Silvia Club of NSW

Today I was heading out to a client site for work. Going down Epping road up towards the M2 Entrance. There wasn't much traffic about at the time. I was in the left lane and about 20m ahead of me was a Pajero. Now, I'm going along at 80, and the distance between me and the pajero is staying to same, then all of a sudden as the road starts going uphill, i notice the gap shortening, so I eased up on the accelerator. Now, the Pajero's brake lights didn't come on at all, so I just assumed it was the hill causing that hunk of metal to slow down. Like 1 second later the gap was practically gone and I had to slam my brakes on pretty hard (not hard enough to lock the wheels though). It was then that I could see (through the windows of the pajero) that there was a heavily loaded up ute infront of him. So, this pajero was so far up that ute's arse that I couldn't see it, and when the ute got to the hill it had to slow down heaps.
But what really shits me is that the pajero's brake lights did not come on at all! When you're going along at a reasonable speed it can sometimes be hard to judge if the car infront of you (especially if it's fairly far off) is slowing down, let alone slowing down alot unless its brake lights come on. It's bad enough that this fuck head was tailgating the ute...
Certainly got my heart pumping for a while cause I barely managed to stop in time! grrr....

Anyone else have any stupid and thoughtless 4WD stories to share?

Going behind anycar that is bigger then your own sucks. That's all i can say.....

Hate driving behind:
Trucks
4WD
Falcons/Commodors

Like Driving behind:
...............Nothing really....like to have a clear lane ahead of me


But 90% of the time it's unavoidable.

Yeah i dont like it when they sit next to you at an intersection and you cant see shit in that direction so you have to wait till they go.

Oh and every 4WD around here cuts me of at roundabouts. it happens so friggen much, they must think my nice low sleek jap car can drive under there land boat

had a big ass 4WD try to park in the seat i was sitting in while in a friends car. scared the shit out of my, almost took off my arm, and the wheels scratches were on the window!!

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There's nothing in life I hate more than 4WDs. The only exceptions are the ones used for off road driving regularly. And we all know how often they're used for that. I hate everything about them.
They pollute more than anything short of a truck.
The selfish, arrogant bastards that drive them say "It gets me up high so I can see what's going on." Yeah, by blocking the view of everyone else you *****s. I love it when you're following one at a reasonable distance and, without slowing, the driver gets as close to the stopped traffic ahead before swerving out of the lane at the last second, leaving you going full speed at stopped traffic you couldn't see before and only 2- 3 seconds to stop or move.
I love coming back to my car in a carpark and finding a 4WD next to my car. That way I can't possibly see if there are cars coming when I try to leave, and with any luck the snotty little kids have dented my car with their doors.
And what are the bloody bull bars for? A place for birds to have a rest?
Sorry for going on. I REALLY hate 4WDs (although not Subie's and little car like ones). I'll go lie down now.

Greg

I've got no real problem with 4Wds...I mean, there's always a percentage of people who will give others a bad name...But i have to say i have alot more trouble with dickheads in hotted up commodores and jap cars who think they're superior to everyone else...I'm obviuosly not categorising anyone here in that group, but you see how you can't really make generalisations...
I 100% agree that they do pollute like hell...I know someone with a Patrol, it's not that old really, yet it has a 4.2 litre carbs fed engine, just to move a 2 door 4x4 not much bigger than alot of those suzuki 4x4's getting around...Now that's just dumb...
There defiantely is percentage of people that drive them that are dickheads though...

Damn! Most 4WD's are nasty on the roads. I almost got wiped out one time when on the M4 motorway a Lexus 4WD came joined the freeway from a ramp on the left, suddently turned right to change lanes, came across 2 lanes and was still coming @ ME in the 3rd (right lane near the barrier in the middle of the road)...i hit the breaks and he came in front of me, if i did'nt react he woulda nudged me into the concrete barrier and totaled my car and probably just dented his...

Any1 with a low car they just can't see out of their windows, they may see your sunroof if it's tilted up if u're lucky.

This happens all the time, i avoid staying in their blind spot or near them at all.

In general though, most 4wD owners are 'Dads'..who are generally good blokes, i know a few..but on the road - KEEP AWAY! I could go on all day about near misses i've had with them. The Landcruiser by Toyota is an awesome car offroad.

