pegaxs

Just a quick question about what fuels people run in their car and how it affects mileage, driveability and price... I just got to wondering about this tonight as i was driving home from work. I was down to "1km" left on the display. In the car i had a fuel docket for coles/shell. "I know!!" i said as i was driving home, "I will fill the car on the way home." Almost a give in with 1km left showing and the amber light on the dash blinking away... (well, not really blinking, i added that for dramatic effect...) When i got into the servo i noticed that E10 (10% ethanol fuel) was about 3cents/lt cheaper. Added to that was my 4cent discount voucher and i bought a bottle of water because i was parched and was part of the reason to pull in anyway, i got another 2 cents off a litre. I remember from the first time i filled the car that it has a yellow sticker with "E10 ok for use in this vehicle" I thought i would give that a go. I evened up filling my car for 88.9 cents/lt. Last time i put fuel in a car for that price was pre-iraq invasion. Last tank of fuel i put in i used it up about 10.9lt/100km according to the display. Which makes sense, as i did 500km from about 55lt of fuel. So this begs some questions and some curisoty. What fuel does everyone else run here ? I like the idea of E10, as it has a few benefits. Environmental issues, as ethanol is made from sugarcane, thus reducing some of our reliance on oil. It's usually higher octane rating then standard fuel. Ethanol is what most revheads put in their car in the form of "Zoom Boost 110% After Burner Jet Rocket Fuel Race Additive." (name changed to protect innocent products. Ironically, Ethanol is cheaper to buy as what we call "metho" then as soopa boosta octane 112% race juice.) And the cost saving over normal, or so be it, premium unleaded. I for one will give it a go. If the car runs ok on it, then ill stick to it. If it starts to run like rubbish, or i get 100km less a tank, ill switch back to regular fuels. One other question... What size is the fuel tank on the Aurion ? I had a problem last year at a fuel station where i fueled up at and they claimed i put 86 litres in a car that only had a 57 litre tank. I said no to paying any more then 57 litres, they said i put in 86lt. I told them that it would not hold that much and asked them to come and look to see i had no bottles in the car. I got a 2lt jug and put what it said was 1lt on the pump display and the pump put out about 700ml. I said how about you retract what you said and i will pay for 57lt, they said you pay for 86. i said i will call consumer affairs and every rubbish TV show i can think of if they dont get it calibrated in a week, they said pay for 57lt and they will get it calibrated as soon as. i went back a week later and made sure, and they had. They had done the calibrations :)

Soooo... basically... what your saying is... my plans for removing the cats, the mufflers and running 3 inch exhaust from the manifold might make it a little louder ? Have to say though... this is one very quiet car. I drove into Melbourne today and the loudest thing i noticed was the wind noise. No road noise and no engine noise. Even when i give it a fist full of berries, i can still only hear it. Love the sound of it as it is. I have a Ducati to make lots and lots of noise for me :) *moans* Probably didnt hear anything because im deaf from driving around in a diesel rodeo for 5 years :)

Times are tough. car makers are just about letting you diddle their daughter if it means getting you into a new car. On the road, retail, everything included i wanted, it was $41,895. i said no good... make it $36,000 on road, drive away, everything included and ill pick it up next week... The slogan at my nearest Toyota dealership is.. "Peter Davey... Pete cant say no!!..." -$8,000 Pete and see how you like it... Oh... you're ok with that? and i got another $175 off any factory fitted rubbish i wanted in the day after a go in their cash booth with all the money flying around. So as i see it... Pete Davey cant say no... Still spewing i didnt ask about his daughter :)

