| Author | Message | ||
     Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov Grand Master Username: soviet Post Number: 1361 Registered: 2-2013 |
Some of you know that I had to pull out the original seats belts from my 1976 Cadillac and replace them with Australian Seat belts which now means in a side swipe I can get decapitated from the seat belt. The original Cadillac belts used a double retractors one in the roof and one on the floor. Now the seat belt anchor is attached to the door pillar and compliments to the idiotic fools in charge of Queensland Transport and the clown who made up the Australian Design Rules. This twits are probably so dumb they think a 76 Cadillac is far less safe that a Holden Commodore which is lower in status that the cheapest Chev. I curse them in perpetuity. But what about the nutcase who is allowing very late model vehicles on the road with blinding headlights some which go brighter as the vehicle goes over a small dump. Such nutters deserve to be flung live into a Siberian winter's lake without a hole cut for them to hit the water or tied to a tree in Siberia in their underpants so the big mosquitos and bears can have a feed. Seriously, those headlights are a menace on the road. | ||
| ross kowalski Grand Master Username: cdfpw Post Number: 969 Registered: 11-2015 |
Vlad, I certainly don't endorse flashing your lights at hose hid led cars like you think they have their brights on. Also, as those lights are legal I certainly wouldn't endorse driving the the legal speed limit whenever someone with those lights pulls up from the rear. | ||
| Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov Grand Master Username: soviet Post Number: 1362 Registered: 2-2013 |
Well its illegal here to hit high beam to pay back some other driver who has blinded you with having his lights on high beam. My question is really why the dopey government here as so many idiotic rules to imported cars like Cadillac and then allows this these totally unnecessary brighter lights on late model cars. Seems to me that car manufacturers are way way out of control these days. | ||
| Jeff McCarthy Grand Master Username: jefmac2003 Post Number: 584 Registered: 5-2007 |
They have always been out of control Vladimir. In the 70's Shadows the chrome on the steering wheel gear and indicator levers had to be stripped off and painted black because someone decided the light glinting off them might distract the driver. Nowadays we not only have those obscene headlights to deal with but most new cars come with touchscreens and phone systems designed to make sure the driver never gets distracted with silly things like watching the road or looking out for stray pedestrians! Utter madness. | ||
| ross kowalski Grand Master Username: cdfpw Post Number: 971 Registered: 11-2015 |
Vlad, In the colonies, it's common courtesy to flash your lights at oncoming traffic to tell them they left on their lights. I wonder if it is actually illegal. I think speeding is technically against the law, but just this morning I saw two cars driving over the posted limit. Jeff, Touchscreens, don't get me started. Royce used chrome plated bronze knobs for the vent pulls on the dash that are a tactile masterpiece. What does a touch screen car use several pokes at a piece of glass representing a led bar graph of all things. Sad. Also, I don't have to take my eyes off of the road to use physical controls because I can feel I am pressing the correct thing, glass you HAVE to look at it. Also, I died this morning in a head on car crash while driving my Morris Mini Minor. I saw a flash of light on one of the many chrome bezels and switches and thought, "oh no the sun is in my car" then pulled my hands back so I wouldn't get burned. Then I thought, "wait, if the sun were in my car Id probably get burned even if I were in the back seat". While pondering this I veered over into the other lane and ran into a dump truck I hadn't noticed because I was texting. To be fair we drive on the wrong side of the road in the USA so I guess I am off the hook. | ||
| Brian Vogel Grand Master Username: guyslp Post Number: 2830 Registered: 6-2009 |
Vladimir wrote, in part: ". . . it's illegal here to hit high beam to pay back some other driver who has blinded you with having his lights on high beam." And that's a very, very good law (it also applies in the USA as well). What earthly value is there in having two "blind" drivers?!! This is completely separate from Ross's observation about the custom of a "quick flash" to let someone know they may have unintentionally failed to dip the high beams. Sadly, that convention is now ignored far more often than it results in the hoped for dipping. At one time it was 90/10 folks who would dip versus those who ignored. Now those two figures are reversed, at least in my experience. I can tell the difference, at least in most situations, between HID lights