Australia

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175

Australia’s love of big cars is undoing the benefits of the shift to EVs (www.abc.net.au)

submitted 1 year ago by Longmactoppedup@aussie.zone to c/australia@aussie.zone

94 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Australians are driving bigger, heavier, dirtier cars and it's alarming both climate and road safety experts.

A decade ago, sedans and hatchbacks were the most popular cars in Australia. Today, Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) and American-style utes dominate new car sales and advertising.

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[–] Ilandar@aussie.zone 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They don't need to pick a different hobby, they can just hire an off-road vehicle instead. There is no reason for people to be buying vehicles for extremely niche, rare use cases when they can just hire an equivalent for a few weeks.

[–] Obi@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Money saved on the cost of the vehicle, gas and taxes should more than offset the cost of rental once or twice a year. If it doesn't, tax more.

[+] unionagainstdhmo@aussie.zone 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

[deleted]

[–] Obi@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm sure if they're renting offroaders they're aware of that. I did that in Iceland and everything was covered and the vehicle was bent and scratched already when I got it.

[–] abhibeckert@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The ones in my city cost about $500 per day, and they take an $8,000 deposit. If they can't fix it for $8,000 then they charge an extra fee on top of that, and they will restore it to new car showroom condition - which means just scraping a tree branch could cost more than the deposit.

Worst part is though, they specifically ban all of the popular dirt roads within about ten days drive of the city. The roads you're allowed on, I'd happily travel in my Mazda 3.

The thing is though - even if you set aside all of that... the main thing stopping people from going off road is time, and you'd waste half your weekend picking up the car, checking it for damage, signing paperwork, and then after the trip cleaning it and doing all that again.