Age: 35yo (physically) 12yo (mentally) Sex: When my wife lets me... The application form filled out in triplicate and booking an appointment is the pits! Kills the mood. Reason for buying: Sick of walking. Used to own a turbo diesel Holden Rodeo. The price of petrol and diesel went up, so it was super cheap to drive. The cost of petrol came down but diesel didnt. The Rodeo had this horrible whine in it just before i sold it. Turns out the whine was the wife complaining about the ride comfort and not being able to speak over the noise it made. It was getting long in the tooth, so i looked around. Went to Dodge and looked at a few cars. Meh! made in Mexico with USA badges on them. Cheap, nasty, poorly built but very agressive looking. Went to Ford who were handing out free Territories with every sausage sandwich you bought on their open day saturday weekend of sales. Still noone wanted one of them. at 57lt/100km, im not surprised. Went to Holden and looked at bogan transport. I wasnt allowed to buy one, as it was a prerequisite that you must own at least 20 flanno shirts, and my lack of moccos on the day made them hesitate. Went to Honda... laughed at the prices and said that they were all wrong. It was a Honda dealer, not a BMW dealership. They look perplexed. Seems taking any car and sticking a Honda badge on it gives them the right to tack an extra 0 on the end of any price tag. Off to Mitsubishi... WHAT!!! the Lancer is the same price as a 380 ??? I will be back to look at a 380 (which i admit i love that car. parents own one... great car!) Mazda... what ? you guys dont make a car bigger then a tissue box ? and what ? it has Honda price tags on it ? To be fair i thought i better at least go and have a look at Toyota. Man... a Camry! honestly... im getting to be middle aged, not retired. Blah blah.. yeah yeah, how much... oh really. no dont like it, only looking because i have to be fair to the market... what... the Aurion ? nah, cant afford it, to expensive... oh really ? how much did you say ? did you accidentally leave a 0 off ? no... saturday you say ? big sale day you say ? i will be back. Went back in on the saturday. got them to price in my trade in. Meh, as i expected in this market. gave me a change over price on the Aurion Presara. Said it looked like a grandpa car. he said tough, only the Presara and AT-X were on sale. I said poop. really wanted the SX-6. he did the figures. i said no good. thanked him for his time. i thought all cars were on sale... she said write your own figure on the paper work, so i did. i knocked $8000 and said to him "dont haggle with me, a: im not in the mood, and b: i used to do new/used car sales so i dont want to do that whole 'if you come up to this, ill come down to this' rubbish. at this price i will buy today" he went away... came back and said... "wow $8000 off" to which i said.. "Thanks for your time, but im outa here. i said no haggling.." he said "no, im saying $8000 off, because the boss just said yes, you just bought a car!" Now im a happy as a pig in poop! awesome car. great on fuel. more power then i will ever need and that whine has gone.. :)

Oh, i remember the days when cars had to be parked with skill and guesswork. "Use the force Luke..." My rear parking sensor was made by Hayman Reese. It doesn't beep, is always on and sends the whole car into a shudder if i park to close :) What do they call that ? Oh thats right... Touch Parking Sensors.

Yes, at $600 i said that i would get back to him. But this is also painted. most of the ones i have seen on here are just the raw gray ABS plastic colour. Anyway... i dont mean to be a pain in the *****... I know $600 is wayyyy to much. Everyone else on here is saying "oh i got mine for $100 + freight... Thats all well and good to say that. But i would be eternally greatful if someone could at least help me out here with an e-mail address, contact number or a website where i can source myself one of these. Happy to set up a bulk deal if anyone else is interested in getting some. It's just the source for these $150 landed in Aus ones i cant seem to track down.

I looked into the same thing. Found that most, if not all of them come out of Thailand. E-mailed a guy last night and he said that he can ship them to me for $600. That includes freight and painting to match the colour of your car. Dont know how they are to send raw though. I dont know where you guys sourced yours for $200 freighted to Aus. Been looking for them, but cant find it that low.

Just read this post. Thought i would try it out on my way to the shops. Got in the car and turned the key slow. Tried it with the door open, door closed and window open. Window closed and door closed and friend standing in front of the car. tried it with park brake on, park brake off. tried it with A/C on and off. Tried it only on a cold engine though... did not retry it when i came home after the drive to see if it made a difference. I just could not get it to happen. Then again i have a '08MY Aurion and it may have different software to yours. What i would suggest it may be is a test cycle. I know when i was a mechanic and had to do software updates on vehicle ECU's we had to unplug the fans. This was because from the switching on and off of the key would start the fans as a test and possible spike the computer when the fans kicked in. not a good thing to happen when you are in the middle of a software update. I have a 999 Ducati and i can confirm it does the same thing. when i turn the ignition on, the fans will start up and run for a second or so. I would imagine it would be a test cycle the car is going through to check. As for why they come on and stay on, i would only be guessing that there is a few circuits on the ignition switch. when you turn it slow enough you have tripped the first part of the start up stage. the fans are powered up for test, but the ECU is not powered up to get a reading from them and to tell them to turn off... Only a guess :)

Sounds like fun! but $25 ? is that per session ? whats the catch ? I do motorbike ride days and they are like $130++ but you get usually 6 sessions a day. Are people allow to just come up for the day and watch ? might be a good day for those of us who just want to watch or who cant afford/dont want to break their cars ?

I was thinking ever since i got my Aurion that i really wanted some racing decals. I just have never seen any. Its a white Aurion. Would blue GT type stripes look good. Would a retro Castrol red and green swirls look good ? maybe something like the car from the Mazda 6 TV commercial. I got out my Gran Tourismo 4 game out and went looking. I played with photos of my car in photoshop and just could not get something that i liked the look of... Recently when i was in Qld for holiday, i was walking down the mall in Chinatown. A white police car pulled in and parked in the middle of the walkway. I didnt think to much about it, as i was at the other end of the mall. As i got closer i didnt realise that there was a little hole in the wall police station there... It was then i noticed the police car... I had heard about it on the forum... but i think i found my new decal kit i want for my car!!