on high beam versus normal, but even on normal they're a pestilence upon the roads. It really doesn't matter if they make night illumination somewhat better for the driver of that car when they really do blind most other drivers coming toward them, even when on low beam, and it's even worse when you have a height differential like you being in a car and the HID vehicle being a pick-up truck or the "tractor" part of a tractor-trailer arrangement. [I'm not sure if lorry covers that arrangement, or if that's for "smaller" large delivery vehicles.] Brian P.S. to Mr. Kowalski: Our "wrong side" predominates in the world overall. I'd say it's the UK and some (not all, by any means) of the Commonwealth countries that drive "on the wrong side of the road" if what's customary in the majority of "elsewhere" is the metric. | ||
| Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov Grand Master Username: soviet Post Number: 1363 Registered: 2-2013 |
Errk and indeed. Perhaps I should not have started this thread but anyhow..... Jeff where can I get that chrome for my Camargue and Spirit. Hang on they have chrome ash trays in front of the driver in the doors. Thank goodness I have somewhere to put out my joynts...err its legal for me because I was born high anyway! Ross - lights - Queensland: never mind the bollocks its even illegal to flash to warn other drivers of the presence of cops but in Victoria its not. Yes indeedy the cops in the Northern Territory have just been slapped by my old army Colonel, Justice Dean Mildren, a Supreme Court Judge, for breath testing an Aboriginal woman in her own home, not for drink driving but for breath testing her because they suspected she was drunk! errk at home! The nasty revenue raisers had their charge thrown out by the lower Magistrates Court AND THEN THEY APPEALED IT ALL THE WAY TO THE SUPREME COURT OF THE NORTHERN TERRITORY and ha ha Dean swatted them like bush flies and told them they were trespassers and had no right to breath test her nor to even be in her house in the first place. Bloody hilarious what what.. Giggles. Now they, sorry, not they but the NT taxpayer will be footing the bill for the wrongful arrest case which will be a tidy payout, possibly thousands, with which the lady can use to purchase a lot of high powered booze - I suggest Grange with Vodka chasers and perhaps a bottle of Hunter S Thompson ether. Amazing stuff. Policing Aussies flashing lights for A. Dazzling the forgetful or lazy for dazzling you first with their high beams is like herding cats because its an Aussie tradition just like with Russians its a tradition to fist fight at any intersection. B. Its even a bigger Aussie tradition to flash to warn other drivers about the presence of cops because the cops have forgotten Aussies were indeed ummm convicts and the entire country was bigger jail than Siberia. Ho Ho. Seriously as for your comments on glass touch screens, well I never look at the speedo when driving because the danger is really the other fools on the road, perhaps that why I have had SFA accidents in almost an entire lifetime! Now back on the subject, the idiot or who authorised these new bright lights...where is he? Hmmm possibly Sweden...I have a steaming hot Aussie meat pie with mushrooms and superhot Taco sauce for HIS EYEBALLS! | ||
| ross kowalski Grand Master Username: cdfpw Post Number: 974 Registered: 11-2015 |
Brian, I feel good about the drivers where I live because it seems 90 quick dip to 10 whatever else. Also we drive on the right side of the road, the old empire drives on the right side of the car. | ||
| Jeff McCarthy Grand Master Username: jefmac2003 Post Number: 591 Registered: 5-2007 |
Ross, I can only agree about manual switches. I didn't learn to drive till I was 50 so I hate anything that takes away concentration. When I installed my new headunit with those fiddly helicopter 4 way round knobs for various functions I ended up not using it because you had to press one of them just exactly so to turn it off - and if you got it wrong you started re-programming the thing! I installed a manual lever on/off switch in the centre console (on the ignition wire) so I can use it without looking. I think the amount of electronic Driver "Assist" contraptions in cars has passed the point of insanity. I'm convinced that many of them are making the roads LESS safe as drivers spend more time trying to work out what the hell the flashing/buzzing/talking dashboard is doing than they do controlling the vehicle! The Shadow is my first car - and I'm never going to buy anything newer. The minor inconveniences are compensated for by everything being manually switched. This has the added advantage that I can fix the thing myself! When I drive my friend's Subaru it's not even possible to turn the central touchscreen off - it reverts to the logo and I find the light distracting on dark country roads. | ||
