Australian VS German Car Culture

[TVR-190]

http://www.caradvice.com.au/30280/ge...n-car-culture/

Quite an interesting read that i think many on here will appreciate.

[mulligan-can]

I'm feeling rather down about living in Australia after reading that...

[pow3rslave]

the whole respect for someone with a better car makes sense until you see people in cars i'd kill for who can't drive for ****, and just bought it for the name brand on it, probably never put it through its paces and have no idea what's under the bonnet

[mavro]

I just moved back 2 aussie about 4 months ago after living in holland for 30 years went to germany about once every 6 weeks for shopping ( 5Liters of beer $10)
and there you can drive as fast as your car can go ! ON the highways !!!!!!
the fastest i went was in my bmw E46 325 cabrio.... 237km per hour...

[greenfoam]

The whole problem is Germany is a rich country in a small area. Australia isn't so rich and has to build 100x more roads with 100x less money. So in the end their roads are race track good and ours are rubbish and many of them aren't safe for speeds over 100 in the rain :|

[stocky]

The whole problem is Germany is a rich country in a small area. Australia isn't so rich and has to build 100x more roads with 100x less money. So in the end their roads are race track good and ours are rubbish and many of them aren't safe for speeds over 100 in the rain :|

its also their motivation to keep the roads in perfect condition. "to last 1000 years" is what they built it for. instead of us letting the lowest bidder build our stuff.

interesting read that was

[greenfoam]

Yeah that's the major problem with our roads. The section of highway were I live was recently redone Australian style. It cost 9 million bucks, was done by the lowest price contractors. In the end the much of road was a dirt road and 40 zone for 14 months. @ month after that uch of it had come unstuck and has recently been done by the local guys and ended up rougher and in worse condition that it had been before any work was done. End result has been 9 million spent and 3 deaths on the road so far. I'm allways saying we should just get the Germans to build all our roads if we could afford it. I guess if it lasts twice as long and costs twice as much you end up the same. It would have been a much better idea if they can't find anyone in Australia capable of building a decent road to to get a team of Germans over here to do it properly pay them what it takes and leave it at that

[VZCalZone]

they know how to build a road but dodgy jobs keep the economy going. It's the capitalist world we live in. Have you seen how many people are on a worksite that do not actually do any work at all? The contractors know what they are doing, making sure they can get an easy buck tomorrow .

[stocky]

yeah but at least germany can be proud of their achievements in buidling, especially with the autobahn. its one of the most well known roads in the road. i dont think anyone in the world will be proud of our cheapness

[1991_Vn2nV]

The other problem here is the Australian attitude to driving. People do not pay attention, they have no idea of what is around them and they show no courtesy to other drivers.

Good drivers just drive. Unfortunately the vast majority of Australians are just shit drivers. Doing 180km/h here really is a death wish most of the time because chancers are some idiot will pull in front of you or something stupid will happen because people can barely look to see if anyone is around them or coming, let alone comprehend the speed another vehicle is doing and realise how quickly that car will reach them. How many times do people pull out in front of you in an 80 zone and take so long to increase their speed that you almost run up their ass, which ironically would make the accident 100% your fault.

[VZCalZone]

yeah but at least germany can be proud of their achievements in buidling, especially with the autobahn. its one of the most well known roads in the road. i dont think anyone in the world will be proud of our cheapness

I wasn't saying it was a good thing. I'm absolutely disgusted by it. Why don't public roads come with a warranty. I watched a doco on the autobahn and it's about 700mm thick concrete the whole bloody lot, survived a world war and is the envy of every nations motorists. People go to Germany to drive on their roads, what do you think those tourists say when they come back to pre-wheel standard Australia? By the way if you don't think our roads are bad go pretty much anywhere else. Imagine if we had American style interstates at least.

[Grennan]

Keep in mind our licensing standards are atrocious compared to what is required in Germany. Over there they have extremely strict standards on licensing and driver training, here a drive on a sunday afternoon with mum is considered practice. Not only that, the cost is enourmous so once you have your license you want to keep it.

IF we had a licensing system that didnt compare to a maze on the back of the fruit loops box we might have the chance to be shit driver free.