Hahahah... I will second that. Buy a bike. No cat converter issues. cheap exhaust systems. cheap air box solutions. LOTS of aftermarket go fast parts. most sports bikes come with adjustable suspension. tyres are better and cheaper. very limited bikes have any form of traction control. most standard sports bikes will pull 10 to 11's down the 1/4 straight out of the box. I can lap around Phillip Island faster on my $15,000 bike then my mate can in his $50,000 GT-R As for traction control off being a more "pure" driving experience, i dont know. I kind of like the traction control. As for being pure, well, just about every high end race car or bike has it, does that make them any less pure ? does it make them any less of a race car ? I guess if you want to do burnouts, you will need it turned off. Going to do some track days in it ? I would prefer to leave it turned on.

Argie... Those pics are of the Hayman Reese tow unit ? I want to get the same on my SX6 instead of the awful looking non removable Toyota units. Did you fit it yourself or have someone at a shop fit it up for you ? roughly how much was it all up? I think the guy in my area is taking the ***** when he quoted me close to $1000, claiming it was Toyota that was charging him the most for the wiring harness. I have fitted plenty of tow bars in my life and know that i have fitted some pretty heavy duty ones and never come close to $1000 fitted. Thanks :)

Yes... unfortunately the tow ball is ok... to fix it, you need to replace the car :P The bad thing about tow balls is the chrome damages pretty easy. even a few scratches will cause it to go rusty. The good news is, its totally normal. My last car was a Rodeo Ute with a tow hitch that was used every second day. The tow ball now has no chrome left on it, but it has not lost any ability. Be more concerend for it if it looks bent one way or another, or has cracks showing on the thin neck part of the ball. To fix it up, you can either replace it, as already mentioned, or if you do want to clean it, you can use stainless steel wool and some warm dish washing liquid. Stainless steel wool should not be hard to fine, or you could use a stainless wire brush. Use stainless steel so it wont leave and iron behind, as that is what will rust as well, and defeats the purpose of cleaning :)

It all sounds about right. I race motorbikes and was a mechanic for 15 years. My brother is a race engine builder and engine reconditioner. He is also a fitter and turner. This method is how i would run in a new engine in a newer car. There is also a good point he makes with the difference between loading an engine and trashing an engine. Most modern car engines are built using better materials and better tolerances then older engines were built with. This is how my 08 Aurion 3.5lt V6 has more power then a '78 Kingswood 5.0lt V8. (That and VVTI, double over head cams and fuel injection also help.) Probably more important to engine life and wear is not so much the running in, but the use of a good oil. Most cars now tend to run an almost diesel engine oil. That means it is very high in detergent (not dish washing liquid) that has the ability to keep the inside of the engine clean. Diesels have high carbon deposits on the inside of engines, so it needs something that can wash that out and keep them clean. Try looking into a rocker cover of a diesel that hasn't had an oil change in a long time, and the oil looks like paste, not oil. His guide sounds pretty well spot on. And in the event of anything going wrong with your cars engine, how are Toyota going to prove one way or another how you ran the car engine in ?

Sort of on topic but off topic at the same time... When i went in to buy my car a week or 2 ago, i was told that metallic colours were $300 extra. On hearing this, i questioned what colours were available that were not metallic... the salesman just shrugged and said... "white... thats it." 30 mins later when i stopped laughing about the fact that white was the only non-metallic colour, i asked him why even bother. $300 on a $30,000 vehicle is not a lot to just say to people, thats what the price is, metallic or not. Needless to say, i ordered the white one! I am guessing Reef is another metallic colour ? It's not a pretty colour in the photo... real life... ewww, now imagine it as a non-metallic colour :) think they would sell any then ?

I picked up my new car 2 days ago and it had 17km on the clock. Average speed was 1km/h and consumption was 6.9lt/100 and under 1/2 a tank i was expected to get 300+km out of it according to the system :) The fuel system will even out over time. I have reset the trip meters every time i fuel up in any car i have owned. Doing this gives you a better indication of how much fuel you are actually using. Just take note of the amount of fuel you put in and how many km you get. I have put 2 tank fulls of petrol through mine, and the whole shebang has settled in nicely. As for revving it up at the window tinters via the hands of some pimply 17yo, i dont think there is a lot of damage he could have done. I worked in a car forwarding/holding/storage yard, and i can tell you, how those guys treat cars, its abysmal. Lets just say, be happy that's its an Aussie built car, and not one they would have unloaded from a ship.