| ross kowalski Grand Master Username: cdfpw Post Number: 981 Registered: 11-2015 |
Jeff, I had a Cadillac at one point that would somehow lock the doors after two minutes of inactivity. Leave your keys on the seat, and they were locked in. I don't know if it made me less safe, but it made a lot more paranoid every time I exited the car. | ||
| Richard Gray New User Username: mooney1el Post Number: 5 Registered: 8-2016 |
Referring to the OP; as a retired automotive engineering manager, it truly disturbs me to hear of folks altering positions of seat belt anchorages or even arbitrarily installing them in motorcars that were not originally designed for them. We went through rigorous design, analysis and testing followed by certification to assure proper strengths and function. I have aftermarket seat belts in both my '52 Bentley and '59 Rolls-Royce installed by who knows who? Are they safer than no belts at all? Perhaps, perhaps not. But I can tell you that b-pillar and underbody design for seatbelts is no trivial matter. Richard Gray Fernandina Beach, FL | ||
| Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov Grand Master Username: soviet Post Number: 1366 Registered: 2-2013 |
Thanks for that Intel Richard. I kept the original seat belts and retractors. Mysteriously I have a premonition, and apart from being a qualified lawyer, sorry, liar and swamp rat and a qualified light and heavy duty diesel and petrol mechanic, I am also a clairvoyant... Those Cadillac Belts made by General Motors are going back in the car and I don't give a bugger as I will never sell the car. | ||
| Jeff McCarthy Grand Master Username: jefmac2003 Post Number: 598 Registered: 5-2007 |
Richard I agree about seatbelts. Australian seatbelt design rules are amongst the most rigorous in the world - for good reason. Our roads are crap! No car can be registered without a label on the seatbelt noting the Australian origin of the equipment and installers are licenced and responsible if something fails or is installed incorrectly. Australian Clouds back in the day when belts became compulsory had to pass local testing for anchorage points etc. Because of the laws and insurance costs no pro installer down here would take the risk of not doing it properly. The US is different altogether. In some states belts aren't even compulsory and there's a lot more leeway for jerry-rigging. It has been noted before that in Australian movies even the criminals buckle up when they're driving the the getaway car - getting caught down here without a belt or with one wrongly installed can lead to anything from big fines to losing your licence to having the car impounded. | ||
| Brian Vogel Grand Master Username: guyslp Post Number: 2831 Registered: 6-2009 |
Jeff, It may be correct to say that seatbelt *use* is not compulsory in all U.S. states and territories, but it certainly is in most (though the penalties can be low for non-compliance), and safety standards for things like seatbelts, airbags, antilock brakes, traction control, and the like are federally mandated. What individuals may do as far as jerry-rigging is completely unpredictable anywhere, as some will try virtually anything. But when it comes to professional mechanics and body shops, they all know better than to install anything that does not meet or exceed the safety standards in effect when the car was manufactured. In the case of older vehicles it's generally "exceed" more than meet. However, there are constraints imposed by the design of the car itself mentioned by Richard Gray. Putting seatbelts in a car that does not have a structure that can withstand the forces that would be exerted upon it can make matters worse in the event of an accident. Brian | ||
| Geoff Wootton Grand Master Username: dounraey Post Number: 2081 Registered: 5-2012 |
Re: Our "wrong side" predominates in the world overall. I'd say it's the UK and some (not all, by any means) of the Commonwealth countries that drive "on the wrong side of the road" if what's customary in the majority of "elsewhere" is the metric. Driving on the right side of the road is definitely the wrong side. For two reasons. The first is when reversing in a RHD car you are able to swivel your torso round for a good view out of the rear window as you reverse. When you do this in a LHD car, your leg/foot which has to be positioned on the brake pedal gets in the way; you can't swivel as much and therefore cannot get as full a view out of the rear screen. The other reason is if you are driving a manual/stick shift car you have to change gear with your right hand (on a LHD car) and since most drivers are right handed, this hand should be on the steering wheel. I do of course say this in a light hearted way. If the UK had elected to drive on the right hand side of the road it would have been so much more viable to have imported all those beautiful rust free California cars to the UK. Consensus is a dangerous metric to use. | ||
