Opinion

For the second time this year, Australia's peak consumer protection authority has let down the motorist.

I think Holden might have imported the wrong model from the Insignia line-up to warm us to the Commodore of the future.

In June, Australians bought more new cars than in any single month in history, yet Ford sales were down by 17 per cent. Year-to-date, the slide is even worse.There isn't a major brand that is losing market share at the same rate. Or one that has slipped in share for as long as Ford. Sales have been in decline for more than a decade.In 2004, more than 135,000 Australians bought new Fords. This year, it's on track to be roughly half that number.And that's only half the story. Look more closely at the figures and the picture is bleak for the brand that twenty years ago topped the sales charts.How will sales improve when the brand has trimmed its line-up in the biggest segment of the market?Everybody assumes the sales slump is tied to the impending death of the locally-made Falcon and Territory, but the company's local products aren't the biggest problem.Sales of locally-made Fords are down 9.5 per cent year-to-date. Compare that with the imported Mondeo (down by almost 60 per cent), Focus (down 54 per cent) and Fiesta (down 32 per cent).Which makes this week's decision to drop the cheapest model from the Focus line-up all the more puzzling. How will sales improve when the brand has trimmed its line-up in the biggest segment of the market?There are promising products on the horizon, with Everest and Mustang due this year, but products aren't Ford's problem. Fiesta, Focus and Mondeo are all cars most brands would love in their line-up, but the Ranger is the only one that sells.Ford used to be labelled the Falcon car company. It's now in danger of becoming the Ranger car company.Ford says market share isn't everything and it is building a profitable business. But surely there's a point when the showroom traffic slows to a level where profit suffers?

Luxury car buyers won a small victory last week as the government lifted the luxury car tax threshold to $63,184 and a number of brands decided to pass on the savings immediately.

The Hyundai i30 shot to the top of the sales charts last month, recording 5500 sales as people snapped up the $19,990 drive-away deal for the Korean hatchback.The sticker price, which was roughly $7000 off the full retail ask, worked because it made life simple for buyers and Hyundai dealers alike.No need to haggle, no worrying whether other buyers got a better deal, just choose a colour and sign on the dotted line. No doubt the five-year warranty and rear-view camera sealed many a deal as well.The same applies to the Volkswagen Golf, which came within a whisker of bumping the once-mighty Holden Commodore into eighth place on the sales charts. The simple and attractive $24,990 drive-away deal helped sell 2680 examples.Ditto the Mitsubishi Triton, which is the third most popular vehicle with private buyers this year, largely because of a cheap — and transparent — $29,990 drive-away deal.Overall, the car industry remains on course for another record yearPerhaps other brands need to take a leaf from Hyundai's book rather than hide their margins by inviting customers to "do a deal" or take advantage of complicated low-interest loans.For example, Nissan was offering "extra value" on some models but no headline drive-away deals — sales were down 17 per cent on last year.Overall, the car industry remains on course for another record year, driven mainly by low interest rates.Weekly repayments on a $20,000 car today can be as low as $387 a month — three years ago the same car cost about $486. You also pay much less interest on a five-year loan — $3200 today against more than $9000 three years ago.Alternatively, you could buy a $25,000 car now with the same repayments as a $20,000 car three years ago.

They would have learned everything they need to know at the world's most successful new car show, the Goodwood Festival of Speed.Goodwood has been running for many years, but more recently it's morphed from a garden party at the stately home of the Earl of March into a genuine motor show which draws every major maker in the UK - and beyond.So what began as a chance for the owners of historic racing cars to exercise their old-timers is now a major event that draws more than 200,000 people each June on the same weekend as the Glastonbury music festival.Some fantastic retired racers still sprint up the Earl's driveway but it's the modern stuff which is drawing the big crowds and the big brands.Goodwood is an event and a destination, proving that cars are still more than just appliances for a lot of peopleMercedes-Benz uses the weekend to unveil its facelifted A45 AMG and new C63 S, Aston Martin rips the covers off its $2.5 million Vulcan and launches it up the hill, and Peugeot shows its 308 GTI for the first time. Mazda, which is the star brand at the show and has its Le Mans winning rotary 787B doing noisy demonstration runs, has its all-new MX-5 in action.There is also a moving motor show where ordinary fans can take a passenger ride and a supercar cavalcade including all of the world's most desirable cars, right up to the 400km/h Ferrari FXX K.And that's the real key to the Festival of Speed. The cars move and there is lots of interactivity for visitors, from off-road driving events to racing car simulators and even kiddie slides.Did I mention Ken 'Gymkhana' Block in the outrageous Ford Mustang that starred in his most-recent internet video hit?Old-school motor shows are just giant showrooms, but Goodwood is an event and a destination, proving that cars are still more than just appliances for a lot of people. If it can work in Britain then the same formula should be just as tasty in Australia.

