Articles by David Morley

Who is responsible if a car is damaged by a pothole?You would imagine that damage caused to your car as a result of poor or negligent road maintenance would be paid for by the body charged with maintaining those roads, right? Certainly that was once the expectation.But think again, because at a point in history where our roads haven’t been as neglected for many decades, the authorities are doing their level best to make it the car owner’s problem.It should be a simple question: Who is liable for damage caused by potholes? It was once the case that the state authority or local council responsible for a particular stretch of road would pay up if a lack of repairs – usually a giant pothole – caused damage to a car – most usually its wheels and tyres, but often suspension as well.That’s kind of still the case on paper, but the reality is the car owner is likely to be fixing the car at their own cost thanks to a range of loopholes drafted into recent legislation.As such, you need to take each case of vehicle damage on its own merits because you could wind up dealing with a variety of state-based bodies or one of the hundreds of local councils who are technically responsible.Either way, the recent spate of extreme weather events, combined with cash-strapped post-Covid governments has meant getting the responsible authorities to pay for your car’s damage when you hit an unrepaired crater in the middle of the road, is more difficult and less likely than ever before.When it comes to getting out of paying a pothole damage claim QLD is a great example. For a start, you have to fill in an online form and provide details of the location, photos of the damage to your vehicle and receipts or quotes for repairs.Then, to make your claim stick, you are responsible for proving that the Department of Transport and Main Roads failure to repair the damage was a contributor to the damage on your car. Exactly how you do this is not part of the explanation.The Dept then references the state’s Civil Liability Act (2003) to determine whether the department should have known about the problem, what resources were available at the time and whether another problem took precedence over the pothole that smashed your front wheel and shredded the tyre.Because of this, it’s impossible to suggest whether a particular claim will be accepted or not, because of the nebulous nature of these clauses.Then there are the department’s other get-out-of-jail cards. These include denying claims for damage due to debris, and damage to tyres (or their rims) with an aspect ratio of 40 per cent or less. And this, despite the fact that many new cars are fitted legally, from the factory, with 40-series tyres or smaller. Oh, and if a weather event is deemed extreme, damage from that won’t be covered, either.Should you be from down south and thinking about lodging a pothole damage claim Victoria right now also has the loopholes coming thick and fast. Cash-strapped as the state is, road maintenance has been one of the victims, yet the state is doing more and more to avoid taking responsibility for this.Just for starters, the department responsible has changed the dollar-value threshold of the damage before it will step in. Indexed to the Consumer Price Index, the threshold for the 2024/25 financial year stands at $1640.That is, unless you have a damage bill for greater than this amount, the department is not going to cough up. Interestingly, replacing a wheel and tyre (surely the most common claim) would generally be less than this threshold, getting the department conveniently off the hook.Even when the damage surpasses the threshold, the payout would only be for the amount of the damage that is above and beyond that threshold.So, if your car sustains $1650 worth of damage and you can get the department to admit responsibility, your damages payout will be $10. And since a pothole flat tyre reimbursement is all most people are looking for, that threshold is a distant target.To lodge a pothole damage claim NSW