Pets On Board

Go on – admit it.  Your pet is definitely one of the family.  One of the reasons why you chose the car you did is because you knew that you wanted to fit the dog in the car.

On the other hand, some of you may not consider your dog or cat to be a “fur baby”, even though you’re very fond of them, but you’ll still want or need to take your pet in the car with you at some point – to see the vet, for example.

However, are you carrying your pet in the car the right way? Cars have been designed for humans and to keep humans safe during a crash (if this happens) or a sudden stop, and the designers didn’t seem to think much about animals, and with good reason – there aren’t, to my knowledge, any crash test doggies… and now I’m curious and want to look this up. Back in a minute… Turns out there are canine crash test dummies after all.  More on them a bit later. However, distractions and fascinating new facts aside, there is a right way and a wrong way to carry a dog (or a cat) in a car.

The one thing that you shouldn’t do is to have the dog loose in the cabin. If the dog is feeling in the least bit insecure, it will come and lean on you and try to get close to you for comfort. It is impossible to drive safely the way you should with a large dog panting and slobbering in your ear, or with a small to medium-sized dog bouncing up and down on your lap and yapping. Your dog should be restrained. At the very least, you should train your dog to ride in the footwell of the back seat – and even that’s not ideal.

If you have an SUV, hatchback or stationwagon, there is an obvious place to put the dog: in the boot.  However, some dogs may try to climb out of the boot to come and join you in the cabin, and then you’ve got the problem of the large dog drooling down your neck or the smaller dog yapping on your lap (or, in the case of my brother’s dogs when they climbed out of the boot of his Subaru Legacy wagon, both). If you can get one of those screens or shields, that sits between the rear seats and the boot, this is ideal, as the dog can’t climb over or through these. These guards aren’t restraints, so your dog may be injured if a crash happens.

If the dog is in the boot, you will probably want to make sure that you don’t have your lunch or other food supplies in there with it. Otherwise, when you open the boot, well, the food will technically still be inside the boot but it will also be inside the dog.  Either keep the food in a very stout esky or put the food in the cabin of the car.

But what if you have a sedan and you’re not quite prepared to go out and buy a new car even though you’ve just acquired a dog? Is that new car essential? Well, the dog may be a good excuse to get a new car, especially if you’ve been wanting one for a while. However, if the budget doesn’t quite stretch to that yet, then you need to look at restraining your dog in the cabin. You shouldn’t put a dog in the boot of a sedan, as the dog may become distressed and some may become carsick.  Dogs, like people, like to see where they’re going when they’re travelling.

There are two ways you can restrain a dog in the cabin. The first is to buy a harness for your dog. These are compatible with most five-point seatbelts, and the idea is that you put the harness on the dog, then get the dog into the car and onto the back seat (try bribery with treats if your dog isn’t keen), then clip the seatbelt through the harness. Never try to slip the seatbelt through the dog’s collar, as this could strangle your dog if an accident happens.  These harnesses are properly tested and they are designed to keep your dog safe if a crash happens. You guessed it: this is why crash test dummy dogs exist and it’s how they have managed to ensure that these harnesses actually restrain dogs if the worst happens. 

Dogs like to look out of the window, so if your dog is on the smaller side, then you can also buy booster seats designed for dogs.

If your dog is restrained on the back seat of your car with a harness (with or without a booster seat), then it can be wise to put down a blanket to protect the interior upholstery from dog hair, dribble and scratches. You can buy specially designed hammock sorts of things that fit over the seat and protect the upholstery (the dog sits in the hammock thing), or you can put down a blanket. The blanket will slide around the place, but it’s easier to wash than the big hammock thing. Your choice as to what you prefer.

The other main way to keep a dog restrained in a car if it’s small (meaning the dog, not the car) is to use a carrying crate. It’s best to restrain the crate or you have the risk of a loose and heavy object inside the cabin that could smack into you from behind in a crash. You can do this by slipping the seatbelt through the bars or handle of the crate before fastening the seatbelt. The other advantage of a carrier crate is that you can lift the dog into the back seat and put him/her where she/he needs to go, without any need for orders, cajoling or bribery.  You can also, in the case of chunkier smaller breeds that can be a bit harder to pick up (e.g., Staffordshire Bull Terriers), train the dog to enter the crate once the crate has been clipped in place.