| Brian Vogel Grand Master Username: guyslp Post Number: 2832 Registered: 6-2009 |
Geoff, What other metric could one use? Preponderance of custom would be "the gold standard" where "superiority" of practice (entirely subjective) is involved! ;-) It is interesting, though, in that these choices could have very easily gone entirely "the other direction." It's probably as much an issue of which auto makers came to dominate which markets, and when, that dictated custom. I doubt that there was much pre-planning involved. Based on a PBS show I caught part of last night, discussing the invention of the term jay-walking as a way to shame pedestrians out of what had been their domain to make way for the automobile, with attendant publicity almost exclusively funded by early auto makers, business interest was a big thing, too. B | ||
| David Gore Moderator Username: david_gore Post Number: 3228 Registered: 4-2003 |
If I remember correctly, the first US cars including the early 1900's Ford "Alphabet" models A to S (1903-1908) were RHD before the USA changed to LHD. Is it correct USA horse-drawn vehicles were driven from the RHS? Was the US change from RHD to LHD a classic case of "pommy bashing"? Our Australian members will know this term well as "pommy bashing" is now a form of affectionate abuse for the despised overlords from the convict period of our history  . Geoff Wootton - I agree absolutely with your comments having driven extensively in both RHD and LHD countries. | ||
| ross kowalski Grand Master Username: cdfpw Post Number: 1027 Registered: 11-2015 |
Here's one. My wife drove a chrysler mini van for work the other day and said the gear change knob was located right next to the radio. I went to find a picture and found pages of people laughing at this  My wife goes to back up, puts the car in reverse and it goes forward, but curiously the volume got louder at the same time. That is truly a tragic piece of design work brought to you by the same people who made the stateless shifter used in the jeeps. Thanks, Fiat. | ||
| Brian Vogel Grand Master Username: guyslp Post Number: 2833 Registered: 6-2009 |
Ross, Personally, I don't think I'd confuse those knobs just due to the difference in diameter and their relative placement. I would also have to believe that the actual gear selected is also shown directly on the dashboard, too. I still prefer a column or console shifter, though, as these have proven to be an awfully reliable way of achieving the goal and without the need for electric motors or electronics in between (at least not like these dial or button shifters need - and I am not talking about RR cars, either - the whole electric shifter never made much sense to me). Brian | ||
| Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov Grand Master Username: soviet Post Number: 1374 Registered: 2-2013 |
And I totally detest the controls on late model car stereos. Okay for 15 year olds to fiddle with for entertainment just like their mobile phone but a profound annoyance for me and perhaps people of my vintage.Dangerous as dynamite to be studying that buggers habits when driving. Fool of an idea. As for gear changing while I still enjoy thrashing a manual floor shift I think the Chrysler range of push button controls is super cool in looks and feel and superior in every way. Nothing quite nasty as being demented enough to slam the Spirit into reverse at 40 kilometres an hour when trying to operate the directional indicator stalk. Oh yeah those turbo 400 transmission brakes really do work! | ||
| Brian Vogel Grand Master Username: guyslp Post Number: 2835 Registered: 6-2009 |
Vladimir, As is so often said to me as I age, and in regard to my tastes in many things: "You are not the target demographic." I understand now that my tastes and the tastes of many in the "conspicuous consumer demographic" which is anywhere between 3 and 1 decades younger than I, are divergent. Mine are not going to win, and as time goes by theirs are not going to win, either. 'Twas ever thus. Brian | ||
| ross kowalski Grand Master Username: cdfpw Post Number: 1031 Registered: 11-2015 |
Vlad, Modern cars won't even let you shift into reverse at speed. I know this for a fact after trying it on a couple modern automatics. No fun for you. Now if you had a GAz m13 you could just poke that park button at speed and you could have all kinds of fun. Brian, I actually laughed out loud when I found the picture of that shifter. | ||
| Mike Thompson Frequent User Username: vroomrr Post Number: 672 Registered: 04-2019 |
