Don’t forget the kids

Discovering, of late, that safety has been taken seriously by car manufacturers in the last decade has changed, for many, the way that they approach buying a new car.  Safety is all about how the occupants are kept safe inside the shell of a crashing car. 

To start with, it was the seatbelts that offered a car’s driver and occupants a means by which they were not hurled around willy-nilly in a car crash.  Introducing ABS to premium cars in the eighties enabled control in emergency braking – particularly in the wet. 

Airbags were then introduced for the driver.  Bizarrely, after a period of time, the powers-at-be-only then decided to offer an airbag to the front passenger as well.  Airbag technology has become so advanced these days that you’ll find airbags for Africa inside most top brand cars – though that’s probably not fair, because it hasn’t taken long for the mainstream models to equip their fleet with a full array of airbags.  They knew that safety features were becoming a big selling point, and so they surrendered to public demand.

All sorts of active safety features (often onboard electronic aids) like accident avoidance systems, good visibility from a driver’s seat, ABS, EBD, TCS, ESC, EBA, low noise level in the car’s interior, legibility of instrumentation and warning symbols, heads-up displays, intelligent speed adaptation, cruise control and even night vision make travelling in the best cars the safest bet. 

At present, child safety is right at the fore in crash safety design.  For many years, a lap belt was all that was available to the middle passenger (often the child) in the back seats.  This was never the best option, and manufacturers soon made three-point safety belts in the rear seats standard – though even today you’ll find the odd car skimping on this one! 

Today, crash testing looks out for the child so much more.  Ratings given for child safety include even the fitting instructions for a range of popular child seats, the car’s ability to accommodate the child safety seats appropriately and their performance in front and side impact tests.  

What about airbag systems?  Do they endanger a child?  Actually, they can.  Never place a rear-facing child restraint on the front passenger seat with an active frontal protection airbag.  Some vehicles are designed to allow for the passenger airbag to be deactivated if a child’s weight is detected in the front passenger seat.  If you are in any doubt about when it is safe to use a rear-facing child seat in the front seat of a car, consult the vehicle handbook for more information or place them in the rear seats.  It’s better to be safe than sorry.

In an accident, where is the safest place for a child seat?  Airbags aside, it is actually safest to place a small child in a child seat on the rear seats.  My personal choice would be in the middle with a three-point safety seat belt.  This is because in the middle rear-seat, it would seem to me, that they would be protected from any side impact better.  Some people argue that the left rear seat is the safest because side collisions are more common from the right, and that they are the furthest away from RHS-offset head-on collisions.

Before installing your child restraint on any seat, it is essential to check that the intended seat position is suitable for use with a child seat.  Information on this should be available in the vehicle manufacturer’s handbook – if the vehicle manufacturer has got any nous. 

If you’re still not sure, then buy a new Volvo! http://credit-n.ru/zaymyi-next.html

2010 Australian International Motor Show

This year’s Sydney Motor Show (AIMS), rotating biannually with Melbourne is currently a great success. The press saw many fantastic openings and unveilings of 44 new and improved vehicles.

I think the rotation of locations has been good for the manufactures that are laden with overseas pressures and agenda. One annual Australian Motor Show has let companies like Ford bring out the big guns with a massive display like those seen in Frankfurt and Detroit Shows.

This year’s Motor Show seemed to take on a fantastical approach with great numbers of concept, new model, very special and the insane on display for us mere mortals to dribble over and make those childish sounds of desire that we can’t explain or avoid.  It is a glamorous and sexy event to say the least.

Surprisingly, given that it is two years since the last Sydney Motor Show and two years until the next one, there are a few notable absentees. BMW being the stand out. Why they would not appear in the largest show hosted in the largest market in Australia, when their competitors, Audi, Mercedes, VW and Porsche, are all there astounds me.

Also missing are the Ateco stable with Alfa Romeo, Citroen, Ferrari, Fiat and Great Wall all giving the show a miss.

For me the stand out new car reveal was the Range Rover Evoque. This is a great looking car and if it launches around the suggested $60K mark, there will be a very large waiting list very quickly. Other head turners are the Kia Optima. Kia’s version of the Hyundai i45 is a stunner and should sell well when launched early next year.

Renault has a lot of new cars on display as they try to resurrect the brand in Australia and I must say that the new Megane and Clio are great looking cars.

There is also a big electric and hybrid theme with the Mitsubishi iMeiv proudly on display, including a ‘sports version’, Lexus with the new hybrid only, CT200H and the new Civic Hybrid.

It is also a Ute Fest this year with the new Australian designed Ford Ranger taking pride of place on a fantastic Ford stand and the same car on the Mazda stand as the new BT50. The new VW Amarok, due next year is a real head turner and I am sure will do very well for VW.

All in all the show is well worth a visit. It will be 2012 until we see it again. http://credit-n.ru/kreditnye-karty.html

Car Dealer Slang

If you’ve ever spent much time in a car yard in Australia, you may well have noticed that it’s like car dealers peak another language!  Especially when they’re talking to each other.

We thought we’d put together a list of all the car dealer slang we could come up with.  But, before you read on, see if you can make sense of the fllolowing video (without the captions)

Then come back here and check out (or add to) our complete dealer glossary!

