Cars

[Psyber]

Since I've been doing a few locum jobs around Oz I've driven a few different cars.

While in WA
Hyundai i20, i30, i45 - the i45 was the main car provided - the others were just hire cars to and from Perth Airport.
The i20 was a bit gutless but otherwise not bad.
The i30 was an older hire car from Hertz - not well maintained and tended to vapour lock causing re-starting problems .
The i45 was impressive to drive and I covered about a 1000Km over a long weekend touring the south coast of SW WA.
Though it is a larger vehicle than I usually prefer, it handled well, and its fuel economy was much better than I expected since I did drive it hard.

Over here in NSW at present I have a Nissan Tiida provided for my use - OK but unexciting...

While in the UK in 2011 I hired an Audi A3 Turbo Cabriolet for 2 days, and later a Peugeot 107 for 10 days.
The tiny Peugeot was quite good and did get up to 90 mph (144kph) on the M1, gradually.
I'd have preferred the A3 Turbo all the time, but even though I got it from AVIS in London for just over half their initial asking price it was still a bit expensive - at 75 Pounds a day - to keep for long. I had it for the trip from London to Plymouth, Penzance, and Lands End and back via a circular route. (I got a good deal because I took it on a Thursday and it was sitting in the hire centre with the weekend coming up because manual gear boxes are apparently not popular in the car hire market there.)

I've test driven various other cars - the most interesting including a couple of Lotus models, the current Jaguar coupe, and a Hummer H3.
Before I bought my Suzuki GV3, recently, I tried the VW Tiguan and Touareg, and a Jeep or two.
I'd have bought the Touareg had I been in the market for a 4wd quite that large.

[o five]

First car owned. JE CAMIRA. Quick car which blew away an XC COBRA one day:)
First car driven VC V8 COMMODORE. EX Detective car.
Current car VP V8 COMMODORE EX NSW Pursuit car.
Best car driven VC BROCK COMMODORE.
Worst car driven DATSUN 120Y AUTO.

[Ian]

First car owned. JE CAMIRA. Quick car which blew away an XC COBRA one day:)
First car driven VC V8 COMMODORE. EX Detective car.
Current car VP V8 COMMODORE EX NSW Pursuit car.
Best car driven VC BROCK COMMODORE.
Worst car driven DATSUN 120Y AUTO.

Have you driven anything built this century?


............................................If not you should really try it one day

[HH3]

Post from January 6th 2011
First Car Driven - 87 Mazda 323 Hatch (sold it to a mate for $350)
Current Car - 2003 BA Ford Fairmont
Best Car Driven - 2005 Ford XR6
Worst Car Driven - 87 Ford Telstar (not mine!!!)

Cars owned - 2

Update on this. I've driven a fair few since then.

First car drivens the same, obviously.

Current Car: My daily drive is a 2007 Focus Sedan. Took a while for me to grow to like this car after selling my 2009 XR6 last year. But I do like having a manual, and its fully paid for, which is good.

I also own a 2003 BA Fairmont, which the missus drives, but I drive occasionally. Needs a bit of maintenance because its done over 220,000km, but still very reliable. This car still has a couple of grand left on it, coz I crashed it 3 months after I got my P's and had to take out more to fix it.

Best Car Driven: My old 2009 FG XR6. Loved driving that car. Very comfortable, and quite powerful. Will probably look at getting something similar when the Fairmonts paid off.

Worst Car Driven: A draw between the 87 Telstar, and mums old early 90's model Camry. The Camrys steering was so loose I was constantly moving the steering wheel to go straight. The Telstars gearstick would reset to the neutral position even though it was in gear. You had to remember which one it was in when you went to change it up or down.

Cars owned: I currently own the Fairmont and the Focus. I've also had the XR6 and the Mazda 323.

[Psyber]

I test drove an Audi Q3 turbo diesel on Friday Jan 3rd.
I haven't decided whether to buy one yet...

[o five]

First car owned. JE CAMIRA. Quick car which blew away an XC COBRA one day:)
First car driven VC V8 COMMODORE. EX Detective car.
Current car VP V8 COMMODORE EX NSW Pursuit car.
Best car driven VC BROCK COMMODORE.
Worst car driven DATSUN 120Y AUTO.

Have you driven anything built this century?


............................................If not you should really try it one day

In fact I have mate.
A couple of HSV`s and a few other newbies, but nothing compares to the older cars to be honest.

[Psyber]

In the last few months I've been testing cars as my current toy, the Audi S2, is 18 years old and it has been getting hard to get parts. I thought in the process that it made sense to have one car for one bloke, rather than two. So, I explored trading in both the Audi and my 2011 Suzuki GV3 on a high performance SUV.

