The Motoring Thread- for the motoring enthusiasts here

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Merc1107
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Re: The Motoring Thread- for the motoring enthusiasts here

Post by Merc1107 »

scott wrote:Going upper class is going to ruin them I think.
I've certainly heard before that manufacturing more upper-class vehicles can help keep companies producing vehicles in their home countries - see all the European manufacturers who still manage production on their home turf.

Cheap cars for every man and his dog can be made even more cheaply in a place like China. I think in the "luxury" segment, price becomes less of an object for many.

Personally, the new Commodores are ugly. Holden (well, GM) should've done the right thing and left the Commodore as it stood at the end of Aussie assembly, as Ford did with the Falcon. From now on, "Commodore" is not the vehicle we knew of - even though it'll still be a seeming hodge-podge of European and American bits, as it was from its inception.
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Re: The Motoring Thread- for the motoring enthusiasts here

Post by mubd »

The current ads which they're running for the Holden Trax where a bunch of hipster dickheads go around playing with their mobile phones while driving makes me want to Image

It's got a

Image

vibe to it
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Re: The Motoring Thread- for the motoring enthusiasts here

Post by Merc1107 »

That Trax ad is cringeworthy... So what happens when the technology goes out of date? Oh, that right, you'll just have to send your $30,000 car to the wreckers because the iPhone 999,999PlusMinusGoldSELimited came out, and its got 500 more features (that I don't need) than the last one...

The problem with this level of technology in cars is - when it breaks, all the mod-cons go with it, and the repair bill is thousands (because, "Dealership only," or parts that are difficult to source)... Just one of the many reasons my daily is a 23.5 year old. Can't abide new cars, they're detestable heaps of plastic garbage.
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Re: The Motoring Thread- for the motoring enthusiasts here

Post by 3805 »

Merc1107 wrote:... Just one of the many reasons my daily is a 23.5 year old. Can't abide new cars, they're detestable heaps of plastic garbage.
I couldn't agree more. That is why I drive a Land Rover Defender. Everything I need for the up-coming zombie apocalypse, and nothing I don't like 100 inch computerised touch-screens with voice activated controls. And I can do all the maintenance on my own. As a back-up I have a 1970 Land Rover Series 2A Long Wheel Base 6 cylinder hardtop. It has a speedo and a fuel gauge!
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Re: The Motoring Thread- for the motoring enthusiasts here

Post by rogf24 »

Merc1107 wrote:That Trax ad is cringeworthy... So what happens when the technology goes out of date? Oh, that right, you'll just have to send your $30,000 car to the wreckers because the iPhone 999,999PlusMinusGoldSELimited came out, and its got 500 more features (that I don't need) than the last one...

The problem with this level of technology in cars is - when it breaks, all the mod-cons go with it, and the repair bill is thousands (because, "Dealership only," or parts that are difficult to source)... Just one of the many reasons my daily is a 23.5 year old. Can't abide new cars, they're detestable heaps of plastic garbage.
The Trax has Apple Carplay and Android Auto, they are systems that simply provide a car friendly interface using the phone's computing processor, essentially your phone's screen switches from the phone itself to the car's screen. The system does not use the car's own computer. As such, Apple Carplay and Android Auto is automatically updated when you update your's phone's system or when you get a new phone. It is not dependent on the car's built-in computer system so it won't go out of date when you get a new phone. In fact, this system is probably better than a car without Apple Carplay and Android Auto because carmakers are generally lazy updating their infotainment systems, Apple Carplay and Android Auto updates are done over the phone and are not dependent on the carmaker.

If Apple Carplay or Android Auto breaks, then either your phone is broken or your infotainment system is broken. If it is the latter, you can always buy a new aftermarket infotainment system that supports Apple Carplay or Android Auto, you don't need to send your car to the scrapheap.
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Re: The Motoring Thread- for the motoring enthusiasts here

Post by TA3001 »

mubd wrote:The current ads which they're running for the Holden Trax where a bunch of hipster dickheads go around playing with their mobile phones while driving makes me want to Image

It's got a

Image

vibe to it
This scene reminds me of a Simpsons episode when Burns impersonates Jimbo. But is this from an actual movie? Sort of looks familiar.
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Re: The Motoring Thread- for the motoring enthusiasts here

Post by scott »

Nissan have axed the Altima and the Pulsar sedan, there are now no sedans in their lineup. They have found they are unable to topple the Corolla et al.

Holden have exhausted all build slots for the Caprice, and the V8 models are getting in short supply, Calais models are also running out fast.

Speaking of Calais, A friend got a nice VF Calais (11/13 build) from Gray's auctions, was considering a Ford G6E, but the cockpit interior of the VF won him over. Evaluated it both as a passenger and a quick drive around the block, very nice to drive, some nice gadgets such as that wonderful touch screen with Pandora and Stitcher and voice recognition that required extensive reading of that thick manual in the glovebox. It is not a Calais V, just a base Calais, his 12 year old thinks it is the bees knees. Shameful that they will be no longer after October.