Why do the English drive on the left side of the road. Did a search it said: "In the past, almost everybody travelled on the left side of the road because that was the most sensible option for feudal, violent societies. Since most people are right-handed, swordsmen preferred to keep to the left in order to have their right arm nearer to an opponent and their scabbard further from him." I had always heard that Americans drive on the right side, out of courtesy for women. At a time when many people used to throw out of their windows their crap (poop, waste matter) it was a courtesy to walk down the street with her closest to the wall so the male got hit in the face not her. But if you have a manual transmission it makes more sense to me to do it with the right hand not the left. | ||
| Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov Grand Master Username: soviet Post Number: 1491 Registered: 02-2013 |
Good Golly Miss Molly. Texas Mike has brought out an old chestnut here. The USA once produced right hand cars ie early Cadillacs for domestic USA market. Then for reasons I need to know they switched like a mafia rat before Congress yelping like a stabbed dog to LHD. The question should be why did the USA go to LHD? The answers are historical and deeply buried or self evident or both. Most people are right handed and some ambidextrous. So I think its best that you have your right hand on steering wheel and the left hand on your knob. Ha Ha. The Americans should be whipped like horses and slaves for ever going to LHD. Please nobody call the Kremlin and mention I said that! But I think the answers to this conundrum can only be found in the study of stagecoaches and or what horsemen knew around late 1800s. Indeed I submit the true answer is buried in horsemanship. But I will tell you what Texas Mike there should be severe maiming of the League of Nations and the United Nations yes all relatives three generations back should be shot Soviet Style for not giving us a world in which the bloody steering wheel was on one side only because the LHD and RHD world is crazy and deadly. | ||
| Mike Thompson Frequent User Username: vroomrr Post Number: 675 Registered: 04-2019 |
Did another search, seems Ford made the decision. "Ford changed to left-hand-drive in the 1908 model year. A Ford catalogue from 1908 explains the benefits of placing the controls on the left side of the car: “The control is located on the left side, the logical place, for the following reasons: Travelling along the right side of the road the steering wheel on the right side of the car made it necessary to get out on the street side and walk around the car. This is awkward and especially inconvenient if there is a lady to be considered. The control on the left allows you to step out of the car on to the curbing without having had to turn the car around. In the matter of steering with the control on the right, the driver is farthest away from the vehicle he is passing, going in opposite direction; with it on the left side he is able to see even the wheels of the other car and easily avoids danger.” https://www.worldstandards.eu/cars/trivia-about-driving-left/ | ||
| John Kilkenny Grand Master Username: john_kilkenny Post Number: 313 Registered: 06-2005 |
Driving my RHD Shadow in the US during the 1980's made it awkward to pay at some of the expressway toll booths but it was funny to see the faces of the toll booth collectors when my young daughter (sitting in the front passenger seat) held out the money for the toll. | ||
| Mike Thompson Frequent User Username: vroomrr Post Number: 680 Registered: 04-2019 |
Wow, that would have been neat (and funny) to see a little girl in what we call the driver's seat at a toll booth. You should have put in a mock steering wheel to see how often the police would stop you for having your daughter driving (or a dog). I remember a guy who put long hair on his helmet just to (look weird) have the police stop him for not wearing a helmet. Think the hairy helmets in the Queens guard. | ||
| Mark Luft Frequent User Username: bentleyman1993 Post Number: 267 Registered: 10-2016 |
1961 Bentley S2 RHD in Virginia. People would pull up to me and say "You're on the wrong side of the car". to which I replied "No, I'm on the RIGHT side of the car."  Loads of FUN! | ||
| Trevor P Hodgkinson New User Username: wm20 Post Number: 25 Registered: 11-2006 |
Well Vald, if you think you have a problem with them in your roller, try being on an unlit street, riding a 6V british motorcycle fitted with a whopping 25Watt candle pretending to be a headlamp then some moron comes up behind you with 4,000 Watts of high intensity ultra white light. Then because they can not see your headlamp glow they instantly assume you have no lights so turn on the high beams to help you . So now in front of you there is an intense black shadow of your bike combined with blinding white light in your eyes from both mirrors. On the bike you can do nothing but pull over and hope the morons will pass by. In the van & the Shadow I drop the foot strait off the accelerator which of cause causes the vehicle to slow down drastically . In the intense light the driver behind can not see that you are slowing so either has to slam