For that you must have laws where motorists can understand the obvious benefit (for all of us) of compliance.In my 30-plus years behind the wheel, those road rules have evolved a lot. As a young bloke growing up in southeast Queensland, things were considerably more laissez-faire than they are today: Most of the old Holdens and Valiants we drove didn't have seat belts in the back, the blood alcohol limit was 0.08 and there was no random breath testing - unless of course you unwittingly laid some serious rubber down at the lights in sight of an unmarked walloper. Guilty as charged, sorry.Speed cameras didn't exist, and you pretty much knew which spots the cops favoured to set up their clunky old radar sets and you slowed down for a few hundred metres accordingly.Times have, thankfully, changed, and only an absolute arse-hat doesn't recognise the perils of drink or drug driving, or respect the fact that slowing down to 40km/h in a school zone where children are buzzing around is not only the law but basic common sense.Likewise, it is not so much the threat of a fine that makes us buckle up as soon as we hop in a car, but force of habit born of a desire not to end up smeared all over the windscreen - the same way the 'stop revive survive" mantra is ingrained in most motorists on long journeys today.In short, we can well understand the logic behind laws designed to minimise the carnage.Last year four people a week on average died on Queensland roads. None of us want to become a statistic.Where police and transport authorities lose the war, though, is when motorists perceive ever-stricter enforcement of minor infringements as being little more than revenue-raising. Instead of acting as a deterrent or an expensive lesson in improving driver behaviour, such policy merely fuels resentment and an "us and them" mindset that risks undermining public faith in other, more important road rules and safety campaigns.Bust me hooning along the Warrego Highway at 130km/h and I'll concede I was being a bloody idiotA case in point here is the poorly explained decision to ratchet back tolerance levels on speed cameras.As News Corp Australia has been reporting in recent days, this has resulted in an extraordinary surge in the number of people being nicked for low-level speeding infringements - and we're talking here a few clicks over 60km/h or 80km/h on major arterial roads where a sensible motorist goes with the flow and spends more time watching the traffic than fixated on the speedometer.Bust me hooning along the Warrego Highway at 130km/h and I'll concede I was being a bloody idiot. Hit me with a $150 fine for doing 65km/h at the bottom of a hill on Gympie Rd, Kedron, and I'll just be pissed off at the police, not pondering my own stupidity.When pressed on the surge in "just over" speeding fines in the past year, Assistant Police Commissioner Mike Keating failed to point to any studies or concrete data showing a correlation between lower tolerance levels and fewer crashes.Motorists could be forgiven thinking then if it's not "the vibe of the thing", then it's all about the extra millions in revenue flowing from tens of thousands of extra fines. A nice little earner in other words.As one oft-cited US Department of Transport Study into the effects of raising or lowering posted speed limits concluded, motorists tend to drive to the conditions - optimising a safe journey with the shortest time.People would rarely cite minor speeding as a principle annoyance or danger that needs stricter policingThe study found that lowering posted speed limits by as much 32km/h, or raising speed limits by as much as 24km/h, had little effect on motorists' speed, with drivers not altering their behaviour: "Data collected at the study sites indicated that the majority of speed limits are posted below the average speed of traffic".In urban or most highway conditions people would rarely cite minor speeding as a principle annoyance or danger that needs stricter policing. Rather it is the sort of driver behaviour that our ubiquitous cameras can't detect upon which most motorists would support tougher action.Cameras don't, for example, tend to detect the galahs who habitually tailgate (rendering redundant the safe stopping-distance equation of obeying a set speed limit), or the inattentive drivers who change lanes or charge into traffic with little more than a Hail Mary and a flick of the steering wheel.Authorities need to realise there is a big difference between educating drivers, and simply alienating themThey don't target the old duffer who's never had a ticket in 50 years behind the wheel, but tows his 2-tonne caravan in the right-hand lane of the highway at 70km/h, drifting blithely across the lane markings and oblivious to the rest of the world.When it comes to policing our roads - especially when it comes to trifling infringements that bear little demonstrable connection to safety, authorities need to realise there is a big difference between educating drivers, and simply alienating them.

