Dodgy dealers

So this week we will be telling you a few dodgy car stories. Im going to focus on my recent experience about wanting to import a car from Japan to Australia. SO i'm in the market for a decent EVO and under sevs law the VIIIMR qualifies for import without having to own it overseas for at least a year and blah blah ... all the other stupid import laws. Some of you are probably wondering why i would bother going to the trouble of importing, and my answer is you can get mint cars in Japan and at a fraction of the cost you will get one on the AUDM. As long as the particular model complies with vehicles eligible for import (theres a list called SEVS that has all the models). ALSO you can avoid dodgy Australian car dealers, which i will get to in a minute.

So I jump online and browse the Japanese car auctions, as well as contact a few importer brokers that can source the car over from Japan and organise compliance etc. NO surprise it is cheaper for me to source one from Japan with decent mileage...in fact it would even work out cheaper for me to FLY to Japan, bid on the car in person, put it on a ship and send it home, and fly home...IM not joking, the mark-ups the dealers make on these cars in Aus is cray cray.

So before i go ahead and commit to buying the car in Japan i decide to do a little domestic shopping here and this is where i get to the whole lot of dodgy....
I visited 6 used car dealers that had a selection of EVO's for sale and considering these cars are around 2004 models i was shocked to find some with 40,000kms and less! BOY, now was i confused! Was i waisting my time importing a car? when i could get one here with such low kms and drive it home straight away and just pay the extra $$.

BUT wait! It gets even more interesting. After tossing and turning i jump on forums and speak to a few importers and find that a few people have been ripped off by dealers that import cars and then wind back the mileage. So i go back and visit the 6 car dealers and ask them if i can see the 'Dereg' or Export certificate, which is in Japanese but shows the vehicles kms at the last 2 compulsory vehicle roadworthy checks in Japan. 5 out of the 6 dealers refused to show me these papers claiming that they had lost them and other excuses. BUT under SEVS import rules dealers that are compliance workshops are required to keep the original copy of this document on file. All these dealers except for 1 were compliance workshops and this now confirmed my suspicions that in fact these cars i was looking at had a lot more mileage than what was showing.

Im not saying that all dealers are involved in this, and i know of a few that are more than happy to show you all the papers you need... But there are used car dealers that are still importing cars, getting them professionally detailed and winding back the mileage. And these guys are sharks, that deserve to be punched. J-Spec is an import broker that has also done a little research on this practise and if you want to read a little more about their findings - follow this link.

Needless to say i plan on sourcing the Evo from Japan and have my eye glued on a few... will keep you posted on how my importing experience goes.

- Boost

Even At Our Worst We're Still Better Than Most.

Obviously, the vehicle that sits comfortably atop the pile of glory that is Worst Car Ever is my ex-magna. Una pieza de mierda que I sincerely hope is rotting somewhere. Seriously, fine readers, heed my advice. Do not buy a car off a dude in Penrith with a weird hook-finger. It will only bring you sorrow, suffering and extreme poverty. Every day your man here was all like “¡Esta weá no funciona, vete a la mierda!”

Actually, that mid-nineties era of Magnas are kinda all like, wow. Or maybe that's just my experience. CONFIRMATION BIAS.

A friend once had an old, possibly built in the 70's, I really don't know, Renault. Eat my embedded sentences YEAH! It was pretty suck. It would forget about the whole handbrake/park thang from time to time and he would return to find it gently resting on whatever happened to be downhill from wherever it was he had decided to park. Awesome. To be fair doe, that car was merely old and cannot be held entirely to blame for what are essentially little more than the charms and quirks of a well-aged machine.

No, no, if we are truly talking 'Worst Car' it's not fair to pick on one that did all that was required of it until eventually, it collapsed in upon itself. Rather, we must acknowledge these monumental clusterfucks that get produced and suck from day zero. These vehicles that somehow manage to slip through R&D, trials, prototypes, taste, logic 'n all dat. Our very own creations that slide on out the other side of a production line as some sort of obnoxious, in-yo-face monstrosity of design, motoring and human achievement. Something like, well, here's the thing. I don't know. Sure I could google and pretend like I know. But I'm an honest man, man. My heart wouldn't be in it. Sure, I could rant about a certain Pontiac Aztec or that one Pinto but I don't really know what I'm talking about.

