DJKOR

Sweet. Let us know how the repairs went. It's good to hear they they endeavour to stick by their estimated time of completion.

Sucks to hear Matt. There is only so much you can do for a touch up job, especially if you haven't really done much touch up work before. Without sanding back some area around it and working to blend it in, you can expect to get it to the point where if you stand a metre or so back, it would look okay, but it will be noticeable closer than that. Otherwise, you may need to take out some sandpaper and get some paint made up.

Seeing the front in such a new condition is really tempting me to go get one of those ones like from here: http://www.ducoscratch.com.au/clear_car_bra.asp But at the same time, I kind of don't want to spend a grand or two on it. Maybe because it is a daily driver and because of that, the film may start to get some wear and tear over time. I've seen how the uncovered paint can wear differently to the surface that is covered with the clear car bra, and this means that over time as the film wears, you would have to consider re-applying the film again (more cost) otherwise you may notice a difference between the two surfaces if you know what I mean. ... or maybe I'm just too cheap.

They did do a really good job. It's so nice having no more stone chips on the bumper or scrapes on the underside anymore. Well for the time being anyways. Genuine Toyota of course. No aftermarket parts used on this repair.

I always brought in 1 litre (two 500mL bottles) whenever the brake fluid change was one of the service requirements. I usually do the brake fluid change myself as required so I only provide Toyota with brake fluid because I was always under the impression that they do a proper ABS bleed where the ABS actuator has to be cycled so it can be bled properly. I have my suspicions that they don't really do this, but I can never really confirm. Whenever I brought in 1 litre, they only used up one full 500mL bottle so that's all they really need I guess. Brake fluid is a personal choice... I was using Penrite Sin on my old Sportivo. This costs about $18 per 500mL bottle. Penrite Sin worked quite well for e so I have no issues there. That said, I'm thinking of using something different in my TRD next time I change my fluid though just to see how it goes. Don't know what I will use yet. Still researching. Depending who you take it to, I'd only be expecting between $40 to $80 cheaper if you supply your own oil. $100 is a bit too much to expect in my opinion.

Just picked my car up from the repairer. Took exactly a week as originally estimated. Any concerns I had about them being able to colour match the paint have completely gone out the window. Instead of doing just a simple blend and painting all that was required, they actually just resprayed the entire front bumper and skirt thing. So no more stone chips anymore... wooohoo. Actually on that topic, the repair is that good that you would think it was a new bumper. My only minor complaint is that the dark grey trim on the lower part of the bumper has a slightly more matte look to it that it was before. It's fine by me though. On top of that, I dropped her off really, really dirty after the Annual Meet and I got her back extremely shiny. Free quality clean FTW! Anyways, I'm excited:

Does anyone do their own research these days? Facelift: http://www.toyota.com.au/aurion/specifications/sportivo-sx6 http://www.toyota.com.au/aurion/specifications/sportivo-zr6 http://www.toyota.com.au/toyota/vehicles/pdf/Savers/Aurion_Saver.pdf <- Page 6 of this PDF clearly states 'STANDARD SPORTIVO SX6 FEATURES IN ADDITION TO AT-X' and 'STANDARD SPORTIVO ZR6 FEATURES IN ADDITION TO SPORTIVO SX6'. So anyone who can at least read English can compare the features. And pre-facelift: Difference B/W the Aurion SX6 & ZR6 SX6 or ZR6 Differance between SX6 and ZR6 <- And the Toyota PDF in that thread is still active. IT shows everything just like the PDF above for the facelift Aurion.

It doesn't even work for me. There are a few bugs here and there with the new layout and I guess Steve is a busy man. Personally, even on the old layout, I never really used the Gallery feature. The Members Rides section seems to have it covered.

Good point. I guess you just have to hope that you will never need it.

You must have a crappy dealer then. Here is my receipt for my 60,000km service. Dealer details are included. I provided my own engine oil and brake fluid. It may not be the cheapest service around, but the location is convenient and compared to some other dealers, when I call to book it in, I can usually drop it off that same afternoon for the evening service or first thing the following morning for standard day service. http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/85/60ke.jpg/ If they supplied the fluids, I would estimate the cost to have been around $299.

You're just a freak!

Welcome. For specific TRD related mods, as you may be aware, there is a new topic right here on the first page of the Aurion forum titled: TRD Aurion modification If you look in there, the second reply says this... which is a valid statement and would answer your question: Otherwise, if you just want to do the usual Aurion stuff (the basics as SecaBoy said), there is a great deal of information on the boards here if you search. Namely exhaust, Ultra Racing, and springs/shocks/coilovers.