In the case of cats, a carrying crate is an absolute must. Of all the many cats I have known throughout my life, only one of them actually enjoyed riding in the car, and even the one that enjoyed the car could be a menace, as she would try to jump onto the driver’s lap or onto the dashboard. Most cats, however, hate riding in the car and will fight like fury to get out. I think it’s the engine noise that freaks them out, although I haven’t tried to take a cat in an EV yet.  Make sure that the crate is very securely closed and that the door can’t be prised open, or the cat will do exactly this, and then you have the problem of driving with a very frantic and frazzled cat screaming around the interior of the car (yes, this has happened to me). If the cat does get out of the crate in transit, pull over, stop the engine, climb into the back seat (don’t open the door or window) and put the cat back in the crate. Then apply first aid to your scratches.

If you want to carry other animals in a vehicle, use common sense. Birds, rabbits, chickens and the like go in a carrying crate. Sheep and goats can go in the back of a stationwagon or SUV, but make sure you have a guard between the cabin and the boot or the goats will climb out and investigate the cabin (personal experience speaking here). However, if you transport this sort of livestock, then investing in a crate that goes on the back of an old-fashioned farm ute is a must – leave the boot for haybales and bags of feed instead.

Getting To Know ANCAP’s Car Safety Ratings

When buying a new car, safety is always on top of everyone’s list, and rightfully so, especially if you always have precious cargo: you and your loved ones.

Fortunately, there are several ways to check if the car you’re looking into buying is safe on the road – and one of them is provided by the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP).

So, before buying that new car and heading on that adventure, here’s everything you need to know about ANCAP’s safety ratings. This way, you can make a fully-informed choice as you buy your dream car.

In this article, we’ll explain how the ANCAP Vehicle Safety Ratings work to guide you in your research for your next car purchase.

What is an ANCAP safety rating?

The Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) is an independent voice on vehicle safety for Australia and New Zealand that has been publishing safety ratings for new vehicle makes, models and variants since 1992.

ANCAP uses star ratings (from 1 through 5) to indicate the level of safety that a car provides for both occupants and pedestrians in the event of a crash. It also incorporates the technology that a vehicle model has to avoid or minimise the impact of a crash. So far, ANCAP has tested around 900 car models available in Australia and New Zealand.

To check how safe a car is, you can search for the model and make here: ANCAP Safety Ratings.

Important note: safety standards change over the years and ANCAP adapts to this. This is why the ANCAP website clearly includes the year when the car model has been tested – as such, a 5-star rating in 2002 may not be as reliable as a 5-star rating in 2022.

When checking the ANCAP safety rating, ideally, you want a model that has 5 stars and has been tested in the last 6 years.

How does ANCAP rate the safety of vehicles?

ANCAP conducts a series of internationally recognised, independent crash tests and safety assessments to determine the safety rating of each new vehicle. This involves:

• a range of physical crash tests
• an assessment of onboard safety features and equipment
• performance testing of active collision avoidance technologies

All vehicles are evaluated and rated in these four key areas:

• Adult Occupant Protection
  This is an assessment of the level of protection for adults seated in the front and second row of a car during the most common injury-causing vehicle crash scenarios.
• Child Occupant Protection
  This considers the level of protection that children seated in the rear seats with appropriate child restraints get. ANCAP also tests the inclusion and effectiveness of safety features for children, including the ability of vehicles to accommodate the most common child restraints.
• Vulnerable Road User Protection
  This area evaluates the vehicle’s ability to minimise injury risk to a struck pedestrian or cyclist as well as the tech inclusions included to avoid or reduce impact with other road users.
• Safety Assist
  This criterion rates the inclusion and effectiveness of additional collision avoidance technology in vehicles that may prevent or minimise the risk of a crash.

To earn a 5-star ANCAP rating, a vehicle must perform at a high level across ALL four key categories.

What do ANCAP ratings look like?

Let’s look at an example.

Take the top-selling car in Australia in June 2023: the Toyota Hilux. The Toyota Hilux received a 5-star rating in 2019, with the following assessment scores:

The 5-star rating was given after the vehicle model performed well during the tests performed across all the key categories.

What vehicle safety tests are done to get an ANCAP safety rating?

ANCAP simulates the most common types of on-road crashes to assess their effects on adult and child occupants, as well as pedestrians, all using crash test dummies.