What I do know though, is that this blog entry is going to leave you with similar feels to those provided by a shitty car. Sure, it fills a need and there is a fair-to-good chance it will get you where you need to be but you cannot help but feel disappointed, frustrated, cheated and a little uglier for being associated with it.

For that I am sorry.

Not really.

My reviews are so average they aren't even really reviews.

Video unrelated:

Word.

-anxzibitinyoxzibit

Fiat thinks outside the box....Or simply just adds curves and wheels to the box

The Fiat Multipla seems to work very well on paper....carrying 6 people in two rows but when it comes to style this bubbled cube is something that Fiat has compromised aesthetics for function. The car as practical as it may be isn't appealing at all.

The Multipla wasn't a very successful seller other than in Italy, it was voted the Ugliest Car by Top Gear in 1999 and its shape gets mixed reactions from people. It seems Fiat ran out of ideas and put the car together in a day... with a baby whale in mind. But yet people still purchase them, and attest to how practical they are. Which is fair enough. This would definitely be a case of beauty being in the eye of the beholder.

-Boost

You Ain't Got No Alibi

So I have this friend. I don't wanna put his business out there but whenever I look at him, I think two things;

1) Where is this money he owes me?

and

2) What kind of mortal sin did his parents commit to provoke sweet baby Jesus into beating the crap out of this guy with an ugly stick? DON'T EVEN BOTHER GOING TO CHURCH OR PRAYING. AIN'T NO SAVING THIS POOR BOY NOW.

This is how I feel about the following cars. I couldn't decide on any single car so I'm just going to put a whole bunch of cars on blast real quick for you. 

Say hello to the Ssangyong Rodius.

OH MY BUDDHA WHAT IS THAT

The Rodius is a 7-seater and aurraaaaaaaaaAAAUUUGHHH. LOOK AT IT. LOOK AT THE BACK. It's like the Korean dudes designing this were planning the car starting from the front then at the back, when they should have stopped they were like "Nah keep going, keep going, keep going. STOP. NOW ADD AN UGLY-AS-HELL BACK PANEL. SWEET. 완벽 하군. NOW LET'S PLAY STARCRAFT AYE?"

I can not believe that something this ugly came from the same country which produced Girl's Generation. Augh, I can't even look at it anymore. Next.

Tongji Auto Fuel Cell Powered Roadster

This abomination is Tongji Auto's (yeah, I have no idea) new concept roadster unveiled at the 2013 Shanghai Auto Show. It looks like the aliens that made the ships in the Halo games were like "You know what? I'm tired of riding around my Type 32 RAV. And tired of getting shot down by Master Chief. I WAN'T A VACATION. AND A CAR TO GO WITH IT. ALIEN MIDLIFE CRISIS." The front is nasty. It looks like Kha'Zix from League of Legends had a baby with a Magikarp. The windshield is too tall. Especially since the average height of the dudes buying this car will be around 4"11-5"2 at the most. And the fact that they chose Pedophile Magenta as the colour does not help. Yuck. 

Subaru Tribeca

Finally, the 2006 Subaru Tribeca. I have a story. I was sitting in a car with my then-girlfriend (SHUT UP, I'M ALRIGHT) and I saw a Subaru Tribeca for the first time. I was so disgusted and taken aback by the design of this thing that I nearly fishtailed the car in front of me. I had to park the car and weep. WEEP. AND SOB. The sides of this thing are decent enough looking, but then you get to the front. THE FRONT. It looks like Mr Subaru got his little boy to go on MS Paint and make a car. He got a little bit excited with the rounded-cornered rectangles and then that was that. Whenever I see this car on the road, I feel really sad. Sometimes I feel like I need to seek out help for it. I'm not even angry. Just sad. /sigh.

-Ramonito

                                                                          

BatMobile

Gossip Goat signing in yo

Dream car huh! Well of course all reason needs to be thrown straight into the trash! My dream is of course the freaking bat mobile. YES who the hell wouldn't want to cruise around in this bad boy!

Not to mention some fresh black camouflage trim, wheels like no other and comes equipped with some handy little accessories. Grenade launcher anyone???VTEC? V8? BRRRRRT throw all the V nonsense out the window I'd like to go up against any of that jargon in a 1/4 mile race in the batmobile (if you were winning id just blast you straight off the road anyway).

But if thats not enough for you to splurge a cool 4.2mill on a sex machine of a vehicle, maybe the rocket launcher will change your mind??? No? still not convinced this bad boy meets my dream car material because its literally a jet on land fitted with a jet engine! SAY WHAT!

