A car for 2.4 children.

[Whosthedaddy]

I've got a few ideas to which cars I would like to have a crack at trying out as a 'family' car but not a lot of idea about any others really. Like a kid in a sweet shop we'll have some money in our pocket to buy and the choice is immense.

4x4

Shogun / Pajero
Explorer
Forester

Estate or touring

BMW 3 or 5 series
Outlander
Volvo V70

Or, fuck me thats fast

Skyline R33 / 34
Supra Mk IV
Impreza

Forget about road tax and emissions and both the wife and I are 3-0 and been driving since we were allowed to.

I know our 5 year old wants the Scooby and having one before they are practical and fun but decisions, decisions.

I would be tempted by the 4 wheel drive beasties as not all roads are going to be tarmac'd to UK standards if we decide to go on a jaunt into the wilderness. The ability to fix and repair said vehicles may be easier in the back and beyond than the highly tuned 4 seat Japs sports cars.

Small cars I can deal with but bigger cars I have no idea.

Budget £10,000 may be more but would like to be less.
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Current : MSX 125 Past : CBR 900RR Monkeybike : c50 LAC : ZXR750 H2 : FZR600 : ZX7R P3 : YW100 : TRX850: Trophy 900 T309 : GSXR 600 L0: Monkeybike : XJ6S Whosthedaddy

[D O G]

Landcruiser.

You will want one, trust me.

[D O G]

Ooh, ooh, I just remembered.

Subaru Legacy estate (wagon as they say down here).

4wd for when you need it, looks the part, supposed to be good in the twisty bits, plenty of them down here too.

Really, you want two cars. One for the surfaced stuff, and something like a snorkel equipped HiLux Crewcab for camping trips into the bush. That's what everyone has down here. Apart from me that is, I just have a Daewoo. You can buy that for 10k tho

[D O G]

Oh, and forget the fast cars like skylines and Imprezas and stuff, insurance is horrendous for those - they are to Australian society what hot hatches were to the early '90s.

[map]

If you can find one an old Volvo V70R should meet your family requirements and be a bit quick as well. The police didn't use them because the V70 T5 was considered quick enough. The V70R is, needless to say, quicker than that.
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...and the whirlwind is in the thorn trees, it's hard for thee to kick against the pricks...
Gibbs, what did Duckie look like when he was younger?

[D O G]

They are, however, horrendously overpriced in Australia where he will be buying, rare and therefore have poor parts and servicing availability.

BMW's are probably the most common euro car, however they are still seriously uncommon. I guess I only see about 5 each day in my commuting.

It has to be Japanese, or *shudders* Australian.

[Whosthedaddy]

I was looking at the Holden Utes for me obviously not the wife and kids, quite expensive for what they are? GM and Ford have some strange looking models that aren't for sale here but I agree, its best to try Jap.
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Current : MSX 125 Past : CBR 900RR Monkeybike : c50 LAC : ZXR750 H2 : FZR600 : ZX7R P3 : YW100 : TRX850: Trophy 900 T309 : GSXR 600 L0: Monkeybike : XJ6S Whosthedaddy

[G]

For mixture of space and fast:
VXR8 (Well, the Holden equivalent if you're in Australia)? If you're going for a 5 series, then it has to be a M5 really .

[Whosthedaddy]

[G]

Monetary considerations?
Can definitely get the E39 in the UK for that:
https://www.pistonheads.com/sales/831495.htm
https://www.pistonheads.com/sales/835901.htm

Could also get a late E36 M3 saloon (faster than the M5 on the limit due to light weight, but you have to try a lot harder.)

If you're very lucky, might even be able to squeeze in an older RS4 estate into that.

[Kickstart]

Hi

Personally I would wait until you get there are take a few drives in things, and also check out the tax situation in the state you land up in. From memory when we were in Victoria new cars were cheap compared to the UK, 2nd hand they held their value VERY well (cars seemed to have at least double the life expectancy), petrol was cheap, insurance was cheap but the equivalent of road tax was hideously expensive. Made running larger stuff comparatively cheap.

