Some future predictions that are going to be unpopular...

[Wombat]

OK, here's what I see happening over the next five to ten years with our beloved cars...
1: V8's will die. They have to...Holden for one is not facing reality by talking about a SEVEN LITER V8 as a possibility...does anyone honestly think oil is going to become magically half price from where it is now? The General should stick to developing a efficient twin-turbo Allytec V6 with a nice seven-speed auto behind it.

2: Much more strict environmental rules. Greenie idiots that can't see the difference between vast, sparsly populated Australia and New York at peak hour will push for this...expect a California-type yearly smog-test within I would guess five years? Without passing the test, you ain't driving nowhere buster! They have already tested a device that shines a light beam across the road, measures the exhaust output, and it is linked to a speed camera-type device that takes a photo of your car if it is above a certain level of pollution. This was a few years back in, I think, New South Wales. I would lay money on this one coming in sooner rather than later.

3: "Clunker Laws"...did you know that in a lot of places around the world, that old parts car you have in the back yard, if it is "clearly visible from a main road", it can be legally confiscated for the crusher from your property? As you watch your beloved old 350 Monaro that you were going to "do something with one day when you got the time" leave on the back of a tilt-tray for the crusher just because your nosey neighbor didn't like the old car sitting near his fenceline and called the environmental inspectors, just smile and know that you are doing your bit for the environment...
There is another linked law to this one which is in action in some US states and is being talked about in England...to keep a vehicle such as a parts car in your yard, it too must be fully registered...that's right, plates, sticker, and all, even if it is an empty rolling bodyshell sitting behind your shed...

4: The disappearance of wreckers yards. In England and Europe, thousands of wreckers yards had to close down...new environmental rules came in concerning contamination of the ground by oils and fluids from wrecks. They mandated that entire yards had to be concreted over, after the dirty soil was removed of course, and then a strict regime of draining all fluids from wrecks, removing recyclables, and paying for the clean disposal of the oils and fluids. This broke the back of small country wreckers were all the interesting stuff was tucked away, and most went to the crusher. I give local wreckers yards between five and ten years at the outside before it comes in here...

5: Mandatory fuel economy levels, if not personally set for drivers, then a minimum corporate "average" for a manufacturer's range of vehicles. This is handy because, if set low enough, can force a maker to produce piles of tiny fuel efficient cars, and very few larger polluting 6's and V8's. This is already in place in California. They also must produce a certain percentage of "Zero emmission" vehicles to be able to sell cars in that state...although we all know that there is no such thing as a zero-emmission car...and electric car merely shifts the exhaust from the car to the power station when you recharge it... :b:

This is the Biggy, and one I have a nasty suspicion may come in one day...
6: Regulated private vehicle usage. How many kilometers do you do a year? How about we set a maximum you are allowed to do each year, and you shall keep a log book (or maybe a manditory tachimeter) which will allow roadside inspections of the k's you are doing? Hey, you got a pushbike don't you?

...just close your eyes and think of how peachy-keen it will be for the environment... :bang:

 

[soulyouth]

Thats so messed up

I know what you mean man, things just keep getting crazier.Someone is always try to tell you how to live, and what you can and can't do, but Like the yanks have these huge SUV's with huge engines, and in Australia its not so much the SUV's its our beloved V8 cars, that’s why us and the yanks won't sign the Environmental thingy that’s forces us d half all emissions by a certain date.

I see everything you said happening, but more like 20 to 30 years as the yanks won't give up there huge SUV's and the V8 is an Aussie icon and we won't be letting go without a fight.

As for the towing away and crushing of cars on your property, I'd chain myself to the car. LOL

 

[rattattack1313]

yea..pretty sad, all of that, wombat...but at the same time, tooo true.... it's terrible what we , and our ancestors have done to this planet......and I feel for our children and grandchildren...they are the ones that are going to suffer/miss out.......(this from me, whos dad worked for Exxon for 30 years!!)........ :whistling

 

[MattK]

Sorry

But were going to fight ?

Ive heard that before !!!

Rediculous fines for speeding , even 1 kmh over the limit !!!!
Where was the fight ????

Increased taxes on Sigs etc - were going to fight !
Where was the fight ???

The damned GST - were going to fight !
Where was the fight ????

Confiscating Guns - were going to fight !
Where was the fight ????


every time I hear - were going to fight this - T tell myself - NO WAY -

Australia has become politically retarded , most people are just a bunch of politically correct sheep , who go where the sheep hearder directs them ...

Seriously , id like to see this fight one day before its too late , and the sheep have been through the shearing shed !!!!


:b:

 

[Snowfox]

Right thats it, I'm moving to Mars :ranting:

 

[greenfoam]

Yep, I can't see any future for big V8's either, no reason why we can't have a small one with turbo/s before fuel cells get common. I wonder how a diesel V8 with turbos sounds like : )?. Where I live any metal left outside turns to dirt after a couple of years anyway so all the good wrecking yard here are fairly pro and keep everything in sheds. These kind of wreakers are normally cheaper than the budget places because nothing goes rotten outside wasting money. Anyway do you remember a movie called Firebird 2000(something) it was all about these "Fuel burners" that hooned around in the last few remaining V8's after a holocaust. There was also a computer game back in about 1983/4? called "The last V8" it had some famous "sid" music, you had to gun around in the last V8 on Earth doing some kind of missions, I can't remember much except it was really really hard :0. I don't mind if things get stricter the old planet is on a fast track to being one giant tip, it's good as stuffed within a 1000 years unless things take a serious change, the above laws aren't going to be near enough so they will only be a temporary thing anyway : ) but in the short term I'll be one of those fuel burners, got my HQ ready for action

Oh yeah I have strong feelings about speeding too, in Germany the have such good roads they don't need speed limits, the only reason we have them is because our roads are crap, there are highways around here that can't hang onto a car at much more than 100ks in the rain. that's a disgrace and should be fixed, time is important these days and Australia is a huge country if any country needs higher speed limits it's us. We should have a proper multi lane highway right round the country with an unlimited lane. We also should have heaps of money thrown at building more railway lines so we don't need any trucks on the roads

 

[mixin]

1: V8's will die. They have to...
I can see this being right - there is a push (even in the US) for smaller, more efficient powerplants.

