DJKOR

Love those cruising pics Pete. Damn I love them a lot. And Dave, you took a photo of that beast looking thing on the drive to Sydney... and LOL at the flame paint job on that car we saw outside the kebab shop. Try a few posts or so higher (if you're referring to the towing video): http://au.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=28161&view=findpost&p=399022

Nah, my claims manager is Patrick. That would have been pretty damn funny though. My repairer is 'Domroy Prestige Autobody' over in Moorooka. It doesn't surprise me that they are just repairing it since the damage is rather small. As for the repair bill, the quote they sent me came to a total of $1615. That said $585 of that is used up on the grill alone :o

Okay. Got a call from my claims manager (or whatever you call them) and they have given me details of where it's going (I feel special... it's going to a place with 'prestige' in its name) and what they estimate needs to be done. It's a bit of a bummer that they estimate they will need it till this time next week though. I guess it's livable however. It's basically just a remove and repair job to the bumper. And for those who overheard Trent and I at the BBQ the other night.... ;)

The 235/40R18's are outside of the recommended 3% tolerance compared to stock. Do you really think it is worth potentially compromising on the safety of your car just for the sake of saving some money? Then if you get in an accident, depending on your local laws, if the size change is deemed illegal there is a good chance your insurance won't cover you. For example, 235/40R18 would be barely legal on an Aurion in Queensland (just because it's legal doesn't exactly make it a good idea), but the same change on an Aurion in NSW would be considered illegal without an engineering certificate. On top of that, the decrease in overall circumference would result in your engine having to rev slightly higher which in turn results in a slightly higher fuel consumption.

Mine was booked in for 7:10am. So now it's the big waiting game. At least when I get the call later hopefully, I'll get a better idea of it all... and I'll get a list of what they will do. Yeah, what a coincidence.

I should probably say... this Aurion sure is damn tidy and has got some style. After seeing this Aurion in person, photos just don't quite cut it.

^ Cheers mate. Thanks for that. Was great meeting you as well and putting a face to the name. Ray, haven't seen you in ages. Will have to catch up some time when you can. The damage is not repaired yet... ... Speaking of which, I just dropped Aimee off at the AAMI Assessment Centre so they can have a look at her and assess what needs to be done and where she needs to go. I should get a call within 24 hours giving me more details. Now I have my sister's Mazda 3 to drive around and I definitely ain't feeling this car.

It's not exactly a pic, but it's related:

According to the Currency Act 1965, coins are legal tender for payment of amounts which are limited as follows: not exceeding 20c if 1c and/or 2c coins are offered (however, it should be noted that these coins have been withdrawn from circulation but are still legal tender); not exceeding $5 if any of 5c, 10c, 20c and 50c coins are offered; not exceeding 10 times the face value if coins in the range 50c to $10 inclusive are offered; and to any value if coins of value greater than $10 are offered. The girl behind the counter was quite right legally in refusing payment in that form. LOL. That is gold. Love the comeback. Man, this thread is really going places.

My old Auspack unit did this when the temperature around the unit was fairly cold. Would go away after several seconds though. I believe the Auspack unit had a cooling fan in it and I just figured it was a cheap brand probably with crap bearings.

If I was to say one thing, it has to be this: When you wash your windscreen while moving and have your window open, you will most likely end up with water dropping onto your door trim/window switches. I don't have too much experience with other cars, but others that I have driven have just the right amount of 'lip' around the sides of the glass to let the water run up towards the roof while moving.

Thought I'd chime in to say I am now home (had to do a thing or two before getting home). Was a more eventful drive home having the rain to drive though and many more cars to overtake. My back is feeling pretty good. Legs aren't in bad shape either. Gotta love the comfort of the Aurion. And I reckon the Aurion can come close to making it from Brisbane to Sydney on a tank of fuel (as in running it well past the 'E' mark), but I wasn't game enough to try that out. It averages around 7.8l/100km when driven on the speed limit (100-110km/h) and with moderate overtaking and could probably do better if driven even softer. Now it's time to catch up on everything I missed.

First rest stop on the trip back so I figured I'll take the opportunity to give a massive thanks to Big Pete, Mish, Mark and everyone else responsible for making this meet happen and for their hospitality. Overall the meet was enjoyable and a great way to spend the weekend. To further explain my last post, I'm not having a go at anyone in particular. I was just expressing my thoughts so that in future, we should be a bit more mindful of what everyone's up to.