style, you’ll also need to jump a few hurdles. You’ll need to download a PDF form from the Service NSW website, then add your personal details including a photocopy of the licence of the person driving at the time of the damage.You also need to include a map or diagram of the incident and location, the details of the vehicle, the details of the damage (including photos) and copies of at least two quotes for repairs as well as the repair invoice. And then you can wait for up to six weeks for the authorities to okay or deny your claim.The bottom line in all of this is that you’ll be expected to do the legwork in getting any claim for damages paid on this basis.Claiming pothole-created damage from the state government versus claiming pothole damage from council coffers will be a different process across the country as the rules dreamed up by each body will vary.At last count, there were 537 local councils across Australia, all of them potentially responsible for fixing potholes and the vast majority of them employing pothole repairers either as staff or contractors.This comes down to who makes the rules, and who you need to deal with will relate to who is responsible for fixing potholes on that section of road. And since the GFC and Covid, when all departments are feeling the pinch, the clauses are getting ever more pernickety.But there must be more to it than that? Probably, and as well as a general tightening of budgets around the country, many councils who once employed road crews would have calculated that the average pothole repair cost was less than paying out a car owner’s claim.But these days, when so much roadwork is conducted by contactors maybe that’s not the case any more. And if you can wriggle out of the claim and wait until the pothole can no longer be ignored, perhaps that’s the financially sound – if not them morally correct – approach at work.If you do wind up on the wrong end of a pothole with a damaged car, the first thing to do is make sure everybody is safely off the road (assuming the car is no longer driveable). You can then elect to either change the tyre yourself (if no other damage has been done) or call the road patrol cavalry.From there, you need to document all the damage and keep notes, quotes and receipts for any rectification work. Finally, it’s then up to you to contact the relevant department (once you’ve worked out who that is) and put your case forward. Good luck.You may find an independent inspection of the car by your local workshop or state motoring club is a good idea, too, but make sure you get a written report of the damage to present as part of your case. Don’t forget to take photos of the pothole at the scene.The other thing you need to do before embarking on this damage claim journey is make sure the damage is indeed, pothole inflicted.There are plenty of ways to damage a car’s suspension or wheels, but if the damage coincided with hitting a giant crater in the fast lane, that’s the big clue in how to tell if pothole damaged car parts are what you’re looking at versus general wear and tear. Perhaps the impact was recorded on your dashcam? Even better.Meantime, it’s important not to confuse pothole damage with debris damage. And who is responsible for road debris damage? Another debatable question.If the debris is the actual bitumen parts of a pothole being flung everywhere by a leading or oncoming car, you probably have a case. But if the debris is just general rocks and stuff thrown up by other cars, or junk falling from a tradie’s ute and then struck by your car, you’re more likely to be on your own.Potholes are most likely to develop after rain. The water gets under the bitumen, loosening the road base and allowing the top layer of bitumen to break up.By the time a few hundred cars and a dozen heavy trucks have further pummelled that same section of road, potholes are being born. And until pothole repairs have been carried out, it’s only going to get bigger. Any driver who clobbers it at that point is very likely to suffer car damage.

