Update on CADA’s lobbying and IVOAC’s rebuttal to ICBC stats
The Big News!
ICBC's stats on RHD safety has been the topic of discussion for RHD drivers since it's release.
Here's a quick lesson in statistics. What is proof vs. a trend? It has to do with the variability of what you're studying. Proof implies that something is Statistically Significantly different than the control (the base case... the common case... in this case Left Hand Drives). A trend is to show that on average it's more likely. ICBC saw a trend. Not proof.
IVOAC.ca and UBC have published a report discrediting the report released by ICBC.
Not only that, the report from IVOAC/UBC has torn apart the data and discredited the report finding by finding.... scientifically.
CADA updates
So, this has been on the news a lot lately. So here are a few more links.
http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2010/10/20/con-right-hand-drive.html
http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/Canada/1221258968/ID=1622396300
http://podcast.cbc.ca/w6/worldatsix.mp3
http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/Consumer_Life/1244504495/ID=1624085613
http://www.globallethbridge.com/Questioning+safety+with+right+hand+drive+vehicles/3706409/story.html
http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/10/20/15766591.html
http://www.autoblog.com/2010/10/22/canadian-dealer-association-looks-to-ban-right-hand-drive-cars
Most of them say the same thing, some with journalistic flair. Most of them _do_ put RHDs in negative light though. 'Right hand drive wrong for Canada' is the theme.... Unfortunately RHD is synonymous with 'drift cars' and 'high end sports cars'. Say that to me with my minitruck.
Really too bad. RHDer have done lots of rebuttals... but we need to do something bigger. But what? Got an idea... email me and I'll help however I can.
rob
CADA anti-Right Hand Drive Propaganda
Propaganda is a strong word, but that's the only thing I can call this. CADA, the Canadian Automobile Dealer Association, has obvious reasons to not like right hand drive vehicles. RHDs are great value and cut into their bottom line. You can buy a new Skyline for.... $99000... depending on your options, or a 95 that's with some performance modifications and low mileage for $12000 or less.
The propaganda in question is this pamphlet. It outlines how these cars are unsafe and don't pass safety standards. Of course, they have no backing for this data and it's all very one sided. Which is why I define it as propaganda. There are no real strong arguments here, just statements. This is amplified by the fact that the backing is CADA, an association that is designed to make money.
I should mention that I don't know when this was published, since they don't cite a date. If they would have cited sources for information and data, we could try to pin down approximately when it came out... but unfortunately they do no such thing.
I honestly don't know why they're so up in arms about it. I don't think people that are interested in specialty cars such as RHDs are likely to by a car from a dealer. New or used. They should accept the change, and maybe even get into the market! Why not! They're complaining that they're losing sales, while ignoring a new market.
Thought I'd share this, as food for thought.
rob
edit: updated price of Nissan GT-R (aka... skyline) to CAD price off website. My estimate of $44k was apparently off by more than 100%.