Heard a talkback radio caller give a Holden dealer a pasting over trying to charge him $54.00 to replace a number plate light globe in his Holden Cruze, he told them to get stuffed and bought a twin pack of globes from Autobarn for $3.20 and put them in in minutes, wonder where they got that price from, also tried to charge him a ransom for replacing the remote key battery, a trip to Jaycar got him the right battery for $7.00 and changed in minutes also.
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Re: The Motoring Thread- for the motoring enthusiasts here

Post by eddy »

Parrahub, an extra option in the public transport menu http://www.parrahub.org.au/
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Re: The Motoring Thread- for the motoring enthusiasts here

Post by Bedford-29 »

Anyone ever owned one of these I knew someone at Kincumber had one for running around and a couple of them for spare parts.Picture from Driven to Write website
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scott
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Re: The Motoring Thread- for the motoring enthusiasts here

Post by scott »

Holden's sales are down by 23%. New ZB "Commodore" not firing.

https://www.caradvice.com.au/637417/hol ... ent-in-q1/

Anyone seen the new ZB? I saw on display as a raffle prize, give me a VF any day.

They need Franco Cozzo to sell them (iconic Melbourne furniture king)
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Re: The Motoring Thread- for the motoring enthusiasts here

Post by scott »

The local Holden dealer have lopped about $8,500 off a Trax and $3,500 off an Equinox, and $10,000 off a Captiva (superseded), They still have some VF stocks lying around. Holden have not survived the end of local manufacturing all that well.

They also showed the marketing director the door.

The new Camry is excellent- seen plenty of them around already, not seen an Equinox or a Commodore.
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Re: The Motoring Thread- for the motoring enthusiasts here

Post by homer9000 »

holden is not the same as we remember it.i have seen the latest astra nice car and all but short of winning a lottery i will never own one.that and the spark are the only things that will attract me to a holden dealer currently but speaking of them they are gradually closing.adelaide has lost claridge,plaza and metro all as new car dealers in recent time.i see a lot of picantos and accents in the cheap end of alternatives to buying a used small car in the next segment above but not many sparks or barinas.
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Re: The Motoring Thread- for the motoring enthusiasts here

Post by scott »

The owner of Metro Holden took Holden to court over being terminated, considering that he was one of the top dealers. He did not succeed.

Holden sacked a few dealers at the end of last year, quite a few in SA as mentioned. Here in metro Melbourne, it seems we have not lost any. My local Holden/Suzuki dealer was acquired by the local Nissan dealer, and they added VW,Isuzu ute and LDV to their portfolio. The Holden/Suzuki dealership and the VW one are now combined on one site and the Holden section is now quite small.

Holden may close it's Korean plant, so possibly no more Trax,Spark,Barina or Astra sedan.
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Re: The Motoring Thread- for the motoring enthusiasts here

Post by huppypuppy »

ImageLDV T60 Luxe Ute by Joe Hupp, on Flickr

Checked out the new LDV T60 Luxe ute the other day - where else can you get a top of the range five star ANCAP safety rated Chinese dual cab ute with everything the other makes call options and a 2.8 litre 4 cylinder turbocharged intercooled diesel engine (with a variable geometry turbocharger) for under $35K for the six speed manual and under $37K for the six speed automatic? These are packed - everything included as standard, like tyre pressure monitoring, ABS, EBD, ESP, Roll Movement Intervention (RMI), six airbags, leather seats, reversing camera, two USB ports, smart entry/start, alloy wheels with a matching alloy spare wheel, etc.

To say I'm impressed is a true understatement! I can safely say the T60 Luxe would be one dual cab ute I'd love to travel in as a passenger - there's so much space in the cab!
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Re: The Motoring Thread- for the motoring enthusiasts here

Post by Merc1107 »

The very 'angular' styling of late-model vehicles is somewhat reminiscent of the pixelated/blocky graphics of an early 1990s computer game.

About the only semi-recent vehicles I could see myself owning would be a Golf Station wagon (Diesel, Manual) or a Falcon with the EcoLPI.
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Re: The Motoring Thread- for the motoring enthusiasts here

Post by 3805 »

huppypuppy wrote:
Checked out the new LDV T60 Luxe ute the other day - where else can you get a top of the range five star ANCAP safety rated Chinese dual cab ute with everything the other makes call options and a 2.8 litre 4 cylinder turbocharged intercooled diesel engine (with a variable geometry turbocharger) for under $35K for the six speed manual and under $37K for the six speed automatic? These are packed - everything included as standard, like tyre pressure monitoring, ABS, EBD, ESP, Roll Movement Intervention (RMI), six airbags, leather seats, reversing camera, two USB ports, smart entry/start, alloy wheels with a matching alloy spare wheel, etc.

To say I'm impressed is a true understatement! I can safely say the T60 Luxe would be one dual cab ute I'd love to travel in as a passenger - there's so much space in the cab!