their brakes on at the last minute or ends up shunting you. In the latter case they end up finding out that more light is not better and too much like can be very expensive indeed. If there are enough insurance pay outs then the insurance companies will make the ADR take a more appropriate approach to excessive lights. What was really fun was listening to a magistrate commend me for taking reasonable & responsible actions while chastising the other driver for dangerous driving. In this case his attempt to claim damages from me cost him a replacement for the write off van, court costs, and a $ 2000 fine for dangerous driving causing a collision and of course 12 demerit points as it was on a long weekend. A whole lot better result than flashing your lights into his eyes. | ||
| Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov Prolific User Username: soviet Post Number: 1593 Registered: 02-2013 |
Trevor as a qualified barrister and mechanic I have come to the conclusion that the ADR Design Rules were introduced to protect the Australian car manufacturers and the Australian Importers of mostly Asian crap. The other conclusion I came to was that the ADRs have absolutely zero to do with protecting the general public. I would lay any bet that I could drive my 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood into the front of any microcar that passed the ADR nonsense and kill everybody in the microcar at 100 mph. My Cadillac has both front and back bumper bars which are one eigth of an inch pressed steel tripled chrome, very large and mounted directly onto hydraulic rams plus the Cadillac weighs 2.5 tons and is powered by an 8.2 litre cast iron engine. What I need is somebody to put a small amount say $200,000 into escrow, find any politican that says ADRs are for public safety, get the mongrel to drive his micro car, get the cops to give me immunity from prosecution, and I will provide my Cadillac on any private dragstrip and myself and then I will merrily croak the bugger right infront of the media, then get out of the car and say, "Now who wants to be next." Oh and incase anybody has not noticed the Australian Car Building industry which swallowed up millions of the taxpayers money no longer exists. | ||
| Trevor P Hodgkinson New User Username: wm20 Post Number: 44 Registered: 11-2006 |
As a Barrister you of all people should realize that 150% of what gets presented to a magistrate or judge is total garbage with not the slightest hint of truth. Guess where the ADR takes their statistics from ? So you can blame all of your fellow cloak & wig wearers for the idiot situations. They manage to shift blame from where it belongs, the idiot behind the wheel to everything that is attached to the other end of the wheel The the insurance companies & government regulators take the courts ruling to the engineers and tell them "change the rules so this can not happen again". To protect their backsides from oppertunistic thieves who wear horse hair wigs & cloaks. If there is money available then engineers are assigned the task of assesing the situation on paper then go on their knees begging the accountants for funding to do some actual experiments. The accountants then look at the numbers and make a decision weighted by the probabilities & numbers of vehicles affected. If all this goes in favour of intelligent evaluation , and that is about 0.01% then the compitent engineers do the minimum testing because there is never sufficient funding made available to do the job properly. Some of the people I went to UNSW are involved in this so I know exactly how the system works. The Australian automotive industry was killed off by the Menzie's government Import Replacement Incentive which was brought in post WW II in an attempt to make Australia self sufficient. The problem was the words "Of Comparative Quality" were deliberately removed from the policy so all of the sweat shop factory owners ( most of who were party members ) could cash in and stick their fat snouts into the trough of taxpayers money and suck up as much as they could. Then politics came in and we invited the USA car makers to gobble up the local manufacturers because of the multiplier effect of imported capital that produces the opium like hit of good looking economic figures provided you ignore the dividends that will flow out at a latter date. Then because Australians are greedy lazy & selfish each successive government won popular support by reducing the number of public servants in "back room jobs" Remember we have 2 parties in Australia, the union controlled party and the amalgimated union haters. Because the public service was highly unionised the latter have done everything they can to sack union members for the purpose of starving the Labour party of funds because they are too selfish & cheap to fund the party that looks after their own interests . So the graduates who used to