[BOY1236]

Thirty seconds later an M3 went past us at about 190km/h. The cop didn’t even look. 20 more seconds went by and and an M6 came screaming past at around 250km/h. Cop stayed still. Then I realised, oh, yes, I forgot, this is legal.

it's like here in Saudi Arabia, it's not legal, but everyone is doing it anyway

so this proved my theory about that fast cars should go fast on the road, and have their own lane and everyone will be happy

great read, thanks

[greenfoam]

Imagine if we had American style interstates at least.

I actually saw the opposition say someting they other day that made me think. They said the stimulis package could have payed for the width of the A1 Princes highway to be doubled all the way from Brisbane to Adelaide. Made me stop and think just how much money that was and your'e right the interstates are pretty good apart from the donk d donk d donk
as you drive over the joins in the concrete slabs

[Morton]

lol @ doubling the A1 all the way from Brisbane to Adelaide. That would be huge

Half the fun of an interstate drive, is seeing the scenery on the way there. Visiting the towns, driving through the hills, stopping at the lookouts... You can't do that at 180kph.

I don't feel I've really driven into another state, unless I got caught behind a caravan or truck on the way there

[LTHL-VP]

im officially moving to Germany lol

[vlv8vic]

we have to many ********s here to get away with something like that. too many skyline and statesman drivers ripping it up on the streets and ignoring posted limits. Sure it'd be great to have unposted roads but people are too thick to work it out as it is. Notice he said you just don't see the random burnouts there.... Aussies don't have that self control it seems.

[minux]

Aussies don't have that self control it seems.

Many just lack the standard level of intelligence that should be required to drive on a road.

Yes, I am saying the majority of drivers on Australian roads are dumb idiots.

[vy_storm]

Interesting article, however I think the word culture is not a good term, it's all down to attitude.

[stocky]

lol @ doubling the A1 all the way from Brisbane to Adelaide. That would be huge

Half the fun of an interstate drive, is seeing the scenery on the way there. Visiting the towns, driving through the hills, stopping at the lookouts... You can't do that at 180kph.

I don't feel I've really driven into another state, unless I got caught behind a caravan or truck on the way there

pffft. we know how quick you got to queensland from victoria

we have to many ********s here to get away with something like that. too many skyline and statesman drivers ripping it up on the streets and ignoring posted limits. Sure it'd be great to have unposted roads but people are too thick to work it out as it is. Notice he said you just don't see the random burnouts there.... Aussies don't have that self control it seems.

suppose thats what happens when you make V8 powered cars available to anyone at low cost. how many people want to watch a BMW doing a burnout? id rather see it doing what it was designed for

[levymetal]

^^^ as said above, neither our roads nor our cars are safe to do 180km/h. i trust my driving more than anyone's and even if we had the best roads in the world i wouldn't feel safe driving my vp at 180km/h. let alone anyone else driving a similar car.

Unlike Australia, the faster your car is in Germany, the more respect you get on the road.

i would tend to disagree with that statement, the proportion of people who like fast cars is probably the same as in Australia, it's just that in Germany everyone's rich so if they like fast cars they have (for eg) an M5, which is a car that everyone can agree is nice whether you like fast cars or not. in Australia we're driving old commodores with loud exhausts, and because we can't legally go very fast at all, we still needed to get our hit so we found something else to do that had less chance of being caught... burnouts (not saying that i do them, but i live at the start of a busy street, and every second car is a v8. all i hear all day is VRRRRRMM *screeeech*)

[HamaTime™]

An interesting point of view, his final point "Learn to Drive Stupid" tells all. In my point of view, I think that our roads and driving privilages are over legislated and over controlled. Teaching people how to be better drivers is a good start.

However, he says "People here love cars because they love cars, they don't do random burnouts in the street". Believe me, nothing wrong with a good burnout...though on the circut or the burnout track...

Why can't we have a road and car culture that is understanding and so much less focused on showing off and being stupid...get rid of 90% of the laws on the road that are just ridiculous...far out...now I want to move to Germany...

SOMEONE FIX IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!