meercat

Having read the NZ Herald today - yet another tragic road accident has happened. Do people really drive that badly in NZ and why? I assume car insurance extremely high?

simonmarkellis

Other people are better qualified than me to answer, but apparently insurance isn't that high as the state pay for any personnel injury claims.

phil01

Hi,
I suppose it depends where you live, the larger cities are like the UK, everyone in a rush to get somewhere so driving can be bad, also you can learn to drive at 15 over here and you don't need to pass your test before you can drive on your own. 6 months with someone in the car then 6 months on your own before you need to take your practical driving test. We live in a small village and no racing about here...but it is a tiny village!

Insurance we found reasonable...got a new 4x4 Nissan Navarra insured for me and hubby fully comp cost us 150 GBP with the AA, but there are plenty of cheaper insurers such as AMI. We literally got off the plane at Auckland when we arrived and went out the same day to buy the car so wanted it insuring quickly.
Debbie

RobClubley

Generalising here again but...

As I've probably said many times, generally the standard of driving in NZ is appalling because everyone seems to be in a rush and people concentrate on anything but their driving. There's also a lot of lazy driving - cutting blind corners, that sort of thing.

Also lots of people seem to have no concept of the handling capabilities of their vehicles on NZ's twisty, lumpy roads and drive Playstation-style.

In the 18 months and maybe 10,000km of driving here I've seen as many accidents as in 14 years and maybe 300,000km of driving in the UK.

Insurance is cheaper though

Birdey

We pay $70 a year to insure our 22 year old heap of a Honda. Its only for third party as insurance is NOT compulsary here.. So If we wacked someones house down we could be personally responsible.. We got 3rd party to cover any little accidents to other people adn their property.
2nd hand cars are sooooooooooooo much cheaper than Australia at least, and generally the driving is pretty bad, although have to say its partly to do with the silly left turn rule. Lots of people stick to the 50km speed limit (more than the UK in a 30mph) which is a bit annoying sometimes as manyof the roads would be easily suitable for 60kms. Generally i find the drivers to be fairly polite (pulling left if travelling a bit slower,) not much in the way of tailgaiting to be found in Hawkes Bay. There is no "thankyou" wave when you give way to somwone which takes a bit of getting used too, but its assumed.

SarahB

IMO the driving here is a lot slower than UK (amazing how we all come up with such different replies), but I find drivers to be ignorant.... just got used to it now... it doesnt wind me up anymore. Nobody will give way to you or let you back out of a space etc.

RobClubley

True.
When I said people were in a rush I didn't mean speeding, just impatient. People pull out of junctions too soon, cut you up at roundabouts etc.

And for some reason big utes and SUVs nearly all seem to do 120+ all the time on the highways.

lardyl

they're the only ones who can afford radar detectors!!!!
all you have said in this thread is "too true".........

cherry

..

Not this one Rob ,I like to take it steady
and 90 is fast enough for the road coditions here most days.

I have to do my class 5 test this year so it will be harder than just the car one that looks so easy by comparison th the UK now.