Physical crash tests include:

• frontal impact
• side impact
• run-off-road
• rear-end
• pedestrian strikes

The technologies assessed for the Safety Assist category, on the other hand, include:

• car-to-car, car-to-pedestrian and car-to-cyclist autonomous emergency braking (AEB) systems,
• lane support systems (LSS),
• automatic emergency steering (AES)
• and speed assistance systems (SAS).

If you’re curious about these, you can watch the test simulations here: How ANCAP tests cars for safety.

The ANCAP rating requirements are updated every 3 years to encourage the inclusion of the latest safety features in the new cars that are available in Australia and New Zealand.

Road safety is everyone’s concern, and it helps to have access to reliable vehicle safety ratings that can guide you towards choosing the vehicle that can take you and your family safely on your next adventure.

With all these safety concerns and other complexities involves in the car-buying experience, it helps to have a vehicle expert who can guide you.

So, if you have questions about cars, ANCAP safety ratings and how you can choose the right vehicle for you, simply reach out to us for a chat.

Find the right (and safest) vehicle for you with Private Fleet.

Private Fleet empowers you to gain all the benefits of a fleet purchase, but as a private buyer.

Backed by decades of vehicle industry experience, fleet buying power and a network of car dealers across Australia, we are here to ensure that buying your next vehicle will be as straightforward as possible for you.

Shopping for a car is an enjoyable process – let us make it hassle-free, too.

Reach out to us today for a seamless and simple car-buying experience.

7 Car Safety Features You Need To Know About

Road safety is always a top priority for drivers.  

It’s always on our minds whether we’re going on long drives or simply taking a short trip for milk and bread. 

Fortunately, car manufacturers also have these in mind when they design the vehicles we use today. All vehicles in the market now have to comply with a set of safety standards and come equipped with a range of road safety features. 

In this article, we’ll take you through some of the most important car safety features that you need to know about. 

What are car safety features?

Each car comes with a safety system designed to protect its users on the road in case of emergencies and make roads safer for all drivers, passengers and pedestrians. 

Whether you’re headed off on an adventure or use your car on a regular basis to go to work, run errands or take the kids to school, it’s important to be well-versed in these features so you know what to do on the road, just in case some unexpected circumstances occur. 

7 car safety features drivers need to know about 

There are several safety features in all types of vehicles – some of which are basic and others that utilise more advanced technologies. 

Here are 7 of the most common car safety features as well as how to use them and how they work. 

1. Seatbelts 

Starting with the basics: seatbelts. 

Seatbelts are simple but crucial safety features that restrain the occupants of a car in cases of sudden speed changes or collisions. 

When a driver or a passenger is wearing a seatbelt, it keeps them from being thrown from the vehicle when there’s a sudden impact, which minimises the risk of injury. 

So, don’t forget to fasten your seatbelts! It’s the law in Australia! 

2. Airbags 

Next up: airbags.  

Airbags are typically found in the steering wheel and on the dashboard in front of the passenger’s seat. There are also knee airbags beneath the steering column and at the knee height of the passenger’s seat dashboard. 

Airbags are designed to rapidly inflate in the event of a crash or road accident, absorbing the impact force, protecting the occupants of a vehicle and reducing the risk of head, chest and other injuries. 

3. Rearview Cameras and Parking Sensors 

Beyond making parking more convenient, these features are also designed to keep vehicles safe. 

Rearview cameras provide a live feed of the area behind the vehicle to assist drivers as they manoeuvre and park, while parking sensors detect obstacles using electromagnetic technology to warn drivers of the risks of collisions while parking. 

4. Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) 

Another common car safety feature is designed for one of the most important parts of your car: your tyres. 

The TPMS monitors the pressure level on your tyres as you drive to enhance road safety. The system allows drivers to ensure that the pressure of tyres remains at a safe level to reduce the risk of tyre failure which may lead to road accidents. 

So, whenever one or more of your tyres becomes underinflated or overinflated, the TPMS signal on your dashboard lights up, which alerts you to check your vehicle’s tyres immediately. 

5. Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) 

Hard and fast braking is inevitable at some point while driving – especially when roads are slippery. This is what an anti-lock braking system helps with. 

This car safety feature is designed to help drivers steer during road emergencies by keeping the traction in the tyres when driving on slippery roads. 