give governments honest & impartial advice because they kept abrest of what was really happening got sacked to be replaced by consultants who will always find one sided "facts" to support whatever proposal the government of the day is trying to foister upon the public. Now in defense of the auto industry they were in a bind One side did everything they could to prevent automation in order to keep as many card carrying union members employed the the other side got in and did everything they could to get as many card carrying union members sacked. In fact this has been the biggest problem with setting up any manufacturing in Australia and when you add to that banks that will not provide proper finance to any one other than share market raiders & shonky property developers. The fact that you had to change the seats on your Caddy has nothing to do with anyone other than Cadillac who decided that they would not pay the $ 8,000 to get full ADR compliance assesment for the model you own. Because Cadillac decided they would not pay, then the seats were never mechanically assesed so they remain non compliant. And the Australian automotive industry was finally killed off by the Obama government , sorry if I put up facts rather than popular conspiracy theories. To be honest the Howard government decided they had sufficient money to close down one of the Labour parties major funding sources so they signed free trade agreements and ended up quotas thus anybody could now sell any model of foreign made car in Australia. From that day Ford, Mitsubishi & Toyota had no reason to maintain their loss making Australian plants. However general Motors was very profitable because of GM's "World Car" plan we made all of the aluminium parts used in GM vehicles world wide. Because we cast the alloy engine blocks & heads here & because they are large items to ship we also got the contract to assemble the engine down here. Thus GM made a motza on engines which offset the losses made making complete cars. Now Obama gave GM a massive "loan" to build a state of the art fully automated aluminium foundry in Mitichigan which was due to be commissioned in 2016. This was massive news in the foundry sector as it was the first time in 50 years that a USA company built a brand new foundry on USA soil. If all of the "back room public servants" were there doing their job, the relevant ministers would have been advised that GM would become non profitable some time in 2017 as all of the stuff we made here shifted to the USA, but they had been sacked 5 elections earlier. So now we come back to the free trade agreements, since that day all of the other car makers had been looking for a way to exit the market without creating a PR nightmare and giving their opposition a massive sales boost. However now GM became the catalyst and the Abbott government realized a dream of wiping out a complete union which they took up with glee full well in the knowledge that it would cost 2,000 times as much per year for the following 15 years as the subsidies that the Auto industry got form the government. Oh and by the way your caddy was funded by the USA government to the tune of 65% where as the locally made cars had 11% government funding. The actual number of people made redundent by the closure of the local industry is in the order or 300,000 not the published 25,000. Of those, most were over 40 and the ones over 50 will most likely never work for a wage again so will be on government benefits for the remainder of their life Things that got ignored like the 6,000 delivery contractors employed by Toyota, the 11,000 at Ford & the 15,000 at GM. I know of over 14 factories that have closed down because the auto work they did at cost +10% covered their fixed cost so they could then take in more profitable short order work. They have all closed down , a lot of the companies they supplied have also closed down | ||
| Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov Prolific User Username: soviet Post Number: 1597 Registered: 02-2013 |
Trevor I did not have to change the Cadillac seats at all. I did have to change the seat belts to ADR ones which were that expensive they must have been made in Copenhagen. The belts I had to change were double retractors so one was in the roof and one was one the floor. These were made that way to stop the seat belt chopping your head off in the case of a side swipe. Now thanks to the ADR rules I happily have seat belts that will chop my head of incase of a side swipe from a heavy say a Toyota Landcruiser V8. You know the one, it comes with extremely poor brakes and the starter motor in the V of the V8 under all the induction gear - a typical basket weaver design. | ||
| Trevor P Hodgkinson New User Username: wm20 Post Number: 47 Registered: 11-2006 |
