Home
Is Your Car The Ideal Mum’s Taxi?
Secondary and primary schools are going back after summer, and it’s that time of year when parents get back into the grind of doing the school run (unless the kids walk, bike or take the bus, of course). Cars that have taken the family to the beach or on holiday go back to being Mum’s Taxi (or Dad’s Taxi), if they’re appropriate.
But is your car the best possible Mum’s Taxi out there? Take the quiz to find out:
1: How many seats does your car have?
(a ) Five
(b) Four – two bucket sports seats in the front and two very small ones in the back
(c) Seven
(d) Three, one right by the driver’s elbow where the occupant will get bumped during a gear change.
2: How many doors does your car have?
(a ) two or three (rear hatches count as doors)
(b) two
(c) Four, or else two plus a sliding panel van-style and a rear hatch.
(d) two, but if you open the passenger’s side, several tools, an old newspaper and a hat will fall out on top of the opener.
3: What comfort features does your car have?
(a) Air-con and electric windows, and the front seats can slide forward and back
(b) Dual-zone climate control, leather seats, rake-and-tilt adjustable sports steering wheel, automatically retracting hood
(c) Dual-zone (or even three-zone) climate control, filters, electronically adjustable seats, tinted glass, heated seats front and rear, anti-pinch electric windows, etc.
(d) The seats are padded and you can open the window most of the time– does that count?
4: What passive safety features does your car have?
(a) A few airbags, inertia reel or pretensioned seatbelts, child restraint preparation in the rear
(b) A roll cage and front air bags
(c) Anti-submarining seats, pretensioned seatbelts, airbags for Africa, crumple zones,
(d) Seatbelts, but you’ll have to fish around to find the bit you plug them into and use that bra-strap adjustment to get it them the right size.
5: What other bells and whistles does your car have?
(a) a CD player/radio, keyless entry, trip computer
(b) Check out my stereo and the extra-big after-market speakers in the back! If it’s to do with the sound system, I’ve got it.
(c) GPS, hands-free phone, keyless entry, follow-me-home lights, rear seat DVD, trip computer with the works…
(d) A radio that picks up AM frequencies only when you’re travelling in an east–west direction and a horn that works.
6: How big is your boot?
(a) Average
(b) How big a boot do you expect in a coupé?
(c) Massive (in a sedan), or else it varies depending on whether the rear seats fold down.
(d) The ute deck’s enormous, but I hope it doesn’t rain or your stuff’ll get wet.
7: Your car can be described as a…
(a) hatchback (e.g. Suzuki Swift), sedan (e.g. Toyota Corolla or BMW 3-series) or smaller SUV (e.g. Isuzu MU)
(b) roadster or sports coupé (e.g. BMW Z4 or Mazda MX-5))
(c) MPV (e.g. Honda Odyssey), large 4×4 (e.g. Hyundai Santa Fe) or van (e.g. Ford Transit)
(d) workhorse (e.g. Toyota Hilux)
Mostly As: Your car is a reasonable Mum’s Taxi. It has a few drawbacks that hold it back from being the perfect car for the school run, but you’ll get there in one piece and with everyone’s sanity and temper reasonably intact.
Mostly Bs: Your car is the one the adolescent boys love to have used as Mum’s Taxi. One word of warning, though: better hide the keys once they learn to drive, or they’ll nick it to impress their mates.
Mostly Cs: Your car is the epitome of Mum’s Taxi – a perfect vehicle for taking large numbers of children and adolescents from A to B in comfort and style. Expect to be in demand for school trips, sports club outings, Boy Scout/Girl Guide camps, etc.
Mostly Ds: You have the perfect excuse for not ferrying the kids to and from school because your car probably isn’t the best for the job – except in emergencies.
Not more funny car ads…..
When we blogged a few months back about some funny car ads doing the rounds, we had no idea how many more auto related ads have hit the spot – at least according to our readers.
Many thanks to Gavin for sending this one in. It’s an actual recording with a video ‘recreation’. Enjoy 🙂
The rise and rise of fuel prices
It may have come to your notice as it has mine; but what is with the price of fuel?