The result was I test drove, in order, the top performance versions of the VW Tiguan, and Audi Q3 and Q5, and then moved on to the SQ5 and RSQ3. Then came the the BMW X1 and X3, the Mercedes GLA, and briefly the AMG version of that, and finally the Porsche Macan S. Basically the Porsche was the only one that maintained adequate ground clearance for rough roads while providing high performance - in all the others one end or the other was sacrificed.

I also began to think this was getting to cost more than I wanted to spend on a vehicle I could not fully tax deduct these days.

Then I got into researching reliability statistics...
Result: back to the drawing board...

I started thinking I'll keep the Suzuki, for off road travel (and supermarket carparks), and look at replacing the Audi. So, I've recently driven the new Subaru WRX and their BRZ (and its Toyota 86 GTS twin). Of them all the "Subota" or "Toybaru" twin pair was the most fun going across the Upper Sturt Rd, even if not the fastest in a straight line.

Now, I've finally got a flywheel for the Audi after 5 months - manufactured in NZ by Exedy via a deal with CompFriction - and it is running well. I'm tempted to keep it a little longer.

At least it has been fun!

Maybe I should wait and see where this goes: https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/3d-printing-american-company-local-083418903.html

American company Local Motors has built the world's first 3D-printed car, made from a mix of carbon fibre and plastic. The car's body was created over two days, in a giant printer at a Chicago trade show. It then took one day to refine the shape and two days to assemble the lightweight vehicle, which weighs in around 1,000 kilograms.

In total, the new car has only 49 parts, significantly less than a standard car, which has around 5,000.
"The thing that this lends most to is customisation-ality, so you can get a car that really suits your needs with very little monetary input from the design side," Mr Earl said.

Called the 'Strati', the Italian word for 'layers', the battery-powered car can reach speeds of 65 kilometres per hour, although it is not yet allowed on actual roads.
Local Motors expects that approval will come soon.It says the Strati will retail for around $20,000.

[tipper]

In the last few months I've been testing cars as my current toy, the Audi S2, is 18 years old and it has been getting hard to get parts. I thought in the process that it made sense to have one car for one bloke, rather than two. So, I explored trading in both the Audi and my 2011 Suzuki GV3 on a high performance SUV.

The result was I test drove, in order, the top performance versions of the VW Tiguan, and Audi Q3 and Q5, and then moved on to the SQ5 and RSQ3. Then came the the BMW X1 and X3, the Mercedes GLA, and briefly the AMG version of that, and finally the Porsche Macan S. Basically the Porsche was the only one that maintained adequate ground clearance for rough roads while providing high performance - in all the others one end or the other was sacrificed.

I also began to think this was getting to cost more than I wanted to spend on a vehicle I could not fully tax deduct these days.

Then I got into researching reliability statistics...
Result: back to the drawing board...

I started thinking I'll keep the Suzuki, for off road travel (and supermarket carparks), and look at replacing the Audi. So, I've recently driven the new Subaru WRX and their BRZ (and its Toyota 86 GTS twin). Of them all the "Subota" or "Toybaru" twin pair was the most fun going across the Upper Sturt Rd, even if not the fastest in a straight line.

Now, I've finally got a flywheel for the Audi after 5 months - manufactured in NZ by Exedy via a deal with CompFriction - and it is running well. I'm tempted to keep it a little longer.

At least it has been fun!

Maybe I should wait and see where this goes: https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/3d-printing-american-company-local-083418903.html

American company Local Motors has built the world's first 3D-printed car, made from a mix of carbon fibre and plastic. The car's body was created over two days, in a giant printer at a Chicago trade show. It then took one day to refine the shape and two days to assemble the lightweight vehicle, which weighs in around 1,000 kilograms.

In total, the new car has only 49 parts, significantly less than a standard car, which has around 5,000.
"The thing that this lends most to is customisation-ality, so you can get a car that really suits your needs with very little monetary input from the design side," Mr Earl said.

Called the 'Strati', the Italian word for 'layers', the battery-powered car can reach speeds of 65 kilometres per hour, although it is not yet allowed on actual roads.
Local Motors expects that approval will come soon.It says the Strati will retail for around $20,000.

i wouldnt hold your breath on the 3d printed car psyb. while i love the idea it will never pass the australian design rules so will never see public roads here in australia it might very well happen in the US though, they have a much more accepting view on what is "road legal" over there than we do here. the fun police ruin all the best stuff

[Psyber]

I agree Tipper.
I should have added a to that last bit to make that clear.

The significant outcome for me was these bits:

"Then I got into researching reliability statistics...
Result: back to the drawing board..."

"Of them all the "Subota" or "Toybaru" twin pair was the most fun going across the Upper Sturt Rd, even if not the fastest in a straight line."

[tipper]

I agree Tipper.
I should have added a to that last bit to make that clear.

