Au-ddly Australian

Now I know this one isn't Australian.  But it is here.  And it is strange in so many ways.

And in honor of the New York Auto Show:  Cars!

Lets start with the most obvious.  They drive on the wrong side of the bloody road!  Why do they do that!  I have mostly gotten use to it at this point.  I look right before left now.  No rights on red.  Indeed no rights during rush hour.  And when taking a right, make sure you aren't going to get hit by the tram coming up behind you.  Because we are on the wrong side of the road, we go around rotaries (and squares) clockwise.  Which is the way they race.  Also you go through a drive thru clockwise.  Because you are on the wrong side of the car as well.  Which means the stick is in your left hand.  I might get to experience that this weekend.  Except in the rare circumstance that I see a beautifully restored or maintained late 60's early 70's American muscle car.  They are on the correct side of the car.  A final wrong side of the road point.  Traffic lights on North Terrace are on the wrong side of the road.  Which is to say they are on the correct side of the road.  But hanging traffic lights on north terrace are on poles on the right side, meaning that the lights hang over oncoming traffic.  Its confusing to explain even.

Next there is the problem of units.  kW and N-m of torque.  Who knows what they are.  But I do know that cars have no power here.  Tens of kilowatts.  Maybe a couple hundred.  No one here is going to break the 500 mark.  And who wants that?  What is a GT500 if it doesn't meet or exceed 500 in the power?  Who would buy a GT372.48?  No one.  Because I haven't seen one.  At least they use good old American liters for their engine displacements.  A 3.0TDI is the same as back home.  Next there are liters of fuel.  Um, what now?  And its $1.40.  Oh so that's like a gallon.  Maybe half a gallon.  Oh.  More like a quarter of a gallon?  So gas is over $4 a gallon?  Unacceptable.  Surely they must measure fuel economy correctly.  Liters per 100km.  Wait.  What now?  So in American, that's gallons per mile.  That is not a good thing.  That's quite bad.  You Australians aren't nearly as green as you pretend to be.  And you consistently drive over 100?  Well, you know what, that, that is just.....ok that's pretty cool.  Which just made me think of Ray-Ray.  Oh Canada.    

And finally, cars themselves.  First off, they are expensive.  Or at least the ones I look at more than once.  M3's over $150k.  A surprising M5 for $155k slightly used.  There is a black M5 running around the city.  But really, you know what.  Keep them.  No one wants your BMW's.  Audi's.  Some A3 and A4's.  I saw one A5.  What is going to cost me dearly enough at some point in my life costs over $90k here.  Oh.  That's no good.  Mini's?  In the $40's for an S.  Holden's though.  I do enjoy them.  And they are a reasonable $55k for the good ones.  The ones they rebadged as Pontiac's and now Holden is pinning a multimillion dollar losing year on.  Oops.  You can even order the special edition Holden's here with the familiar Pontiac front end.  Speaking of strange front ends.  Euro-Spec Honda Accord's.  TSX's.  No Acura's here.  So sad.  There are a couple of Mopar's down here.  Some Jeeps.  A Crossfire.  Couple of 300's.  We do have Lexus though.  I thought that interesting since we don't have Acura or Infinity.  But as expensive as they are there are still some nice cars roaming around.  Brings me back to Webb.  A few Ferarri's.  A new Aston.  An old Aston.  Bently, Maserati, Lotus.  Some big MG's.  The aforementioned M's.

But if you really want to know how expensive?  Well you can't!  Due to Australian law, all prices on the internet for a product must be the price when purchased.  All taxes and fees must be included.  You may not represent a product and its price if there is some other price that you will actually pay for it.  No commercials showing that Audi starting at $32k.  Price as shown: $50k.  So because you can customize a car any number of ways in an online configurator, you can't build and price.  You can build.  And then print and go to dealer.  Who will tell you price.  Silly.