plasticcanuck

Britain came late into the auto world compared to NA. Whenever I go back to the UK it seems that almost everyone is interested in what car I drive/own,then proceed to tell me what they have and what everyone in their family has. Canadians/Americans generally are unconcerned about other people's cars. We just don't care.

Piff Poff

The roads here are pretty boring long straight lines - sometimes you get a curve or even a bend. There are speed limits, you shouldn't go over them, people do. Red Deer has just installed a bunch on speed cameras on the traffic lights in a attempt to make people realise that red means stop, not speed up and try to get through. The QE2 has air patrolled speed control - I dunno how it works but there are signs everywhere.

There are bylaws that will stop you working on your cars on your driveway, washing your car in the street, having too many cars.

No MOT is a negative imho, more death traps with no brakes and bald tyres on the roads.

Don't understand about North American V8's not being available in the UK - we used to drive them when we lived there.

If you want a 'fun or classic' vehicle, then forget driving it from October until end of April, be prepared to store it. We are intending to move to Southern Ontario where the winters are much shorter than in Alberta so we can do more car stuff. It's a painfully secretive world here and very repetitive and with such distances to travel you don't always want to take your 50 year old car in 40 degree heat to park it in a field.

dbd33

I don't understand the matter of timing, are you saying that the Americans invented something recognizably a car before Benz and Thomas Rickett ?

It's hard to care what Canadians drive. Something beige or grey with a camera for reversing. Americans are different, that's a car culture, from the drive-in cinema to the shot fender to the Cadillac ranch. Americans tend to know when they are operating an automobile quite like the British really.

I don't know how things are in the UK these days but FWIW this is my experience in Ontario.

I commute 35 minutes each way on roads signposted for 80kph/50mph, most of them have a hard surface. I go for the first ten minutes at 75 to 80mph and then, as the roads become busier, I slow to the standard speed of the traffic, 62mph. If I come upon a vehicle going more slowly I pass it, since tailgating is usual here I commonly pass three and sometimes more cars at a time. I rarely go more quickly on the daily grind.

On the highway, posted limit 100kph/62mph, the standard speed of the traffic is about 80mph, I usually go at 90 to 100. I rarely drive at less than the posted speed limit except when stuck in traffic but then hardly anyone does.

This style of driving results in approximate one speeding ticket a year, usually for between 100 and 110 clics in an 80 though I did get one where the radar gun showed 150 in an 80 (lowered at the scene to 129, the threshold of a "racing" charge). Being ticketed at this rate results in enough points to have repeated re-education classes but not sufficient for a ban. Insurance is about $500/month for two unremarkable vehicles.

I suppose that makes Ontario reasonably speeding friendly. One might find that odd since it's also drinking while driving friendly.

Tirytory

The OPP lurk around the highways here, you never know when you're going to come across one so it helps not to drive too far over speed limit. I thought speed limits were less than the UK actually. Everyone seemed to be going very fast when we went back for a visit recently.

I'm guessing you know the many reasons that the government are trying to decrease car usage in the U.K. though? That's not them trying to spoil your fun you know. It's just simple facts..

scilly

Re my post about the cars seen here ................

Went for coffee just after posting, and ended up driving behind a new-looking Porsche Carrera S

OK, so that's a cheapie ............ less than $100,000 I understand.


Two mercs and 1 BMW in the small parking lot of the independent coffee shop



this_ ........

........ there are NO unlimited speed areas in BC, nor anywhere else we've driven in Canada, although I could be corrected about the latter by those who live in other provinces.

RCMP patrol the roads pretty well in this province, especially around areas where the speed limit changes .......... they love collecting the fines

We used to drive regularly 800-1000km north (each way), and knew all the places where the RCMP were likely to be.


FYI .... this is the current law in BC ........

