Your Questions Answered: Are brokers worth it?

I’d like to think I am a careful driver, but when I left a narrow shopping centre car park the other day, I just caught a back wheel on a kerb. It has left a nasty gash on the back left alloy wheel. It sort of matches the front left wheel, which I also managed to scrape executing a quick U-turn a year ago. How can I stop kerbing wheels and how do you fix this? Do I need to replace the wheels? - Dom

Answer: I feel your pain Dom, having scraped a wheel or two over the years. Almost all cars have low profile tyres and large wheel diameters with exposed alloy finishes.

Meanwhile, cars are bigger and harder to see out of as car parks are getting tighter. The only options are to get wheel protectors, tyres with a lip designed into the sidewall to protect the wheel, or get the wheels repaired.

Wheel protectors are about $150 and some require tyres to be taken off to be fitted. All offer limited kerb scrape protection. New tyres with a wheel protecting shoulder may not be available for your car, and it’s expensive to replace a set of tyres for this reason alone.

To fix the damage, if just cosmetic, it’s about $150 or less per wheel for a quick mobile repair job, or up to about $300-$400 per wheel (especially if diamond-cut alloys) to be repaired to as-new condition with a CNC machine and re-paint.

The latter usually takes a few days, so be prepared to be without the car or its wheels for that time (although some repair shops can lend you a set of wheels while yours are being fixed).

I’m looking at buying a new dual-cab ute and a friend suggested I try a car broker to get a better deal. How does that work and what sort of discount can I expect? - Aaron

Answer: Using a new car broker can be a great way of getting the best deal. You need to tell the broker exactly which ute you want and how far the dealer can be from you (the wider the net is cast, the bigger the pool of dealers the broker can negotiate with).

Sometimes a regional dealer will be prepared to negotiate a lower price with the broker, as they may have lower overheads than a metro dealer and have incentive to do a better deal given the smaller pool of local buyers.

You usually don’t pay the broker for this service; they instead receive a commission directly from the dealer once you have bought the car.

The great advantage is that the broker is doing all the running around for you and likely already has established relationships with dealers and can get you the best price. This means the dealer knows that the broker can potentially bring them plenty of sales.

It’s almost like the dealer is paying the broker a spotter's fee. For those only interested in the lowest price with the most inclusions (such as floor mats or window tinting, for example), this is an ideal way to buy a car for less.

The downsides? You can’t necessarily just tell a broker you want a cheap ute, no matter what brand; you usually have to be specific. You also don’t get as much of a sense of how the dealership operates as you would negotiating with them directly.

If you want to get into a heavily booked nearby service centre for an urgent repair or warranty, the lack of any previous relationship with that dealer may see you at the bottom of the list.

If the best deal is two hours away, are you prepared to travel if there’s a problem with the sale (for example, if the aftermarket dealer-fitted window tint peels after a week)?

What are the rules for reduced speed limits around roadworks and road hazards? I've seen highway roadworks that have reduced speed gradually, going down from 110km/h, to 80km/h, to 60km/h then finally 40km/h shortly before the actual roadworks. But I have also noticed Sydney's M8 tunnel go from the posted 90km/h immediately to 40km/h (there was a car broken down in the layby area). Also, the 40km/h sign and the red flashing circle around it in the tunnel wasn’t very bright, even in a dark tunnel. I was nearly hit from car behind when I braked heavily to match the much lower limit. How on earth can such a steep speed reduction of 50km/h in such circumstances be safe? — Justine

Answer: Here’s the thing Justine, there is no NSW legislation that says the tunnel operator can’t change the speed limit in such a way.

You, as a motorist, have an obligation to slow to the posted speed before you reach it, and hope that other motorists behind you are also as quick-witted (and that the lower speed sign is not right where the speed camera is).

It’s considered risk mitigation, where the risk of rear-end crashes are lower than the risk of a high-speed collision with an immobile vehicle or other hazard that initiated the speed reduction. However, I am unclear how this applies in your example (a vehicle well off the road in a lay-by).

Also, if the reduced (40km/h) speed zone was well within the tunnel, why wasn’t there a step-down of speed from 90km/h using the variable speed signs presumably well before the incident?

It’s interesting that such sharp reductions in speed limits aren’t permitted for roadwork sites on high-speed roads. There are thick manuals with work site planning rules, including signage well ahead warning motorists of a speed change and a gradual step-down of speed limits on high-speed roads (anything over 85km/h).

For example, Transport NSW’s ‘Traffic control at worksites technical manual’ includes a graduated method of safely reducing speed. Interesting that on page 41 of said manual, it states: “Only credible speed limits should be implemented that will be self-enforcing”.

As for sign luminosity, there is a standard that applies. TfNSW-specification tube backlit signs (TBS) & VSLS refers to Australian Standard AS1319, Appendix F, which requires signs to be properly illuminated but does not give mandatory guidance on exact brightness of such signage.

So far, from this semi-deep dive, there appears to be a standard, but it is not mandatory for the M8 tunnel’s sign luminosity. Any other readers care to shed some light on this?

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