I found this on the torana forums (yes I am a closet torana fan )
THE BOMB SQUAD
( article from "The Bulletin" magazine.)
"Old cars kill. Old cars pollute." These are the opening lines of the article and it would seem that the these are the two main concerns with old cars. A frightening aspect of their argument is that they determine an old car as one being ten years or older - basically pre unleaded. Australians, on average, drive the oldest fleet in the developed world and the scrappage rate of old cars is down to 3% a year. In the late 70's around 25% of the cars on the road were more than ten years old - today the figure is 55%. and it is growing at 2% per year. Most of the developed world has addressed this issue in one way or another (Steve reported in his Americana article a few issues ago how the Americans were dealing with it by introducing their Clunker Bill) but Australia has yet to take any action. I'm sure all our members and probably most Australians would like to see it stay that way. For our Government to introduce any such scheme in Australia would be fraught with political peril and would have "owners and some motoring associations screaming all the way to the ballot box" - damn right we would be
Further facts included in the article include
the chances of a fatality are twice as great in a car more than thirteen years old than in a car less than six years old
17% of road fatalities could be saved if older cars were as safe as newer cars most of the smog problems in cities like Melbourne and Sydney can now be traced to vehicles over ten years old because newer cars are more economical, Australia is consuming 17 billion litres of fuel a year more than it would if the average age of Australian cars was 8.1 years. (It is currently 10.1 years) half of Melbourne's pollution is caused by just 12% of cars despite all this only two states has annual emission and safety checks - NSW and the Northem Territory)

The Australian Government has avoided the issue and has placed the responsibility on the manufacturers through the application of Australian Design rules, ensuring safety and emission standards are met this way in the hope that slowly, the newer cars will replace the older ones on the road. This hasn't worked as new car sates have remained stagnant at about 470,000 per year for the last 20 years, obviously not keeping up with the population growth. Furthermore, the number of cars ten years older or more has risen from 1.4 million to well over 5 million. Most would probably agree with me when I say that a new car is simply out of reach financially for the majority. This can be partly attributed to the fact that sales tax on a new car has risen to 22% - maybe this is where the Government can make changes to make new cars more affordable.

Around the world, countries are taking different measures to get older cars off the road. These range from yearly inspections, which force most old cars off the road, to many countries like the USA, who pay owners of old cars to have them destroyed. California has phased out leaded petrol altogether since 1993 and there are huge fines for tampering with emission control equipment.

This is just some of the information from the article and the previous paragraph could be what could happen in the future in Australia, should the government decide to address the issue. Yearly inspections would mean the end to a lot of old cars on the road and it would mean that the cars we do own would have to be maintained to a high standard - in Japan they are so stringent that most over 5 years old do not pass. Yearly inspections would also see the end to a lot of street machines due to modifications not approved by engineers or the Authorities. This only emphasises the importance of building safe and legal cars. If you are planning on building a car now, it had better be a legal one because one day you may wake up to find the world not as it was when you went to bed. lf yearly inspections were the case, we'd have no choice.

hhmmmm thats CRAP

That is a very good article and lot of information. There would be nothing wrong with yearly inspections as it keep safe cars on the road don't think that because our cars are old that doesn't mean they are not safe. I have my road worthy person look at my car every couple of months to make sure that it is road worthy all the time and that any mods that i do area legal. Don't think that new cars are safe and will pass inspections, I have seen many 2-3 year old cars fail an inspection. Alot of the older cars that are done up are done with added safety features ie harnesses roll cage bigger brakes

before the article even mentioned tax i was already thinking of that,

in my view the aussie built cars arnt too crash hot (in terms of appeal) and probably dont meet emission standards of japaneese cars, but they are protected by aussie government to protect the local industry making the better cars more expensive

plus, the fuel, i mean if we had better qualitly fuel (we know aus gets some of the worst fuel too right) available at a comparible price people would buy it (optimax, synergy are a start but most people dont bother because face value is higher), therefore reducing emissions

i think road safety is in the hands of the driver and it all comes back to one thing, ALERTNESS

i honeslty believe that when driving faster and enjoying my driving (comonly known as hooning) i am much much more alert and therefore in a great number of circumstances a lot safer

the only times ive nearly crashed or frightened myself, and usually when i get a speeding ticket. i am actually attempting to drive "normally"

e.g. late one night i decide to try following another car late at night instead of overtaking above speed limit like i usually would, i fell asleep woke up half way into next lane. so i wound the window down, cranked the stereo and booted it the rest of the way and didnt come anywhere near having an incident the rest of the way

Damn right 1200rc..."Operation Westroads" here means there are so many coppers on the road and they are so strict that its just creating nervous, unsafe drivers.

People who are driving stupidly and dangerously definately need to be dealt with, but, a driver who may creep to 10-15 km/h over the limit because they are concentrating more on the road than the speedo is a lot safer than someone crawling along and swerving all over the road because they are scared of losing their licence.

I am now losing my licence because of stupid fines such as this where I have gone over the speed limit by small amounts because I needed to watch the road at the time. It f*cking p*sses me off!!!!!

But anyway thats getting off the topic.

Yearly inspections... isn't that what a pink slip is....we already have those!!

Quote:

Ooopphh!

And I though 8.25% here was alot!

Here where I live we have yearly inspections for emissions and safety. On cars built before 1995 they are extremely strict on emissions. Fortunately for us Datto freaks, anything over 25 years old is exempt from emissions testing.

I don't have a problem with yearly safety inspections. In fact, having worked in a garage and seeing some of the old heaps that come in I think the sooner QLD instigates this kind of measure the better! There's nothing wrong with getting unsafe cars of any age off the road until repaired. Genuine enthusiasts of older cars (not hoons) keep their cars maintained above Safety Inspection standards anyway.

Emissions testing on the other hand I would have concerns about. Eg, would they test you to the standards of the year of manufacture, or to current standards?

QLD has 'classic rego' available to vehicles 30yrs or older with restrictions on when and where they can be driven at a reduced cost. Maybe they could adopt a scheme like that that nation-wide as well, and exempt those vehicle from emissions tests (but not the safety inspections), to enable enthusiasts to keep their classic cars and our motoring history alive. The system is open to abuse however.

The safety issues mentioned in the article are probably more related to the crash safety of older vs newer cars, and there is absolutely no denying that newer cars are significantly better in that regard. And also in terms of passive safety like vehicle dynamics and braking, the majority of 20+ year old cars are fairly woeful by comparison to new cars even if they are well maintained. Those that are well modified are certainly a very small minority.

It's only a matter of time I guess. Just hope it's implemented fairly when the time comes...