Getting away from the po po is easy with a heavy armoured body but who the hell is gonna keep with a  rolling jet... like c'mon..


Annoying passengers? NO PROBLEM!! ejector seats tehehe

If you're not sold on ejector seats you need to go have a long hard look at yourself, actually scratch that GO and rent some BATMAN movies and see first hand what the Sonny Bill Williams of car is capable of!

Gossip Goat OUT xoxo

A man dreams, he looks towards the Sky...line...GT-R

Greetings all! VTECpony here, now a dream car for any person can be whatever they want it to be, it's the car that if they were given the choice of ANY car in the world, they would choose that one car. Of all the million dollar supercars, or eco-friendly smart car hybrids there's one car that I would choose in a heartbeat, and that, ladies and gentleman, would be the 2012 Nissan GT-R (Okay, I'd settle for any Skyline GT-R, they're that amazing).

2012 Nissan Skyline GT-R in GT Blue

(Image courtesy of http://wallpaper.imcphoto.net/nissan-skyline-gtr-wallpapers.html)

The Nissan Skyline is arguably one of Nissan's, if not, Japan's greatest automotive exports. The GT-R spec model of the Skyline were first produced and released in 1969 and became the flagship model for Nissan's performance vehicles, being a step above its current fleet specwise. Below is a small summarised infographic containing the history of the Skyline car, from its humble begininings as a 44kW Skyline Deluxe, to the 390kW race-spec GTR monster it is today.

The history of the Skyline

(Image courtesy of http://www.gtrcanada.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/nissan_skyline_history_gtrcanada.jpg)

The Nissan GT-R picked up where the Skyline GT-Rs left off, with production starting in 2007 till present, with the newly announced 2013 GT-R only just released. Now let's get down to numbers, the Nissan GT-R is a car made for performance driving, it is a beast, and as such it's specs speak to its design and purpose, to go fast.

The latest edition, 2013 Nissan GT-R

(Image courtesy of http://wallpaper.imcphoto.net/nissan-skyline-gtr-wallpapers.html)

The 2-door sports coupe has a front-engine and is all wheel drive, and the 3.8L VR38DETT  V6 twin-turbo engine goes from a standing start to 100km/h in approximately 3 seconds (crazy fast), and in 2011 earned the Guiness World Book of Records title for fastest 0-60mp/h in a 4-seater production car. The car puts out 404kW of power at the wheels (or approximately 542 horsepower), and weighs in at 1,730 kg.

The record breaking VR38DETT V6 twin-turbo engine

(Image courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nissan_GT-R_engine.jpg)

The GT-R is a beautiful example of Japanese performance and design, and brings together years of innovation and with a rich history of influential and significant Japanese exports behind it, is a car truly deserved of the title "Dream Car". And compared to your average Lamborghini or Ferrari, comes at a reasonable cost, with prices starting at the $175 000 mark, which is pretty reasonable, being a tenth of the price of some supercars.

That being said, my dream car is a car I wish to own one day, not a car I'll get from winning the lottery, and as such, the Nissan GT-R is my dream car.

-VTECpony

Dream On

Hola mi Gente. It's ya boy Ramonito here.

This week is dream car week over with the Average Guys, and BOY. LET ME TELL YOU. YES YOU. YOU JONATHAN. We have been going to TOWN. We're all relatively poor. Except for Kyle. Bloody Kyle. So I know that for me, I know that my Dream Car is probably only going to be a dream. So SCREW IT. THROW REALISM OUT THE WINDOW. LEGO.

Say hello to the BMW 4219 Eli!

BMW 4219 Eli

This car was designed by BMW for a four year old boy named Eli (one of my aliases) and this design was posted on the BMW USA Facebook page. Wow. This boy got style. This car has 42 Wheels, 19 Porsche Boxster engines, 3 steering wheels (it must be piloted by three drivers, yes). Most importantly though, it has a specific storage compartment for toys. CAR GOT ROOM FOR YOUR LEGOS HOMIE.

On a more serious note though, I really want General Lee from the Dukes of Hazzard.

