4WD owners should have special licence

[Merlin]

Personally I cant stand 4WDs - why would you want to own something that goes slower than everything else, handles poorly, uses more fuel, and causes significant injuries too other road users in an impact.

HOWEVER that being said, I do not propose the ban of them - just because I or others do not agree with someone elses purchase does not mean we should have the right to ban them. That is what I love about living in Australia - freedom of choice - if I want to drive a gas guzzling bohemeth then I will and no-one will stop me, that's why we don't live in Iraq!

[Worpor]

Waas just watching the story on Today Tonight. What a load of

Who the F@#k could drive well with that idiot yelling at you. We didnt see these drivers in a smaller car for comparisum. They could be just as bad.

Im all for reporting but not with sensationalism and bias

[tongueboy]

License number should start with 00!

[Antisocial]

  Quote

Personally I cant stand 4WDs - why would you want to own something that goes slower than everything else, handles poorly, uses more fuel, and causes significant injuries too other road users in an impact.

Merlin my guess is you have obviously never owned a 4WD. Let alone a modern one.

My 2000 model 3L turbo Diesel Patrol went just as fast as most other family hacks at the traffic lights, it could even overtake when going uphill.

With in car adjustable rancho shocks it would supprise many with its manuverability as I passed them on roundabouts.

Used 11L/100k all day everyday even with 4 pasengers and the back full of camping gear.

Had ABS and no bull bar as well as excelent all round high field of vision (admittedly at the expense of others around me) as so I never harmed another driver the entire 100,000ks I drove it.

As a bonus the tyres cost $240 ea and lasted over 100,000ks.

I believe they are actually safer in some circumstances: case in piont.

Driving to work allong the Monaro Highway (dual lane dual carrigeway) in a 100 zone with bumper to bumper traffic moving at about 80ks.

I was in right lane saw up in front cars slowing, but as each person took time to react the distance between the cars was reduced and the braking intensity of each successive car increased. Until what started with the first car backing off the throttle as it passed a car stopped on the side of the road to change a flat. Ended up with the pantec truck in front of me in the left lane slaming on the brakes full tilt and the car behind it slammed into it, as did a few cars behind them.

However as I could see over the cars in front, I too backed off as the brake lights of the cars 10 cars in front of me came on. So even though the car in front of me locked up its brakes and almost ran into the car in front of them. I and the cars behind me in the right lane had already slowed and had no dramas.

In fact the bloke in the car behind me gave me a big thumbs up at the next trafic light.

This visibility advantage is diminshed with each additional 4x4 on the road, but there are 2 sides to every argument, and 4x4's and their drivers are not all bad.

Worpor your car looks like my old one...

[Worpor]

Yeah go the Trol. Mines a 98 4.5 pet got the Rancho 9000 in cab controls. 238000kms. Had the head off 15000 ago still got the factory hone marks in the bore. Got vid of the whole car 4foot of the ground in the dunes. Its never backed away from anything Ive asked it to do.

[Antisocial]

Yeah the sidesteps kind of give away the fact that you don't exactly smother your baby with TLC. :lol:

[plonky]

I bought a new Patrol Ti a couple of years ago. I was happy to do so because I had been trained in a 4wd course with the Dept. and we needed the extra room because of the kids.

My wife hated it....too big, too cumbersome etc...

It was sold within 6mths.

I can see that most people buy 4wds for the wrong reason and that is exactly why the Ford Territory will do extremely well.

I have no problems at all with 4wd vehicles.

[Falchoon]

  Worpor said:

Waas just watching the story on Today Tonight. What a load of

Who the F@#k could drive well with that idiot yelling at you. We didnt see these drivers in a smaller car for comparisum. They could be just as bad.

Im all for reporting but not with sensationalism and bias

That was quite interesting I thought (the TT segment).

For those that missed it they had three people each taking turns at driving a Nissan Patrol through a line of witches hats and the idea was not to knock any down. The three people were a good spread of the demographics, a young bloke 19-20 on his P plates, a female estimate late 20s and the owner of the 4WD a guy I estimate late 40s early 50s.

The female was f%#cking hopeless, knocked down most of the cones, went the wrong way and IMO should have had her licence cancelled on the spot.

The guy that owned the 4WD was a lot better but still manged to knock down a couple of cones.

Then the young bloke had a go, he was driving pretty quickly but didn't knock any cones down. Ian Luff the driving instructor did deduct some points because he reckoned that the guy had gone the wrong way.

This is the second similar TT segment I've seen. They had one previously where they had similar people (and one older gentleman in his 60s) driving normal sedans through different courses of witches hats with different types of music, from classics through to heavy metal playing on the car stereo. Again, the young bloke scored the best (on all types of music), with the older gentleman faring the worst.

So maybe it is the driver, not the vehicle that more attention needs to be focused on.