Can you transfer demerit points to someone else?The good news is, in some cases, yes you can, and it’s perfectly legal. Of course, there’s a catch or two.Meantime, the letter in the mailbox looks ominous. Its clearly not a Christmas or birthday card. You open it to discover it’s a traffic infringement notice. And it’s a double whammy.Like many driving fines, you’ve been slugged $300 and had three demerit points added to your license. Or have you? Can demerit points be transferred?This article is not a handbook on how to contest a speeding fine. But the number of people who carry out internet searches along the lines of 'nominate infringement notice' suggests being able to pass on undeserved fines and demerit points is an issue for a lot of drivers.And the news is good, because, in some cases, you can have that fine and those points legally transferred to somebody else’s license.The kicker is that the person who will ultimately take the fine and points must be the person who actually committed the offence listed in the notice.In that sense, you’re not transferring fines and demerit points, because you should never have been liable for them in the first place.However, thanks to the way some Australian road laws are written (to allow for camera-detection, mainly) this mechanism has become essential to protect the innocent from the law. Which sounds appalling, and is.This is all about the shortcomings of speed and red-light camera law enforcement. And it recognises the fact that while the camera is perfectly capable of identifying the vehicle in the photo, it has pretty much no idea what human was actually driving it at the time. In a typical family with teenagers, for instance, there could be four or five or even more regular drivers of the same vehicle.But what if you can’t accurately name the driver at fault? That gets a bit messier and it can vary slightly between states and territories.One example is if you sold the car and the new owner hadn’t transferred it into their name before the offence was committed (which is why the infringement notice came to your address and not theirs).In that case you can apply to have the fine and points struck from your licence. Being able to identify that person will make the process much simpler and easier.That’s why you should always take a photo of the license of anybody you don’t know personally who buys or borrows your car.Perhaps the car in the photograph was not yours at all, but a car with stolen or fake number plates fitted that match your car’s number plate.Sometimes, the states trip over themselves and send a fine to a car with a matching number plate that is actually registered legally to that number, but from another state. Again, you can apply to have the offence torn up as far as you’re concerned.Perhaps you’ve been the victim of somebody else who has incorrectly transferred a fine into your name, even though you’re not the guilty party.Again, there’s a legal process for putting this right. There are also cases where, for example, a company car with no log-book that could have dozens of different drivers, gets detected by a camera.If the identity of the driver truly can’t be verified, then the points and fine are usually commuted to a massive fine for the company that owns it as well as, in some cases, a registration suspension of several months.Again, there are variables from state to state and, in Victoria, for instance, none of the above applies if the vehicle was unregistered at the time of the alleged offence. The owner is liable and that’s about it, unless the car was stolen at the time.Also, this ability to nominate another driver applies only to certain offences. And you can only nominate someone else for fine costs and demerit points in the case of a camera-based detection situation.For instance, an on-the-spot traffic fine where you’re stopped by police and booked the old fashioned way, doesn’t need this nomination option because the officer will already have established the driver’s identity.For this reason, drink or drug-driving offences can’t be palmed off to another driver, either.You also need to make sure you tackle the problem as quickly as possible. Depending on the state, you will have probably 21 or 28 days to make your application to have the fine and points transferred. Leave it longer than this and you’re possibly stuck with them regardless of whether you were driving the car at the time or not.So how do you go about the process of having the points and fines transferred? What happens when you nominate another driver?In most states, you can apply online to have your case considered. This is where the three to four-week time limit applies, so it needs to be tackled promptly.Once lodged, the matter will be given due consideration and a ruling will be made. If successful, the fine and demerit points will be applied to the nominated driver’s licence.In some cases, the nominated driver will be told who nominated them, but in cases of family violence or other dangers, an internal review might hide this information from the other driver.But can you give, rather than transfer, fine points to someone else? As in, what if a family member agrees to take the hit for you. This is often talked about, but is an offence and carries penalties of its own if you’re caught.In Victoria, for instance, should you falsely nominate a driver to take the points and speeding fine, you could be fined up to $10,000 and have your licence suspended. The fine is even bigger for corporations taking the same approach.And what about those on their L-plates who need a licensed driver beside them to be legally at the wheel? If a learner driver speeds who is responsible for the fines and points?This is a pretty simple one: While the person in the passenger seat must be currently licensed and not affected by drugs or alcohol, the law states that it’s the driver (the L-plater) who ultimately takes responsibility for their actions.Even in WA where there are no engine restrictions, no towing or passenger restrictions and no speed restrictions for learner drivers, there’s a maximum of four demerit points that can be accrued before the learner’s permit is suspended, so it’s a lot easier to earn a suspension as a learner (or a P-plate) driver.The best piece of advice is to not panic when the letter turns up in the mail. Provided you’re not a repeat offender, a modest speeding offence should only add one, two or maybe three demerit points to your licence.And in three years, you’re back to square one, because that’s the answer to the question of how long does it take to get your demerit points back. Although, in reality, you gain demerit points for infringements, not lose them, but the end result is exactly the same.Again, though, there are subtleties and, in NSW, even though the points will disappear from your licence after three years, they’ll stay on your permanent driving record forever.Most states have an online page with a section called 'check my demerit points' or similar. By entering your details, the page will tell you how many points you have accrued. What this page won’t do, however, is give you a tip off that you’ve been caught doing something wrong, because points don’t appear on your record until the fine has been paid and the matter finalised.

