Hi,
over the last couple of years I have witnessed numerous times, that when things go wrong on our roads, most often Holden Commodores are involved.
That can range from burn outs, speeding, throwing rubbish out while driving, antisocial behaviour, sadly accidents as well and so on.
It appears to me, that this type of car is most attractive especially to hoons.
I am not so sure why that is, but would be interested in knowing whether you made similar observations or different ones. Maybe it also has to do with where we live, and we live in South Western Australia.
Nowadays I keep distance when I see such a car approaching, even more so when realizing, that the driver is still young.
I feel a bit at unease in labeling that car in that way, but unfortunately that is my expirience. Is there any explonation for that?
Cheers Michael

Hoon's over this way tend to have various types of vehicles. [vic ]
Mostly new or near new. The hoon situation is not getting any less, i think it is increasing.
I am in a place that is called the hoon capital of au.
Further advances in penalties need applying, like crushing the vehicle on the spot.
To have your vehicle taken for a couple of days, is just something to be proud of.
They even put stolen number plates on for the occasion.

M2catter, I agree that it does appear to be the v6 or v8 commodores that are in the main the ones who seem to be involved in hoon activities.

I think it is possibly because it is a powerful car that people can easily get parts for, is easily available in large numbers and maybe easily break in to?

However, I believe the hoon cars should not be crushed or impounded forever. They should be given to needy families who could never otherwise afford cars. Crushing them seems like such a waste to me.

Suze

<< They should be given to needy families who could never otherwise afford cars. Crushing them seems like such a waste to me. >>

After having converted the fuel sucking engines to gas - "needy families" couldn't afford the fuel bill otherwise.

Have asked this question before, but doesn't hurt airing it again: Why isn't there a limit on CC's like there is on motor-bikes for novices?

Also, a point to note; Commodores still top the list of most stolen cars, for the reasons Suze has all ready suggested.

http://tiny.cc/libDJ

I thought this was going to turn into one of those Holden vs Ford threads.

The biggest giveaway is if the car has a black stripe down the middle of the bonnet and big fat tyres. Bit like the hat driver alert especially if the car is a Volvo.

Crushing does seem like a waste. Perhaps the cars could be un-hooned and then sold with all proceeds going to worthwile charities minus the cost of dehooning.

Where I live we have an expression relating to hats - "the bigger the brim, the smaller the spread". I think this could be adapted to "hoon cars" - e.g. "the bigger the engine the smaller the driver's penis", or something like that.

Fractelle raises some good points, as usual. I overheard a conversation at my pub yesterday, where one of our local young idiots was bragging about how he'd exceeded 300 km/h on his new motorcycle on the highway on his way to the pub. Apparently this machine is the fastest production motorcycle in the world - one wonders why they are legally able to be sold in Australia, where the fastest speed limits are generally 100-110 km/h.

I won't speculate on the size of the young fool's dick, but I do sincerely hope that the police catch this twerp and take both his bike and his licence off him before he kills himself and perhaps others through his sheer recklessness.

Lastly, I quite like the idea of crushing hoons' vehicles while they are forced to watch. At the very least, nobody else would be able to endanger themselves or others with them again.

Where are you people from. Vaucluse?

For some reason I missed out on the male car loving chromosone, but there are all sorts of reasons guys and some women like to have a V8 with all the 'accessories'.

Aside from the male C chromosome or the HU (Holden ute) chromosome, there is also the social factors of pride in ones vehicle, the phallus, the leg opener of a certain female demographic.

There is a myriad of social and identity problems that have to be dealt with (recently added to via the pinky adverts, re-enforcing the thinking behind the root cause) before you will be able to deal with 'hoons'.

To be looking to deal with the cars is akin to trying to stop rainbows by banning the colour red.

Let socially disadvantaged people have a beacon for pride and social status and gender identity and disobedience and mating ritual in the form of the car, or else they may just find something more dangerous and damaging.

In some ways it's a cry for help. They know they are hated, especially by the likes of you lot, so they are 'owning it'.

"I'll show them with my hotted up car and I'll doubly cling on to the one little piece of pride I can have within my lambasted social circle."

The real "Hoon" car is a rice burner, [Jap], 4 cylinder turbocharged thing, that goes like stink. These are the ones we find street racing.

Perhaps Michale sees a lot of badly driven Commodores, because more of them were sold, they last longer than most, & are cheep. They are not a car of choice for hoons.

No self respecting hoon would would be seen dead in a 6 cylinder Commodore. Some racing enthusiasts drive V8 Commodores & Falcons. These probably get a bit short with the mobile chicanes we get out in our area from the city, either for the day, or even worse, retired here.

You know the type. They drive at 85 Km/H on our narrow 100Km roads, then speed up to 90 in the wider 80Km/H bits near towns. They then bitch about being tail gated, & the bad driving of others. If the cap fits...

God help us.

PS. I drive a 30 year old car, by choice.

Doesn't anybody remember thier youth?
In my days it was the 327 and 350 Monaro's,GT shakers and HO's,full house worked sixes
There was "Brickies" at Homebush,Parramatta Road etc in the country areas there was always the old quarter mile some where
Drag racing from lights to lights burn outs and etc
The youth of today haven't changed that much to what we were when we were young it is just that our memories are just blinded and we have mellowed as we have aged
Think what the "oldies" used to say about us
What needs to be done is give the young a place where they can go to do the things that we used to do
Thanks
From Dave

Thank you for this thread. In some ways, although motor cars are perhaps the most dangerous physical hazards of all, both to the bodies that they can crush, main or kill under the pretense of an 'accident', as well as to the cleanliness of the air that we breathe, this topic seems a little more politically light-hearted than some of the others, and IMHO that's refreshing on a Monday like this.

