Wheels Inbox: Done speeding, reader comeback, and insurance headaches

Wheels magazine has always had a passionate audience, with a thriving letters section. Here's the latest from our readers.

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Bussed a move

🖊️ Parminder Gill, via email

I got banned from driving a couple of months back. No, I wasn’t high on meth or drunk as a skunk. Instead, I was enjoying my car on a very quiet rural road and was clocked driving at more than 45km/h over the limit by police.

It sounds a lot, doesn’t it? 45km/h over the limit seems a terrible speeding offence. What I hadn’t realised was that the speed limit had changed from 80km/h to 60km/h since the last time I’d driven this particular stretch of road and that my car would reach over 105km/h in second gear.

So the 108km/h I was clocked at really didn’t feel an outrageous velocity. But I knew as soon as I saw the police car that I might be in trouble.

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I understand that this sounds like a bunch of ‘poor me’ excuses but I have accepted responsibility and taken it on the chin. That’s not to say that it doesn’t smart. I had a clean driving licence for more than 10 years prior to this incident, but it seems that this counts for little to nothing if you’re placed in this bracket of speeding offence.

I’d just like to appeal to Wheels readers to really be careful in today’s effortlessly rapid cars. My Cayman is enjoying a rest in the garage and I’m on the bus to work. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

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Lies, damn lies...

🖊️ Bryan Winship, via email

It was hugely heartening to read the story on Wheels’ readership lifting by 41 percent according to the latest Roy Morgan figures.

It’s long been taken as a given that magazine sales are on the slide. My partner worked in the publishing industry for 20 years and prior to that she was in the metropolitan police force in London.

She always used to joke that being a copper was far less stressful than trying to keep a magazine afloat! Celebrate your victories because they’re certainly hard won.

9

Barely covered

🖊️ Name supplied, via email

I recently went to renew my car insurance policy with AAMI and was pretty disillusioned with the whole experience. I’ve been with them for nearly 10 years now and have never made a claim or had any convictions.

This year, the premium went up by 20 percent. What’s more, with the rise in the price of used cars, their Red Book valuation of my car is about 15 percent off what it would cost to replace. You guessed it, I can pay more to get that valuation up, but why should I have to? The insurance is supposed to be ‘comprehensive’.

When I called to complain, they instantly knocked almost 20 percent off as a ‘goodwill gesture’ which shows how much fat is built into the quote. If the government is looking to cap inflation, it should be clamping down on businesses like these that are dudding Aussie consumers.

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Subtotal recall

🖊️ C. Baccino, via email

I've owned my Volkswagen Golf MK VII from new and have had it serviced at the same main dealer.

Imagine my surprise when I booked it in for a service and they told me that recall work that was due on the car hadn’t been done. It turns out that VW had been sending the recall notice letters to my old postal address.

I’d blithely assumed that if the dealer had my new address then Volkswagen’s head office would have it too. It seems not. Just something I thought your readers ought to know.

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Podcast recs?

🖊️ Steve Boruc, via Facebook

Love listening to a good car-themed podcast on the way to work. Can I get some recommendations from you to see if I’m missing any?

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The R33 tends to get the short end of the stick these days, as people seem to think it’s the least classically attractive of the Skylines. Just search ‘R33 boat meme’ and you’ll see.

No love for R33?

🖊️ lan Brown, via Facebook

I was browsing through back copies of Wheels online last week and realised that you’d covered the R32 and R34 generations of the Nissan Skyline GT-R in Modern Classic, but have overlooked the R33.

As a proud R33 owner, I’m standing up for the forgotten generation of Skylines. Can we see it featured soon? Not mine, by the way, it’s a bit ratty.

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The Wheels question to you

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Want to have your say? Keep it tight (no more than 200 words) and include your suburb if via email: wheels@wheelsmag.com.au. You can also chime in on Facebook & Instagram.