Alltrack? Nope, not for Mt Buller Village access...

[NPR]

A story of purchaser ignorance.

Soooo....
Acquired a wonderful Alltrack Wolfsburg edition with the intent of using it for the snow. No problem there. Great 4wd system, tractable in the blizzard conditions we experienced. A car that inspires confidence. However.

We'd arranged temporary Village access at Mount Buller. Village access is the last few K's up the hill where the actual resort is. This would enable us to drop off gear and family, then park down lower. Outstanding. Except when we went to collect the pre-arranged ticket we found out that the Alltrack is not permitted up in the village due to ride height. I admit this is something I had not checked but it really surprised me. In my ignorance I blurted out 'but this is the Outback equivalent!'. Nope, no it's not. Not in Mt Buller's eyes.

As you can see below, Mount Buller require a ride height of 190mm to access the village. The full document is here.



Yep, there in black and white. The Alltrack's clearance is 174mmm, 16mm off target. The Suby is 214mm. Sigh.

No biggy for us since it was a nice luxury to go door to door for a seldom travelled trip, but if we'd owned accomodation/worked on the mountain requiring regular access this purchase would have been disastrous.

Middle aged, always learning. Oh, and apologies to the lovely people at the resort entrance for my 'You're kidding me!' perplexed response.
Nick