There are quite literally hundreds of different things you could be fined for under the Australian Road Rules, with some stringent, some unknown and some downright just a bit weird.
One rule that falls into the 'weird' category can be found found in a small subsection of the Australian Road Rules, which states “use light vehicle cause annoyance”.
The rule is under schedule 2 of the Road Transport (Vehicle Registration) 2017 section 25c: “The weight of any registrable vehicle and everything in its construction, form, equipment, working and general condition must be such that it will not contravene any provision of any Act or other law, and it will not cause danger or unreasonable annoyance to any person”.
This section sits in the vehicle compliance and defects part of the road rules, meaning that you’d likely receive the fine if there were something overly annoying about your car.
While your first instinct may be that it fines people for noisy exhausts or music that’s too loud, there are already separate fines for those things. Having your music too loud is covered under Regulation Cl 33, and having an exhaust that is too loud is covered under Road Rule 291.
Drive understands that the law in New South Wales is vague in order to cover a range of annoyances, including exhaust crackles, engine revving, blow-off valves that produce an audible noise, squealing hubs or brakes, and even comedic horns.
The fine for simply driving a car that is 'annoying' in NSW is $194 and may even carry a defect notice, and while you may think that it’s not a commonly enforced law, since July 2019, NSW Police have handed out 210 of these fines.
New South Wales isn’t the only state cracking down on annoying cars. Western Australia and the Northern Territory also have laws that prohibit annoying acts on the road.
The Northern Territory’s Motor Vehicle Act has Section 128A on defective vehicles that specifies “A motor vehicle is defective if due to its condition, design or construction, the motor vehicle cannot reasonably be relied on to operate without being a source of danger or annoyance to a person or a source of damage to public streets”.
The Western Australian Road Traffic Regulation 243 states that a vehicle must “be in a condition that is unlikely to occasion unreasonable annoyance to any person or damage to any property”.
If you have an annoying car in Western Australia or the Northern Territory, you can expect a defect notice and a fine ranging between $130 and $500, depending on the police officer who pulls you over.
While we could not find any regulations in the other Australian states and territories that specifically define having an annoying car, you can still be defected for loud noises, and any part of your car that does not comply with Australian road standards could score you a fine.
Zane Dobie comes from a background of motorcycle journalism, working for notable titles such as Australian Motorcycle News Magazine, Just Bikes and BikeReview. Despite his fresh age, Zane brings a lifetime of racing and hands-on experience. His passion now resides on four wheels as an avid car collector, restorer, drift car pilot and weekend go-kart racer.
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