Turbo P-plate law changes

[Coaster]

Government praised for P-plate law changes -- but not by all

Heavy lobbying from car companies has paid off with the Victorian Government announcing today that new and used "fuel-efficient" turbo and supercharged cars will become eligible for learner and provisional drivers. As reported yesterday (more here) changes have been adopted by VicRoads bringing Victorian, New South Wales and Queensland regulations into line.

Several European brands are using small-capacity forced induction engines to reduce fuel consumption and lower emissions across their line-ups and the practice is expected to become common place in the short-term. The likes of Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and Volvo have been pushing hard for these changes because the old system ruled out a number of their 'bread and butter' vehicles.

Despite the insistence that the rules are designed to keep new drivers safe, there was little mention of safety in the official announcement. Victorian Roads and Ports Minister Tim Pallas said the government not only wanted to align with other states, but also encourage drivers into fuel-efficient vehicles.

"To balance the benefits of restricting high-powered vehicles and allowing P-platers to drive safe, moderately-powered cars, we're introducing changes to provide permits for some lower-performance turbocharged or supercharged cars with greater fuel-efficiency," Pallas said in the statement.

The changes will come into effect on July 1 this year and Pallas said discussions were underway to establish an official list of exempt vehicles...

Volkswagen echoed those sentiments welcoming the news that will open up its new Golf range to L and P-plate drivers.

"Obviously we're very pleased VicRoads has recognized that the new Golf engines provide efficiency gains and are very safe cars," said Volkswagen General Manager of Public Relations, Karl Gehling.

But not every manufacturer is happy with the government's decision to focus on fuel efficiency as part of the criteria for exempt cars. Volvo Australia managing director Alan Desselss believes the legislation is focusing on fuel efficiency ahead of safety.

His concern is that the addition of 'fuel efficient' as part of the wording for exempt vehicles could rule out cars fitted with extensive active and passive safety features, such as the new XC60.

Yay for better legislation! The old legislation was purely lazy policy. I still think there needs to be better legislation with this. It would be quite easy to develop a set of parameters to automatically class vehicles as exempt.
i.e. Max power XXXkW, power:weight ratio XXXkW:XXkg, top speed XXXkph, 0-100kph acceleration X.X seconds. Is that too hard?

As for Volvo; They just don't get it do they. The V6 XC60 has a 210kW engine, accelerates from 0-100 in 7.5 seconds, with a top speed of 210kph. I don't care what sort of safety features are in the car, that isn't going to help the people in the car it T-boned. Besides, at $65,000 +, I doubt your average P-plater will be too worried with the decision.

[The_Hawk]

I wonder if the sanity will transfer over to the insurance companies or if the new Golf will be a "Turbo car" therefore worth about $4 billion per year to insure.