Fines —The faster you drive, the higher the fine

• Exceeding the driving limit by more than 40 km/h— $368 fine plus the driver will receive three penalty points on his or her driving record
• Exceeding the driving limit by more than 60 km/h — $483 fine plus the driver will receive three penalty points on his or her driving record

Impoundment of the Vehicle
Excessive speeding will also result in the immediate impoundment of the vehicle you are driving and costs:

• seven days for a first offence plus towing and storage costs – at least $210
• 30-days for a second offence within a two-year period plus towing and storage costs – approximately $700
• 60 days for any subsequent offences within two years plus towing and storage costs – over $1200

----------


Driver Penalty Points are collected on your driving record through traffic offences. Each offence carries a different number of points. Each year ICBC look at the total number of points received during a 12-month period called the "assessment period." This period ends five months before your birthday.


If you have collect more than three points on your driving record during the assessment period, you'll have to pay a Driver Penalty Point (DPP) premium.


The premium ranges from $175 for four points to $24,000 for 50 or more points. To find out how much you will pay, you can check a table of Driver Penalty Point premiums.


In addition, a Driver Risk Premium is added if you have one or more driving-related Criminal Code convictions; one or more 10-point Motor Vehicle Act convictions ; one or more excessive speeding convictions and/or two or more roadside suspensions/prohibitions.


The lowest amount you have to pay under the DRP for one speeding offence is $320

Danny B

I don't know how old you are, but I have found that the young'uns are now going crazy for 15 year old Japanese cars that can be imported direct from Japan for dirt cheap.

Here in Kamloops I see RHD Evo's, STI's, Nissan Silvia's etc. All this stuff is boring to me as I grew up with RHD Jap cars unlike the younger generation here.

You can pick up a low km, mint condition, 300bhp Evo 6 for about $10k. Probably cheaper if you import it direct and cut out the middleman.

Stinkypup

Re Scilly's post
Carrera S - $120k
Just as in the UK you get penalised for speeding. Way less fixed speed cameras here.

No unlimited speed areas in BC? If you are willing to pay, yes there are..
Home < Area 27: Discover Your Life On Track

Are there unlimited speed areas in the UK? No, not on public roads, you can use race tracks if you wish. You can be a petrol head on either side of the Atlantic..... Not really that different- well, apart from having to drive " on the wrong side of the road"

dbd33

The quality of those roads is a significant difference. The UK has very many paved roads with bends, Canada not so much. otoh bracket racing is common here and fun in any vehicle, especially rented ones, not so common in the UK.

Stinkypup

You might not have but BC certainly has.

scilly

Oh .......... I checked the price online, and it was just over $90,000.

It's still cheap compared with many of the cars we see on the roads.

There were still roads with no speed limit posted on our last trip back ............. as a foreign visitor, it was hard to determine what the top speed allowed on those roads actually was.

Have you ever noticed that there is literally NO information on that provided with rental cars on maps, etc? At least, there wasn't in 2008.

I guess you have to be a local yokel to know such things ............ and it provides the police with a goodly little income

And we noticed many speed cameras along various motorways on that same trip!


........ you do have that race track near Oliver designed by Jacques Villeneuve. Although I gather it could be very expensive. It was around $30,000 for a membership last I heard!

scilly

I agree ......

....... with so many mountain roads crossing at least 4 mountain ranges between the coast and the border with Alberta, and so many ski hills (18 major plus who knows how many small local ones), bendy roads are very easy to find!


and we shouldn't forget the much larger number of gravel roads, even within city limits, that can be even more bendy and hilly.

I speak as the world's expert at finding roads that defy description and expecting the driver to tackle them ........ hairpin bends a plenty, 15 % grade no problem, has to be cleared by a bulldozer before you can go down, easy!

Found all of those in BC

Stinkypup

Porsche 911 Carrera S - Porsche Canada

I costed up a mid range one at $140k- where exactly are you looking???

As for the circuit, I'm sure I linked to that in my previous post....Area 27
(If you can say afford say a Mclaren, RS8, Ferrari etc then a joining fee of 30k isn't going to put you off... )this thread when all is said and done is about petrolheads

Shakyuk

This seems an odd reason to emigrate considering it is starting your life again...


