Boronia's hills and roads
Foothills
Boronia takes in sections of the Dandenong Ranges foothills, so it has plenty of hills of its own, with the national park beyond. The ranges rise to 633 m at Mount Dandenong, on winding roads like the Mount Dandenong Tourist Road.
Boronia Road and Dorset Road
These two carry most of Boronia's traffic. VicRoads rebuilt their intersection in the mid-1990s; the new tunnel and intersection opened in 1998, with a new station in a concrete cutting.
Three places to shop
Boronia Junction, Boronia Village and Dorset Square are the shopping precincts. If the car stalls in one of their car parks, 3155 still gets the job to someone close.
What hills do to a car
Going up, the engine and cooling system do the work, more so with passengers or a trailer. Coming down, it's the brakes. A car that lives on Boronia's slopes wears its brake pads and park brake faster than one on flat ground.
On the long descents out of the ranges, pick a lower gear and let the engine hold the car back instead of riding the brake pedal. If the pedal goes soft or you smell hot brakes, pull over somewhere safe, switch off and give them time to cool.
Our take
We'd ask for the brakes to be measured at every service, not just glanced at, and for the readings to go on the invoice. On a car that lives on a hill, that's how you see the wear coming before the squeal starts.