Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

Even the Falcon is an excellent car and totally creams the Holden. I drive XR6s and Holden's SV6 on a daily basis and the Falcon is so much better at everything. For cut price six cylinder powered entertainment, the Falcon is the clear winner. But they arent selling. People are seemingly put off by the fact the future of Ford Australia is unclear, which, among other things doesnt help resale value. Also they have bugger all decent teams and drivers in the V8 Supercars, and the effect of that on sales should not be underestimated.

I agree with you there, it just really does not make sense to me that they don't sell. All the decent V8 Supercar teams buggered off to Holden, which was a shame. The only car that has been a great success for Ford recently was the Territory when it came out, it will be interesting to see the effect of the new one when it finally comes out. Holdens sell just because they are Holdens, but I don't recall anyone buying a Ford just because its a Ford. I would think that it would be more of an embarassment to buy a Holden these days with all the cut-price Korean rubbish they shove down our throats, while Ford is still offering premium European products for the same price, but for some reason Holden is better just because it's an 'olden MATE!

Also, why do Toyota and Honda refuse to sell any diesel-engined passenger cars here? Everyone else does. I suspect its because it would let down their "hybrid>everything" brand strategies.
 
Because most people here, in Australia, see Holdens as 'strayan' whereas the Ford they see as more American.

At least, that is my guess.

Even though they're both about as Australian as each other....the Falcon possibly moreso..
 
Here's a question, why does ford, being an american company, not sell the falcon here? It's one thing with the 1 lt tiny things they don't import but something like that? Do they think despite the 2 most common cars you see on the road are pickups and sedans that america does not want a car that is both at the same time? IDK it doesn't make sense to me.
 
We had the rambler and the el camino here. MOST people do not look back kindly on them, unfortunately.
 
Because most people here, in Australia, see Holdens as 'strayan' whereas the Ford they see as more American.

At least, that is my guess.

Even though they're both about as Australian as each other....the Falcon possibly moreso..

Yeah, that does happen. Most people still think all Holdens are made in Australia. I know someone who said they bought a Daewoo Barina because its "a good Australian car". Couple that with the fact that the media will tell you that Holden was the first Australian car company, even though they were always a subsidary of GM and Ford had been making cars here since the early 1900s.

At least in the previous 30 years the Falcon has always been the more Australian car than the Commodore. The design wasn't nicked from the Europeans and the engines weren't borrowed from America, it was a near 100% Australian product.

This makes me sound like a total Ford fanboi. I'm actually a terrible Eurowhore.
 
The same could be said of fiat and yet they now selling those again. :p
Actually it could be said of ford, I am sure they turned many people away by everything being on fire. :lol:
 
I agree with you there, it just really does not make sense to me that they don't sell. All the decent V8 Supercar teams buggered off to Holden, which was a shame. The only car that has been a great success for Ford recently was the Territory when it came out, it will be interesting to see the effect of the new one when it finally comes out. Holdens sell just because they are Holdens, but I don't recall anyone buying a Ford just because its a Ford. I would think that it would be more of an embarassment to buy a Holden these days with all the cut-price Korean rubbish they shove down our throats, while Ford is still offering premium European products for the same price, but for some reason Holden is better just because it's an 'olden MATE!

Also, why do Toyota and Honda refuse to sell any diesel-engined passenger cars here? Everyone else does. I suspect its because it would let down their "hybrid>everything" brand strategies.

The Focus and Mondeo are European sourced and the price suitably reflects that, whereas Holden grab their brands from Korea and are priced much cheaper for a crappier product. But the idiots who buy those cars dont know that, as seen by your mate who said 'good Australian car', when it isn't good, and it isn't Australian! Australians on the whole just dont know about cars. It's why we allow shit like Daewoo, Great Wall ("no it's not good"), Ssangyong, etc to build their brands over here, and why we allow the government and carmakers to rip us off in comparison to Europe and the States.