GENERAL MOFUGN LEE

General Lee is a 68-69 Dodge Charger. General Lee is a male. I think that's pretty thug. I can't really say much about him, I just really really want him. I want to be able to jump over creeks and whatnot. IMAGINE THAT. NO MORE BRIDGES EVER. DAMN THOSE NARROW BRIDGES. I HATE TRUCKS. DAMN. Judging from the image above, I think that the General Lee spends more time in the air than on the road. Which means I would have to get a piloting license I think. HELL YEAH. QUALIFICATIONS. (*Dukes of Hazzard Horn Sound Bite*). Most of all though, this is my dream car because, deep down in my heart, I want to be a redneck. There. I said it. Ever watch True Blood? I want to talk like that. SOOKEH. ITS NAWT SAFE IN HEEYA. They have this simple charm that Australian bogans don't have. This car would give me that charm. And that is my dream. Peace.

- Ramonito

Pagani Huayra, I can only dream of rolling amongst the 'God of the Winds' ...

The Huayra (wai-rah) was released by Pugani in 2011, and as the companies second production car following the Zonda - it had very big shoes to fill! The name Huayra translates to "God of the winds" and when you find out what is under this machines master pieced carbotanium body it all falls into place.

It features a twin-turbo Mercedes AMG V-12 engine that throws out 539kw with a top speed of 372km/h. 0-100 comes up in a lightning fast 3.3 seconds.... what makes this car incredible is not only the power it packs but the design. The attention to detail featured is unbelievable, take for example the rims that take 5 days to be made out of titanium blocks and the gear shifter that is made out of 67 different moving parts. Every single nut and bolt is made out of titanium.

Some may see this as obsessive but it puts the car into a league of its own. As Richard Hammond from Top Gear said, the Huayra has something that its rivals Ferrari and Lamborghini have lost...innocence. Pagani has no corporate culture, they want to make pinup poster super cars... and they have! They are not interested in the branded teddy bears... they are where their rivals were 30 years ago. This is a car that is a pure sports car, the attention to detail might not make sense but it gives the car a character that the Lamborghini's of years ago possessed.

To me this is the future of the Lamborghini's i dreamt of owning 20 years ago... it is a car that is really a 'dream car'. It would be very hard to fault such a masterpiece, and i can see why it was named "The Hypercar of the year 2012" by Top Gear magazine. It was also the fastest road-legal street car to go around the Top Gear test track, but with a price tag of $1,300,000 it is placed at the very top of my dream car list.

More on the Pagani Huayra

-Boost

A Prospector Can Dream.

So we are taking this week to write about our dream cars. Something I honestly have never really thought about. I have no idea. Like, if there was no question of $$$ what vehicle would I drive? Like I said, no idea. This makes me weird right? I'm racking here. I'd probably want something that I can use to get out to climbing/hiking spots in the mountains, has some boot space, and can drive itself 'cause I get drunk regularly and driving whilst drunk is kinda hard DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE EVERYBODY. When I was a child I obsessed over those mid-nineties Jeep Cherokees for some reason, you know, the XJ ones. Those angles, dat ruggedness. Oh yeahh.

Apparently they are pretty highly regarded too, I guess 13 year-old me knew what he was talking about.

Oh man I found one! A proper Dream Car.

It's called the Dream Car 123 and it's ridiculous and I can't even pretend to be serious about it. It looks like this:

I know right? The inventor claims he will be able to create an electric car that can hit 400km/h. This current edition can get to 60 on a downhill. You know, like a bicycle or tennis ball. We have a ways to go but I have faith in my man here. I would rep this guy but his site appears to have died. Which hardly fills me with confidence. Maybe he's so busy with improving this already stellar vehicle that internet presence has dropped down the priority list. Maybe. He does have a sweet Youtube channel though: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheDreamCar, mostly filled videos informing one on the correct way to use various tools. Which I guess is relevant. Anyway, the pyramid shape is obviously heaps futuristic or something. Now that I have seen it for myself, I am somewhat surprised that there are not more (or even any) pyramid-shaped vehicles on our roads. The advantages of a pyramid-shaped vehicle are so obvious and numerous that I won't bore you by listing them all.

That wasn't even close to a review.

Word.

-anxzibitinyoxzibit

My one and only

Whaddup home brehs GossipGoat checking in here! 

Prepare to be amazed. Thats right you aint never seen a car like dis b4. Today I will be reviewing BEV! (ok stop applauding). BEV aka 1995 Holden Barina is my ride of choice(well not really of choice, but okay).

A little bit of context... BEV and I first came into contact about 3 years ago when GossipGoat was a little eager beaver to get a car to stick my big fat red p plates on oh yeah red p plate move out of my way.