Also it seemed some Aus stuff was tuned a bit differently. Felt like they were set up very lean. So check what feels nice there. As to the Aussie stuff, the Ford Falcon we hired was a 4L straight 6. Sounds quick? It wasn't. It was dire and the worst car I have ever driven.

Also remember the Aussie police in many areas are far hotter and more sneaky than the UK ones for catching you speeding.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[Whosthedaddy]

Heard about them being hard on speeding. I never really went that quick in the past but its the ease of speed thats nice. Had a large cc car in the States and yes, they seem underpowered compared to what you think they should do.

We need a car ASAP (amongst other things) as soon as we land. Not too bothered if we find 'the' car straight away. If we do then its a bonus, if not a cheap little car will suffice and then this could be the little run around or deposit on the next car.

The wife isn't keen on an auto, prefer a manual. This may be a problem for most 4x4's or larger cc cars so she may have to convert to the way of a redundant left foot.
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Current : MSX 125 Past : CBR 900RR Monkeybike : c50 LAC : ZXR750 H2 : FZR600 : ZX7R P3 : YW100 : TRX850: Trophy 900 T309 : GSXR 600 L0: Monkeybike : XJ6S Whosthedaddy

[Charlie]

Could be worth hiring a car for a couple of weeks then? Then you can pick something you like.
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Past: Honda x8rs, Honda City fly, Honda Hornet 250, Honda VFR750, Yamaha xt600e.
Current: Honda CBR929RR & Yamaha XT660Z Tenere

[Kickstart]

Hi

Most cars there did seem to be autos, even not particularly big cars (eg, wanted a hire car in Sydney, landed up with an automatic Corolla).

Check the rules on what you need to register a car. Eg, from memory in Victoria to register a car in your name you need a road worthiness certificate (basically an MOT), but this only lasted a short time (couple of weeks) and once in your name you didn't need to get a new one. Hence a cost for keeping a car for a short while (as few would buy a car without a rwc).

Also they seemed to be far more likely to repair a crash damaged car (probably because they were still worth decent money when a decade old), and from comments of people there the repairs were not really done that well.

As far as speeding goes, at the time they seemed pretty happy to admit that speeding tickets were just there for revenue and not really anything to do with safety. Hence all sorts of tricks to catch people.

With the Falcon it wasn't so much a bit underpowered as being utterly gutless. To make things worse this slug like low revving straight 6 was mated to a hyperactive 4 speed auto. You looked at the acclerator and it kicked down. Pushed it and it kicked down 2 gears, which was pointless as that just meant it was doing 5000rpm instead of 1700rpm but producing no more power at all (it would have gone better by keeping the revs at 1700 and using more throttle).

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[-Ali-]

holden commadore, that's what i owned and it was brillant.

[Whosthedaddy]

Its been a while since I've needed a 2nd car so high mileage and dubious repairs will make me greyer than I already am.

[Whosthedaddy]

[Kickstart]

Hi

Do remember that car hire wasn't that expensive there, but unlike the UK hire cars could be fairly well used (ie, hire car companies didn't seem to be getting new cars dirt cheap, hiring them for a few weeks then selling them on for close to what they paid).

The Commodore is basically a scretched Omega now (well, until the latest model). The Vauxhall Monaro is just a Holden Monaro, which is a coupe version of the Commodore.

A quick glance at an Aussie car sales web site shows that they still are expensive 2nd hand compared to the UK (eg, how many UK dealers would bother with a 17 year old, 80k BMW 3 series, let alone at £4500).

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[Whosthedaddy]

Karma just for that website Keith.

Be quite happy with a Chelsea Tractor along these sort of lines.

Both me and the wife don't smoke, drink or have any expensive hobbies* so a little luxury or materialistic object is no problem I suppose so stretching a few more $ a month makes up for it.