It’s the not-knowing that’s the mental killer, isn’t it? And we’ve all been there. You were just driving along, when suddenly, there’s a flash from a camera as you pass through an intersection. Was it you? What have you done wrong?

Is there a more contentious motoring issue than the use of speed cameras in Australia? For a lot of road users, the answer is no, and these devices haven’t become any less controversial despite being in use now for decades.

There’s absolutely no doubting the importance of a new, electrified city SUV for a mass-market brand like Hyundai.

When you have the number one selling vehicle in the country on your books picking up incremental volume can be a challenge. But expanding the range is one way to do it. Which is why Ford has added yet another variant, the off-highway focused Tremor, to its Ranger ute line-up. Contributing Journalist Dave Morley has slipped behind the wheel to see if the value and performance equation stacks up.

What do the numbers on tyres mean?Car makers and anybody who makes parts for them love coded information. Check out the VIN of your own car. It’ll have 17 numbers and letters (or should have) and within that random looking line of code will be a whole bunch of information that identifies your car from any other on the planet. Tyres are a bit the same. Sort of.If you look closely at the sidewall of your car’s tyre, you’ll see all sorts of information. It’s all important stuff, too, and ranges from when the tyres was made to what size it is, how fast it’s rated to travel and even things like the safe load rating. With this information, you can make safer choices about what you do and don’t do with your car. But before it can make any sense, you need to decode it.So here’s the quick guide to tyre numbers explained and how to read tyre specs:When people first ask what do tyre numbers mean, they’re often referring to the largest letters and numbers on a tyre’s sidewall. As well as a tyre brand, you should find somewhere on the tyre sidewall a list of letters and numbers that read something like P215/50 R18 94H.So let’s break that down to the individual tyre number meanings. The first bit, the `P’ means the tyre is designed for passenger car use. The 215 is the tyre’s inflated width in millimetres at its widest point (which isn’t necessarily the width of the tread and is usually the width at a point on the sidewall).The next bit, the `50’ is the aspect ratio. In simple terms, it’s the depth of the sidewall, represented as a percentage of the tyre’s width. So, in the case of our `50 series’ tyre here, the depth of the sidewall is 50 per cent (or half) of the tyre’s width.The next bit, the `R’ means the tyre uses radial construction (just about every passenger car tyre does these days). And the next bit, the `18’ tells you that the tyre fits on an 18-inch rim or wheel. This size is always expressed in inches (while the width is always in millimetres) and probably reflects the fact that American was a driving force in tyres in the early part of motoring’s history. Either way, inches is now the universal standard for wheel size. Metric tyre sizes (diameters) were trialled in the 1980s, but almost immediately abandoned as adding nothing to the technology pool apart from odd, expensive, orphan tyre sizes on a handful of makes and models.The `94’ relates to the load rating the tyre can handle at its maximum rated speed and refers to the individual tyre, not the car as a whole. Meanwhile, the `H’ is that speed rating. Ratings start at N representing 140km/h maximum safe speed, and go all the way to Y which represents 300km/h.Another thing you’ll also find on the sidewall but in much smaller writing will be the tyre date stamp which tells you the tyre manufacture date to within a month. This is important, because tyres have a shelf life even they still have lots of tread left on them. Most experts agree that seven or eight years is as long as you’d want to keep tyres, with ten years as the absolute limit. Beyond this, a tyre will have physically degraded to the point where it’s not safe to use any more, even if the car has done very few kilometres in that time. So, do tyres have a use by date? Not specifically, but by knowing when they were made, you can gauge when they need to be replaced according to age rather than wear.But how can you tell how old the tyres are on a car you’ve only just bought? If you look closely, every tyre should have a date code. This code will be in the fine print on the sidewall and will be a four-digit number. The first two digits represent the week of the year the tyre was made and the last two digits will be the year. So, a tyre with a date code of 1622, was manufactured in the 16 week of 2022.If you want to know more, ask a tyre specialist the next time you buy new tyres or even have a flat tyre fixed. The people that run tyre shops should be able to go into some pretty serious depth on how to read tyre size markings, tyre measurements and you can also have your car’s tyre size explained and compared with other potential replacement sizes. It’s a real science and the tyre markings only really tell part of the story. When you consider what a modern tubeless tyre puts up with in terms of stress and punishment, not to mention the growing weight and performance of vehicles like modern SUVs, they’re quite remarkable things.The other critical thing to be aware of is the correct tyre inflation pressures. These are car, not necessarily tyre, specific, so you won’t find info for your make and model on the tyre itself. Instead you need to look for the tyre placard which is a small chart that shows the ideal inflation pressure depending on weather, load and driving conditions. The placard is usually on the inside of a door jamb, inside the glove-box and sometimes inside the fuel-filler flap. The car’s owner’s manual should also contain this information.

Let’s talk sleepers. In fact, what is a sleeper car? In the motoring world, a sleeper is a vehicle that hides its performance potential from the world, only revealing its true potential when the driver nails the throttle.

In the good old days, it was a common practice for those in the market for a new car to try before they bought. And, yes, while a dealership will usually allow you to take a car a couple of hours, getting an extended test drive is sometimes not so easy.

Electric 4X4 anyone? It kind of makes sense that, as the rest of the car market transits towards an EV future, that the four-wheel drive market would, too. It is, of course, not that simple. The term all-wheel drive electric car is not specific enough, just for starters.