The government wants to ensure a steady supply of affordable cars once Australia's car makers shut their factories.But the reason they are closing is because Australia is already the most competitive market in the developed world.More than 65 brands compete for 1.1 million annual sales versus 38 brands in a market of 15.5 million in the US; Commsec data shows new-car affordability is at a 37-year high, with prices at 20-year lows.This rule change, without exaggeration, could cost livesWe are in favour of price competition but not at the risk of exposing unwitting customers to rogue importers with vehicles that may have been stolen and given a new bogus identity, were written off and then repaired illegally, or lack the safety features of equivalent models sold here.The government has apparently told industry leaders "buyer beware" will save customers. Really?This rule change, without exaggeration, could cost lives. Newer, safer cars are the driving force behind last year's 89-year low in the road toll.Enthusiast buyers can already import the specialist cars they desire. Do we really want to relax the rules to let any car in without proper checks?We should proceed with extreme cautionBuyers trying to save a dollar may pay a higher price by being stuck with a lemon. What happens to unwitting buyers who can't tell the difference between a car originally sold here (with historical parts and service support) and a privately imported car that could be dearer to insure, service and repair — and lack vital safety equipment?The old saying "if it's too good to be true, it probably is" applies to the Federal Government's "cheaper cars" mantra. We should proceed with extreme caution.

December and January are already good times to drive a bargain as dealers clear 2014 stock and make way for cars built in 2015.But it could be an even better time to buy if the Australian dollar continues to weaken against the US dollar.Senior car company executives have told CarsGuide that if the Australian dollar drops below 80 US cents for any length of time then we may start to see price rises on certain models by about March or April next year.Not all car companies buy in US currency, and the Australian new-car market is still more closely tied to the exchange rate with the Japanese Yen (which has been accused of being artificially devalued by the Japanese government to boost exports) given that about half the new cars sold in Australia wear a Japanese badge.But brands such as Jeep and Chrysler, which have enjoyed massive sales growth in recent years on the back of sharp pricing, may be forced to raise prices.Likewise the US-sourced Toyota Kluger, BMW X5 and Mercedes-Benz ML which, despite their Japanese or German badges, are in fact made in the USA.So if you’re in the mood to treat yourself to a new car, buyers continue to have the upper hand with record low interest rates, overstocked dealers (the market is down 2 per cent yet the forecast was for another boom year) and, now, the prospect of price rises around the corner.

