Hiro

Disagree with the first statement, because the second covers it - I have plenty of respect for stock WRXs because it means that the owner/driver respects the quality and performance of the core product, like a collectors item.

I get the ridiculously small date/time text at work on IE7, but it appears as normal at home on Firefox 3.x

It's not the first Gregorys/Haynes manual to miss key models, the AE82 Gregorys manual doesn't include the Twincam model for instance, and the AE92 ones only give specs for 4AGE models, nothing more.

Because if the chase was easy, we'd get bored. Which is why things get boring when you settle down/get married, there's no more chasing to be done. I'm heading that way at a rapid pace :P

It only results in problems if everyone elses speedo is super accurate...and they're not. All cars will read under, and 5-10% is not uncommon at all, so there's a decent chance that if you're doing an indicated 60km/h, that the other cars around you are probably doing about the same indicated speed too, even if you're all doing only 55 or so.

Yet another sterling round. Damn Ferrari and them finally getting their act together...

When I was up at the Gold Coast earlier in the year and had to head up the M1 to Runcorn to pick up my Levin seats, the distance-based exit numbers came in fairly handy on gauging how much further you had to go (better than distance-to-suburb/town numbers, as they're not directly on the highway and thus can be deceiving). On the flip-side, they can be a little confusing if you've got several in close proximity.

Electric-assisted power steering does tend to have less "feedback" than traditional hydraulic setups though, guess it could be the way the different systems deal with "backpressure" (a force being applied from the wheels to the rack rather than the other way around). Plus, because electric-assist is usually lighter (plus much easier to make variable-speed) you don't always get that nice firm reaction you do with hydraulic, which leads to that "isolated" feeling

Must have been one of the things added during the facelift, as my parent's CSi had it standard (and CSi was the base-model after the facelift). Try putting one of those inflatable cushions in there, see if that helps

Are we comparing the Aurion resale to cars in other car classes (silly)? or to other family sized 6s? Looking at the market, the Aurion seems holds up pretty good compared to the likes of Honda, Holden and Ford cars for same price range. Mazda on the other hand seems to hold value very well, but to be honest I don't see why.

Aurions have never had good re-sale, and probably never will. The issue doesn't come from the quality of the product, rather it's use - like the Falcon and Commodore, a large proportion of Aurions are sold as fleet, hire or company cars. Most fleet and hire companies have policies of replacing vehicles every x years (say 3 or so), so you end up with a glut of cars on the used market, most of which have high kilometres travelled and relatively poor upkeep (you tend to not care about a car as much if you don't physically own it) - this drives the resale value down.

As it's a 1.6L it'll be an AE101, for the most part they are the same as a 102 (apart from 200cc, different brakes, and a different gearbox and ratios (but same family)). Holding the clutch at the friction point for a second or two was the first thing I was taught, it gets rid of kangaroo-hopping and you'll quickly learn exactly how much you need to let it out before it bites. Personally I think it is a much better method to initially learn as the old "smoothly let the pedal out as you push the accelerator in" method is too much for a learner to handle straight up. But yes, the whole point of holding it at the friction point with a small amount of revs is to let the clutch slip a _little_ bit but still engage drive, which makes it much smoother than lots of revs and clutch slip (as you try to release the clutch too slow), or not enough revs and hopping (when you release the clutch too quickly). If you practice it somewhere out of the way (industrial estates are good as they have little traffic and nice wide areas too) then it only takes a few sessions to get the hang of it, which is a blink of an eye as far as the life of the clutch is concerned.

Not surprised you're having issues with the clutch, out of all the cars I've owned/driven the AE10x has by far the heaviest clutch. When learning to drive in it (did most of my hours in the Camry but did some in the 102 as well) I found the best technique was to dial up about 1500rpm, then slide the clutch pedal out about 5cm or so (maybe a little less) so that the engine picks up the clutch and starts to move forward, then after holding it at that 5cm mark for a couple of seconds then gently ease the pedal all the way out - throughout this time the rpm should be staying relatively constant or dips down a little bit (~1200 or so for instance). The clutch itself can take a decent amount of abuse, especially if it has been granny-driven all it's life - my '97 AE102 has done almost 335,000km and it is still on it's original clutch.

Having learnt to drive in a '97 Camry, I can safely state that the seats are certainly designed for the, er, "larger" gentlemen and ladies, although they weren't exactly uncomfortable. Have you tried using the lumbar adjustment lever as well as the seat-base tilt? Surprising how little adjustments here and there can make such a big difference, same goes for making sure that the backrest is nice and upright (too many people have it tilted waaaay back to try and look cool but all they do is set themselves up for a lifetime of sore-backs and crook shoulders)

Wouldn't bother with smash repair places, auto-upholsterers are the best place to go to (and they aren't exactly thin on the ground)

drill + firewall = problem solved. Or just run it through the front guard and in the side like i did. (if you can on a rolla) Would prefer not to drill if I can avoid it, going to take the splashguard and maybe the guard off today to see if there's a clearer run somewhere.

Got 3/4 the way through installing my amp and subs, until I hit the brickwall of being unable to find a way to get the power lead through the firewall.....damn Toyota and their efforts to reduce noise transmission into the cabin by running all wiring through the guards!

Depends on the car, most of them you can get the headlining board out through the front doors - when I got mine done last year (for $200) the guy said that the only car he's had to take the windscreen out to remove the board is a Jaguar, every other one has been able to come out via the doors.

Nope, no modifications required whatsoever (assuming you use the FXGT brace too, not sure if the standard one fits both bars or not), direct bolt-on. That being said, I've only test-fitted it once, and didn't check if the splashguards lined up 100%, but I don't have them attached at the front anyway (well, the passengers side at least because I'm using it as a scoop for the pod filter)

Could well be timing then, the car should normally be tuned to run fine on 91 (I always run mine on 95 or 98 anyway and my timing is adjusted to suit), and the knock sensor should be able to adjust for any discrepancies anyway (unless it is faulty, which should show up in a diag check) Diagnostic mode is easy to set - get a paperclip and bridge the TE1 and E1 terminals of the diagnostic connector, which is a little black block with a flip-top lid located in the passengers side of the engine bay, near the strut tower - this will fix the advance on the timing allowing you to check and set the base timing, as well as displaying any engine fault codes by coded flashes of the Check Engine Light on the instrument cluster.

"Name the car" threads are always great, you get to see all the weird and wonderful stuff out there that most people have never heard of.

Also, it only applies to 4WD models, not the 2WD ones, so a big proportion of the market is unaffected.

Took two steps outside to start my sub install before I realised/remembered that I didn't have any RCAs for it.... Ok, that one can wait for the weekend now.

What fuel are you using? 7AFEs definitely shouldn't be pinging on regular 91, and it is unlikely to be a tune issue as the 7AFE was sold here for a good 10 years before the AE112 came along (and in locally built/tuned cars too). Might be worthwhile checking your timing too, along with any codes on the CEL (with diagnostic mode activated).

BONANZA! Team: McLaren Drivers: Hamilton, Webber Pole: Hamilton Fastest: Alonso Lap of Vettel's crash: 17 Driver whom Vettel will crash into: Adrian Sutil