A newbie who can't settle on a car...
Discussion
Just thought I'd pop in and say hi to a fellow Perthonality 
FYI I see your BMW 540 (UBD 540?) in my building at work a few days a week (Enex 100 St Georges terrace) and it's clean
Also, if you're interested in an E39 mine might be up for sale end of August - 2000 528 Sport with full M kit, Full Stamped Service History and working air con
208k kms, silver and quite clean
Looking for c$5k
I think you might be the sort of chap who can't turn down a car sale
FYI I see your BMW 540 (UBD 540?) in my building at work a few days a week (Enex 100 St Georges terrace) and it's clean
Also, if you're interested in an E39 mine might be up for sale end of August - 2000 528 Sport with full M kit, Full Stamped Service History and working air con
208k kms, silver and quite clean
Looking for c$5k
I think you might be the sort of chap who can't turn down a car sale
Edited by Pommygranite on Thursday 10th August 17:49
Okay, sorry its been a long time again.. Life, switching computers etc... (excuses)
Now.....
Where were we......
Commodore, Navara, Nsx and C200.
3.5 cars.
Well, first things first.
The bogan mobile is gone.
I sold it relatively cheaply for what it was, think I lost around $400 on it which wasn't bad really, considering I learnt why everyone loses their licences in them (Chinese tyres, RWD and a V8 manual )
The bloke who bought it came in a singlet, cap, had several tattoos and lacked footwear. I felt this car suited him perfectly
.
He actually had his ute for sale and sold it very cheaply as he literally couldn't afford to buy it that day. Even that made him short and he had to pull a work mate to lend him a few hundred dollars. This all took place on a Sunday night at 10PM. At least I left him half a tank of fuel.... I've only seen it once since, at a..... petrol station.
With that gone, I was back down to: a boring but ever dependable C200, broken NSX, and a Navara that is the best drift car ever in the rain.
This was good fun for a while, imagine driving a nearly 2 tonne ute in a straight line at 60-70KMH. If you were in 4th gear and floored it, the rear end would break free. Downright dangerous but so many laughs were had between my mate and I. The tyres on it were absolutely rock hard, but legal tread wise...
I felt that the missus didn't agree to this. She said she would break up with me if I ever bought a V8 commodore, or a ute. I've now had both and we're still together, I guess that means I'm f
ked?
Decided to surprise her with a reward, for putting up with my bullst. I borrowed this for the weekend with permission from the dealer principal. She had absolutely no idea what was happening until I gave her the keys.
My thoughts on the new MX-5? Drives incredibly similar to the original NA. I had the 1.5 6 speed but fully loaded. Really fun happy little car, definitely one for the twisties and can understand why people love them. Bad thing? Missus now wants one... Not happening.
Guess that should mean car number 50 should be something special...
Oh look, another Mercedes.
Ok, ok, its a 1:18 scale of my universally unloved W202.....
Car number 50.....
Drum roll......
(It actually is a 1:1 scale Mercedes)
Ta da!
If you haven't already worked it out, its a 1997 CL500 W140. It has around 160KMs.
2 owner car on original number plates!
It's kind of big...
Back to 3.5 cars again
.
Why?
- Because I'd never seen one before
- Because they're something like 300K new in 1997.
- Because the price wasn't bad, though it needed a few bits.
- Because I can and the missus can't stop me; she drives a Hyundai accent, she has no say in anything.
I had to have a few things fixed, mostly age related items such as trim pieces loose, driver's door handle inside broken, some maintenance items such as dirty coolant, oil change etc. Nothing major however! Score! The only thing I didn't fix, was the crack in the front bumper.
Its been a long time since I've been in an LS400, but I think this may just be more comfortable... Its infinitely cooler (or more granddad).
It's hard to believe that this was only 1 year younger than my old faithful.
Squishy, heated leather seats, airbag suspension, rear blind, soft close doors and boot, electric everything, sensors all around... endless.
And of course, all the windows go down:
Best. Cruiser. Ever.
This car was approved by the missus but for old people. I told her it was very economical.
It was funny how it received a similar effect to the NSX in that, people don't sit on your rear bumper in it. People must think it's my drug running car
, and not realise it cost a pittance in comparison to the average car here.
I noted that between the NSX and the CL500, they cost $500k together when new.
I hope number 50 didn't let you down. I thought it was definitely cool, not granddad.
So I sold it.
Why did you sell that? Come on man....!
Well, I just decided that while it was an awesome car, I was just afraid of the 'what if' factor. Its a 20 year old Benz with so much new old tech. If it was a Lexus, there'd be cheap fixes but not for this beast... Pity, I most definitely won't be owning another, simply due there being none around (and I'm too scared of it stting itself)...
At this stage, Kenny and I decided that the Navara could go as it had served it purpose and was now mostly sitting idle. A bit of a waste really.
We did an oil and filter, new battery (due to the above) and listed it for sale.
