4WD tax breaks in danger

"Sales of four-wheel-drives have been rising for the past decade, with more than 180,000 sold nationally last year. A recent study found most owners were now women aged 35-49."

thats all those bloody bmw X3's & X5's

Something else to keep in mind if you are thinking of buying a Prius -

Sure, you will save on fuel costs by only using 5L/100km ( ! for a tiny car) but after a few years you will have to buy a new traction battery or it just WON'T GO - and that will cost you many thousands of dollars - the petrol cost savings suddenly vanish !

Mike

Maybe the MK11 Prius will have a turbo diesel engine , then it may be a better proposition! As stated above the numbers simply don't add up , no doubt some will get a warm fuzzy feeling thinking they are being enviromentaly aware as they have belived the marketing.

Dave L.

We found that even Falcon was unsuitable for our family of five, including teenagers, because the hump in the floor for the second row of seats makes travelling a torture for all. The fashion of a low sloping roofline doesn't help.

So we have a LC TD, which is more economical than a Falcon anyhow. The other options (people movers) did not give enough cargo space when all are on board; they do not have LC reliability and robusrness and they certainly do not have the clearance to take us where we hoiliday.

What really annoys me is that people with smaller families and smaller cars expect us to do the ferrying of children for sporting teams and so on. They wouldn't even take one additional player.

Governments get a lot of advice from DINK bureaucrats who choose to drive limos at taxpayers expense. There is a 30 something couple near us who work in the same department of the Qld Public service, both 'qualify' for the 6.0 litre automatice Holden Caprice (which both have taken up) and both drive in and out at the same times to go to work.

Again, when we drive to the Gold Coast it is amazing how many Qld State Public Servants take advantage of overnight home garaging perks and live at the coast.

Federal public servants - there is senior executive who used to be head of the regional office of a department, who has been in Sydney for some years (with the same department) but maintains his family in Brisbane and has a permanent carpark and taxpayer funded car in the Brisbane office (both used by his wife who works in private enterprise). However this senior executive still qualifies for the Caprice and carpark in his permanent location. Go figure!

So much for bureaucrats and their commitment to fuel (and resource) economy. Yet these are the people who give advice to government. Doesn't help the credibility of senior bureaucrats when they choose, at our expense, 6.0litre petrol guzzlers with bottomless fuel cards in lieu of a four banger or (shudder, shudder) public transport.

Unfortunately responsible countries do need to reduce oil consumption and penalties on high consumption vehicles will be the start of the campaign. I believe that this is quite likely to be my last 4wd and believe that in 5 or 6yrs i will have to step down to an economical car. Also have looked at small Diesels, such as Polo and Golf, i read that Hyundai is soon to release the Getz diesel, may be worth looking into. As for the BMW X5 and X3 diesels, i drive both regularly, the X5 is fantastic to drive and the X3 is an absolute rocket 160kw/480nm at 1750RPM. The X3 is virtually a supercar, not many could beat one off the mark or climbing a mountain range and both return brilliant fuel economy.
I have been following the Peak oil debate and personally know a manager of an oil platform and what he tells me is very scary. Australia looks like making an effort to reduce oil consumption , but who knows we are in the hands of politicians!!
The biggest concern is China and India, 2 countries that have for a long time not used a great deal of oil per capita, now with the rapidly growing manufacturing industries in both countries, demand is rapidly rising. How long will supply remain?
Enjoy your touring now, at current fuel costs it is not easy, but this could be just the tip of the iceberg.

Greg