During 2015, more Australians than ever went out to buy a new motor vehicle. They bought 1,155,408 new passenger cars, sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and commercial vehicles. This was 3.8% more than in 2014 and it broke the record set in 2013.
SUVs were so popular, sales grew 15.9% and took up a whopping 35.4% of the market, up from 31.7% in 2014. In fact, Australians bought more SUVs than small cars, even though small cars were four of the top 10 bestsellers.
More people are riding bikes these days and, without dedicated bike tracks, have to share the roads with motor vehicles. This can be dangerous, as an average of 11 riders are killed and 1,500 seriously injured in NSW every year.
Minister for Roads, Duncan Gay, has introduced Minimum Passing Distance legislation from 1 March 2016 to help make NSW roads safer.
Thanks to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACC), motorists can find the cheapest petrol nearby in real time.
Many motorists will welcome this information, especially now oil prices are at an 11-year low. But petrol profit margins, around 15.1 cents a litre, are higher than ever. Petrol prices vary considerably between cities and regional centres and within cities too.
Motorists who renew registration online can get $15 national parks discount on two popular passes to NSW national parks.
The discount applies now. It runs from 20 December 2015 to December 2016 for one 12-month, annual All Park or Multi-Park Pass.
Next time you are stopped at an intersection and waiting for the lights to change, you may be approached by a windscreen washer wielding a squeegee. Yet, walking into the road to wash somebody’s windscreen is an offence everywhere in Australia – except in Canberra.
The days of carrying a licence in your wallet – or stuffed into your back pocket – are coming to an end. Following an election promise, the NSW government plans to make all forms of licence digital in the next few years.