American Reacts to Driving on Beautiful QLD Highways - Australia 

13.50 Wow, that's actually my Nissan Patrol. It's great off road and has had a Chevy 6.0Lt Engine in it now. So good to see it on the screen and not just through the windscreen...

A lot of our cars are of Japanese and European design, those cool designed panels are sound barriers

Pajero is pronounced with a J sound in Australia but as you said it with a H for the Spanish pronunciation . Fun fact , when Mitsubishi introduced the Pajero to South America it sold very poorly , eventually they worked out that in Spanish Pajero is a semi vulgar word meaning wanker . Imagine being asked "what do you drive " and answering " Oh , I drive a wanker" 😀

6:30 Yes it was a Civic, to be specific it was an 8th generation, this body style was only sold in Europe and Australasia. I think it's a bit like vegemite, you either love it or you hate it.

Got the right hat on ..queenslander...😮

South Australia has a no toll policy so even in Adelaide on a main highway there are no tolls. But I have heard there are quite a few in Melbourne and Sydney

@IWrocker you don’t see many rusty cars in most parts of australia compared to other country’s as we don’t salt the roads even in snowy areas, we use grit when it snows but Qld doesn’t get snow, salt air yes but no snow.

You generally don't see many sketchy cars over here, can be pretty strict on the condition of cars on the road.

Those designs you like so much help muffle the sound from the freeway so the residential areas are quiet , have a dual function

Fun fact: Some Queensland highways have Quiz questions on little signs to keep you awake and thinking while you're travelling down them. A lot of the time it sparks a conversation within the car as well so it's not all quiet. 14:20 That Holden Ute is a Holden Rodeo, it's basically a much older vehicle and has a lot longer history compared to the Colorado. Also, Holden had a deal of some sort,(I don't know when it was created) The deal was between Holden and Isuzu, which in short allowed Holden to be able to use Isuzu engines in the Rodeo. I believe the Rodeo also got renamed to a Colorado in the mid - late 2000s which ended its legacy.

When I first drove from Sydney to Cairns in the mid 70's there was a couple of hundred kilometre section of road between Townsville and Cairns that was concrete , it was built by the American SeaBees during WW2 and was still perfectly serviceable decades later . It's all bitumen these days but the concrete was great to drive on at night because the headlights carried so much better on the lighter coloured surface .

Great vlog. Have you heard of Curtis LSA? That channel is all about HSV's. The owner drives a VF HSV GTS Supercharged LSA. He does cameos on vehicles, and he has featured ours, which is a VF HSV Senator in Alchemy colour (purple). We are Queenslanders, and he is local to us - found out when he did the review. Love your channel, take care, Bob

I'm back in Ireland 🇮🇪 now but I loved it out there. As I said get out there. I was in Helensvale between Brisbane and the goldcoast. The Aussie's seem to have lifestyle you'll be longing for when you get back home. That's when you'll see the difference. I was there for 7 weeks the first time and 6 the following year, got home to Ireland 🇮🇪 and was homesick to get back to Australia 🇦🇺 still am

1:47 They are in decimal A c/L which is much larger (or something) than the 10/US c/gal 10:32 BCF is a camping superstore called Boating Camping Fishing 3:28 Fun thing about the (dying) route system in Australia, the shields are backwards. They aren't in NZ except the white ones represent councils (and there used to be blue ones but they were upgraded to just red). Shields are also backwards iirc in Taiwan to Japan. 4:39 NSW has a lot of toll ways in Sydney and currently finishing building a series of tunnels, VIC has three, QLD has about four including two tunnels (excluding the Clem7) and a part-toll road

Thank you, totally enjoyed that trip with your American perspective!!!

Most of that was the M1 motorway from about a suburb called Labrador heading south towards Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast going by some of the signs along the Motorway

The Hyundai van is the commercial version, called an iLoad, and theres a passenger version called an iMax. Decent sized unit.

The cool walls are for noise reduction in built up areas. They try to make them a bit decorative instead of just plain concrete. Also, I don’t think any modern cars are ugly. You just get used to seeing them one way so when something is different, it’s just different, not ugly.

If unleaded or diesel is around $1.75 to $2 AUD per litre here that's the equivalent of around $4.41 to $5.05 USD a gallon.