Federal Government is meeting with all sides of the car industry on Monday to consider radical changes to the Motor Vehicle Standards Act, in the belief that reform will lead to cheaper cars for the masses.Changes are needed in many key areas but let's hope the bureaucrats get the balance right, because the ramifications will be far reaching – perhaps beyond the government's expectations.If the government is not careful, the changes could reverse Australia's 90-year low in the road toll – and clog our courts with cases trying to discover the true identity of a stolen car, or with people suing someone for selling them a lemon.That said, there is room to make changes that would benefit enthusiasts and the wider community, and hopefully address the government's concern about vehicle prices, particularly at the top end of the scale.The prices of mass-market vehicles are already at 20-year lows and affordability is at a 38-year high.You only need to look at the price of a Toyota Corolla to see it's true: the starting price of $19,990 is the same today as it was 20 years ago. And yet today's car is loaded with features that were exclusive to limousines back then.With all this in mind, and having trolled through many of the 200 submissions made online, here is my unofficial submission to the review into the Motor Vehicle Standards Act.– Contrary to popular belief, removing the import restrictions on new and used cars will not lead to cheaper vehicles for the mass market.– Most cars priced below the current Luxury Car Tax threshold ($61,884) are slightly cheaper than their equivalent vehicles in the UK and the USA once the correct taxes and other charges (not clearly identified on foreign websites) are calculated on the foreign vehicles, and the same equipment is added.– See here for examplesCar prices may go up if the Australian dollar weakens significantly– Trying to trace the owners of privately imported cars that require a recall will create a new layer of bureaucracy. Otherwise, the cars could become a road safety risk if they can't be quickly and easily identified and fixed.– Car prices may go up if the Australian dollar weakens significantly, but private buyers would be at a disadvantage because they don't buy hedge funds in advance at bulk rates, as car makers do.– There is scope to apply significant pressure on luxury car prices. Once prices start to climb above, say, $100,000 a gap starts to develop between local and overseas prices.– Even when equipment differences and Australia's Luxury Car Tax are taken into account, Australians do in most cases pay more for cars priced above the $100,000 mark.– Allowing private buyers to import brand new vehicles has the potential to contaminate the local market with vehicles that appear to be the same as those sold locally but which are cheaper because they lack certain equipment. This has the potential to wipe thousands off the value of luxury cars bought in Australia, leaving people "upside down" on their finance payout figure, or out of pocket when it comes time to sell.– If the government does allow people to privately import cars priced above $100,000 then it needs to ensure, at the very least, all safety equipment matches that fitted as standard to vehicles imported by manufacturers in Australia. For example, a Mercedes sedan in the UK comes with seven airbags while nine are standard in Australia. Anyone who eventually buys a privately imported new car as a secondhand vehicle should not have to guess what safety equipment it comes with.– There is a way to put price pressure on luxury cars without allowing private buyers to import their own new vehicles, or cut Luxury Car Tax.– In North America and Brazil and other countries, dealers and the industry provide – and the media publishes – the average transaction price for every model (as listed by VFACTS), on a monthly basis.– This means buyers can check online or in specialist publications what average price is paid for a particular car. In North America it is also compulsory for car makers to reveal the rebate (or "incentive") on every vehicle each month (the money paid from the car manufacturer to the dealer to help sell a particular model). This also gives consumers a large clue as to which companies are desperate to move particular models and where the best deals are.– See examples here.– Australian authorities should also consider making it compulsory to advertise the price of cars with metallic paint. At present, most prices appear next to photos of white cars, with metallic paint in the fineprint (adding up to $550 on a $13,990 car). Often there is only one or two non-metallic colours from which to choose. If metallic paint accounts for the biggest choice, then it should be the most visible price.– More than 80 per cent of passenger cars sold in Australia come with automatic transmission. And yet, particularly in the small-car class, the advertised prices are for manual models. Automatic transmission models can add up to $2500 on budget-priced cars. Given automatic is the more popular choice, it is this price that should be the most prominent, with a note in the fineprint that buyers of manual models get a discount of up to $2500.– Consumers and car enthusiasts in Australia should continue to be able to get access to certain specialist imported used cars.– But the current arrangements are overdue for review and, following widespread complaints to state-based Fair Trading departments, there needs to be stricter checks on the original kilometres the imported vehicle has travelled before it arrives in Australia, and on its bonafides to ensure it is not a stolen car with a new, false identity, or has been made from parts sourced from written-off-and-then-repaired vehicles. (Australian authorities have recently closed this loophole, it shouldn't be re-opened).– Used car imports should continue to be restricted to specialist vehicles that were not sold in Australia by the manufacturer as new (examples include the Nissan Cube small car and Nissan ElGrand people mover and others).– For example, an unwary buyer should not be caught out buying a diesel Toyota Corolla that was never sold in Australia, but has ended up on the used market after it was privately imported.– There needs to be clearer point-of-sale warnings on imported used cars, and more prominent vehicle identifiers (both on the vehicle and on roads and traffic authority computer systems) to ensure ordinary car buyers are not caught out buying a car that will be more costly to service, more difficult to source parts for, and more expensive to insure (largely driven by parts restrictions, according to the submissions from the insurance industry).– Removing restrictions from the imported used vehicle market could have a significant impact on consumers. As it stands, it is extremely difficult for police and insurers to uncover the true identity of stolen, rebirthed or illegitimately repaired cars that were originally sold as new in Australia.– Trying to trace the true identity of an imported used car that may be stolen and given a new false identity, or rebuilt from two or more written-off cars (a process now outlawed in Australia) would be next to impossible and exposes the ordinary consumer to too great a risk of buying an unsafe vehicle, or one that could be repossessed if found to be stolen, leaving the buyer out of pocket and, potentially, with a loan for a car that's been confiscated.– Any imported used car found to have a tampered speedometer, or is proved to be stolen, or been built from parts from a previously written-off car, should be scrapped or returned to its country of origin at the expense of the importer. Just as is the case in New Zealand.– With the exception of classic vehicles (1960s and older), the age of specialist used car imports should be restricted to cars three-to-five years old from their date of manufacture. At present, much older and less safe cars are eligible.Significantly improved car safety is one of the silent contributors to Australia recording its lowest road toll in 90 years (in 2013)– There is a strong argument to lower the age of imported specialist used cars. Removal of restrictions on imported used cars in New Zealand initially brought the average age of vehicles there down. But it has since gone the other way, and the average age of cars on New Zealand roads is increasing.– Significantly improved car safety is one of the silent contributors to Australia recording its lowest road toll in 90 years (in 2013).– Reducing the age of specialist used vehicle imports will assist in reducing the age of Australia's overall car fleet, which is still higher than other developed countries, despite our recent new-car sales records.