Great Wall with their bargain $22990 ute 'packed with features'. Windows. A steering wheel. Gear shift lever...:p

Well I'm in the market for a new car, and while the VE (Berlina or Calais) is on the list, I dont like the fact it's sharing a badge with a Daewoo Barina, Epica, Craptiva, etc. Badge snobbishness perhaps, but it could be the reason why Holden are probably going to miss out on my money. And the fact they're not as screwed together as well as a Jap or Euro offering. Also I wouldn't dare buy a new Commodore off the lot anyway, not with those depreciation values. Falcon suffers in the depreciation stakes as well. Why buy new when you can have practically new for 60% of the price?

I'm looking to Japan for my next car. Liberty or Accord Euro. Even the Maxima looks good.
 
Yeah, that does happen. Most people still think all Holdens are made in Australia. I know someone who said they bought a Daewoo Barina because its "a good Australian car". Couple that with the fact that the media will tell you that Holden was the first Australian car company, even though they were always a subsidary of GM and Ford had been making cars here since the early 1900s.

At least in the previous 30 years the Falcon has always been the more Australian car than the Commodore. The design wasn't nicked from the Europeans and the engines weren't borrowed from America, it was a near 100% Australian product.

This makes me sound like a total Ford fanboi. I'm actually a terrible Eurowhore.

Holden was only properly Australian when it was still a coachbuilding company.
 
The Focus and Mondeo are European sourced and the price suitably reflects that, whereas Holden grab their brands from Korea and are priced much cheaper for a crappier product.

I'm looking to Japan for my next car. Liberty or Accord Euro. Even the Maxima looks good.
The problem I had is that until recently (may still be the case, I'm not sure) is that the Korean-sourced Cruze was more expensive than a European-sourced Focus. In fact, you could buy a mid-range Focus with alloys and other added whatevers, for the same price as the absolute cheapest Cruze.

I would never buy a Commodore or Falcon new. I would consider buying one slightly used if the sort of driving I did suited that style of car. My dad is neither a Holden nor a Ford person but likes supporting local industry - this is why he has owned Australian cars for the last 20 years or more. Mostly Fords, but a few Holdens thrown in as well. His current Commodore he bought 2 years old for half the price new. This is the way you buy a large Australian car.

As for Japanese cars, at the moment the only cars that do actually appeal to me are the Accord Euro and the Subaru range. The rest of the lot don't do anything for me, I'm afraid.
 
Well the Accord Euro (base spec, dont need or want the Luxury) is the one I want and if I can agree on a price with the dealer I might just go for it.
 
Re: Australian Car Industry.

At least, whether the cars are all Aussie parts, we still have an industry.
 
I've noticed a trend for a long time now...but never felt it was worth asking but here goes:

On most mainstream cars with single exhaust, why does the exhaust pipe seemingly end at the side of the car opposite the fuel door?
 
Figure the spare tire sits in the middle (either under the floor of the trunk or winced up under the car). The fuel needs a filler neck to get it into the tank, typically one wouldn't want to put hot exhaust right next to the fuel system, even with a heat shield. It's just easier to route the exhaust around the other side of the spare.
 
Even the Falcon is an excellent car and totally creams the Holden. I drive XR6s and Holden's SV6 on a daily basis and the Falcon is so much better at everything. For cut price six cylinder powered entertainment, the Falcon is the clear winner. But they arent selling. People are seemingly put off by the fact the future of Ford Australia is unclear, which, among other things doesnt help resale value. Also they have bugger all decent teams and drivers in the V8 Supercars, and the effect of that on sales should not be underestimated.

I've heard stories of police officers refusing to drive commodores. They all want to drive Falcons. My sister didn't even know what an FG XR6 looked like until she drove one and now she owns it.
 
Jerry Brown's ride:

http://img263.imageshack.**/img263/6042/govbrowncar1024x7305510.jpg
 
I think I made my car mad today. Back in November it was losing coolant so I added stop leak. All was well up until last week when I started to notice coolant loss again.

So today I redid the procedure - I added the second half of the stop leak to the radiator by disconnecting the upper radiator hose. And now I have a leak from the connection between the hose and the radiator. I will get a new hose and hope it stops. I am pretty sure this is still the original hose. After 17 years it's probably time to change it.

(By the way I plan on changing the upper hose without draining the coolant, so it will be quite a show and a mess)
 
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