Australians are driving bigger, heavier, dirtier cars and it’s alarming both climate and road safety experts.
A decade ago, sedans and hatchbacks were the most popular cars in Australia. Today, Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) and American-style utes dominate new car sales and advertising.
I suppose the problem is going off road you’re likely to scratch the paint or bend something that shouldn’t be bent which might be costly
I’m sure if they’re renting offroaders they’re aware of that. I did that in Iceland and everything was covered and the vehicle was bent and scratched already when I got it.
The ones in my city cost about $500 per day, and they take an $8,000 deposit. If they can’t fix it for $8,000 then they charge an extra fee on top of that, and they will restore it to new car showroom condition - which means just scraping a tree branch could cost more than the deposit.
Worst part is though, they specifically ban all of the popular dirt roads within about ten days drive of the city. The roads you’re allowed on, I’d happily travel in my Mazda 3.
The thing is though - even if you set aside all of that… the main thing stopping people from going off road is time, and you’d waste half your weekend picking up the car, checking it for damage, signing paperwork, and then after the trip cleaning it and doing all that again.