BEV, besides being a beautiful piece of machinery also has a great personality. You really need to get to know your vehicle on a personal level before you can write a review on it. Luckily BEV and I have been together for the past 3 years and through countless ups and downs she has been there for me when no one else would/could OR should. 

She kindly gave full consent for me to write her best features and post them up on this blog! OK LETS GO...

This first great thing about BEV is..............ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm............

Just kidding there are heaps of cool things! There is a lot of space allocated on the side of doors to store rubbish, including empty pk packets and receipts.

She is agile and petite so you can fit her in almost ALL parking spaces!

She’s also got a really sick tattoo of a pussy cat and a muscle man on her back window! dayummmmm juiceyyyy!

Alright fine! There aint that many great things about BEV. Besides the fact that she can get any ordinary human for A to B. (notice i said ordinary because if you way more than 100kg you’re in for a bumpy ride ;) )

BEV currently rocks a fresh hole in the exhaust so she is no ordinary sounding barina more like a barrari (barina+ferrari=barrari) she also rolls around on 4 mag wheels which could possibly add up to the entire width of the car anyway, but hey nothing is too much for my BEV.

Her 1.4L engine is perfect on petrol consumption never costing over $40 to fill the petrol tank to FULL. THATS RIGHT $40 = FULL HAHAHAHA sucker!

BEV is also supporting a funky fresh smell of fruity vibrance, because if yo car dun smell like fruity vibrance you’re gonna have a bad time..

ALL IN ALL BEV is the bombdigidy (to me) and I would never have it any other way (probably would if I had more money)

BEV4EVA 

GossipGoat signing out  - L8rzzzzz

Ecotec to VTEC. My Car Beginnings.

Hey guys, VTECpony here, time for my first actual 'post' post, and where better to start than my humble beginnings as a learner driver. Being as keen to drive as any young teenager, I got my learner's licence at the age of 16, and was lucky enough to be given the permission to 'borrow' my parents' old car, a beautiful 1997 Holden VT Commodore in Navy Blue.
Apologies to all but I was unable to dig up an image from the archives of my embarrassing family photos, so instead I've provided an image of a very similar Commodore from the NRMA web site.

(Image source: http://www.mynrma.com.au/media/holden_commodore_vt_s_1998.jpg)

The main differences from the image above would be the wheels, the colours, and the white man in sunglasses.

Now as a first car, or any car, for that matter. The Holden VT Commodore was an amazing car, reliable, cheap to run (parts and servicing for aussie cars is always good), maintenance was a breeze, and you had the power of a 3.6L Ecotec engine for the standard models, which provided great power, but also fairly reasonable fuel efficiency for a V6 at the time. The Holden VT Commodores from 1997-1999 have become an Australian icon, and the workhorse for many families, with low costs to run whilst providing great reliability and power. This was a car I was grateful to drive as a first car and deserves its title as number 1 in Australian sales.

Sadly, the Commodore had grown old and served its time well, and the time came when it inevitably had to be replaced. Bernardo, as he was called, no rests not too far away in a Pick'n'Payless, where he may live on in other cars. In time I had saved up enough money to put towards a new car, and had decided to purchase brand new, to avoid on-road costs and save money on insurance. Enter...the 2012 Honda City VTi.

(2012 Honda City VTi...also known as Patricia)

So, down to the numbers, the engine is a 1.5L i-VTEC inline 4 cyclinder engine which is GREAT for fuel efficiency, using on average, 6.6L per 100km, which is one of the most fuel efficient small cars around without going hybrid. Being a small engine, the 1.5L SOHC engine only puts out 88kW of power, which isn't alot, and on uphills is where you find that out first hand. Standout features are the 503L boot capacity, front-side and curtain airbags, and USB/iPod/Bluetooth connectivity as standard, and its surprisingly tight and smooth handling for a 1090kg car.

In a nutshell, the pros are a great looking car packed full of features, the best of which would have to be its fuel efficient engine and inbuilt connectivity, however if I had to pick out any cons, it'd be its lack of power (which in some cases, may be a good thing).

Outside

Inside

Shasta Strawberry. For that thug smell.

And those are my cars to date from a monster 3.6L Ecotec...to a cute, sensible, 1.5L iVTEC, I still love both cars for their own traits and serve as great first or second cars respectively. The Commodore will always be an icon for the reliable car that can stand up to anything, whilst City goes to show how far we've come for efficient and clean driving, while keeping things simple.

