Just got back from a month long holiday in Australia.

What a place for cars! But wouldn't bother buying an impreza...

1) Petrol is 87 cents a litre (38p)

2) Suprisingly a new STI cost $55000 (roughly same as in UK)

3) They have 3 lane B roads - masses of space.

4) Most roads are dead straight... and i mean straight - going on for hundreds of miles. Unless you look for windies you wont find one.

4a) You can legally undertake on the motorways

5) NO ONE SPEEDS.... plod are total ****'s.... you rarely see anyone going more than 10% over the limits....

6) They all drive BIG cars.. Ford Falcons and Holden Commodores (granada and omega equivelants) seem to be most common. If it hasn't got at least 6 cylinders and 3.6 litres it wont sell.

7) They are mostly Auto's with cruise control (which is how they avoid speeding - just slap it on at 80k's and drive on the long straight roads without touching anything).

8) Everything is miles apart.... it took 1 hour to drive into Melbourne from where i was - which is considered to be part of Melbourne!!!

9) The main road excitement out of the city on the roads is avoiding Kangaroos on the roads at dusk.... stupid things act like rabbits in the headlights... freezing.... oh, and Wombats - which will write you car off if you hit them

Great country - will try and work over there. What a lifestyle... beaches, barbies and Victoria Bitter..... plus nice weather year round!

BUT... although there are lots of scoobies around... i wouldn't bother in light of the **** cops... no where to open the throttle!

Whats happened to the look of scoobynet by the way?

Jza

 

Must be why the previous owner of mine imported it to Britain

 

The only place I saw speeding was in Sydney... caught a taxi from circular quay to St james's park and kept one eye shut for most of the way.... when I asked the driver what engine he had he replied "it's only a small one, 4.2 I think..."

 

Do STIs go for 23000 pounds in the UK then? I thought they went for more.

 

I thought the cost of living in OZ was a lot less than over here and so are their wages.
Would'nt that make $55000 an expensive car to buy.

 

They have lower wages than the UK but I believe the cost of living is lower over there. Goods and services are very very cheap in OZ.

As for the car price, I believe the average wage in OZ is approx 55,000 AUD per annum, which is around 23000 pounds. What's the average wage in the UK? So that we can compare where it's easier for one to buy an STI?

 

I worked out that a top spec STI costs $55000 which at the exchange rate i got (2.26 $ / £) thats £24336 - which is what an STI costs here.

Surpising as i thought it would be much less. You see more forester/outbacks than impreza's by the way.

House prises are way less - salaries about comparable (IT im talking about) on the current exchange rate.

Anyone know of web sites to find IT jobs in Aus that are open to UK citizens?

Jza

 

now get a quote for insurance

 

A while back the STI did seem much cheaper in OZ, but just realised that the Aussie dollar has become alot stronger than it was a few months ago hence the similar price of the two countries now.

I know we are not talking Greece here but thought I'd let you know that the STI retails for 37,000 pounds here. And the average wage per annum is 6000 pounds.

 

JZA. Remarkably accurate summary for only being there one month..
I don't miss the **** cops at all, over there you get pulled about once a week by some monster in a blue uniform and it ain't for a chat about how much your insurance is
I much prefer driving in the UK when you can get away from the traffic.

 

I agree the sydney taxi drivers - crazy!!! but if you want to get your foot down go to the red centre never saw a cop in three days

 

yar, the government has gone mad over here, and most people can't drive. me included.

My and my mrs are one of the rare ones driving a manual. Trying to sell a manual car is a nightmare x 2.

The ****'s are getting so bad, I am thinking of moving up north.

 

One of the reasons I left for Greece. Lots of freedom over here. You get the odd radar block however it's night and day compared to Sydney. They don't pull you over for nothing here. Used to get pulled over all the time in Sydney in my Ford XA GT V8 5.8L coupe and my Commodore Group A V8 5.0L (Walkinshaw). Defects galore for nothing. I once had to pull out the big 560hp Clevo engine from the Ford and put the stock engine back in to pass the EPA noise test. Once I past, I did the swap again. What a Joke. No noise tests or anyhing of that nature here. Oh and speeding tickets are very cheap here. Around 45.00 AUD for speeding between 30 and 45 kays over the limit.

 

After living in Austraya for 27 years I received my share of speeding fines. You guys don't know how lucky you are to have gatsos in place of **** highway patrol hidden by the side of the road or with long range laser speed guns with scopes. Australia also bans radar/laser detectors. It makes me laugh that people are complaining that they received a speeding ticket after going past a speed camera that was clearly visible. Try getting nailed for doing 11 km/h (7mph) from a mile away with a group of other cars.

The UK is so good for modified cars. BOVs, very low cars, noisy exhausts, 100% tints (on any window) are just some of the mods that are illegal. If you make serious modifications to your motor, it'll need an engineer's certificate to be registered. The filth love to hand out defect notices as well as speeding fines.

Cars are proportionally cheaper here because the cost of living is higher hence your average wage is higher. The cost of living in oz is so much cheaper so your wages are less which makes a STi that little bit harder to buy.

However there are a lot of good things about rexs (not scoobys) in oz.
Local suppliers such as, MRT, APS, Whiteline, Turbosmart, and numerous tuning shops.

Because Australia doesn't have as many narrow twisty roads drag racing is king. At most traffic lights there's usually 2 lanes which makes it an ideal starting grid. Which probably explains why Australia has the fastest 1/4 mile scoobys in the world. There's also a huge (illegal) street drag scene. Which is wicked fun. Drift comps are also big right now. Especially because Australia gets the Nissan S15 200SX - very tasty.

It still has narrow twisty b-roads. I suspect Jza didn't go far off the main roads. If I drove the M25, M1, and then roads around towns I'd think the same of the UK. Try going through the national parks, Victorian high country, Great Ocean Road, or just about anywhere in Tasmania for some very challenging "windies."

Would love to here the other side of the coin from Little Miss WRX.

Mark

 

whereabouts were you jza? I was near Berwick in Jan

 

Mate you guys have it easy over here. At least your naz* plod don't hide in the middle of the highways between the tree's with their speed cameras and the sign resting nicely behind the back wheel. But hey the weather is great one day perfect the next.It all depends on the state where you live anything south of the gold coast is classed as mexican. Don't mean to upset you cockroaches,but hey its friendly competition.

 

Wizard YHM!

Mikey

 

Wizard, I hate the situation so much here in Sydney, like I said, I am thinking of moving to where the sun is, enjoy the freedom, the surf and the warm. Wots jobs lik up there in terms of IT ? Still is it true that pods are highly illegal in Queensland ?