It was a usual patrol day for Australian police authorities until a Hyundai Palisade drove past them on McIntyre Road last Saturday afternoon. The 41-year-old woman behind the steering wheel was pulled over after officers from Victoria Police noticed her SUV was missing the entire front end. With good reason, the law enforcers couldn’t believe their eyes and “had to do a double take” to fully comprehend what was going on with the faceless vehicle.
Little did the police know it wasn’t her first rodeo as she had been fined earlier in the week for the very same reason. It’s unclear why the Palisade was missing so many body panels, the headlights, and the windshield, although an accident seems like a safe guess. That being said, the SUV appears to have all the airbags intact, so either those were replaced, or the impact occurred at a low speed.
Just as puzzling is the missing rear glass and cracked bumper, while the plastic body cladding on the left-rear wheel arch is also missing. Victoria Police says the Hyundai in question was a 2022 car, so it has had a short yet rough life. The driver received a $740 fine and “earned” three demerit points after “using a light vehicle in breach of a major defect notice.” She was pulled over about 15 miles (25 kilometers) from her home in Brighton.
Your guess is as good as ours as to why the driver thought it would be ok to drive the Palisade in this condition. A missing bumper or fender wouldn’t be the end of the world, but the lack of a windshield is mind-boggling since this isn’t a McLaren Elva or a Ferrari Monza SP1/SP2.
