Thursday 1 January 2009

How do the unemployed afford to drive sports cars?

Apart from the tragedy of this idiot killing a man when he crossed to the wrong side of the road, how on earth was an unemployed father of three, on benefits, driving a Honda S2000?

A P-PLATER deemed a habitual traffic offender has blamed a contact lens that "popped off his eye" for a high-speed crash that killed a 50-year-old grandfather.

Minh Nguyen, 24, was allegedly driving a yellow Honda convertible S2000 at high speed along the Hume Highway when it swerved across a median strip into oncoming traffic at Warwick Farm. The car hit a Toyota HiAce van driven by Toufic El-Zahab, who died at the scene.

And then this:

A married man with three children, the court heard Nguyen was unemployed and received benefits of $700 per fortnight.

He will reside at his Macquarie Fields address ....

The court yesterday heard Nguyen's traffic record - which runs for more than three pages - showed he had been found guilty of driving recklessly and in a dangerous manner in 2004, for which he was fined $1000 and disqualified for 12 months.

The following year he was caught driving while disqualified, for which he was sentenced to a two-year suspended jail term. The RTA issued him with a habitual offender warning letter in 2005.

His criminal record also includes speeding and repeated offences for not displaying P-plates. He has also previously been charged with supplying a prohibited drug.

OK, just ignore his totally crap driving record and obvious disregard for every other road user (making him the type of lane swapping idiot that can make driving so aggravating at times).

The Red Book car guide lists the S2000 from 1999 to the present.

Here is the 1999 model, the cheapest:

* Private Price Guide $23,600 - $26,900
* Trade In Price Guide $19,200 - $22,500
* Price When New (RRP) $69,950

I am not going to do every year. Here is the 2001 model:

* Private Price Guide $27,100 - $30,300
* Trade In Price Guide $22,300 - $25,500

2003 model:

* Private Price Guide $34,800 - $38,300
* Trade In Price Guide $29,100 - $32,600

2005 model

* Private Price Guide $44,100 - $48,100
* Trade In Price Guide $37,500 - $41,500
* Price When New (RRP) $72,590

2007 model

* Private Price Guide $52,700 - $57,100
* Trade In Price Guide $45,600 - $50,000

Take your pick of model. How does a guy, with three kids and a wife to support, getting $350 a week from the taxpayer, come to be driving a car like this? Even if he bought the cheapest model at the lowest price of $23,600, that is still a lot of money for someone with all the expenses of kids, and an income of $350 a week. How would he even afford the insurance? My beast is currently valued at less than the cheapest S2000 here, I have a clean driving record and no prangs in over a decade, and my bill was still $1300 this year.

Something is just not right here.

By the way, the address of Macquarie Fields is a dead give away.

1 comment:

kae said...

Keywords:

Prohibited substance