The Language of Car Yards

Describing a Car

‘dunny door’ – Holden Commodore
‘got form’ – been in previous accident
‘pair of 2’s’ – worth $22K
‘povo pack’ – base model
‘low on ticket’ – running low on registration
‘fast glass’ – power windows
‘bump & hook’ – bullbar & towbar
‘stop’ – abs brakes
‘DC red’ – bright red
‘safety yellow’ – bright yellow
‘double oh, double oh’ – 2000 build, 2000 complied
‘Dolly Partons’ – airbags
a bit leggy – high mileage
‘dollar car’ – a low value trade-in
“puff and blow” – airbags & aircon
‘ncv’ – no commercial value
‘needs boots’ – tyres are worn
‘no humphrey’ – no air conditionaing (Humphrey B Bear – Air)
‘more hits than Elvis’ – panel damage
‘top of the wazza’ – top of the range
‘all the bells and whistles’ – fully optioned

Selling Slang

‘head on the yard’ – potential client outside
‘dudder’ – client can’t get finance
‘tyre kickers’ – time wasting ‘buyers’
‘full lick’ – selling a car at full price
‘wood duck’ – sucker customer
‘upside down’ – negative equity
‘in traffic’ – car is sold & delivered
‘low ball’ – an offer way below what is reasonable
‘gorilla/monkey for the hurt’ – $1,000, $500 to spend
‘ducks on the pond’ – customers outside
‘ghosts’ – clients that won’t go away
‘on the drip’ – weekly payments
‘for a bradman a week’ – $100/week payments
‘on the murray cod’ – on the nod
’90 day beige’ – old stock, can’t sell, nobody wants, bad resale
‘ping the mrs’ – direct the sales tactics towards the female in a couple

Lastly, RIP to John Clarke, the renowned satirist. Here he is many years ago showing the argot over the ditch

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Pros And Cons Of The Horseless Carriage

With all the fuss in October about the rapidly approaching Melbourne Cup, it seems appropriate to muse on the merits of the horse versus the horseless carriage… commonly known as a car.  Some people, especially romantic, back-to-nature and environmentally friendly types long for a return to horse-drawn transport.  Other folk are happy to have left horses behind in favour for machines.  So how do the two compare?

Advantages of cars:

1. They can go faster and for longer, and can carry more people and luggage while doing it.  Admittedly, this is the main advantage of a car and is why they have taken over.
2. They don’t poop.
3. They can be left in the garage for a week if you need to and won’t feel neglected.
4. They are waterproof and you don’t get wet when travelling on rainy days.
5. They have stereos, air conditioning, heaters and even DVD players.  They also have seatbelts.
6. They don’t require as much space to keep.
7. They won’t run around the paddock refusing to be caught when you’re in a hurry to get away.
8. They don’t kick or bite.  Nor do they have other vices such as bucking, rearing or wind-sucking (to amuse themselves, bored horses in stables bite the side of the stable door and inhale, filling themselves up with gas.  They then burp, making the saddle dangerously loose once in action).  Nor do they decide they don’t like being behind another car, or take a violent dislike to the car behind them, lashing out if the one behind gets too close… actually, a few drivers might consider this point an advantage of horses.
9. They don’t get startled by a piece of paper flapping on the side of the road, causing them to suddenly bolt out of control.

Advantages of horses:

1. Their waste products are biodegradable – few things beat horse poop as a general garden fertiliser.  The same goes for those that have given up the ghost: a dead horse can be recycled into glue, fertiliser and dog food; dead cars have fewer uses.  If you’re not squeamish, you can eat horse meat – they do in France.
2. They reproduce themselves (however, stallions are more prone to kicking, biting, rearing, etc.; most male horses are gelded to settle them down).  It is also possible to get a “crossover” version without years of design work – to get something that combines speed and agility with pulling power, introduce a Clydesdale mare in season to an Arab or thoroughbred stallion and let nature take its course.
3. They use sustainably produced biofuels on an exclusive basis and none runs on fossil fuels.  They do produce greenhouse gases as exhaust from both ends, but neither of these is as toxic as the fumes from cars.  Horse breath smells quite nice (horse farts are another story).
4. They are alive, so they can and do respond to you.  They really do listen to your problems, whinny to you in greeting and can sense your moods.  Cars have seldom, if ever, been used as therapy for disturbed children.
5. A horse can beat any car for off-roading ability, parking sensors and voice activated controls.  A horse can jump obstacles such as hedges or ditches that would leave even a Jeep stranded, and a horse can swim.  And I’ll never forget one ride in a governess cart at one of those settler’s museum places:  at the end of the journey, the driver simply said “Annie, park,” and the horse neatly stepped into place at the right distance from the kerb and the right distance between two other carts before stopping.  Horses are also capable of detecting potential hazards – possibly excessively so (see point 7 above, which is why blinkers, as seen on trotters and pacers, were invented) and won’t enter an intersection when there’s something coming – a horse’s sense of hearing is better than yours.
6. If you drive drunk or nod off while driving a horse, all will (usually) be well.  A horse will take you home automatically while you sleep – or sleep if off.
7. Most horses are disinclined to roll when going around a steep corner, can detect a hazard and stop before you do, and don’t usually skid when brought to a standstill.  Steering a horse is (usually) much easier than the smoothest power steering.
8. You can’t lose the keys for getting a horse started.  Nor can you lock the keys inside a horse, run out of gas unexpectedly or pick up speeding tickets.

Both horses and cars are expensive to purchase, need to be fed and groomed, require frequent shoeing, get ill and die.  Both horses and cars tended to cause fatal accidents at high speeds, although cars are able to kill more people at once, whereas a horse bolting out of control or ridden too hard (boy racers are not a new phenomenon) killed one or two people at most.  Both got sold by dodgy dealers as well as reliable ones, and they say that used car salespeople learnt their tricks off horse-dealers.  Both come in different shapes, colours and sizes, depending on whether you want something for fun (ponies and hatchbacks), racing (thoroughbreds and sports cars), family use (your typical Aussie farm horse and your typical Aussie sedan/wagon) or serious pulling (draught horses and diesel-powered commercial vehicles).

Private Fleet, however, does not sell horses. http://credit-n.ru/vklady.html