i drove a hired Aurion AT-X in adelaide for work on friday

[Armstrong]

Hi all,

Last week work got me a aurion AT-X through hertz. Overall great car.

BUT......even though it was a rental i was concerned about the problems this hired har had, and if this is common just for the AT-X or across the range. But i recon this rental was was mistrated cos it seriously needed a wheel allighnment done.

1. When i turned the rear window heater on the radio went all static that you couldnt hear radio stations..is that common?

2. the audio sound was very hollow and humming with dance music...even with the radio. There wasnt any clarity. Not to be a bitch but after an hour i recon i was getting a headache. Ive heard alot of people say how awsome the aurion sound system is. I take it that statement isnt meant for the base model?

3.As for performance...ive read up that the engine has been tuned so well that adding performance mods wont do much. Plus there is no ECU tuning products out there because no one is able to get around the standard ECU to configure it.

I was was worried to hear that because i was hoping the engine has potential to go faster to take on some cars that are doing around 250kw.

Overall its a sweet car

[outback]

my parents have a zr6, the sound system is very.. well it give alot of bass and sometimes drowns out the music

[Steven]

My ZR6's stereo produces "Music". It's okay to good for a completely standard system, but it wouldn't hold a candle to even a basic aftermarket system. That said I have no problems with it and it does the job just fine.

The aurion's have an intergrated aerial in the rear window - I'd say it might be a small wiring problem causing the radio to get static once the demister is turned on, either way it's not normal amongst Aurions.

I agree with the engine/gearbox combo being great, however more power from stock and they'd need to come with better tyres and suspension setup from the factory else you'd just get consistent wheelspin (reminds me it's about time I do a tyre rotation myself). I believe even if the ECU could be cracked, you be lucky to sqeeze even 10kw from it, although you can easily feel how it's been the torque has been toned down off the mark to limit wheelspin - with better tyres and suspension, I think the aurion's would really launch from a standing start with the ECU slightly reprogrammed.

[imposter]

I own an Aurion myself, and I drive different Aurions at work.

With regards to the demister and static, I have never experienced that myself in neither of the 3-4 Aurion's I drive.

I agree that the stereo sounds quite dull on base settings, however, turn the treble and bass up a little and it sounds a lot better.

[DJKOR]

The Aurion does have quite a bit of power, but you need to remember that this power is made higher up in the rev range when compared to other 6-cylinder cars like Holden and Ford, and other turbo 4's. As well, you need to remember that the ride of the Aurion is quite smooth (relatively) and this masks up a bit of the power that it has.

I haven't had issues with radio reception and the demister so this is probably a minor fault with that Aurion. As said, the radio antenna is built into the rear window glass.

The stock stereo is not made to be pumping out loud bass. It pumps out some bass but if you try to push too much out of it, it just won't cut it and it will sound a little off. Put in a subwoofer though and let the stock stereo just handle the mainly the mids and highs and you should be sweet.

[Armstrong]

thanks..glad 2 hear it was just a crappy rental.

Out of curiosity is there any manufactures out there that have released aftermarket supercharger or turbo kit of these engines that be purchased without going through Toyota?

And is there any ECU programmers out there to put out more torque from a low rev to give it the rush feel?

[DJKOR]

Out of curiosity is there any manufactures out there that have released aftermarket supercharger or turbo kit of these engines that be purchased without going through Toyota?

And is there any ECU programmers out there to put out more torque from a low rev to give it the rush feel?

No and no.

[httttt]

3.As for performance...ive read up that the engine has been tuned so well that adding performance mods wont do much. Plus there is no ECU tuning products out there because no one is able to get around the standard ECU to configure it.

I was was worried to hear that because i was hoping the engine has potential to go faster to take on some cars that are doing around 250kw.

I highly doubt that is the case at all. Quite simply, the Aurion meet and exceeded the performance of all the other cars in its class at its time of release. The engine is still somewhat in its infancy so you cant expect it to have the history of a rb20.

[Man+van]

On the engine side of things, in the new motor magazine they have a write up about a BOLWELL NAGARI. It uses the 3.5l V6 Custom exhaust, intake and in house tune they rate the Aurion engine at 220Kw @ 6200 and 345Nm @ 4700.

I guess once you remove the restrictive front section of the exhaust and get a suitable aftermarket computer power can be had. I guess with any new engine its only a matter of time. Having said that they still havent got a great deal more out of the 2zzge.

[07Prodigy]

I too have the issue with the rear demister. My stereo does go staticy and has done for a while

On another note I have another recent issue with my demister, it's started to ark down the sides, like the pillar trim has worn away the tint and into the demister.

Is that a whole window replace?