The significant outcome for me was these bits:

"Then I got into researching reliability statistics...
Result: back to the drawing board..."

"Of them all the "Subota" or "Toybaru" twin pair was the most fun going across the Upper Sturt Rd, even if not the fastest in a straight line."

lol, i should have realised.

on the reliability side of things, i would take the reports with a grain of salt. i find the only people normally willing to give a review of a product they have purchased are the unhappy ones. i also think that sometimes the "official" type lists mark some models down on things that they shouldnt. for example some people buy a "sports" car and subsequently complain about the "harsh" suspension, when the rest of us know that better handling is quite often a compromise with a plush ride. which earns that particular model a lower "score"

when i was looking for our latest car, every model i looked at had complaints on the 'net about various things. i just weighed up what the complaints were about (some of which i thought were insignificant), and whether i could live with them. buying new also meant that any issues we had would be fixed under warranty.

all makes seem to have recalls these days, and they actually dont concern me, it means that the manufacturer is actually owning up and fixing the faults at their cost, (which they should, obviously). in the end we got a vehicle that many consider "unreliable", yet so far in nearly 18 thousand kays we have not got a single complaint. our choice wouldnt fit your criteria though

with the subaru/toyota twins, they certainly look the goods, and toyota have a pretty good rep when it comes to reliability. i personally think that subaru make good engines/drivetrains too (we have had a turbo forester for a while now), i believe you just have to ensure they are properly serviced, i have heard stories of delayed service intervals being harder on them than maybe some other brands. i havent actually been in one of the brz/86 twins though, but most of what i have read on them has been rather complimentary. if you do decide to get one ill let you take me for a drive in it lol

[heater31]

Be careful of Subaru, the olds have one and chews through more oil than a McDonald's restaurant!

[smac]

And I have one that's been as close to perfect as a car could be. If it weren't for service reminders, I wouldn't know it was due.

[Psyber]

This is a USA based reliability source: http://ratings.jdpower.com/automotive/r ... /index.htm


These are AU based:

Car Advice AU Reliability.jpg (132.17 KiB) Viewed 523 times

Carsguide AU Reliability.jpg (59.67 KiB) Viewed 523 times

[dedja]

First car driven: 1952 Morris Minor
Current car: 2004 Mazda SP23
Best car driven: 1973 LJ Torana
Worst car driven: 1975 Datsun 120Y

Update

Current car: 2014 Volkswagen Golf GTI
Best car driven: 2014 Volkswagen Golf GTI

One word ... awesome

[Bully]

First car driven: 1952 Morris Minor
Current car: 2004 Mazda SP23
Best car driven: 1973 LJ Torana
Worst car driven: 1975 Datsun 120Y

Update

Current car: 2014 Volkswagen Golf GTI
Best car driven: 2014 Volkswagen Golf GTI

One word ... awesome

agreed. had one for a loan car while my caddy was being serviced. Fantastic car but too small for me

[Bully]

First car driven - VH Commodore 1982 executive
Worst car driven - VP Commodore 1993 Berlina
Best car driver - VE Series 2 Berlina
Wanted - VF SS Redline or VF GTS ( deciding next year what to get )

[gadj1976]

This is a USA based reliability source: http://ratings.jdpower.com/automotive/r ... /index.htm


These are AU based:

Car Advice AU Reliability.jpg

Carsguide AU Reliability.jpg

Where's holden in that list psyb?

[Psyber]

This is a USA based reliability source: http://ratings.jdpower.com/automotive/r ... /index.htm


These are AU based:

Car Advice AU Reliability.jpg

Carsguide AU Reliability.jpg

Where's holden in that list psyb?

Obviously not in the US one, although I assume some of those mentioned may be other General Motors products.

The second only lists the top performing 10 and mentions at the bottom of the article some that performed worse than one would tend to expect from the name.

The third only lists to number 36 so I assume Holden would be a little further down, which makes sense based on the three Holdens* I owned...
(*The last one was some time ago though - a 1968 HK Monaro, 327 cubic inch Bathurst model.)

I don't think Opel who are expected to supply future "Holdens" got a mention either.

[Booney]

Picked up this little number today.

2011 VW Passat. 2.0lt turbo diesel,6 speed DSG, sat nav, BOSE Audio, parking sensors, leather, cruise, etc etc.

[Psyber]

Looks good, Booney, and friends who have had them have been happy.

My current interest is the Renault Megane RS 265 - quite impressive handling and performance.

The problem is that no one wants to trade in an 18 year old Audi - even a hot model like the S2 - mainly because it is a rare vehicle and has a limited market.
I do have a couple of private collectors showing interest and am waiting for their offers.
Frankly though, I'd keep the Audi if I could do my own maintenance.