Just an expression of my own personal disappointment. Today feels like a bit of a write-off. I feel like I payed for a three-course meal and only got an entrée in return. Everything started off pretty well (thanks Pete for the cruise organising), and things were going good. The group was kept together pretty well and everything went great. There was that issue with getting stuck behind epically slow cars, but that's out of anyone's control. That kinda made me a little disappointed, but that was all good. The return leg was a bit of a cluster f*** however. A group was made to cruise back through the twisties of the Nasho and we were on our merry way. However with all the lights and roundabout along the way, there wasn't much effort to keep the group together. As a result, half the group got broken up with no knowledge of where everyone was going. Four of the cars in this group happened to be 4 of us QLD'ers. So after driving for a long hour through all this residential area, we only ended up on a highway with a long trip back to our respective accommodation with no enjoyment to be had. /rant

Yay! Made it to Sydney all well and good. Seriously hate the traffic though. Drive was fun. Lots of police on the NSW side.

Woohoo. Just 9 hours away. The TRD has had it's final pre-departure inspection and everything is all in tune and nice and clean. Speaking of being not far away, I'm off to get a good nights sleep. See you guys later.

Twice for you I've got like 3 alarms set. I have a tendency to sleep in otherwise. Damn I can't wait. Should be a great drive. Also, I've been doing a bit of highway driving to and from Noosa over the last couple of days. I've found my TRD to get a highway fuel consumption (95% highway travel) of 7.7L/100km which is better than my Sportivo. And this is with driving at 100-110km/h. If I was to go all out, I could actually make it from BP Yatala to Sydney in just one tank.

Did you say extremely cold weather? Anything colder than Brisbane is extremely cold for me, so I would take it that's the case then. I usually hate the cold, but Aimee absolutely loves it, so I will have to suck it up and put up with it just to keep her happy. I shall be looking forward to it in a way. Gotta think of us poor interstaters who can't just simply use their own facilities at home. Cleaning our cars requires some careful planning if you want to get it right.

Come on, man up and tell that sickness to wait. I managed to finish an install in Canberra, then drive back to Brisbane, all while I was in such a bad state from the Glandular Fever I was experiencing at the time. You can do it is you put your mind into it.... just wear a face mask . Damn that sucks mate. Poor Andrew has had his group bail on him. Oh yeah, I shall update this. I am now a definite for driving down with the group. My leave WAS NOT approved in the HR system, but my boss more or less said not to worry about it. Also including Anthony. ----------------------------------- ATTENDING: Rowan - Driving (with group) Daryl - Driving (with group) Mick - Driving (with group) Corey - Driving (with group) Dave - Passenger (with Corey) Andrew - Driving (early by himself, via HV) Anthony - Driving (with group) STAYING: Rowan - Carlingford Daryl - Carlingford Mick - Carlingford Corey - F1 Wentworthville Dave - F1 Wentworthville Andrew - Mercure, Parramatta Anthony - Mercure, Parramatta DRIVING HOME: Rowan - Driving (with group) Daryl - Driving (pretty much with the group) Mick - Staying Corey - Driving (with group) Dave - Passenger (with Corey) Andrew - Driving (with group) Anthony - Driving (with group) Edited ^^^

Two more sleeps to go. I'm so so looking forward to this. I'm that excited that I went downstairs then and cleaned up all the spots that I missed on the inside of the windows that I noticed while driving today. I've even got the hood up and ready to clean up the engine bay some more. Anything to make time go by quicker.

First problem... there is the possibility that they can be illegal as they are not designed for use on a passenger car and insurance will may cover you. Secondly, they would be noisy and perform completely different to a car tire. Have a read of the following for the general differences: http://www.ehow.com/about_5575266_passenger-tire-vs-suv-tire.html Edited: They aren't specifically illegal but it's a possibility.

That is a good point. I always wondered why people like painters wore white when you always see them with different colours of paint all over them. I always thought that was a little funny. Up until now as well, I thought it was also strange how those that work in labs (and have a white lab coat) wore white. I then thought that maybe this is so they know if they have spilt anything on them or something. Just an idea. Tell me about it. I hate it when going around doing work wearing a grey business shirt and black trousers and you are surrounded by all sorts of tradies. It always looks like you are barely doing any work. Half the time you are crawling through dusty/dirty places and getting all sorts of dirty, but it just doesn't look like it from the outside perspective.

Your spare would be a full size spare. A space saving spare will be noticeably different and usually have a sticker on it saying 'Maximum Speed 80km/h' or there abouts and my even be painted yellow. Your tire placard may also state details about the space saver if you were to have one.

Last time I saw, my local 7-11 was getting filled by a Shell tanker.

It's not just the weight of the car and extras, you have to consider the forces the tire experiences under acceleration and braking. More weight shifts backwards and forwards and the rear or front two tires then have to support more weight. Plus it is illegal not to have load rated tires, and if you get in an accident you may not be covered.