Ironically, the scar on my forehead that runs like an inverted J from the centre and down my right temple was provided by the bonnet and windscreen of a dark blue Toyota Corolla on a dark night driven by a respectable young lady named Betty. That I was only able to throw the motorbike to the side at the last second and take the full head-on impact (literally head-on for myself) with just my body, and sparing the Suzuki any major damage, suggests that I saw her too late to veer out of the way, and I assume that my bike's headlight was the only one lighting up our collision path.

Nowdays I mainly only drive the few kilometres from home into Fremantle two or three times each week for supplies, and to be honest, most of my post-traumatic 'autophobia' is derived from respectable looking late model mid-sized 4x4s as well as other respectable looking vehicles, driven by respectable looking people multitasking between driving and talking on their Nokias and they are so common, so unpredictable and so dangerous, particularly at traffic lights.

I have more trust in 'hoon' drivers who may at least make an effort to learn how to control the two tonnes of metal that they're potentially murdering other people with, and wouldn't know off hand, but presume that the 'respectable' citizens add more deaths to the road toll, killing more people with their comprehensively insured 'accidents' than the small minitory of hoons aka motoring enthusiasts do.

I hope that an opinion from a different pov is okay to mention, and thank you for raising a very interesting and ironically lighthearted sort of topic.

Luv your POV, Seano.

A former motorcyclist myself, I am only too aware of the zero observational skills of the so-called 'respectable' drivers in their 4WD's (being my pet hate), or other oh-so respectable cars (like Bentleys).

On 'hooning about' I have to confess to enjoying speed, but back then, I would open the throttle all the way out on back roads with little traffic and refrain from terrorising residents in towns or cities.

My other pet hate, morons opening car doors without checking for traffic of any type from cyclist to motorcyclist - takes a second to look, might save a life. Or if that isn't much of a deal, could save having to get a new car door.

Thank you all for your replies and thoughts,
yes I remember that I was young too, and of course did lots of very stupid things. I can also say that we haven't been so restricted some 30 years ago as we are today (that is the way I feel about it).
Sometimes I wish for our youth, that the goverment would give them a certain area or a track to do their burnouts and socialize. That way the danger of that act would be restricted to a certain zone, and it would be legal to do it there. And once the party has finished, it would be easier to clean up the mess (cans, bottles, fast food, rubbish in general and so on).
But I don't regard the naming of a particular car or brand as an political stunt, or similar. Unfortunately to me this specific car is most often used for very stupid and reckless driving.
One thing, however, has changed over the years dramtically.
The *I can't be bothered attitude*.
If you are on a motorcycle, for instance, and almost forced off the road by you guessed it hoon vehicle, filled up with 5 young blokes, laughing and showing me the middle finger, than this is is not funny at all.
That would not have been tolerated in my years, and we shouldn't apologize for a certain attitude or behaviour among our youth today, especially when others are at risk.
I also agree that it makes me sick to the stomach, when watching mothers in their nice 4WDs with their mobiles at their ears and the kids on the back seats.
They obviously don't love their children too much...
Reg. Michael

The latest adventure around here is short sircuting roundabouts.
When u see a car full of young blokes cruising around u know there is going to be trouble ahead.
Take it easy on blokes that wear hats, thats what ya supposed to do ya ninny.

"If you are on a motorcycle, for instance, and almost forced off the road by you guessed it hoon vehicle..."
Posted by Michael.

There is some irony here regarding my most memorable time when I was forced off the road by a car when riding a bike, because it was in the South-West, around 5 km from my destination of Augusta, one afternoon in July, 2001. I was riding a heavily-laden bicycle with trailer, around 90-100kg gross with rucksacks, food supplies and 0-10 litres water.

As usual, I was aiming to keep around 12" off the left edge of the road, and a convoy of oncoming traffic was approacing on the single carriageway, leaving Augusta. The 'hoon' who pulled out to overtake the slow traffic and would have cleaned me up if I hadn't gone bush quicksmart was driving a faded brown Volvo wagon (244/245 sort of mid-80s model).

I caught a quick glimse of her eyes as she flew past where I would have been keeping to MY left (her right) and she never even looked at me. Never knew how close she had come to wiping me off the face of the Earth. She wore some kind of nun's habit, the typical black headgear with the white forehead band. No kidding. I can't forget that close call. Just lucky there was plenty of dirt on the verge and I managed to get the bike back on the road without falling.

"My other pet hate, morons opening car doors without checking for traffic of any type from cyclist to motorcyclist - takes a second to look, might save a life. Or if that isn't much of a deal, could save having to get a new car door."
Posted by Fractelle

Yes.
Rule #1 for city cyclists: Always keep 750mm from the stationary vehicles in case of an unexpected door opening.
Rule #1 for city passengers: Always look first, or if you can't see out the back or have no mirror, click the door open very gently around 3 inches or less, so that any cyclist can see what's about to hit them and change course.

Interesting that we have the 'We Should Be Concerned' thread calling for mandatory seven year sentences for uncouth fighting techniques with the foot (which I agree is a desipicable way to behave when the opponent is floored and no longer a threat) and yet we can open taxi doors on innocent two-wheeled motorists or drive our cars into them or pedestrians at our leisure, and then claim the repairs on our insurance.

Why not have mandatory sentences for those who cause physical harm or death to others with these lethal weapons? There are no excuses for 'accidents'. If you're in the wrong, you're guilty of more than just losing your no-claim bonus. Dead cyclists tell no tales.

"Why not have mandatory sentences for those who cause physical harm or death to others with these lethal weapons? There are no excuses for 'accidents'."

Seriously?