Could you do me a really good deal on the LDV 10 seater?
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Re: The Motoring Thread- for the motoring enthusiasts here

Post by homer9000 »

on the subject of holden the kia/hyundai dealershave advised me not to buy a spark as has my brother.i am thinking should i find me a driveaway deal on the accent or picanto in automatic or what else exists in the same price range inclusive of on roads if i go used.i started thinking mazda 3(the same platform as the previous s40/v50 volvo 2013 models)or hyundai i30 or maybe a higher spec corolla.the latter three would have about 83,000km on the clock so just over 16,000km a year but a pretty good safety level as the size smaller cars.what would you do.
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Re: The Motoring Thread- for the motoring enthusiasts here

Post by huppypuppy »

homer9000 wrote:on the subject of holden the kia/hyundai dealershave advised me not to buy a spark as has my brother.i am thinking should i find me a driveaway deal on the accent or picanto in automatic or what else exists in the same price range inclusive of on roads if i go used.i started thinking mazda 3(the same platform as the previous s40/v50 volvo 2013 models)or hyundai i30 or maybe a higher spec corolla.the latter three would have about 83,000km on the clock so just over 16,000km a year but a pretty good safety level as the size smaller cars.what would you do.
The i30 is a great car - if you can find one, look for a i30 Premium. The added cost of the Premium over the standard version will be outweighed by the extras that are fitted
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Re: The Motoring Thread- for the motoring enthusiasts here

Post by scott »

Holden have announced the Spark has now been axed.

https://www.caradvice.com.au/641248/hol ... continued/

I30 is good value, if you can get hold of one, they are so popular, supply can be short at times.
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Re: The Motoring Thread- for the motoring enthusiasts here

Post by eddy »

Talk about fake news https://www.sarahgroup.org/sarahstory/

The truth is she was standing in the left hand lane of a three lane road 2 hours after the NRMA could have easily rolled the car to safety at the foot of the hill.

Kaine was made the scapegoat for this and did 18 months in jail for it.
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Re: The Motoring Thread- for the motoring enthusiasts here

Post by mubd »

The breakdown shoulder was very obviously inadequate from the photos I've seen. Plus it was in broad daylight - how could you miss it? Rolling a broken down car down a hill with no brakes seems like a recipe for disaster. You might as well huddle behind the breakdown bay.

Image

The RMS' cheap little concession of closing the entire climbing lane on both sides of the highway as a knee jerk reaction is ridiculous though.
Eastgardens to Kingsford is a 1-2 section fare.
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Re: The Motoring Thread- for the motoring enthusiasts here

Post by eddy »

mubd wrote:The breakdown shoulder was very obviously inadequate from the photos I've seen. Plus it was in broad daylight - how could you miss it? Rolling a broken down car down a hill with no brakes seems like a recipe for disaster. You might as well huddle behind the breakdown bay.

Image

The RMS' cheap little concession of closing the entire climbing lane on both sides of the highway as a knee jerk reaction is ridiculous though.
Who said the car had no brakes with duel brake circuits and a hand brake and the NRMA van was there two hours before.

You should never leave a car on the road even if you have to push it in the bush and there is a place up Mt Ousley where cars always break down just around the corner with no break down lane at all so if I was in a truck I would stop in front of them and tow it to the breakdown bay and I did this four times in two years.

I have never spoken to Kaine about it but as he was in the slow lane there could have been a number of trucks blocking his view.

No they couldn't blame the RTA or the NRMA so they stuck poor Kaine in the can.

I even phoned up the ABC when they said he swerved into the break down lane to tell them they had it wrong and I used to trust them.

PS
And Victoria is now putting wire barriers up so if your truck breaks down you cannot get it off the road and truck drivers are spewing.
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Re: The Motoring Thread- for the motoring enthusiasts here

Post by scott »

Doncaster will no longer have a Holden dealer, with Doncaster Holden to hand in it's Holden franchise from July 1. It is being replaced with Volkswagen. The current franchisee, The Doidge Motor Group purchased this Holden dealer along with the neighbouring Hyundai dealer in 2016. It seems, Holden told him his dealership was too big for the market share, so reduce the size, or get out. He has sold the Hyundai franchise to the Penfold Group, who are building the replacement Volkswagen franchise.
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Re: The Motoring Thread- for the motoring enthusiasts here

Post by homer9000 »

I was not surprised.it appears even the Claridge family in South Australia lost their dealership in Malvern to Mercedes which was a complete shock to many of us.on the plus side it means for eastern suburban residents a shorter drive to get the car serviced in Adelaide as opposed to going to mile end for that.but seeing a showroom of fancy pants cars would be a shock to many who would have remembered going there for a PREMIER/COMMODORE SLE,CALAIS as a luxury car for instance from the seventies till the day the dealer shut and at the other end of the scale whatever four cylinder models they sourced from OPEL,NISSAN,SUZUKI and Toyota with a holden badge on the front and rear and their names.
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Re: The Motoring Thread- for the motoring enthusiasts here

Post by scott »

I read that one Adelaide dealer has sold only 5 ZB Commodores since they were released. You can buy a new Camry for $6,500 less than the equivalent base model ZB Commodore. Still heaps of new VF stock about.

Toby Hagon has written about Holden's fight for survival.

https://www.whichcar.com.au/car-news/wo ... ive-report
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