STOP PRESS | Out with the old? Average car in Orange’s garages is 11 years old

The worst cars for a fatal crash were those built between 1998 and 2002, accounting for one in four passenger vehicle and SUV fatalities in 2016.

Australasian New Car Assessment Program recommends a tariff cut on some new cars, the reduction of insurance premiums, financial incentives to buy a new car, and more flexible financing that could help a young buyer, or someone without savings, buy a safer vehicle.

Another motoring expert says if parents of young drivers have more than one car in the garage they should give the safest and newest to them.

Too often people say the P-plater should drive the bomb, but perhaps mum and dad shouldn't be driving the best car.

It’s the simplest solution to reducing fatalities because young drivers are over-represented in crash statistics.

Even Julia Gillard when she was Prime Minister unveiled a new $394 million initiative for people to get a $2000 rebate if they traded in their old car for a more fuel-efficient one.

But, dubbed ‘cash for clunkers’, the scheme never got off the ground.

Orange drivers can rest easy because if there’s a move to rid the road of old bangers there wouldn’t be too many starters here.

The latest Roads and Maritime Services’ figures show the average age of all vehicles we own is 11.6 years, which is 3.4 years newer than those that would get the chop.

Bathurst people own the region’s oldest vehicles with an average age of 12.2 years while Dubbo’s fleet is a smidgen older than Orange at 11.8 years.

The average age of cars in Orange is 10.6 years, 8.3 years for SUVs and 9.9 years for tradies’ utes.

The newest vehicles in NSW are 6.3 years in Botany while the oldest at 15.6 years are in Gwydir.

That mobile speed camera thing that’s saving so many lives in Woodward Street in front of Elephant Park is giving the street a belting again most days.

The government must be short of Christmas funds.