I guess the best way to put this is that you shouldn't really care about what others think. It's your car and you should do what makes you feel happy. There are always going to be others that don't like what you do or will be offended. I say 'screw em', because since when is it a requirement to satisfy everyone.

I'm definitely going to be there in my own car. Scheduled to pick it up tomorrow around 3pm... well that's what the guy said on the phone this morning.

^ I LOL'ed.

Welcome mate. Would definitely be interested to hear about the mods in further detail. In your opinion, do you think the exhaust alone would make a good difference without the additional ECU? And stupid me... when I read 'Exede', don't ask why but I thought you got a Lotus ECU. I somehow managed to thing 'Exige', which is completely irrelevant because it is the Evora that uses the 2GR.

1) I used to care about the thought of someone turning their non-TRD into a TRD styled Aurion. Right about now, if you were to ask me, I'd say I couldn't care less anymore. I don't know what's gotten into me. Anyways, your car, your money, your choice. I guess at the end of the day, those that know the car will tell if you have a fake, and those that don't know soon will when you get the usual question of "is that the TRD?". It's like a chick with a padded bra. People may think she's packing something underneath, but at the end of the day, it's all a lie. 2) Don't go for the Carmate replica kit. It looks too cheap and tacky in my opinion. Without seeing it in person, I would imagine the R-Style Racing kit would be a closer replica. I have a feeling the R-Style Racing ones would look similar to this: Otherwise, if you have the money to burn, then just buy Genuine. Your choice.

Despite the power they have... they still look like a**. That said, I wouldn't turn it down if I was given one.

Don't bother reading my ride thread then. Ever heard of the saying 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'? Well, I'd rather not change something that is already working fine. It's good that yours is all running like normal now, but it doesn't exactly mean your ECU is better than the first revision.

Fark... I envy that garage. So much room to work in and a good floor as well. As for me, mine spends the night in a closed garage, and the day in various places mostly outside. Otherwise in hotel car parks, or just out in the open driven on the road.

:P to you cause I had the older on on my Sportivo (can't confirm the TRD but it probably has the older one as well) and had/have no problems.

In the words of Mick, Nebo isn't so great during the day because you can see your pending fate. I've never liked it during the day. That way is so good. As long as you've got power, you can push show hard because a lot of your speed can be dissipated in the steepness of it all. Good to hear. At least it's a nice place to test out and see what needs improvement.

Today I took the hire car Camry Hybrid around Nebo early in the morning (as in midnight) then gave her a good workout today while letting a few people test drive it, then returned her. Final conclusions... everything I said earlier about it's flaws, I take back. Sure the drive still doesn't feel natural, but if you drive it for a little bit (I covered a total of about 800km in it) you get used to it. That lag that I said it had becomes less noticeable mainly because it doesn't really lag, it just has that illusion, and it is a rather quick car for what it is. I still couldn't get used to the way the engine revved with the CVT, but that's just a personal thing. Also, if I was to add one thing about this car that I kind of envy a little... it would be the brakes. The rotors and pads are probably no different to a standard Aurion, but due to the way the brakes on this car works, when you brake hard you have a combination of regenerative braking together with hydraulic braking. From feel alone, I personally think the Hybrid Camry can 'out-brake' a TRD Aurion... if the tires had more grip. When I took it around Nebo, I was quite surprised as well at how well it could move around there despite being the car it is. Now I'm not the best to test cars around Nebo so this is only as a rough guide. Timing from the bottom of Nebo (at the large green sign) up to Jolly's Lookout, these are some rough figures. My TRD Aurion 3500SL: 9 minutes 55 seconds My Aurion Sportivo SX6: 10 minutes 25 seconds The Camry Hybrid: 11 minutes 00 seconds Just for fun I put filmed this at the same time. Just ignore my crappy driving. I didn't really push it hard and I misjudged a few corners with respect to how the car would take it. You will also notice how witht he CVT, the engine just revs and revs which just doesn't sound right. Those that are familiar with Nebo will probably also realise that it seems rather slow in the video... but it really isn't. Also to note, at about 9:58 there is a transition in which approximately 7 seconds of footage is missing. My camera cut out at that time and I had to hit record again.

I was just doing my usual reading through new posts and whatnot and I think it has finally hit me. I have reached the point where I really CBF responding to things here anymore. It seems to be getting more disorganised now to the point where I don't seem to want to clean it up.

Damn... you have driven it very far My TRD when I last saw it was around 33,600km or close to. My old Sportivo crashed at close to 99,790km.