BCF Boating Camping and Fishing. The area in the video travels south from Brisbane to the NSW border and is the bypass / feeder for the Gold Coast about 100kms in distance with high population so multi lane highways also there are alternate roads you can take if there is a traffic incident. Going North the first 170 kms to Gympie has essentially one road option once you are out of Greater Brisbane it is a multi lane highway but in peak traffic or on long weekends it is gridlock! until you get past the Sunshine Coast. Once past Gympie the rest of the 2250 kms from the border to the tip of Cape York is single lane with intermittent overtaking sections, then add in the trucks, wide loads and grey nomads - retirees in caravans, many of whom have been city dwellers most of their lives but decide to buy the biggest home on wheels to go see Australia after a lifetime of towing nothing and you have a challenge. Then there are cyclones! We live in Hervey Bay a 300km trip to the centre of Brisbane all but 30kms on the main highway 4 hours not exceeding the speed limit is a good run.

I had a beautiful drive down through Florida to the bottom tip....via street view, it took me an hr or so.

Hey mate. Love your videos. Aussie here - I've driven in both the US and Europe and yep it was different but I felt I was a better driver in these places because I had to concentrate. When I came back home, I found I was a lot more relaxed and turned into the wrong side of the street! I'm proud to say I never did that over there - even in the middle of Paris or LA because I was so focused on what I was doing. Keep up the great work!

5:51 That civic you saw is the same as the civics we have in Europe. That's the Type R version of the 8th generation civic models which were built between 2005 and 2012, but these are the hatchback ones that are designed for Europe and evidentially Australia as well, whilst the sedan versions that you guys have were built for North America.

The little BlackCivic is a Type R.(FN2) I know because I own one, mine came from Europe, I waited six weeks for it to arrive in 2008 😂

5:56 That is the Honda Civic Type-R FN2, built in the UK. That generation of Type-R is forbidden fruit to North America. I have a 2007 Honda Civic VTi-L FD1, which is basically the American Honda Civic Sedan FA1 but with different front and rear designs. It's more akin to the Canadian-market Acura CSX. 7:10 Fun Fact: The Holden Cruze was built in Australia. 7:30 That is the global Honda Odyssey, built in Japan. It's smaller than the US-built Honda Odyssey. but has a more dynamic design. 8:50 Seems to be the Pacific Motorway that goes from Brisbane, QLD to Brunswick Heads, NSW. Driven on there many times, as it is the main route to Surfers Paradise, a tourist attraction city in Queensland, about 45-minutes to 1 hour drive from Brisbane. The design of the walls on the highway does bring some nice change instead of just blank walls. 9:22 That's a Subaru Liberty Wagon (Subaru Legacy in global markets). It's called the Subaru Liberty in Australia due to copyright reasons with a veterans organisation known as Legacy Australia. 12:06 That white car behind the red Nissan Navara is the 2nd-gen Nissan Stagea, a JDM grey-import wagon based on the Nissan Skyline V35 / Infiniti G35 platform. 12:20 That's the Mitsubishi Pajero Sport (Montero Sport in some countries, and the Shogun Sport in the UK market). Another forbidden fruit to North America. 14:22 That's the Holden Rodeo, a rebadged Isuzu D-Max. It stayed that way until Isuzu decided to not rebadge their D-Max anymore for the Australian market.

No tolls in Western Australia, roads are really good and fairly easy to get around. Perth has the longest metro area in the world along the west coast, about 150 kilometres from Two Rocks in the northern suburb to Mandurah in the south. Just beats the Russian city of Sotchi as the longest city metro area.

My area! I've driven on those roads 100s of times. Now I live up at Beechmont, which is one of the mountains you can see.

That last Holden ute was the Holden Rodeo.

Price per litre, multiply by 3.8 to get price per US gallon or 4.54 for Imperial Gallon.

It looks like a Sunday drive. Where’s the traffic? I live near Brisbane.

I drive from Brisbane to Cairns every week , 1,700 km each way...Rough as guts goat track anywhere after 3 hours north of Brisbane...The best video to describe the trip which includes the infamous Marlborough stretch (Death Highway) is a young girl named Brianne Worth...I lived in my car for 19 hours ....worth watching.

The first petrol price was one dollar and sixty two cents per litre. $1.62 the point 9 is making the price closer to $1.63 per litre. Hope that helps 😉

so weird seeing the streets and road I grew up around on a video like this but I loved it

ok so the thing with the backs of cars looking different is in part due to the fact we have our brake and turning lights separated

162.9 means 162.9 cents per litre of petrol (or $1.63 per litre when it's rounded off). That's about $6.17 per US gallon to you before $US conversion from $AUD. (And yes, we spell litre this way in Australia).

The highways in the capital city area are in pretty good condition and fairly similar in the major regional cities in QLD too. The sections of H1 (now A1) between the regional cities can be pretty ordinary but it is improving.

Used to drive down that road back from work at the Gold Coast Hospital a LOT. Terrible traffic of a evening until just before the NSW border though. A real bottleneck, despite the dual lanes. Brings back many memories, including a date I had at that shopping centre passed near the beginning!

