Hiro

Let alone install/conversion costs....

Impoverished Chinese uni students can't afford bling like the rest of us.....

But at the same time, a heavier wheel will act as a flywheel, storing inertia and being more resistant to speed changes (either faster or slower) than a light wheel.

Hmmm, first two are Pontiac, fourth is a Cadillac, and the last is a Ford/Transformer. Just buy an American car and be done with it? Agreed that _none_ of them look right, or good.

There's one of those running around Newcastle, although at least that one has a colour-matched spoiler, and with Mazdaspeed on the side of the end-plate

Awwww.... i was affraid someone would say that..... bugga! what about the spoiler? how hard is it to get one of those and for how much? Front spoiler or rear? The rear hatch is the same between the RA60 and MA61 (and because they all tend to rust, MA61 owners tend to use RA60 hatches as they are more common, and just swap over the spoiler/stickers etc)

1: The MA61 front end is different to an RA60 one - it's a couple of inches longer for a start to accommodate the straight six. From what I know, it isn't swappable (just about everything back of the the firewall is though) 2: Even if it was possible, good luck getting either an MA61 owner to donate spare front panels, or finding spare panels in good enough condition. In short, if you want the look of an MA61, just get an MA61 :P

Is there _wrong_ with the engine? Open-road kms are some of the easiest kms that an engine can do. My '97 AE102 has racked up 325,000km on the original un-opened engine and apart from a bit of oil consumption it still runs great. But because it did most of those k's on open-road highways and freeways, and was run in properly, it is im much better nick than an engine that might have done 200,000km LESS but poorly serviced/driven in heavy city traffic for all it's life. $3.5k is not worth what is essentially just winding the clock back 40,00km on the engine. A rebuild will probably cost about the same and get you an engine in much better nick, and you'll know the history of it too.

But that's no different to a normal car, just replace the words "draw power" with "use fuel". A battery in an EV is equivalent to a petrol tank. The important factor is that the equivalent range of the battery-pack in an EV is significantly shorter than that of a petrol-powered car - they both have a self-contained onboard fuel system that needs regular recharging, but at the moment only one of them (petrol) is actually supported country-wide.

i agree and disagree with this ...... some things are just common sense and others are as u highlighted .... simply out of the question ..... to be brutally honest its just a way for the whole industry to make a buck off the average punter as ull need to get it engineered what ever it is etc etc etc ..... It's also a way of simplifying rules and making it a more even playing-ground - if there were exceptions set up for each different mod or every different chassis then the rule-book would be thicker than a large-print compendium of the complete works of Shakespeare bundled with Lord Of The Rings, and about as easy to read.

It's not quite double standards, the manufacturer has to go through the whole design and testing phase, comply to Australian Design Regs, impact tests, aiming etc etc. The average punter on the street then assumes that because they're on a new Commodore then they can whack them on their 30 year-old clapped out Gemini and everything will be hunky-dorey. A similar philosophy would be "you can get a Commodore with a 6.2L V8 now, my Camry is about the same size so I'll chuck a 6.2 in that".

Halcuts from import places (you want late-model ST202 SSII or SSIII Celicas, or late SW20 MR2s), a few engines crop up on eBay every now and then too.

Going to go all Red Bull this time myself, after Ferrari's dismal performance last time... Chinese GP Team: Red Bull Drivers: Vettel, Webber Pole: Vettel Fastest: Webber

But would we get the Blade or the Master/Master-G? The article only mentions Blade (which has the 2AZ) but then contradicts that by saying it is V6 powered, which is the Blade Master/Master G. It would be akin to saying we get a V6 Camry when we really get the Aurion.

Agreed. Basically ignore the fuel gauge and only go on L/100km - ie fill it up to the top of the tank, reset the trip-meter and drive around until the tank is showing near empty, then refill to the top again. Note the number of litres you put in the tank to refill it, then divide by the number of kms you travelled over that time period, then multiply by 100. Toyota fuel gauges are notoriously unreliable (in older cars) and non-linear (in some newer ones, especially 90s ones). Going off the gauge, my '97 Corolla will do 300km on the first half of a tank, ~100km on the next quarter, and then struggle to get more than 50km on the last quarter before the fuel light starts coming on.

Most inner door handles are held on by a screw, look for one behind the latch roughly in the centre, it may be covered up by a little press-fit cover too.

Toyota Australia assembles the cars in LHD and exports them to the Middle East, they've been doing this for years (pretty much since the Altona plant opened I think). Holden have done the same with the Commodore too, over there it was badged the Chevrolet Lumina and was LHD too.

Noticed one of these on the company Astra the other month when I went on a mine-site visit, thought it was a crack at first but you could quite easily see the distortion to the right of the line.

Probably trying to leech off the famous Martini racing brand from the 70s and 80s, which was actually just sponsorship by the Martini & Rossi distillery that made vermouth. EDIT: Although in saying that, Martini race fuel is well known and respected, not sure if it's the same mob as the oil or not though.

Stupid bloody Ferraris.....

Does the light come on all the time or is it a on-off thing like when you go around corners? I know some cars (especially commerical vehicles) have service indicators that can only be reset through the ECU, perhaps one of the oil-can lights is a reminder/overdue service light? And the other one is an actual low oil pressure indicator. Best to consult a user manual (if there is one in the glovebox), or ask Toyota themselves.

Malaysian GP Team: Ferrari Drivers: Button, Vettel Pole: Vettel Fastest: Webber

If it's a physical vibration then it's quite possible engine/gearbox-mount related, pop the bonnet and get someone to rev the engine to that rpm whilst you take a look and see if you can see the engine kicking around a bit. Then again, it might only appear under load to free-revving won't disclose it.

Is the 2500rpm issue just a noise (like a rattle or vibration) or can you feel it through steering or pedals etc? If it's just a noise, then exhaust is a good sign, check the heat-shields along the length of the exhaust as well as the ones around the catalytic converter, I had a horrible rattle in mine which turned out to the be the heat-shield above the cat being only held on by one spot-weld. And for the paint, get some cutting compound (Kitten worked well for me) and cut the paint back till it is even and dull (don't go too far or you'll wear through the paint), then wipe it clean and hit it with some polish, it did wonders for my 102 (which was white). Takes a day or so to do the whole car by hand (it'll build up your arms too), and depending on how much maybe 1 or 2 tins of cutting compound (they're like $10 each) and one of polish, but the results are definitely worth it.

Red and white? Yeah, the RVs had different colour tail-lights to the other hatches (maybe not CSX), checking Redbook the changeover from Series 1 to 2 was July 1996.