Till next time.

-VTECpony

Runnin' With the Devil

Hola, my name is Ramonito, your friendly, slightly Mexican car reviewer. What's that? You smell sulfur? RED DEVIL COMIN' FOR YOU. Today I will be reviewing my beloved whip, the Red Devil. There may or may not be pictures depending on whether or not she lets me close to her today. She's camera shy, you see.

The Red Devil is actually a 1994 Toyota Corolla (I know right? FRIGGIN' BEAST). She was bestowed upon me by my parents who hustled her off of a mate in game of mahjong. She's got low kms for her age, as she was only used during full moons for ritualistic purposes, and for picking up kids from school 5 minutes away. Just walk, far out. Anyway, she packs a whopping 0.8L engine, because clearly 1L engines wouldn't make sense at all. She's got no window tint 'cause she ain't scared of a little melanoma. She has no cup holders because don't drink and drive obviously. Only the front speakers work consistently because if you're sitting in the back, I don't want you to hear what kind of music I'm playing. She's dark red just like Satan. She's got these sick, black plastic hub caps which were given to me by Santa Claus for Christmas 2010 (YEAH, I STILL BELIEVE, WHAT?). Overall, I would say that she looks like a red Batmobile, if Batman was a poor Filipino boy.

OH, BUT HOW SHE RUNS. Don't let her 0.8L fool you, this baby packs a poke. How much of a poke? Try 0-100 in about 2 minutes on the M4. Holla. I've never gone to 110 though because my car started shaking. She takes hills like a cyclist of average fitness, unless you turn on the air conditioning, in which case you have about as much horsepower as a pram with fat twins in it. CHILDHOOD OBESITY. NOT FUNNY. She seems to run faster when I play Van Halen on my iPod. She handles like a Mario Kart ever since I got the left drive shaft replaced. Not sure what that means, but my mechanic didn't speak English very well so he must be good. I can now successfully evade police* and have done so on several occasions.

*if they are parked 

Now please excuse me while I attempt to take some pictures of this elusive creatures. I may or may not return, so here is a video to watch while I'm away. Wish me luck.

WHEW. WELL. THAT WAS A CLOSE ONE. I had to Steve Irwin my way around her in order to get some good shots but I managed to get them. Here's a few pictures of the Red Devil in her natural habitat, my driveway.

The Red Devil

Them Rims

Interior. Those brown stains are chocolate, I promise.

Back seat. aka my dining room.

Poor Filipino Batman in a poor Filipino Batmobile

So that's my ride. Respect her or she will eat you. Posting this a day early, I'm going on a road trip tomorrow. RED DEVIL RIDIN'. Laters

-Ramonito

Once you're soaked it doesn't matter if it's raining.

Yo, I am anxzibitinyoxzibit and I review cars man.

I don't know anything about cars really, but I promise to try.

I know stuff about chainsaws and tractors, they're like cars right?

Anyway, about my own car.

When my truly awful Magna finally died for good early last year I decided to see how I would fare going carless. It was nice. I live close to University and a good train station so getting where I need to go was not too problematic. I am firmly in the minority that believes, all things considered, Sydney public transport is good enough (the other members of this minority consist of Gladys Berejiklian and this one guy who lives and works near Town Hall station). I enjoyed not having a car, that feeling of dependence on others, the way people roll their eyes when you tell them you choose not to own a car. It's heaps good man. Alas, the time came when I needed to return to my job on a farm out west and with that came the realisation that I needed a car to get to work to earn $$$$ to pay for the car that I needed to get the $$$$$ to justify owning a car again. Awesome.

My vehicular standards were low; all I was looking for was something that ticked these boxes:

• Less that $2000.
• More than 6 months rego.
• More than one functioning speaker.
• Front wheel drive so I can actually get off the farm after it rains and turns all driveways into muddy trails of mud.
• Barbie themed seat belt pad things 'cause seat belts are wicked uncomfortable.
• A smell of burning oil.
• A cracked radiator.
• I could fit inside it (being 6' 6” is awesome).

After hours of trolling through Gumtree, I found it. My car. A 1994 Camry. It had everything I wanted and nothing more. The roof lining sagged onto my head, the Barbie seat belt covers were bright pink, the CD player ate, rather than played, CD's. FUCK YES I WANT THIS CAR.