The ABS monitors your vehicle’s wheel speed and uses a sensor to detect a wheel lock to prevent your car from skidding. It then sends a message to the controller to apply the brake while maintaining vehicle stability and allowing the driver to stay in control of the steering wheel. 

6. Blind Spot Monitor (BSM) 

If you’re often worried about your blind spot when changing lanes, a blind spot monitor can help you on the road. 

As part of an Advanced Driving Assistance System (ADAS), the BSM is designed to alert drivers when there are adjacent vehicles that are not visible whenever changing lanes. 

Similar to parking sensors, a BSM is there to prevent collisions by monitoring the blind spot and sending signals to reduce the risk of side collisions. 

7. Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) 

Since we already touched on this, we’ll finish off this list with this innovative driving technology designed to increase road visibility and enhance road safety: ADAS Driving Technology. 

ADAS covers an entire suite of safety features that use sensors, cameras, alerts, in-built cameras and algorithms to assist drivers across various aspects of driving such as parking, lane-keeping, distance monitoring and more. 

This technology is designed to enhance overall safety and make driving far more convenient. 

We discuss ADAS more in this article: ADAS Driving Technology 101. 

Understanding these crucial vehicle safety features will help drivers feel more confident when hitting the road and make car rides safer for drivers, passengers and bystanders alike. 

So, next time you head out, be sure to check that all these car safety systems are working, so you can always feel safe behind the wheel. 

Drive safe on the road with the car of your dreams! 

Driving the car of your dreams is even more rewarding when you’re confident about all of the safety features that make every adventure safe and enjoyable for you and your family. 

So, whenever you’re ready to take the next step towards driving a new car safely, it helps to have a vehicle expert who can guide you. If you have questions about car safety and how you can choose the right one for you, simply reach out to us for a chat. 

Find the right vehicle for you with Private Fleet. 

Private Fleet empowers you to gain all the benefits of a fleet purchase, but as a private buyer. 

Backed by decades of vehicle industry experience, fleet buying power and a network of car dealers across Australia, we are here to ensure that buying an autonomous vehicle will be as straightforward as possible for you. 

Buying a new car is a memorable experience – let us make it hassle-free, too. 

Reach out to us today for a seamless and easy car-buying experience. 

What’s Causing Those Potholes?

Potholes are so annoying!  I know we need to be grateful that most of our roads are sealed and aren’t rutted, but a pothole was bad news. They were bad news even when roads weren’t sealed and ruts were common.  The shallow ones bump you so hard that not even the world’s best suspension system can cancel it out (unless you dodge them), and the large ones can damage your car (more on that below).  If you try to dodge a pothole, you can put yourself and/or other drivers at risk/ In the case of some modern cars that have driver aids that were designed for and tested on perfect roads, things like lane change assistance might throw a wobbly if you detect a pothole in the road ahead and adjust your driving line carefully to avoid it (the systems are smart enough to shut up if your movements are abrupt).

Why do potholes appear?  Why does what used to be a perfectly good piece of road suddenly look like a teeny asteroid hit it?  Are heavy trucks and road trains to blame?  And what can you do about them?

The thing that causes potholes is nature striking back.  They are caused by one of the most powerful elemental forces in the world: water.  As you’ve probably seen at some point in your life, whether it’s a catastrophic landslide, a cliff eaten away by the action of the sea or just a rut in your garden after someone left the hose on for too long, water sweeps away and acts on dirt. And it’s water that causes potholes.

Now, it’s not the case that a pothole will appear where a puddle has been.  It’s true that both potholes and puddles will form in parts of the road that have slumped or become rutted, but one doesn’t directly cause the other.  There are other factors at play.  The condition of the road is one of them and the amount (and weight) of traffic is another.

Water will get into the soil beneath the road and start loosening the particles of dirt, meaning that ruts and holes will form.  This has always been the case ever since roads were invented.  If anything, the whole point of road surfacing is to have something that doesn’t form ruts and holes every time it rains so that wheels can run over it smoothly.  The different layers of a modern paved road are designed to ensure that water drains away well (and that the road will hold its shape despite heavy trafficking – but that’s good story for another time) with the asphalt over the top forming a mostly waterproof and resilient seal.  However, nature will always prevail, and water will get in.

