This is a lot of reading.

You can kill yourself on a pushbike if you try hard.

Basically I think alot of it is that driving is too easy now...it takes less skill to do....and when they come up against a situation that requires skill they are stuffed, The baby boomers and most Xs will have learnt to drive something with stuff all power, manual steering, big and old....new cars are too easy to drive and too easy to speed in...but the other half of the problem is the people that teach the skills...how can Mum and Dad public impart knowledge onto their kids if the cant drive them selves? 48% of NSW drivers do not know the rules of a multilane roundabout. My solution involves cops on every roundabout with sniper rifles...only then will people wake up and pay attention to their driving skills.

cannon thats very interesting, do you go to vicroads to do that too? A HQ with a blue 253 would have to legal if a VY ss ute is?

quote:

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Originally posted by peter_smol

In Victoria, NO V8s AT ALL.

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What happened there? A customer of mine in Wangaratta had an XD V8 and as long as the authorities believed that it was a 302 he was OK. It was of course a 351 but this was the mid 90s have things changed since then?

Most kids learn to drive on the playstation or some computer game where when you can go as fast as you like, hit something, theres no pain, just press a button, the cars back on the road and you keep going. No real idea of what real is when they get into a real car. Frightening....Jack

Have just bought an ol HX 308 Tonner. Will soon organise an official alteration to my daughters licence to allow her to drive it, when reqd. She currently drives an old round-nose Mini Van, which I have to service regularly (every 3 months...). This is an option available in Qld.

yes yes yes yes yes, mr HQforme. i agree 100% with what you said. i hate driving my parents car, an auto BA falcon. you dont drive, you just sit and point. then you get on the highway and put on cruise and all you need to do is move the steering wheel 2 degrees every 5 minutes.
and also, do the older drivers (say, over 65) have any restrictions? i know some who have their licenses and are terrible drivers, stopping in th middle of the highway for no reason etc. i think if young drivers do, older drivers should. and nearly every p plater i know is a far better driver than every pensioner i know.

I dont believe that Banning V8s is a right move to solving the road toll.
As someone said before it doesnt matter what sort of car i is, if its in the hands of an idiot or in a lot of cases an in-experienced driver. Plus the fact that a lot of smaler engined cars are a lot fastr than some of he old V8s.
I wouldnt be surprised if there was som background issues of just getting V8s off the roads. Greenies etc.
I think that compulsory advanced driver training would do a lot more toward solving the problem. It should be subsidised by the govt, now theyre making a fortune from speed/red light cameras, continually raising speeding fines. They should be putting all this extra revenue into something positive.
For learner drivers, they shuld have to do it either before they sit for a licence, or very strict conditions put on them until its done.
Then they could learn how quickly every goes wrong when a car goes sideways on a slippery patch around a corner or that a car doesnt stop instantly when something steps out in front, an how easy it is to lose control panic braking, etc. Make them realise that theyre not the fantastic drivers that they think they are. Dont let them learn all about this on the street with the general public.

Instead of getting booked with huge fines, issue orders to attend advaned driving courses within a set period or loss of licence if its not done by then.
Everyday, you see people of all ages driving, and wonder what Corn Flakes packets they got their licences from. They should also be targeted to get sent to advanced courses. Worst part is, some of these people have been driving for years and neve been booked or had an accident,(sometimes a trail of carnage behind them). But they can teach their children all their bad habits and lack of skills.
So in cases, there is kids getting their 100Hrs of learning with an incompetent driver. More bad divers on the roads!!
Just because someone can get a car from A to B without an accident or being booked, it doest make them a good driver.
The govt is making $quillion$ under the guise of road safety, but not making any real attempt to do something about it that will cost them money, instead they just keep making money from it.

On the point of old drivers, yes, there are some shockers out there. What you find though is that their "crimes" tend to be driving too slowly, swerving in lanes, parking a mile away from the gutter or stopping for no reason. All, in the scheme of things, no big concern, rather an annoyance. And there are restrictions and health tests past a certain age i believe.

My godfather and grandfather both handed their licences in when they realised they werent as sharp behind the wheel as they thought they needed to be to survive on todays HECTIC Sydney roads.

Young drivers tend to drive too quickly, swerve in lanes because theyre on a mobile or doing makeup, park away from the gutter because theyre crap parkers, etc etc.

In both cases though its always the minority that creates the stigma. You just notice and remember the few bad drivers you see every day far more than the hundreds of good ones.

Interesting observation that old people driving have some irratic habits. My observation is there are a lot of old people, on and off the road, that behave like (removed word)heads. My theory is they were like that when they were kids, teenagers, a most of there adult life, and are no different as pensioners.

While you look at things differently as you get older your core values and attitudes dont really change a great lot. Id rather be driving on the M4 with grandpa (always conservative driver) in his VS Commodore doing 80ks even though it annoys me, than some prat in a doof doof doing 130ks cutting up traffic.

hang on i just read the link posted by sikxt a few pages back http://www.drive.com.au/...rticleID=61540&pg=1&vf=0
how many p platers are going to be driving a volkswagen, saab, volvo, mercedes, or audi? not many. theyd do better to give exemptions to cars that are more likely to be driven. also, with the power to weight of 100kw per tonne, even with a 308 i think my car would be under that. and a p platerin nsw gets 7 demerits for driving a turbo. dont they only have 3?