I’m a Queenslander…IMO the best roads in Australia are in NSW which also has the worst traffic🤷🏻‍♂️ This video is from Gold Coast headed for Brisbane.

Quality of the roads varies from state to state and area to area within states. I only know of toll roads in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, generally around the major population areas.

A few toll roads in Victoria, but still easy to get around without taking toll roads. I've never used a toll road. Victoria is known for having a ridiculous number of speed cameras and red light cameras on most major intersections

Interesting to see you watching video's of roads I have driven so often. I live in Brisbane but used to work at Bundall, Gold Coast, so I used to drive these roads every day, Never though someone would want to watch a video of these roads.

Looks like their driving along the Gold Coast Highway/Pacific Highway. Ian, the Gold Coast is approximately half covered by forests of various types. This includes small patches of near-pristine ancient rainforest, mangrove-covered islands, patches of coastal heathlands and farmland with areas of uncleared eucalyptus forest, and remnants of commercial plantation pine forests. The Gold Coast experiences a humid subtropical climate, with mild to warm winters and hot, humid summers. According to the bureau of meteorology, the city experiences substantial summer precipitation mostly concentrated in thunderstorms and heavy showers with rain events occasionally lasting up to a few weeks at a time giving residents the "summer blues", while winter is pleasantly mild to warm with little rain. Gold Coast rarely experiences temperatures above 35 °C (95 °F) in summer or below 5 °C (41 °F) in winter. In the Gold Coast hinterland, however, winters are generally cooler especially in elevated areas along the Great Dividing Range. Often referred to as the green behind the gold, the picturesque mountain rainforest region to the west of the Gold Coast includes tourist-friendly Tamborine Mountain, stunning Numinbah Valley, and UNESCO World heritage listed Lamington National Park and also overlaps with the Scenic Rim. Ian, these should be on your bucket list of places to visit. And as the old tourism slogan goes, "Queensland - beautiful one day, perfect the next". It must be heaven as one road sign I noticed in the video was marked "Elysium Road".😎

hi Ian most car manufacturers bring their prototypes here for testing. suspensioon. heat. cold. long distance travel etc etc. the smaller the state the better the roads. roads are expensive to repair. Have you tell you. you might not realize but you would have to be the most popular and loved american in Oz. keep at it.

We don’t put salt on our roads like in Europe and the State’s but we do drive on the beach in some states so Rusty car’s aren’t to bad

I know this stretch of highway very well. Where you were talking about the Subaru Outback, my house is about half a mile from there. This bit of highway is on the Gold Coast heading south through a suburb called Nerang to about Burleigh West.

This is just down the road from me; beautiful Gold Coast 👍

The signage in Australia is American based but under the local design standard AS1744 fonts which are essentially the American 'Highway Gothic'. Note the green is a deeper green than the American - freeways in the 1970s and 80s used the same shade of green as the US ' dubbed 'freeway green' here but there are only a few examples surviving today.

More of these, it's nice to see your perspective 👌

Nice video. Surfers Paradise is where I live, drive these roads all the time. I also spend my time whilst driving analysing the vehicles as you have done here - I cant help it of course as I am a car guy. You see many Lambo''s, Ferrari's, Porsche's, Maserati's, high end Audi's and Beemer's etc. regularly at the weekends mixed in with the usual traffic here. Indicative of the fact that this place attracts people with money to burn. During the holidays a lot of people visit from nearby NSW or up the coast and roads can get quite busy at times. Its not a huge place but there are some very nice areas that are lush green with rolling hills that are 20 mins inland from the nice beaches - from there you can see the skyline populated almost exclusively with highrises lining the esplanade.

Really enjoyed this video Ian. Would love to see you so more of these kind of videos of driving around in Australia. Love your reactions to all the cars that you’re not too familiar with and the stuff that’s also forbidden fruit in the U.S. lol

At 14:15 that’s a Holden Rodeo. It’s pretty old and I think they were based on an Isuzu design.

It starts off on the Gold Coast and at 5:45 they've gone under a pedestrian overpass which is close so close to my parents' house in Arundel. As you get further north of Bundaberg the dual carriageway roads become few and far between. Having said that it is creeeping north but at the same time taking a lot of the character away from some of the previously scenic drives.

There are many highways and back road here worth time to explore

Queensland very green near the coast, the further west you go the browner it gets, same for New South Wales.

9:08 I think it's quite a built up area either side of the highway here; and those walls provide a bit of a "baffle" against noise; particularly when the road is wet. Or they are supposed to suppress road noise for the local residents...