*a bike will follow of course as will a track / off road bike if I get on well and enjoy myself down there. Don't tell the wife yet though.
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Current : MSX 125 Past : CBR 900RR Monkeybike : c50 LAC : ZXR750 H2 : FZR600 : ZX7R P3 : YW100 : TRX850: Trophy 900 T309 : GSXR 600 L0: Monkeybike : XJ6S Whosthedaddy

[Al]

I think if I ever lived there I'd go with a landcruiser or some other big offroader. The main reason I'd think of emigrating would be the vast space and freedom that it brings. You can't really do much in a sports car other then drive round cities and the good roads linking them.

The Legacys seem popular, I had a lift in one and from what I can gather, they seem to be the worst of both worlds, sluggish ( there heavy and the AWD transmission saps all the power) and probably pretty useless offroad. But probably good in the wet or on a very smooth dirt track.

Used cars (especially European cars) are really overpriced, I paid $1200 for an 1984 Toyota Corona with 6 months regO from a backstreet dealer in Sydney.
Its not that much but it had about 400k on the clock, looked a mess and would have been in a scrapyard 10yrs ago in the UK.
Looking at some of the other wrecks on the road it was probably only halfway through its useful life in Oz.

Still it was an amazingly fun car to drive 2.0L RWD and if you went over a bump it would continue bouncing for about another 30 seconds
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/big_al/2005-2006/P1210522.jpg


This was on a road a couple of hours drive out of the center of Brisbane, It looks like somebodies drive but it was just a road that went on for ages and a pretty good one compered to some of the others.
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/big_al/2005-2006/P3300783.jpg
Get a 4WD and a KTM or a Husky
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Yamaha FZR400RR 3tj
My Instagram Thingy

[Whosthedaddy]

This was a recent photo on an ex colleagues facebook, she's in Perth.

https://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v1969/238/4/714400422/n714400422_1717675_663.jpg

And when you consider that off the beaten track roads may be more like this

https://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v1969/238/4/714400422/n714400422_1717609_1612.jpg

https://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v1969/238/4/714400422/n714400422_1717586_5739.jpg

A regular car may not do it I suppose.
____________________
Current : MSX 125 Past : CBR 900RR Monkeybike : c50 LAC : ZXR750 H2 : FZR600 : ZX7R P3 : YW100 : TRX850: Trophy 900 T309 : GSXR 600 L0: Monkeybike : XJ6S Whosthedaddy

[D O G]

They use Utes (although not the ones you see in town with the big chrome alloys ) on those unsealed roads with no problems at all, and by ute I mean the Holden/Ford utes.

As usual, all of what Keith says is correct.

I will chip in a bit more, however. You say you want a ute for yourself, is that for neccessity (i.e. need to chuck stuff in the back) or just because you fancy one?

If you actually need a ute, you really should consider a crewcab 4wd HiLux or Mitsubishi L200. Better built than the Holden/Ford stuff, and will allow you to tackle the more rugged stuff in the bush when you want to go camping/exploring - which is the best part of living here.

As for a street car, if you want some speed, go the Aussie way and get a V8 Holden/Ford performance edition, which are more readily available with the manual boxes, sound amazing, but still have cheap parts and servicing.

Be prepared to never drive it faster than 110km/h tho, or you will get busted.

I have been busted three times so far, and the missus once. They are horrendously sneaky, and the speed limits are stupidly low (100 km/h on a three lane motorway). I'd take the UK approach to speed enforcement any day of the week over these bastards. The people seem to lap it up though, the old 'speed kills' message. Idiots.

[G]

Much as I dislike top-gear's fakeness, driving their cars across some quite serious bits of Botswana showed how far you could go without 'proper' off-road kit.

[D O G]

Yup, I managed some signifcant offroading in a Renault Megane on my recent road trip, which included crossing muddy streams and some very rocky roads, parts of which had potholes so big I had to stop and chuck rocks into them to allow the car to cross.

It just takes a bit longer and you have to be very careful, that's all.

Having said that, there are a lot of national parks here where you can just go offroading, on sandy/muddy/rocky roads and generally just tit about, which you couldn't really do in the family saloon.

[G]

I was really impressed how well my laden LT35 van did off-roading (well, trying to get out of a muddy field) with rear tyres reduced to 17psi (from 55-60psi). Better than I've seen some 4x4s doing!