I can appreciate what you say about the UK, the war on cars is something that does annoy me. I find it particularly annoying how new industrial and housing estates are built but the councils around here award roughly half to a third of the parking spaces required because they say this 'encourages people to use public transport, car share or cycle'. The council then doesn't provide any additional public transport or cycle lanes. it's still a massive pain and costly to just use public transport to get a few miles from home within a relatively high population density area. For example it is the same cost in a taxi to town for myself and my girlfriend as it is to catch the bus.


All this means is we have many new housing and industrial estates which are down to single lane roads because cars are abandoned everywhere due to lack of parking. This further increases the intolerable congestion that now seems to last until 11 pm in Wigan... anyway I went off on one there because I live in the centre of a traffic jam...


I'm a motorcyclist, I love the UK's twisting country lanes. I drove quite a bit in BC and AB and you're right the roads are faster moving, less congestion and I didn't see any speed cameras. In parts of AB I didn't see any people for hours! But the roads are wide, long and straight, even in the mountains the A roads are fast flowing long radius bends and wide lanes because they're safer and more efficient at moving traffic. If you look at NA roads, they go around the mountains, European roads go over them for fun or modern ones go under them.
In summary, NA roads are for the most part... boring in comparison to European roads. It's the trade off of having a country designed for the car and having a country with historical roads laid by the Romans. When I emigrate I'm actually thinking I'll get an adventure bike because the twisty roads in the mountains are unpaved, full of holes are not suited to spirited driving/riding. They're purely for access. Also in AB the car enthusiast scene seems more lifted trucks than lowered cars.
I did notice in BC that the mid 20's kids of the obscenely rich like driving their Lamborghini's and Ferrari's around and launching between traffic lights with the tops down and music up so everyone stares at them and they feel important... but I suspect that's not what you're lucking for haha.
Move to Canada for a lot of things, but not because you want to have fun driving. Move to Austria or Andora for fun driving, they have some of the best roads in the world.

Vulcanoid

I really can't envisage why you'd want to go through the hassle of emigration purely to give yourself a chance of standing by the side of the road walking an hour or more to get cell service reception to call an expensive cab to come pick you up, and not having your car for a week.

BTW, that's what's going to happen if you bring your attitude to BC, where 'excessive speeding' results in immediate impounding of the vehicle, regardless of where you are or how you can('t) get home. Have a read of https://www.pressreader.com/canada/t...81479274063557

RCMP use hand-held speed guns in towns and on highways, and patrol highways from the air. The first time you know about it is when someone down the road steps out at you. It's at once quite patronising and quite amusing to watch their faux concern as they jog over to the window and ask the driver "Hey what's wrong, why are you going so fast?" (direct quote from downtown Kelowna speedtrap).

Some Canadian cities are very poorly designed for public transport/walkability, because they expanded massively in the time when it was thought more cars all round was better. This can result in sitting in very long traffic to go relatively short distances.

Governments around the world are generally trying to make life nicer by reducing the need for vehicles on the one hand, and reducing their appeal on the other. Canadian distances between cities will never eliminate the need for occasional long drives (several hours of straight line with nothing to see but lake, forest, lake, forest, field, forest, lake, field, lake, forest, lake, forest), but they do target speeders (limits are often lower than in the UK), and are doing things like turning 4-lane roads in cities into 2 -lane roads with a linear park alongside (just announced in central Winnipeg).

In addition, I'm flabbergasted that you listed under a 'pro' not having any idea how safe the car you're driving, or any other vehicle around you is.

Considering the list you posited, you may find it appealing to know that drink-driving has far less social stigma here, and it's relatively common to get behind the wheel after a few drinks. Government makes noises about this, but they seem to have less success than we did.

Have you thought about Australia?

Atlantic Xpat

This.

For me, the petrolhead opportunities that I enjoy here are around offroading on ATV/UTV's. I have access to 000's kms of trails & logging roads pretty much from my door. So that's something we like to do as a family.

But a reason to emigrate? Not so much...