The equivalent car with say, half the KMs were being advertised at around 6-9k. I advertised at 5.5k and sold it to the first to view at 4.5k. It cost us $250 each to own for nearly a year, not bad motoring at all. That thing will live on forever! It now lives in Newman, a 13 hour drive North of Perth. Those KMs will definitely keep on going.
Just a broken NSX and the C200 now.
Almost a normal person.
Normal is boring.
Enter #51:
Back to my roots (sort of).
I've never had a S13 / 180SX.
So I thought it was time, while still no NSX.
1993 Nissan 180SX, factory SR20DET 5 speed.
Absolutely bog stock, save the wheels, springs and stereo. Not even an exhaust or intake had been done! Its definitely not perfect but in very good condition for its age. The front left guard is out of line for some reason and the rear bumper a different white. The only rust was where the spoiler met the boot lid. The rest of it has age related marks but nothing major.
241,000 KMs... Plenty but the car looked like it had done far less. It also had an almost full type X body kit (genuine Nissan). The only missing part was the spoiler for some reason.
With a work mate's EVO (yes, he actually chose and paid for those plates, its cool ok?)
No bother, but first things first, get rid of the gay wheels.
Unfortunately, they had basically 90%+ tread, oh well. They definitely had to go. These now live on a Suzuki swift somewhere.
Enter rare 4 stud Buddy Club wheels in the rarer, lower offset.
Much better.
Not a fan of the front being lower than the rear, but hey ho, I'm not spending 1k+ on a set of coilovers...
I also stole more floormats, this time out of a SP25 Mazda 3.
Some more for pictures...
Well, its really light and good fun. It weighs just over 1,100KG and is so grippy and rev happy. Can definitely see why people love these. Even with the KMs it has, it drives so incredibly tight. Kenny has a S13 (same car, different exterior, same interior and driveline, chassis etc), and his feels vastly inferior. His is full of rattles, feels 'loose' and generally tired in comparison.
Besides the wheels, all that was done was an oil and filter change.
I drove it for a while, enjoying it, then it was tax time. Yay, or so I thought. Because I had 4 jobs the past financial year, I now owe the government a big chunk of cash.
I just sold the 180SX, not even 2 weeks ago to pay the bill
.
As such, I'm now down to 2 jobs in an effort to pay less tax... Almost feels weird having most nights free now.
A couple pictures at the depot as the car sold sight unseen to a buyer in Melbourne:
The Supra (auto non turbo) is owned by the inspector there.
It's still in transit, hasn't reached Melbourne yet.
So I'm back to 1 boring reliable car and 1 broken car.
A quick C200 update:
Nothing much to report.
Just ticked over 265,000 KMs. Only issue so far, in the last 100KMs, cruise control has stopped working. Very annoying but I'll probably just leave it until the 270K service, where I have rear pads and rotors (off eBay for a steal, quality stuff) to go on, and I just then, 3 hours ago, finally bought a stereo to replace the factory one in it. The reason it took so long, was I wanted one that suited the era (I failed). I did at least get one with customisable lighting to match the cluster and other bits. Yay for Bluetooth, iPod/Phone connection and charging. I'll get this fitted at 270K too. Come to think of it, I haven't washed it in several months now... Definitely on the to do list, along with a wax.
The only thing that I've had to replace recently was the front right indicator. I lent the car to the missus.... once.....
Speaking of the missus.
I finally convinced her to part with some money and 'upgrade' her car, especially as she is starting a job 1.5 hours out of Perth in October. Apparently, whatever she bought, it had to be blue, reliable, (unrealistically) cheap, comfortable, economical and look 'good' (she likes Hyundai Velosters and Range Rover Evoques).
After 3 hours of cleaning... We have this:
a 2004 Honda Accord Euro, 2.4L 6 speed.
To her credit, she actually did help and do a heap of the cleaning!
Its got 207KMs and we actually got it from a dealer, who used to work where I currently work, at Mazda. Safe to say I'm happy at the price we paid for it, though the real test is when it visits Francois to be serviced / inspected in a weeks time.
I'm in the bad books with the mother in law because its a downgrade from her 2006 Hyundai Accent, because it is older.
Update on the broken car?
Right.
I bought custom plates for it
The replacement motor, gearbox and clutch are now as one, and physically inside the car. (Thank you Kenny and his mate)
Mounts are all lined up and in.
Clutch line is in and full of fluid, however we couldn't bleed it properly.
The clutch also needs initialising. We couldn't get this to work for a month. Kenny then decided to try something else, and it seems we've got this done.
I'm the most useless person ever with a spanner (because I am one). Kenny made me do many things, the most recent of which, was lie underneath the car doing up all the header bolts. I swore so often and so frequently.
. I do not have small Japanese hands like he does (he's half Japanese). I'm glad that's done.
Now its a matter of sourcing and buying replacement parts that are missing. For some reason, we are missing many of the suspension bolts, flywheel cover, miscellaneous interior bolts, etc. Then there's the specific NSX tools that we don't have. The crank on almost all Honda's is 50MM. The manual NSX motor is 45MM.