2: Much more strict environmental rules. .......expect a California-type yearly smog-test
The RTA has already studied this, and at the moment the only thing stopping it is the capital cost on the inspection stations for the sniffers - expect it to happen with some form of rebate or subsidy to the inspectors.
NSW paperwork has had a pollution test section on it for a couple of years now - just not needed - yet!

3: "Clunker Laws"...
Yep, Japan does this.

4: The disappearance of wreckers yards.
It's already happening across the board in NSW and I beleive Vic as well now - all wreckers now have to drain fluids, recycle, and pay for regular soil sample tests if they are not on concrete.

5: Mandatory fuel economy levels, if not personally set for drivers, then a minimum corporate "average" for a manufacturer's range of vehicles.
Already in place, just not publicised much. It's referred to as the CAFE laws in the US, hated by Detroit, but loved by the Japs.
This is also one of the reasons for lacklustre GTO sales - they have to sell cars to a CAFE level - ie 3 or 4 buzzboxes to one V8.


This is the Biggy, and one I have a nasty suspicion may come in one day...
6: Regulated private vehicle usage. How many kilometers do you do a year? How about we set a maximum you are allowed to do each year, and you shall keep a log book (or maybe a manditory tachimeter) which will allow roadside inspections of the k's you are doing? Hey, you got a pushbike don't you?
Already happens to trucks in the UK, and they have been speculating this for cars for a number of years.

 

[Trewman]

Why is everythng bad happening as soon as i get my license!

Its like these bloody new hoon lawns.

I get my P's this year which is about the right time where anyone with a non stock exhaust is seen as a hoon. Dam all you old people who had fun when you were kids, dam you!

 

[Wombat]

Don't feel bad Trewman...it isn't only "young guys" who look back on the good old days...
I've just turned 40 and look back fondly on my days as a kid in the early 1970's in Nambour. My late father was a postman and then worked in the mail room at the Post Office...a basic ordinary job with not a huge paypacket. My mother didn't work of course...hardly anyones' mother worked back then, in fact most women had to leave the workforce when they becamse preggers...out the door, simple as that. :unsure:
However, every three or four years, he could afford to buy (not pay off on finance, buy) a brand new car. They had bought thier own house, and once a year we went away for four weeks to either a beachside house or my sister's place in Innisfail in far north Queensland, and after he retired at 60 in 1975, every school holidays we loaded up the car and went off for two weeks to Innisfail....all this on one man's wages and, later, pension and superannuation...try doing that now with a family... :bang:

When I finally took my family back up north last year, something I've been promising to them for years, I had to save for ages and then hunt around for lower priced accommadation on the way and up there, and then we only stayed for a week.

Cars? I distinctly remember going into the local Mazda dealership in 1974 with them as we purchasing a top-of-the-line 929 Deluxe wagon (with air conditioning! :w00t: ) for $4300 on the road... :bang:
I feel free to say I make a bit less than $40,000 in a good year, yet our current '96 VS Berlina, while undoubtedly the best car we have ever owned, isn't even the "newest" second hand car we have been able to own...way back in 1984 when I was working on a farm as a field-hand/sh1t-kicker I was easily able to buy a 1980 VC Commodore!

I think things have always been slowly going down hill....

 

[DJ Majah]

How about before you post next time you differentiate between revenue-raising wedge politics and environmental conservatism. The compulsory registration and regulated usage are money issues, the root of our pollution problems.

The greenies are trying to save your arse too, not their own. We have new technologies, although not perfected yet, which are able to produce zero emissions. By not perfected yet, I mean they either divert emissions somewhere else as you said, or they are currently too expensive to produce. People like you who arent prepared to face the thought of a world without petrol are the reason these technologies arent moving ahead. Q. Why didnt John 'Moneybags' Howard sign the Kyoto protocol?
A. Because it would cost too much.
Great! How happy am I that he saved us all $2 a year. (And dont start whinging about your beloved 5Ls, this is a corporate and government plan to reduce emissions and install non-fossil fuel electricity generators etc)

Why is a mandatory fuel economy level a problem? Even if on an electric car you are only delegating the emissions from the car to the power station, the amount of pollution is still diminished. A huge steam turbine can produce more power/fuel than your smoky V8 can. What if youre in an area like Sydney and are receiving hydroelectricity?

One of my mates was saying that alternative fuel cars arent any good because they wont go speed racer fast enough and you cant mod them. :bang: You'll need those penis enlargement emails after all.

I dont want to see the disappearance of petrol engines, but if we have a better everyday solution to transport we should use it. But one day if petrol engines are banned from road registration I wont be unhappy at all. No need to worry about buying a new car, it wont happen in your lifetime and probably not in mine, but I would rather leave a legacy of a green paddock than a puddle of sludge. Money and time are the only things stopping us from having a renewable resource based private transport system.

I do drive a Commodore, but my 3.8 will still get 500ks to a tank. And when a hydrogen car is available I will be the first to throw away the keys to the Commodore and buy one.

Dont forget money is something we created, when the human race is dying money wont save us, and once we're dead, so is the idea of money.