Australia and Cars

I flew with Malaysia Airlines who are one of the 6 5 Star airlines in the world. The service was excellent and I had a 34 inch seat pitch. I wanted to fly with Singapore, who have a smaller seat pitch but ipod connectors and laptop power in the seats and of course the A380 but sods law stopped me...

... it was £800 with Singapore when I booked. 5 weeks before I left, Singapore had dropped the fare to a staggering £399 return. And to add insult to injury we just sorted my GF's flight home next month and... oh, Singapore airlines.

Doh! Never mind, Malaysia were good.
 
[TW]Fox;14616682 said:
I flew with Malaysia Airlines who are one of the 6 5 Star airlines in the world. The service was excellent and I had a 34 inch seat pitch. I wanted to fly with Singapore, who have a smaller seat pitch but ipod connectors and laptop power in the seats and of course the A380 but sods law stopped me...

... it was £800 with Singapore when I booked. 5 weeks before I left, Singapore had dropped the fare to a staggering £399 return. And to add insult to injury we just sorted my GF's flight home next month and... oh, Singapore airlines.

Doh! Never mind, Malaysia were good.
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Told you to go with Singapore Airlines ;)
 
paradigm said:
Told you to go with Singapore Airlines ;)
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I would have done but they were considerably more expensive and meant not only did I pay more but I also traded seat pitch for an ipod dock. Were they the same price I'd have done it. It's just irritating that they dropped the price to £160 less than I paid after I'd booked :D

MrLOL said:
the air stewardess' arent bad either ;)

not that im rubbing it in :D
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No complaints with the Malaysia sterwardesses :D
 
Thrash said:
The main issue with motoring in Australia is the difference in the way vehicle insurance is dealt with, which in turn has a negative impact to road safety. In the UK you have the vehicle excise licence and a compulsory minimum of 3rd party personal/vehicle/property insurance. This makes it difficult if not very expensive for a young inexperienced driver to drive a powerful vehicle. (..)
In Australia the vehicle registration (rego - equivalent of the road tax/excise licence) includes compulsory 3rd party insurance. (..) Therefore you can have a 16 year old on P plates driving a Holden V8 or Nissan Skyline legally on the road.
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Well, as much as not having compulsory insurance against vehicle/property damage sounds like a huge oversight, the multi tier "everything goes" insurance system in UK is double edge sword though - the most inexperienced drivers who are most likely to cause an accident are forced by prohibitive insurance to drive most crappy, oldest vehicles that in turn, in most cases probably create perfect circumstances for the accident in the first place.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't like to see chavs in Skylines either, but you see those old tin foil Saxos or Renault Clios being chucked by gravity across roundabouts like aquariums on wheels with terrified gobs of underaged passengers smacked against plexiglass windows, punny shopping cart wheels cocked and not much more than a plastic front spoiler, French douchebaggery and delusions of grandeur for a viable safety measure and you think - if statistically, your son has to plow into someone's front garden at least once before his graduation - which car would you rather it happened in - six airbag Holden ute with brembos, or a decade old engineering by product of a nation working one day a month between strikes and national holidays made of reconstituted Jacques Cousteau's hat with brie for brakes?
 
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[TW]Fox;14613511 said:
2007 Ford Falcon XR6, 4.0 Litre V6, 260bhp, RWD
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Great little writeup - one thing, Ford Falcons like the XR6 are always straight sixes or V8s, not V6s :)

I think the only one planned to have a V6 is the next revamp of the current FG generation.
 
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Makes me wonder why everyone is so obsessed with visiting the states - everyone I know has been to America yet hardly any to Australia. I've been to both and although we are probably going to do America again next time I think Australia is better :)
 
I'm seriously considering emmigrating at some point. My only real ties to this country on my mothers side is my elderly grandmother in her 80s. ive lost my mum, my grandad on her side, and my mother was an only child. And all my dads side of the family live there.

Its just a question of getting in though, its a question of having the right skill at the right tim they have a shortage of that skill. Unfortunately they will never be short of IT support workers :/
 
MrLOL said:
I'm seriously considering emmigrating at some point. My only real ties to this country on my mothers side is my elderly grandmother in her 80s. ive lost my mum, my grandad on her side, and my mother was an only child. And all my dads side of the family live there.

Its just a question of getting in though, its a question of having the right skill at the right tim they have a shortage of that skill. Unfortunately they will never be short of IT support workers :/
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Learn a skill we need and make it one thats quick to learn:)

I swear truck drivers were needed awhile back.
 
v0n said:
Well, as much as not having compulsory insurance against vehicle/property damage sounds like a huge oversight, the multi tier "everything goes" insurance system in UK is double edge sword though - the most inexperienced drivers who are most likely to cause an accident are forced by prohibitive insurance to drive most crappy, oldest vehicles that in turn, in most cases probably create perfect circumstances for the accident in the first place.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't like to see chavs in Skylines either, but you see those old tin foil Saxos or Renault Clios being chucked by gravity across roundabouts like aquariums on wheels with terrified gobs of underaged passengers smacked against plexiglass windows, punny shopping cart wheels cocked and not much more than a plastic front spoiler, French douchebaggery and delusions of grandeur for a viable safety measure and you think - if statistically, your son has to plow into someone's front garden at least once before his graduation - which car would you rather it happened in - six airbag Holden ute with brembos, or a decade old engineering by product of a nation working one day a month between strikes and national holidays made of reconstituted Jacques Cousteau's hat with brie for brakes?
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There's little point in comparing two different county's approaches to motor insurance.

In the UK we have a high traffic density and a pedestrians walking close to the road, property located close to the road. In the UK Pedestrian impact barriers ironically are a complete joke, there's more strength in the barriers protecting property as there is in the barriers that protect people, possibly due to the stronger ones being unsightly.

Anyway, digress. Point is that here in the UK the pricipal concern is how much damage your car can do to a third party. Clearly there's only so much damage your french yoghurt pot can do, and this helps minimise claims costs.

What would you prefer to get hit with? A rusty Clio or a Range Rover?

Unfortunately with most young uns - they will push whatever you give them to the limit, so, you reign in the limit by pricing.
 
merlin said:
In the UK we have a high traffic density and a pedestrians walking close to the road, property located close to the road.
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In my opinion third party insurance should be compulsory everywhere, and the quality of pedestrian barriers is irrelevant. It is your ability to cause damage that is the deciding factor and not the quality of government protection.
 
good write up, speed limits suck!

I am moving to Australia (sydney) in 22 days for 6 - 12 months, was thinking about buying an mx-5 whilst i was there to tour in, they wanted $8k for a 1990 banger that i wouldnt pay 1k for here! :(

perhaps i will get a rwd banger with a v8 and take advantage of cheap fuel
 
Really loving the look of the Ford Falcon XR6, think i could get along with the dash provided the removed that stupid screen and fitted a proper lcd with Nav.
 
Driving over here does my head in... although to be fair to the rest of Australia Western Australia has the worst drivers hands down (I believe has recently been proven too).

Over here in WA they just don't get how to merge lanes, people won't slow down or speed up accordingly - which ends up in someone slamming on their brakes last minute and causing a tailback. They also have a habit of doing 5 - 10 kph under the limit, which when your on a dual lane road doing a max speed of 60 kph (~37 mph) you really want to drive at the limit!

My other bugbear is the lack of amber at the traffic lights... sucks going straight from red to green. Oh and one more... serious lack of round abouts & knowledge of how to effectively use them. :D
 
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