Our family loves us a Mitsubishi. We have two Outlanders, two Lancers and a Triton😊

The mid size Mitsubishi SUV you get is the same as here, it’s called and outlander. I have a 2017 model and love it. The Pajero sport I would have if I had the money. Great car 👍🏻

Oh.. and the last white ute you pointed out is a Holden Rodeo, my RC Colorado took over from that model ( probably a 2005 or 6 )

In Australia, we normally only pay tolls when travelling on bridges through major cities. You won't see one for a highway

As someone who travels, my first trip abroad was to the US and I was totally freaked out by your power switches. They are upside down to ours. Down is on for us, but down is off to you guys. As for roads, the states are very different. The best roads are in South Australia. When you cross the SA border to NSW or VIC, the road quality drops. SA also does not use wooden light or power poles, rather it uses concrete and steel. QLD roads are always suffering roadworks and if you want real QLD country highways, Ill upload my next trip. Cars are very different to what you get in the US. Cars that are common like FORD, get different options, different seats etc to yours. the seats we get are short and uncomfortable for tall people, and the seas are often hollow right where you need support. You see this when you go to even poorer nations like Peru.. the outside looks the same but the inside is much cheaper with much less tech. We do not generally do big TRUCKS as in the Ford F150 and larger.. Fuel prices is per litre. Do some math to work out litres per gallon. the Road signs are in KM.. 1.6 km per mile. Many of us middle age people grew up with mixed speeds where cars had both miles and km on it. My first car's spedometer (Holden Kingswood) was in Miles per hour. Also.. road kill hazards are huge here. Kangaroos are the largest hazard and can total a car without any effort.

Most common over Australia is that trees tend often to be Eucalypts, and are 'Evergreen' so remain green all year. Not to say other tree dpecies do not exist, therevare many others, yet even there most seem to be evergreen. Classic varieties of deciduous trees that drop leaves in autumn, are introduced and specific planted. Of course local deciduois trees and shrubs are around too. Over a year we do however tend to be green all the time except the more arid inland, andvsummer time ground cover of grass tends to all get yellow brown dry look except where maintained and watered.

That car was driving around the Gold Coast. I haven't been to every place in Qld as it's so huge, but in south east Queensland I think the roads are well kept, they don't really have many pot holes. The Gold Coast is close to the border of NSW, and they have lots of pot holes in their roads, with the exception being the new motorway. You also can't do u-turns in NSW which is a pain.

I really loved watching a guy in florida driving around, which does as you say give you a true feel for what other places are like. Better than a brochure!

BCF is an outdoor equipment chain. There ads have the tag line "BCFing fun"

Kool video Ian 👍🇦🇺

This is just the Bruce Hwy, from the Tweed to Labrador, .05 of it, you still have 1800km to go!

Love these videos, you reacting to different cars, brands and infrastructure. Do some more from different places in the world!

I live in rural Queensland and the further you get away from the Capital city the worse the roads get. A lot of rural dirt roads. And even the A1 Bruce Highway gets cut during the wet season.

The fuel prices you talked about at the start are shown in cents per litre. So on that sign the price of e10 petrol was 162.9c or $1.629 per litre

That video showed the Gold Coast which is right on the NSW border. Coolangatta is actually on the border itself on the Queensland side.

This looks like they are traveling along a freeway in the Gold Coast Region heading towards New South Wales as Coolangata keeps appearing on the signs at the side of the road. This is the South East Corner of Queensland where a huge minority of the population recede in the the Gold Coast Region and Brisbane Metro. Highways are different outside the Capitol city. One of the worst in Australia is a stretch in Central Queensland between Sarina and Mackay just above the city of Rockhampton.

Mitsubishi Pajero Sport is a 4WD. We bought the newer model recently, and we just returned from a 2 week outback trip and it performed really well. We pronounce the “j” as such, not as a “h”.

I know it has been pointed out a million times before, but in Australia @ 14:30 the one on the right is a Ute, wellback in this case. And the one on the left is a Truck. aka Prime mover not tractor.

All car companies make different models of the same cars for different markets so not ugly just different. There are some American cars that are different for me, not ugly just different. Nice video as usual 🙂

Austalia gets a lot of cars from Japan that you can't get in the USA and the EU. Right hand drive only, eg the Nissan 1992 GTR Skyline or the Nissan 260C Skyline. The makers export used cars to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa ect: cars around 3 to 5 years old, ex lease

That was actually a flash back for me, I used to live off that highway

Been subbed for a couple of years now from my personal channel. Love your reaction videos of Aussie car culture. But seeing this one, I thought I'd comment from my driving channel. I've got loads of videos driving around Perth, and some from around Victoria if you ever want to see more!

