The issue always is, who keeps the proceeds from sale of the forfeited vehicle. If it is the police that issued the ticket, this amounts to a license for police to commit highway robbery.
If not a problem now in Austria, it eventually will be.
If not a problem now in Austria, it eventually will be.
That really depends on the jurisdiction. Many police departments in the US self fund via confiscations, sometimes even not as a penalty for breaking the law. In a big city, that's a small part of the budget. In some more rural counties, it can be a surprisingly large amount of the budget.
See "civil asset forfeiture"
https://www.vox.com/2015/7/8/8909133/civil-forfeiture-states...
https://www.propublica.org/article/police-say-seizing-proper...
Per the article you would have to be exceeding the speed limit by a very sizable margin to be eligible for this seizure, I find it hard to imagine the police engineering situations in which to take advantage of this.
It is only when you allow police to sieze anything and then require you to disprove the allegations (such as is currently the case in much of the USA), that you legalize highway robbery.
See generally https://ij.org/issues/private-property/civil-forfeiture/freq...
[1] https://www.thedrive.com/news/small-arkansas-town-banned-fro...
The issue in Menifee is that tickets were issued for speeding violations that were in the "acceptable" speeding range of less than 10mph over. No exaggeration was required because speeding small amounts was ubiquitous. Personally I like people to drive the actual speed limit and don't think consistent minor speeding should be as socially acceptable as it is. However, the article explains to the new law only applies in cases of extreme speeding and only when there is documented proof of such. Personally, I think criminal charges, jail time and permanent license revocation are also called for when someone goes 135 on a 80 mph road (barely sufficient to warrant permanent vehicle confiscation under the Austrian law under discussion.)
As I alluded to, civil forfeiture is very different in that you have you prove your innocence rather than having the presumption of innocence.