inexperienced drivers

They already have - dude last year in a Xtrail, and others...

Sadly - there people weren't the first - and will by no means be the last.....

Related to a degree. Had a few days around sunshine coast last week, and Caroline had made a call re hiring a vehicle to spend a day at Fraser Is. One place was advertising the “complete” 4wd adventure. Asked a few questions of them and found only a Pajero and nothing else except the vehicle. No straps, air compressor, winch, recover plan (eg. even a phone number to call), nothing. Oh, but the vehicle was “setup for offroad” he says, but no detail on what that actually meant. I’ve never driven Fraser, but I figure that at least some variable tyre pressure and air compressor would be important. There was also a $5000 un-removable excess, which I figured was indicative of the regular damage or cost they see from their “complete” deal, despite him saying they never see their vehicles stuck or hear of customer problems. Kinda curious as to what the reality is day to day with these guys. Safety certainly wasn’t in the forefront.

Currently up here in Brissy there is a radio ad for the Mazda Tribute, goes for about a minute, mentions go anywhere and life style a few times.
Gives the general impression that the bloody thing will go ANYWHERE.
Its no wonder these tragedies are occuring.
People will believe what the are told, after all its on the radio/tele etc.

Speaking of advertiseing, anyone seen the promo for the win a land cruiser on getaway?? Shows the cruiser on one of the fraser beaches going around what looks like catherdral rocks at about 3/4 tide in, up to its gunnals in salt water, lovely stuff. Beware if you win it.....

Al it's no wonders that many in these pretend 4x4s get into trouble. You need look no further than much of the advice on Ex Oz bragging how great their vehicles are and what difficult tracks they have done. It stands to reason that many inexperienced owners will take this advice at face value & say well if he can go there so can I, only to find the car is too low, has poor tyres etc.... It's not the dealers who should advise on the limitations of the car as they are only out there trying to make a living, it's the current owners of the cars who talk up the performance often while trying to justify their purchase. As a past owner of a Subaru I was well aware of it's limitations & although I took it almost anywhere the big boys would go I certainly would never convince other Subie drivers it was more capable than it really was.
You are probably being a little unfair singling out pretend 4x4s as I've seen far more full blooded cars getting into trouble due to inexperience.
Cheers Craig...........

We used our Freelander offroad for 2 1/2 years before we bought the Troopy. Most trips were with clubs and we did training very early on. That Freelandeer went to amazing places that proved we were (are) insane to take a vehicle like that to the places we went to. We found that so long as we had the ground clearance, we went everywhere the standard Discovery's and Rangies went with no problem.

The biggest downfall was the lack of clearance (wrote off a 6mm skid plate on one trip).

There are also a lot of places we will not take our Freelander incl most beaches becuase of the lack of clearance, especially getting on and off the beaches. Also the traction control does not like sand.

We did the Onnadatta track earleir this year in the Troopy, but we did not attempt a lot of the dried creek beds, etc because we were by ourselves with all the recovery gear incl a hand winch and I did not want to dig or winch ourselves out in the temperatures we encountoured. We really enjoyed the track and did not have a problem.

Also had heaps of water (still had about 30 litres when we reached the end of the track, CB, EPIRB, compressor, etc.)

However there are plenty of ill equipped idiots out there who do not have a clue which is a real worry in a country that takes no prisoners if you do something wrong in the wrong place.

Stevesub

2001 Freelander
2000 Troopy pop-top camper

http://steveandchris.netfirms.com for some dirty Freelander photos and articles