I think it’s a Civic type “R” coupe. The original Honda Odyssey was designed during a recession in Japan in the ‘90s- the market demanded a budget smaller size minivan. The smaller version did well everywhere except the US, so they designed a bigger one for that market

That civic is an FN2 which wasn’t released in the US

Queenslands climate is lot like the land from Texas to Florida and is sub-tropical. A lot of cars ads on TV have a tiny asterisk noted with "Overseas model shown" as the ad will be filmed somewhere else for general use. Most signage here has to follow a standardised code which tends to reflect international standards. BCF - Boating Camping Fishing (a local take on Cabelas/Academy/Bass Pro but not as cool), owned by SCA Group (Supercheap Auto - like Autozone). Those mountains you keep seeing in the background are part of the Great Dividing Range that goes along most of the country's east coast. The last ute you noticed looks like a Holden Rodeo twin cab.

The black hatchback at 5:59 is indeed a Honda Civic

You can follow our M1 Princes Hwy from one end of Australia to the other. Melbourne to Queensland

With the fuel signs , usually the first top figure , say a dollar sixty two a litre is the lowest priced fuel , probably standard unleaded followed by the other grade fuels.

BCF is Boating, Camping, Fishing. have some "BCF'n fun" lol thats actually the slogan in the tv ads

It’s a Holden rodeo ute, the Holden Colorado took its place

Underdog has some great videos especially of Queensland! Most Australian roads are in great condition, we really value life, so safety always comes first! 👍 Similar to America, but more sunshine, and nobody needs to hate or injure you! NSW rules, we have kept our cultural heritage and love our small towns! Tasmanian and South Australian cities and towns are all logical and beautiful too - the others have gone modern hirise, and just "make it up as you go along"! 🤨 Queensland, just make sure you have great aircon! 😁

14:45 that CoE is a Volvo FH with a flat top cabin. probably rated for 130,000lbs gross weight

Many years ago, when Hyundai was a newcomer to Australia’s roads, we were all using the Japanese style of pronunciation to say “High-oon-die”. But we were corrected by the Korean boss of Hyundai in Australia who told us it’s pronounced “Hee-yun-day”.

Btw the way with the trucks thing we call them 4 wheel drives like the Holden Colorado in Australia 😂😂

You should the Napoleon route in southern france. Goes from Nice to grenoble all in the mountains not a single highway. Goes thru the alps as well.

So trippy you see my neighbourhood and roads I travel on everyday! Bit of a shame it didn’t continue for a bit - would have loved to see your reaction to Tallebudgera creek 😻

That was a 2007 Honda Civic, and later a 1999 Subaru Outback. The ute towards the end: 2005 Holden Rodeo Dual Cab. BCF - Boating, Camping and Fishing store. For people who like to have BCF'ing fun 😏

Australia gets the Japanese models of cars except that we get the Toyota Camry,which is a front wheel drive Altezza. Japanese models are rear wheel drive and the model is sold in Australia as the Lexus IS200. Not sure what America gets. BCF is Boating Camping and Fishing a chain store for outdoor B.C.F supplies.

Queensland ranges from subtropical to tropical so mostly green but the further west you go the hotter and drier it gets and the more basic the roads. Long long distances less money for councils to maintain them. Except for the highways. Theyre a state responsibility and are the thoroughfare for heavy trucks transporing live sheep cattle crops and general freight. What youre looking at is fairly standard for a highway/ freeway in most of eastern and South Australia. But again the further west and inland you travel in Australia the roads become more basic. Cant comment about WA because I havent been furthet west than Kalgoirlie

The Gold Coast… my home! ❤

Yeah I really like these types of videos. I love taking in all the details too 😄

That Honda is wierd. We got the 7th gen Civic sedans as everyone else got, but we also got the Civic hatchbacks sold alongside the sedans. The hatches were typically more common in UK/Europe but we just had the choice of both.

Welcome, surprised this video didn’t show crossing the state border from QLD to NSW as it was quite close to it. I had fun driving around the US with just how similar it is to Australia. We chose to use US road signage / road designs, many years ago, which was a good decision. Fuel prices are just the same as yours except obviously in litres so 3.78 litres to a gallon. This is a cool format of videos, good to see your perspective of our home. The similarities between Australia and the US were a lot closer than I thought they’d be. We pretty much just don’t tip here, and each state is very competitive against each other. Also don’t turn on a red here unless there’s a sign saying you can do it!

the green marker is actully bike lane

BCF Boating, Camping, Fishing The Aussie TV ads for this are very funny.