I totally found $2 in the seat the day after purchase too. Almost payed for itself this car.

Nearing one year on and I am still overjoyed at my purchase. The burning oil smell lingers strong in the nostrils long after even the shortest voyage. The massively cracked windshield makes me fear for every time I forget to brake for a speed bump. The standard Camry bonnet paint deterioration is coming along nicely. I eventually worked out how the fuck to jack the CD player and put in a new one and the speakers distort all the bass when I play my Trap banGers or Thug Life Vol. 1 at 1/3 volume like a bro. 

Pac keeps things fresh

Probably should repair this. Maybe.

 

It even has a fucking car alarm because, obviously, everyone wants to steal a '94 Camry. Once, the door closed in the wind with my keys on the front seat, locking me out. Luckily I had access to the long thin piece of metal required to break into the car. There is a dead battery and piles of work clothes in the boot and random bottles of beer show up from time to time. Off-road trips in the Blue Mountains have been an overwhelming success.

Totally passed rego too.

-anxzibitinyoxzibit

Welcome! Here is the beginning of my car journey....

Welcome to our blog on the average blokes car! I thought I would kick things off with a little about my car history to give you context of where we are going with this…

So as I’m sure most of the Aussie audience will know you are restricted in terms of power in the cars you can drive up until you obtain your full license at 20. As such many first cars will not be turbo or higher than a V6. This bugged me when it came to the day that I had finally saved enough to go out and buy my first car. I was 17 and as such was restricted under the P’s license. I pondered and after looking at various cars I managed to pick up a cheap 2002 BMW 325ci at an auction. The car had been in an accident and was in need of some TLC. I repaired the front end and had just enough to cover a re-spray, I also had to put a new radiator and engine mounts in as these had been damaged in the accident. After doing all this I felt quite chuffed as the car started to look good! Being a straight six it had more than enough power for me to learn how to drive on and have some fun. In terms of features, for an 11-year-old car these BMW’s are packed with racing leather seats, sunroofs, electric everything and I installed an Alpine sound system with Fusion sub- yes fusion! I kept this car for 2 years and managed to sell it at a profit after fixing it up! If you have never been to a car auction I encourage you to! They are one hell of an experience and you can pick up some amazing deals. 

Following the BMW I decided to purchase a 2010 Holden SV6 Ute, with a staggering 210kw out of a 3.6Litre V6 I was impressed with how far General motors has come along. Being a Ute I was expecting major handling compromises but the Holden surprised me. I did a 4 day drive with a couple of people from the Ferrari club and the Ute put up a fair fight through the winds and turns of thunderbolt way. Of course I wasn’t expecting to keep up the Ferrari’s backside and had some close calls with the rear kicking out but overall bang for buck the SV6 did well.  I kept it pretty stock in terms of mods and only had a X-force exhaust system fitted, pace makers, lowered it on King springs and a migraine trying to install a sound system! Anyone who has tried to install speakers whilst keeping a stock head unit will know what I mean! The VE aftermarket head units are over the 1k mark and it didn’t make sense to replace it as the AC and functions are built into it. Overall the Ute came in handy with moving stock and weekend runs to the dirt bike track, the SIDI motor was extremely fuel efficient on the highway and these Holden’s have come along way!

After the SV6 I got caught in a Japanese craze and was JDM struck! My mate had a DC5 and the VTEC BURRR just made me smile! I got my hands on my first turbo car a 2006 Subaru WRX club spec 9, or affectionately known as Scooby. The sound of that blow off valve and famous rexy purr sold me on the car. It had leather racing seats and all the other fancy bits that these limited edition CS9’s came with. This is when I got ‘the bug’ and started to delve into mods. The first thing I did to Scooby was install Pedders sports ryder extreme XA coil overs and 18 inch Rota Grid Drift rims for that crazy JDM look and stance. Next I got stuck into the engine starting with a 3-inch stainless steel exhaust with cannon muffler. I upgraded the turbo and later added a Fibre
vortex generator, carbon muffler guard, JVC in-dash DVD player with
iPod/iPhone integration with 8-speaker sound + 12' Kenwood Subwoofer
and a few other bits n pieces. Scooby handles like he’s on rails, the AWD boxer really does attest as to why these Subaru’s have become so popular. Of course with owning a WRX comes the EVO rivalry with both teams being equally as passionate and certain that their car is better, one thing is for sure these die-hard fans can get seriously competitive!

-Boost