Car Throttle bought one (I think it turned out to be a rusty write off) but since then I have been keeping my eye out. These have definitely grown on me style wise and I like that they are mid-engined, so a bit different to your average MX5

Hey mate. Entirely different situation for me. But we had a kid on the way, we moved countries to be closer to family and I had to sell my beloved BMW 135i. 5 years on and we needed to get a bigger car for my wife. And I thought maybe I could use this opportunity to get something fun for me, she could have my Outback…

Yeah it was pretty awesome. This is the best shot I have of it. I had that car the longest of all my cars (mostly because I was a student and couldn’t afford anything else). In true JDM fashion it’s model grade was 2.0X Exciting Version. It’s based on the Carina/Corona platform so a little bit smaller than the…

My second car (my first lasted 6 months, I crashed it) was a ‘93 Toyota Carina ED 2.0 manual (basically a Celica Gran Coupe), but I drove it all through High School and most of university. I maybe serviced two or 3 times in the 5years/80,000kms I had it. I changed the timing belt at 100,000kms and then did another 60,0…

Hey did you work for Bristol too? I remember the glory days of scouring the streets for pristine Kadetts and Capri’s, subtly loading them onto the back of the company horse cart and taking them back to the barn, then happily taking an angle grinder to them. Ahh those were the days 

It’s more like “I don’t trust my wife with my Mercedes” 

As I say it lasted a long time at the beach house like at least 7 years and had 3-4 years of farm work before that. It was things like the throttle cable coming loose, or the bizarre reverse lever going wobbly and the brake levers going wobbly. It was functional and worked - just a bit shit. Also to be clear the thing…

This reminds me of the Chinese quad bike my grandad bought. I think it was called a Puma... Just everything was not quite right. Screws sort of undid themselves, plastics were brittle... it worked, and kept working for a long time, it was never quite right though, it always felt slightly off (things always fell…

Build year not model year?

So if you can only have 5 cars, it means the government is dictating and they do not care for your comfort. So small car - Mitsubishi mirage. Large family car Dodge Journey, Pickup yes F150 (4x4 and dual cab variants allowed) van Ford Transit because world car. And a Mercedes S-class for the ruling class

I’d also say get rid of the crossfire but it’s just too odd to sell, so keep it. Get rid of the cavalier and Lebaron. They were both utter garbage when they were new and haven’t gotten any better with time. In fact bury the LeBaron like some other guy did...

I’m not a tradie, these were not tradie utes. They were used for hauling stuff, but not beaten. The company is an ASX listed company, so yeah they were very well maintained. 

The CVT in my Outback is far smoother than the 6-speed auto in my wife’s Ford Kuga. And if that were the sole measure then yeah pefect, but I agree with you. A CVT is great until you have to mash the go peddle and an auto wins each and every time. I won’t be buying another CVT car (unless of course they release the…

Mmmm... having driven both a base model ‘09 Falcon Ute (was a fleet vehicle where I worked) and a ‘17 Ranger 4x4 XL 3.2td auto (my dads pride and joy)... I can safely say the Ranger is light years ahead of the Falcon. The ride in the Falcon was horrid, it was jumpy and skittish - yes the engine is amazing, but only…

You would have to have live mapping of the world for full autonomous cars to work. I think the best we will see is near autonomy, in that drivers can take over when needed.

To be honest the best autonomy I think we will get is level 4 - at least in my lifetime (I’m 33) I know we all dream of summoning our car to drive us home from the pub or drop the kids to school, but all these fringe scenarios will make it impossible for full autonomy. If we all lived in cities and apartments and only…

I had not considered this at all. I am one of those obnoxious Subaru people carting their kayak around on the neatly integrated roof-racks on their Outbacks - looking all outdoorsy and fashionable (when I’m just not). The next question to ask is how will an autonomous car work with my specific hobby. I fix a giant…

It’s very much “Shazza I shrunk the falcon” though

Look they are a bit boring and if you don’t need to off-road/tow get a Highlander. They are insanely spacious, exceptionally functional and spacious without being huge. I miss ours and think when we can we will get another

It’s DPFs that are killing off diesel in passenger cars in Australia and New Zealand. If you live in a congested city a modern diesel can’t stretch its legs and therefore the DPF won’t re-gen. The dealer bought our diesel outback, back after about 5 trips to the dealer in 6 months (that included us taking a weekly…