Once the water has got in, the most common thing that happens next to create a pothole in Australia is that the water will start washing away small, fine particles of dirt, then larger particles, and then a bit more.  This will weaken the ground beneath the asphalt surfacing, as there’s less holding it up.  As traffic goes over it, the asphalt surface will be pushed down a little, not so much that you’d feel it but still a little.  And this compresses the water, which increases the pressure it exerts on the surrounding particles of dirt.  Eventually, a characteristic pattern of cracks will appear on the surface of the asphalt, known as alligator cracking because the pattern looks like the skin of a big old croc.

Eventually, the friction from tyres rolling over the asphalt will break some of the surfacing loose, exposing what’s underneath. The hole will soon get wider and wider, and you’ll get a fair dinkum pothole, and it will get worse and worse the more the water gets in.

Water in its liquid state is the primary cause of potholes in Australia, although in parts of the country where you get frosts – and in other parts of the world where winters get particularly savage – another factor is at play. Water expands as it freezes, so any water in a tiny crack of the pavement or beneath the surface will expand. The asphalt, however, will become more rigid and brittle, so the expanding ice will break the asphalt and crack it more, which accelerates the process of a pothole forming.

Generally, the wetter things get, the more quickly potholes will form.  This trend has often been noticed; in fact, Shakespeare makes a passing reference to it in one of his plays, where a character compares a stupid, pointless and completely undeserved action to fixing highways in summer.

There is nothing that you personally as a driver can do to fix a pothole. That’s the job of the local roading authority. In an ideal world, these people should inspect the roads and take action to resurface and to improve the drainage as soon as they notice signs of alligator cracking.  However, in practice, we tend to see that the problem gets a temporary fix in the form of asphalt being slapped into the hole to fill it up.  This works for a short time, but if poor drainage is what has caused the water to get in and pool beneath the road, another pothole will appear before long.

Ideally, you should drive around a pothole rather than letting your wheel run through them.  If you drive through one, it can cause a lot of damage.  Tyres are the most vulnerable. The most immediate and dramatic type of damage is if the rough edge of the pothole punctures or rips the tyre. However, there are more subtle types of damage.  Going through a pothole can also cause sidewall bulges by forcing the liner apart from the sidewall – and these bulges can blow out very easily.  If the rims are damaged or the alignment is thrown out by going over a pothole too fast, this will make the tyre wear out more quickly and unevenly.

The damage doesn’t stop there.  The shock of going through a pothole will also put a strain on the suspension and steering as well as on the general alignment of the wheels (they’re all interconnected).  This won’t happen straight away, but it will be made worse by continually going over rough roads and hitting potholes (e.g., one that’s on the road you take to work during rush hour, meaning that you have no choice other than driving over it).  In the worst case, which is going into a very deep pothole that the local authorities should really have done something about ages ago, the undercarriage and exhaust system can be scraped and dented as well if it hits the undamaged surface of the road.

In the case of EVs, damage to the underside of the vehicle is particularly serious, as this is where the battery is.  The battery is protected by an underfloor protector, which is like a suit of armour for your EV’s battery.  However, if this underfloor protector is badly damaged, the battery becomes vulnerable and could go into thermal runaway (i.e., catch fire).

Obviously, if you see a pothole, you should avoid it.  If the traffic is light and the road is wide, this isn’t a problem.  However, in heavy traffic, going through that pothole may be unavoidable, as the results of hitting another vehicle would be much worse than the results of going through a pothole.  However, the damage will be less if less force is involved, so dump some of that kinetic energy by slowing down, preferably well before you get to the pothole so you don’t bang on the brakes (however, banging on the brakes will be easier on your car than driving through a pothole, especially if you have brakes with all the driver aids). 

Lastly, the question as to whether trucks are to blame for potholes. The answer “yes but”.  Yes, trucks are heavy and the extra weight wears out the asphalt more quickly.  However, cars are getting bigger and heavier in general, and EVs are particularly heavy compared with their ICE equivalents.  However, the roads are still built to the old specifications for lighter vehicles, and don’t stand up.  What’s more, budget cuts and cheapskate roading authorities mean that roads may be built to meet the bare minimum specifications rather than exceeding the standards for extra durability and resilience.  Perhaps it’s time for the standards to be revise to meet the current vehicle fleet, especially if the government wants greater uptake of the heavier EVs.