Story is the same. If cadillac had applied for ADR certification for the seat belts and paid for it then the original belts would have been fine. But because they had not been tested & certified the belts were non compliant so could not be used. The law is blanket, everything has to be compliant. To be compliant you need to have them tested and of course they have to pass the test. In exactly the same vain only 2 full race harnesses are legal to be fitted where every one of them would be far superiour to the lap sash currently fitted. The ADR was brought in to ensure that all vehicles sold here were certified safe BY AN AUSTRALIAN ENGINEER . This stops mr Ford slipping a USA agency a nice bundle of shares to certify a car that is dangerous. many many times the smaller makers have wanted to get a truely independant testing agency that could test vehicles then issue compliancy certificates for every country where that car would be legal. However the big factories have managed to bribe or otherwise apply pressure to veto this idea because they have the resources to supply 108 different countries 3 or 4 cars for evaluation where as for smaller companies 400 cars would be 1/2 their annual production. This is why you can not buy a lot of the smaller companies cars here and the medium sizes ones like Masseratti for instance only sell a limited range. | ||
| Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov Prolific User Username: soviet Post Number: 1600 Registered: 02-2013 |
How about this Trevor. Cadillac did not apply to have the seat belts ADRed. The reason they did not is because 1976 Cadillac Fleetwoods were for reasons I never understood were never sold by GM Dealerships downunder unless you were a millionaire and ordered one and then it would be imported and HAD to be converted to RHD by people who just did not have a clue. Yes you could buy a Holden Statesman instead. Not a bad car but I needed a Cadillac, indeed the top of the range Fleetwood. Obviously, some fool in Detroit ran the figures which simply showed that more Statesmans could be sold than Cadillacs. But it is interesting. Especially when you consider apart from FWD 1978 Eldorados, that 1976 marked in the profound death of solid ritsy 120 mph 2.5 tons of show off cars even in USA. Indeed I visited a GM dealership in New York in 1980 and there was this thing on the showroom floor and I said to the salesman "Whats that" He said thats an Oldsmobile. I told him to get off the coke. The thing I saw was revolting in the extreme but this was the level to what the Americans could sink to feed their paranoia that the Soviet Union was about to nuke them. It was crazy. It was madness. I never want to see a car like that again. Trevor when I drive my Cadillac full registered on the road in LHD..... Both young and old girls come up to me and say "Thats a very nice car" But I never bring them home because if they see the Cadillac parked next to the Purple Spirit they just cannot convince me that they know the difference between those two cars and the latest piece of Asian crap to be sold here to the financed unexpecting. Its horrible, rude, and unsuspecting....attack on human dignity. | ||
| Trevor P Hodgkinson New User Username: wm20 Post Number: 50 Registered: 11-2006 |
That is exactly the point Vlad. It is not the ADR' fault, it is Cadillac's fault. And because there was only one aftermarket seat belt maker that had applied & been granted ADR compliance for your Fleetwood then you are stuck with those belts. The only other option is to apply for an ADR certification yourself but as previously mentioned the cost used to be $ 8,000. When you are back in civilization again walk into a car parts shop & have a look at all of the driving lights. Most of them will have a disclaimer "for off road use only " and the same will be on the packet of most drop in replacement LED globes. This is because the marketing company had not sent the items in for ADR certification so they are technically illegal on a road registered vehicle in Australia. As for your belt , most would fit the compliant belt . get their certificate the refit the originals. Your local inspection station will have never seen one so will do the usual inertia test on the belt and tick the little pink box. When we were running the wedding cars , getting a pink slip for the 8 shadows was a nightmare because none of them would pass the brake efficency test because by the time you had put sufficient foot pressure to trip the meter the car had already stopped. There is no alternative testing system for stored pressure braking systems. The immediate solution was for me to sit next to him & squeeze the trigger unit between my hands, then there was a partially deflated basket ball under the pedal and finally he just jumped into another car and used their brakes to create a certificate. Now these types of brakes have been used for decades and of course were fitted to a lot of other cars but when the testing system was created they were ignored. |