Petrol prices have moved into record territory and it seems that it is not likely to ease anytime soon. This leaves us wondering what is driving the price of petrol/fuels generally and will it ever start coming down again with Australia’s current booming dollar value?
We are now paying almost the same amount for fuel as we did in mid ’08 when our dollar was at US$0.60 and crude oil prices were $135 per barrel.
Just recently you can see that in Nov ’10 the average price of fuel at the pump was $1.24 per litre and now in Feb ’11 it is averaging $1.35 per litre. The largest difference now is the Aussie dollar and the US dollars’ are at parity and the cost of crude per barrel is only $98 per barrel.
With those statistics we should be paying $0.90-$1.00 per litre.
The question is who is making the money? Where does your hard earned money go? The Middle East and the oil companies, that’s where.
Unfortunately crude oil is only one of a string of components the push up the pump price of fuel. There are taxes (everywhere – state and federal), refining costs, marketing, distribution and the most costly factor – China.
China’s demand for fuel is so great that the old school lessons of supply and demand are applied. Add to that the rest of the world, political instability, production interruptions (refinery explosions and bad weather) and the limit of the resource itself; and you have consumer price rise.
So don’t look seeing any great price cuts in the near future even if TV tells you of decreasing crude oil prices, the fact is the cost of today’s fuel is in the hands of the few. Who said the cost of the many outweighs the cost of the few???
For the positive spin, you must remember one thing the cost of bottled water is higher than fuel…and we all buy that without whinging. My husband’s contact lens ‘water’ comes in at around $40 a litre. Surely it is easier to add a little salt to some water and bottle it than it is to refine oil into petrol. Who is making the money there!! Maybe some perspective is in order.
More on the 2010 Sales Numbers
With month one having flown by and the first sales figures of 2011 available today for scrutiny, showing a 1.7% decrease compared to January 2010, I thought it was time to take another look at our million plus effort from 2010.
The motoring industry had a great year in overall sales even with all of the international pressures of GFC aftermath. Good new to manufacturs who have failed dismally elsewhere in the world. The new vehicle market had a rise in sales of 10.5% (98,246 vehicles) over 2009 figures. The total figure of vehicles sold in 2010 was 1,035,574 which is very decent considering our small population base.
The ‘shining star’ segment was the Compact SUV with and whopping increase in sales of 36.6%, which is a boost of 30,759 vehicles. It is proof that our buying habits are closely related to our opinions on global warming and rising fuel prices. The compact SUV allows for the family to be both mobile and economical.
It is no surprise that Toyota kept is top position in the Aussie market followed by the beloved Holden, Ford and Mazda brands. It is good to see that the up and coming global giants like Hyundai, Mitsubishi, VW and Nissan are making head ways into our markets. They are all producing good quality, highly equipped, safety conscious vehicles without the price tag. Toyota is miles ahead, but there is real competition for the top spot in such a volatile and fickle market such as the motoring industry.
Toyota holds the lead at 20.7% market share (214,718 vehicles)-down from 2009 by 0.7%; Holden is in 2nd place with a 12.8% market share-steady from the previous year; and Ford in 3rd place with 9.2% share which is down 1.1% from ’09.
The increasing share holders are Hyundai with and increase of 1% to 7.7% (80,038 vehicles); Nissan up 0.5% to 6.1%; and VW up 0.5% to 3.7%.
In sheer numbers the only major manufacturers (Top 10) in 2010 that did not increase its volume number (cars actually sold in the calendar year) were Ford and Honda. Ford decreased in sales by 1,217 vehicles in 2010. This is unfortunate for such an iconic Australian brand-even though it is American in its heritage and ownership. Whatever happened to the ‘Ford man’ or the ‘Holden family’? They were simpler times and I can see Ford making inroads again in the years to come with some new attractive models on the horizon.
It seems there is real desire for Australians to own and drive new vehicles with the 2010 figures proving that buyer awareness is growing and the dealers are addressing their individual needs through an array of pricing, equipment and solid manufacturing to keep the buyers happy.
It is a buyers’ market, so keep your eye out for a bargain.
P.S. Would anyone like to have a guess at the year end figure for 2011? Remember last year was 1,035,574. I’ll start the ball rolling with 980,000.
Level 2, 9 Help Street