A Current Affair tomorrow night - anti 4WD again

more than likely high powered cars/inexperienced drivers kill more of our kids than 4WD's, but telling that again here is useless, cauz we all know it.

Ben

It makes me bloody angry.
Maybe you noticed the Sydney Morning Herald (Column 8) slam on 4WD's recently. It ran for a couple of weeks and they kept saying .."we've had more emails from Anti 4 Wheelers than from Pro 4 Wheelers." I've never bothered writing to the editor, but maybe we need to. 30 percent of new car owners for the last 2 years bought 4WD's. That's a bunch of opinion, but if we stay silent the law makers will hear the loudest voice and think it's the popular view ..and they'll do what they think they need to do to win votes. They're already talking about extra costs and licence requirements for 4WD owners. Pressure from the anti 4WD Greenies is having a contuniuing impact on restricting our access to bushland.

When you see an unfair, uneducated, unjustified attack on 4WD's, send the media concerned an educational email. If enough of us do react, they're bosses might tell 'em to pull thier heads in and stop upsetting a very big piece of their market.

Smudger

Its straight forward: The soccer mums that drive the 4wds cannot see behind them, and dont bother to use mirrors or check- Hell, thats why they got the 4WD- they shouldnt HAVE to look now! Theres gotta be some payoff for paying for extra petrol and higher servicing costs.

Geez ... remind me, was it a stolen 4WD that was at the centre of the Macquarie Fields riots during the last few weeks.

Well look at that ... it was just a Commodore. That must be ok then.

I just spent about half an hour on Nine's ACA website and sent them a lengthy email asking that they make sure their report is FACTUAL. I mentioned that there was a report in the past few months that a certain sedan (I can't remember which one) was actually the worst vehicle on the road for rear visibility. I also mentioned (just to be honest and fair) that I acknowledged there are possibly a number of people who own a 4x4 for all the wrong reason....but that is their business anyway.
I also mentioned that about 30% of all sales are 4x4s these days. And I mentioned the fact that there is a blurred line between what is and isn't a 4x4 these days anyway. (I mentioned Honda CRV, Holden Adventra, Porsche Cayenne etc).
I pointed out that I may have some cred on this subject cos of my presidency of my local 4x4 club and (although it has no relavence) that I am a banker of 34+ years standing (the inference being that I am not some trouble-maker.....so don't tell them otherwise; OK??????!!!!!!!!!).
Anyway, I'll have to tape the show tomorrow cos we're all going out for tea at Warren's (Aussie Chef) pub at Port Vincent, with Pesty and Glenda and Ken & Diedre (Member LUCY) who is visiting the YP from his usual haunt of Melbourne. Note that he wasn't game to bring the Jeepney all this way and decided to take his chances with the Troopy.
Cheers all
Roachie

OK , found the following in the age newspaper.

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"Australia's best-selling car, the Holden Commodore, has rated poorly for rear visibility in a world-first study released yesterday by NSW insurer NRMA.

Another surprise was the study's conclusion that four-wheel-drive vehicles were no worse than many other vehicles for rear visibility.

The study rated 86 vehicles on the ability of the driver to see a small child behind the vehicle.

Some 17 children have been killed by reversing cars in NSW over the past three-and-a-half years.

The study showed many modern vehicles were designed with obstacles to rear vision, including high rear windows and boots, rear-mounted spare tyres and rear head restraints.

But it concluded that 4WDs were no better or worse than other vehicles on the road. A reversing visibility index was devised to allow comparisons to be made between different vehicles.

Results were rated on a scale of zero to five, with five indicating the best vision.

No cars scored five, but small hatchbacks - the Renault Clio Sport, Holden's Barina and Suzuki Ignis - filled the top three spots with four.

Ford's Fairmont Ghia sedan (three, 20th) was the highest ranked locally built vehicle.

Holden's superseded VX Commodore sedan scored zero, placing it second-last. Its replacement, the VY Commodore sedan, scored 1.5 to rank 63rd."

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I'm not an NRMA member so can't log in to see the report.
Can some one pull the relevant points and forward to ACA?

What I want to know, is that if all these little kiddies are being run over (and I am not for one second suggesting this isn't a tragic thing to have happen), but where the hell is the parental supervision? Why are kids of such a young age (where hazard perception is almost zero, being allowed to wander around without sufficient parental supervision.

There is always going to be one or two kids who are born houdinis and have a remarkable ability to escape, but surely some of the responsibility should fall back onto the parents and not the poor driver of the vehicle. However, that isn't to say that vehicle owners don't have a responsibility to check behind them before reversing.

People are too quick to shift the blame onto others rather than taking responsibility for their own actions or lack there of.

"Some 17 children killed in 3.5 years in NSW from being reversed over". I'd guess to say that well over 10 times that many kids have died in NSW over that time from accidental poisoning......does that mean that we ban all those responsible chemicals.....no. The chemicals didn't jump into the kids throats, it comes down to parental supervision, same as with kids being reversed over - the 4x4 (or any vehicle for that matter) didn't start itself and reverse over the kid. When are these "current affair" shows going to get real!!! The worst thing is people actually believe this one-sidedbleepe and then voice their own ill-informed view.

Cheers my 2cents worth,
Hughesy

All I can say is that even with the surf loaded up I've got better side, front AND rear visibility than my wifes BA Falcon Wagon. With the BA you can't even see where the hell you going at the best of times, they are an accident waiting to happen, and with those bleep ant little excuses for side mirrors they have they don't help either!

My mother in laws camrey sedan would not be able to see that little kid riding the trycial behind it, the boot's too bloody big and boofy!

It's just so full of crap, I was getting really worked up about it last night when I saw the preview and then I though, fk it I'm just not going to pay any attention to it, and I'm certainally not going to watch it. The most action I will take it to email them to let them know that I will not be watching their entire show or their channel in that fact for that night because of the lies and no factual information they are broadcasting and be done with it.

I just wasted a few minutes of my life emailing them. It was a slightly emmotional email and there was no planning involved so it's a little crude and basic. But this is what I sent them:

You guys must be struggling with ratings to be bringing up the 4wd debate once again. Glad to see you have your facts so out of whack on the subject as per usual...

I'll let you know that I will not be watching channel nine at all tonight purley because I do not want to support a station that dribbles on with such nonsense. Many thousands of 4wd owners who are on 4wd internet forums all over the country will also be taking a moral stand tonight.
Congratulations, you've lost a viewer.

And just for the record it has been proven in many studies in the past that the majority of modern passenger cars have more blind spots and poorer rear visibility than the average 4wd. Do some research for once, oh maybe that would'nt rate as well....

That report should not have been advertised as 4WD-specific. They DID bring the NRMA report into it, and also highlighted that the VY Commodore has worse rear-vision than the worst 4WD - the Toyota Prado.

Not too bad really..... so much hype for such a silly story.

A doctor was saying that a 4WD is 2.5 times more likely to kill a child that has been reversed over. What????? If you back a Commodore up over a kid - they're dead too!

The NRMA guy was quite balanced, ensuring that he pointed out that the worse rear-vision vehicle was a Commodore.

I'm just waiting for the day that someone asks the television stations why they need a four-wheel drive to run around the city in.

Take a good look next time, 4-wd with sat dishes up on top.

I guess it goes to show, people have 4-wd drives for a variety of reasons........some to tow boats, some to carry sat dishes, many more to get out in the bush.

It will be a brave government that takes on the car industry lobby, especially in an era where four-wheel drives are extremely popular.