actually do the speed limit, not the ridiculous limit they attempt to enforce.

Also, the reason the vehicle restrictions don't make sense is due mostly to laziness. The way they come up with the list is just by going into a database of cars and typing in ">8 cylinders and/or forced induction". Easy, your list is there with no work done. Power to weight ratio, for example, would make sense, but that would involve much more work as that information is not readily available. And they wouldn't dare ban RWD cars, as that would ban the Falcon and Commodore. A) they are far too common as family cars and what not, B) they wouldn't want to be seen as not supporting local industry.
 
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