Clubed v full QLD rego

Having been in the same predicament - I can say find a club that doesn't insist on active membership. Any club that dictates to you is one to stay away from. Unfortunately thats the nature of clubs! Clubs are however an evil necessity to gain rego status.
I personally detest clubs as there are always factions that think they know best. I cant suffer idiots gladly so I try to stay away from clubs. However there are clubs that do exist that will allow you to join and only ask for minimal participation - which is only fair to the club.

I joined Ipswich classic car club - although I lived no where near Ipswich. I had to attend one car show a year where I paid my annual fees. This club didnt insist on active membership - but did encourage members to participate - which again is only fair to the club - or it couldn't function. The fact that I lived too far away to participate on a regular basis was how I got around it.

I have been in other clubs that are best described as regimes - miss three meetings in a row and they will not only revoke your membership - but they will report you to the rego authorities and request/demand that your cars rego be cancelled and recommend that you should never be allowed to have club membership of any kind again - which makes it kind of hard next time you join a club and want rego...
Yes it happens and yes its real - I personally know of a few folk that have experienced exactly this. I have helped bail them out and set them in the right direction with the right people in the rego department.

Clubs are support groups - therefore rely on your support - however choose wisely as there are many clubs out there that are not the carefree and welcoming environment they make themselves out to be...

You will save heaps on rego and insurance. I can only say dont freak too much about the 15km limit - I never strictly stuck to it and never had a problem Cops will leave you alone as long as you are not being obvious. Don't drive the car every day to work - dont take the kids to school in it every day. You are allowed to be taking the car to a place of repair, getting fuel, test driving. educational purposes, swapmeets, car-shows, church etc etc. Do you see what I'm getting at? Have a reason up your sleeve when you venture out - cops are not going to take your car away from you - you more than likely wont get pulled up at all if you are behaving yourself.

I did drive my restricted rego cars for decades- I got pulled over occasionally and never once did I get questioned about why I was driving the car. Not once.

Cheers streetneat-Andrew.
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My thoughts are after spending stacks of coin on your new pride and joy you should go full rego at least for the 1st year.
I did and I nip up the road when ever I get the chance and take her out on most weekends with out the worries.
After you get it out of your system in 12 months then you could look into the club rego?

My rego just came up after the 1st year and I went the full rego again because I couldn't only take it out on club runs.

Just my thoughts
Cheers
Tony
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My Shed

Most clubs list every swap meet, harry's dinner, Acacia Ridge, cars shows etc as club runs in their news letter, so you can take your car to any of these events. When you add it all up you can just about take it out every weekend.

You can also take to specialist repairers test and tune etc.

Not sure about Andrew's coments on loss of rego, our club had a member join when rego first came in and never again, we found a cuple of years later he was still on club rego and driving every day to work, we reluctantly reported hm tot motor registry who said they did not care.

Be careful though, as Andrew said cops are fine about it normally, but if you are in a serious accident and someone is injured, you only have insurance if you are on a designated club run.

Please note though, the transport department sent out letters to people on club rego recently specifying what was involved, I got one and have not had club rego on mine for 10 years. SO I would suggest they are going to start crackng down on those abusing the system.

Yep I also got that same letter. What started that off is someone new at the rego department flexing their might. I found out about this first hand from my engineer who sits in on delegate meetings with QLD Transport. My limited rego cars have been registered under the ASRF banner - which meant as long as they qualified for hot rod rego - I didnt have to belong to a club. I joined Ipswich Classic Car Club to cover myself for future regos on some old Holdens I had - but moved to NZ where such restrictions dont exist at all.

I'm not interested in starting the club versus individual debate here. Its up to each enthusiast as to what they wish to do. Its a two sided coin - limited club rego is supposed to be policed by the clubs - on the other hand why does a club see fit to dob someone in - are they hurting the club? Nope. Its this dob in a mate mentality that stinks of hypocrisy. I fully understand it goes against club policy which a member agrees to when they join - but its a morality question. As long as the individual isn't taking the club down - is paying their club dues then leave them alone. If the individual gets caught then its their problem. Some club delegates see fit to play policeman - Ive had it out with them on a few occasions especially when the club delegates are as guilty with using their own cars when they are not supposed to!

Case in point - a young customer of mine joined a club - gained his rego and used his car to go to work for a week while his drive car was in the shop being repaired. His annual mileage on that car is pretty much proof of his limited use. One of his club members found out about this when that person followed the young guy into my shop and asked just what he thought he was doing. He gave the young guy a hard time (read played policeman) right there in my shop! Long story short - that young guy lost his rego and found it bloody hard to gain limited rego again. I helped him out with a letter and some coercion from another club.

A year later that same dim-sighted club policeman was doing exactly the same when I pulled into a servo miles from home. I got chatting to his wife about cars as you do and learned he was on holiday and thought he could take a family trip with his car for a month! WTF!Its the problem with clubs - one law for some and another for others. I could have pushed the point with a letter to his club and a letter to the rego department - but I dont play those games. If he got caught that was his problem. I must admit he was somewhat red faced about it!

The clubs are only allowed to have limited rego status as long as their members abide by the rules. Yes they are supposed to dob in those that dont follow the rules - and all I can say is thats a bit Un Australian. As HF pointed out above - the rego departments really dont care - its too much hassle much of the time to follow it up - they are public servants after all!