A note though, i think Lexus, Merc and Porsche 4WD owners are posers (every1 i've seen so far)..but most BMW X5 drivers i've seen seem to enjoy the BEAST that their car is...i'm often seeing a few race me all the way down the harbour bridge and down the freeway after work heading from the city to north Ryde...they gun it down the freeway! Awesome sight when u see 2 X5's and an S15 racing down a 4 lane freeway on a sunny day...i'm like 1/3 their riding height. Looks awesome though.

P.S I like those 'side-steps' on the X5, very nice style!

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Blue 2001 Nissan Silvia S15 Spec R.
See: www.payam.com.au/200SX.html

Hehehe it puts the driver on a power trip.

I don't think its the drivers that are bad I think its the 4WD's themselves, cos when i drove 1 recently i was driving like an idiot!

(Maybe I always do)

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It's funny when u see a taxi driver in the city with a bullbar. U know he's a trouble maker!

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Blue 2001 Nissan Silvia S15 Spec R.
See: www.payam.com.au/200SX.html

Nah, he's just prepared!

I think I know 3 guys who use their 4wds for bush bashing, they know theyre slow, big, dont brake well so they tend to be some of the better ones. Add to that most of them own a 2nd "toy" which is usually a stinky old V8 or XR6 of some sort.... so they know theyre still slow, big, dont brake well... and get owned by maggots like me! :p
The good thing about theirs is that I can see under them if theyre next to me, though I have pix somewhere of my friend "monster trucking" a wrecked mazda 323 in his Hilux, which worries me...

Well, that makes 3 people in Sydney that use 4wds for their intended purpose. Now all we need to do is get the other 1.2 million 4wds in Sydney to do the same thing and it'll be a better place. Mainly because they'll take these tarted up hunks of shit into the bush, get stuck there and have to leave them there.
Its the same thing though with that set as any other car owning group.

Hardcore 4wd owners hate posers, they get stuck and you have to bail them out in somewhere they shouldnt be.

Harcore performance car owners hate posers, they invariably do something stupid and brand us all as idiots.

Truer words have never been spoken.

I've been reading up about the Ford Territory, and they're building a 2WD version (and externally indistinguishable). So we're finally going the American route of building cars that look like 4WDs (with the high ride height), but aren't.

Apparently the only reason we don't get these uber-poseur mobiles at the moment (and they're everywhere in the US) is because of the lack of tax break. If the import duty on the 2WD models was the same as the 4WD models, the Yanks know it'd sell. A lot of people just want something big and spacey and high-ride heighty, but without the mass and complexity that gives allows their chosen car do do its old "prime function" of bush bashing, as opposed to its current prime function of driving the kids to school.

If the Territory succeeds, Ford may scrap the Falcon wagon (since this car will cannibalise its market). Less Falcons on the roads is always a good thing, but it sounds like a Pyrrhic victory.

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It's entirely possible they may have become faulty on that journey and the guy didn't know, then again if he hadn't been tailgating the other chump he'd have more braking room.

To that end you should always maintain slightly larger gap behind people, you can't control other chumps but you can control yourself,....now if only i'd practise what i preach

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"If you can stand to look at that car all the time and not throw up then maybe you should buy it"

-- DumHed

The 'americanism' of the 4wd into some sort of screwed up 2wd barge is a big bad mistake in my opinion, mostly because the damn things are just another big, heavy vehicle on our already crap road system.
Sure its fine out of the big cities but not a real lot of people in the bush can afford a new car every 2-5 years so you know where they'll end up.
Clogging up car parks they cant fit in, burning a huge amount of fuel and the 'visibility menace' that others mentioned is added too. While Mr Tall is up there in his bloody mobile skyscraper, no one else can see around him so what do the other people who cant see do? Go buy a mobile apartment block as well...

Most of the visibility thing could be un-fucked if people just drove properly, Im not talking about driving slow but driving so that youre aware of your environment and aware of the capabilities of your vehicle.
Look ahead, not at the arse of the car in front of you.
Double check blind spots
Dont talk on the fucken phone
Take into account not just your braking distance but that of the bloke in front or behind you... fucken hatch owners are the biggest culprits there.

Its pretty simple really but most of the drivers just happily wallow around with this 'wont happen to me' attitude and its some other chump who gets his car fucked up or hurt because of it.