Young drivers banned from Cruze turbo

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Young drivers banned from Cruze turbo
By Paul PottingerThe Sunday Telegraph11 March 2011

Thousands of young Australian drivers are to be banned from driving the new version of the Holden Cruze.

Although it has won the maximum five stars in official crash safety testing, the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads has refused to allow learner and provisional drivers an exemption to drive the 1.4iTi Cruze because its small petrol engine is turbo-charged.

But the Department will allow inexperienced road users to drive the much more powerful Cruze 2.0 diesel manual, because turbo diesels are exempted from the ban. The 1.4iTi develops a mild 103kW and 200Nm; the diesel 120kW and a formidable 360Nm.

The Department’s equivalent bodies in every state and territory have agreed to exempt the Cruze from the blanket ban on turbo petrol models with a capacity greater than 700cc subject to applicants completing an online application form.

In NSW, the Roads and Traffic Authority was forced to make the exemptions available after heavy criticism by the State Opposition and media of the glaring inconsistencies in its banned list of supposedly “high-performance” cars.

But Holden spokeswoman Emily Perry says the Queensland licensing body could not be swayed. “It’s not boy racers we’re going for with this car,” she says.