The bottom line is - dont join a club and expect to get away with using your car when ever you want to - too often. If its an occasional use and not everyday use - you shouldn't have a problem - unless you are unlucky as my young customer was.

Cheers streetneat -Andrew
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i was under the impression the authorities had alredy started to crack down,with a couple having plates cancelled but personally i have 4 full regoes(3 on old cars)and wouldnt have it any other way...simply no conditions,drive anywhere,anytime,any state.sure it costs more but by the time you take in club attendances,membership fee,mandatory runs/picnics(plus your restricted rego fee),there probably isnt much difference.cheers

Ive been in 2 or 3 clubs over the years, met some good people and also some toss bags, one club I had my membership/rego canceled due to some pigeon chested power crazy guy telling me my car wasnt original enough due to my HR being lowered 1 inch plus I had 15inch dragways not 13inch steelies on a club run (car was 100% original bar those things), the club was full of old farts with no life so stuff em anyway! Another one I was in I went on countless runs etc with some nice people and had a ball with no dramas from the oldies down to the younger ones the club rule #1 was have fun or piss off. So my advice is choose a good club and all will be good and you wont have to worry about dobbers or club bullcrap some clubs are full of

That's exactly what I'm talking about Craig - well put! If some dickhead in power wants to exert his authoritie (apologies to Cartman) then this is just what has been happening - fall out of favour with someone above you in a club - the clicky factions get together and not only toss the poor sod out - but cancel his rego! I have come across this too many times.
BTW - I'm deliberately not posting my own bad club experiences here due to some of those concerned still visit this site ( under the disguise of Holden Fans) and I'm long over it.

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Funny that, I also didnt say the name of the club in question for the same reasons haha the club im in now is more of a social club of people than a "this model" owners club its full of cars from FX to commys to fords to jap boxes. We drive have a beer/lunch talk crap about cars and say cya next month no votes no by laws or groups within groups just cars and friends.

on a diff note...I showed my 90yo pop your FC from your site, (he has been a body builder/ panel man for well over 60yrs) he said its the best custom Holden he has seen and its very well made and detailed and well done

Thanks heaps to all, I think the vote of "pay ya 12mnths full reg now AND do more thinking and research about the subject" has won hands down.
Thanks again for your comments guys, appreciate it. Cheers.

Kev.

Hey Kev

I don't know abut the club thing but you can make a better burger at home then go for a 15km+ cruise. We work on our holdens to drive them so I wouldn't want to be limited by the law, although what's the chance of getting picked up?

Cheers

I recently asked about vintage reg here and the guy said the only way to get it was join a club which i disagree with as said above by others these clubs are a pain with their BS they go on with the old guy who runs the early holden club here is a real purest he hates any mods or improvements and told me he won't agree with me getting vintage reg while my car is mildly modified so i gave it a miss
I think the reg people should be able to approve cars without the need to join a club
I hate dealing with these people at anytime i had hassles about 15 yrs back one year getting my car re reg'd due to the fact they decided to change the rules on modified cars in this state they issued me a month's reg till i got my car engineered approved for mods it had been running the past 30 yrs and mods which have been done on them since the early 60's
Their main beef was the offset of the wheels the main guy on the commitee hated wide wide wheels yet the engineer had no issue with them only once have i had a problem where the king pin knuckle cracked and i noticed the wheel had lean on it did i realise it had cracked luck it held till i got in the driveway then decided to snap off

My view on it is if you drive your old car rarely or low mileage then reg authorities should consider reduced reg fee's without the club hassles i do probably less than 400 k a yr in my car
The worst reg people i found were in canberra back in the late seventies they made me take the wheels off and inspect the brakes i found this a bit over the top to inspect a car

As Lindsay says above - dont abuse the system - well actually dont abuse the system and get caught is what we are all really trying to say. Be sensible about it and it wont bite you.

Of course by moving to NZ I now enjoy registering 4 cars for the price of one, insurance for far greater values than I dared put on my cars in Aussie for a fraction of the price. I can drive any of my cars when ever and where ever I like. Traffic jams are confined to stock on the road. The longest traffic jamb I have ever been in due to road works was 7 minutes. I was spewin! ( lol!) The roads are better too.... (without tolls to pay to sit in traffic jams) While fuel here is more expensive - running a car is cheaper. So the higher fuel price is offset by all the other factors.

Of course if I told you all how much better it is here than Brisvegas - then you will all want to move over. Now we dont want that - so its a horrible place that never gets above 26 degrees and beautiful scenery and helpful folk - bah its overrated.... and we get more Vegemite in our jars too!

Ohh and the sheep are prettier...
Did I mention Aussies are getting gypped on their Vegemite?
Cheers streetneat-Andrew.
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Yeah the trick is to drive north to south - not east to west.
Besides if you go too fast you miss all the pretty sheep.
Cant talk - eatin vegemite....
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Yep - I was homesick - sick of livin at home - so thats why I'm here.....
No we never get to name sheep - they all sorta look the same...
The kiwis here have explained the sheep marinating like this to me:
When a male kiwi turns 16 - he is introduced to the sheep paddock... Then those sheep are exported to Australia as lamb.
I had no comeback ready for that one! I guess the Kiwis have had plenty of time to think about it.
Cheers streetneat-Andrew.
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