. Shout out to Wayne (again) who sent his over. But we can't use it yet, as no one I know owns a torque wrench that does 250NM. I'm kind of unwilling to spend several hundred to get one (tightass), for a one time use. I know my work has one, but that's off limits as it doesn't leave the property unfortunately. Still trying to work this one out.
I've also just paid for a manual steering rack - that's on its way. I'll need to find a universal joint for it to fit. Enter another several week wait.
The manual tacho I had fell (literally) through. The seller dropped it and it broke . I'll probably just end up paying over the odds (1.5-2k) for an early factory manual cluster as I won't have EPS either.
Still a long way to go, but progress does happen, even if its glacial.
I put the BBS LMs under the shell just to see what it would look like...
Damn, I promised myself an early night, its now nearly midnight.
In the last bit of news, I'm going to be in Europe for 2 weeks in September! Excited to say the least. I've booked 6 laps around Nurburgring (will be my first) and have a week in England to visit dad and the family. Simply cannot wait, though this has ensured that I stick with just 2 cars.... for now....
Thanks for reading!
Now.....
Where were we......
Commodore, Navara, Nsx and C200.
3.5 cars.
Well, first things first.
The bogan mobile is gone.
I sold it relatively cheaply for what it was, think I lost around $400 on it which wasn't bad really, considering I learnt why everyone loses their licences in them (Chinese tyres, RWD and a V8 manual
)The bloke who bought it came in a singlet, cap, had several tattoos and lacked footwear. I felt this car suited him perfectly
.He actually had his ute for sale and sold it very cheaply as he literally couldn't afford to buy it that day. Even that made him short and he had to pull a work mate to lend him a few hundred dollars. This all took place on a Sunday night at 10PM. At least I left him half a tank of fuel.... I've only seen it once since, at a..... petrol station.
With that gone, I was back down to: a boring but ever dependable C200, broken NSX, and a Navara that is the best drift car ever in the rain.
This was good fun for a while, imagine driving a nearly 2 tonne ute in a straight line at 60-70KMH. If you were in 4th gear and floored it, the rear end would break free. Downright dangerous but so many laughs were had between my mate and I. The tyres on it were absolutely rock hard, but legal tread wise...
I felt that the missus didn't agree to this. She said she would break up with me if I ever bought a V8 commodore, or a ute. I've now had both and we're still together, I guess that means I'm f
ked? Decided to surprise her with a reward, for putting up with my bulls
t. I borrowed this for the weekend with permission from the dealer principal. She had absolutely no idea what was happening until I gave her the keys.My thoughts on the new MX-5? Drives incredibly similar to the original NA. I had the 1.5 6 speed but fully loaded. Really fun happy little car, definitely one for the twisties and can understand why people love them. Bad thing? Missus now wants one... Not happening.
Guess that should mean car number 50 should be something special...
Oh look, another Mercedes.
Ok, ok, its a 1:18 scale of my universally unloved W202.....
Car number 50.....
Drum roll......
(It actually is a 1:1 scale Mercedes)
Ta da!
If you haven't already worked it out, its a 1997 CL500 W140. It has around 160KMs.
2 owner car on original number plates!
It's kind of big...
Back to 3.5 cars again
.Why?
- Because I'd never seen one before
- Because they're something like 300K new in 1997.
- Because the price wasn't bad, though it needed a few bits.
- Because I can and the missus can't stop me; she drives a Hyundai accent, she has no say in anything.
I had to have a few things fixed, mostly age related items such as trim pieces loose, driver's door handle inside broken, some maintenance items such as dirty coolant, oil change etc. Nothing major however! Score! The only thing I didn't fix, was the crack in the front bumper.
Its been a long time since I've been in an LS400, but I think this may just be more comfortable... Its infinitely cooler (or more granddad).
It's hard to believe that this was only 1 year younger than my old faithful.
Squishy, heated leather seats, airbag suspension, rear blind, soft close doors and boot, electric everything, sensors all around... endless.
And of course, all the windows go down:
Best. Cruiser. Ever.
This car was approved by the missus but for old people. I told her it was very economical.
It was funny how it received a similar effect to the NSX in that, people don't sit on your rear bumper in it. People must think it's my drug running car
, and not realise it cost a pittance in comparison to the average car here.I noted that between the NSX and the CL500, they cost $500k together when new.
I hope number 50 didn't let you down. I thought it was definitely cool, not granddad.
So I sold it.
Why did you sell that? Come on man....!
Well, I just decided that while it was an awesome car, I was just afraid of the 'what if' factor. Its a 20 year old Benz with so much new old tech. If it was a Lexus, there'd be cheap fixes but not for this beast... Pity, I most definitely won't be owning another, simply due there being none around (and I'm too scared of it s
tting itself)...At this stage, Kenny and I decided that the Navara could go as it had served it purpose and was now mostly sitting idle. A bit of a waste really.
We did an oil and filter, new battery (due to the above) and listed it for sale.
The equivalent car with say, half the KMs were being advertised at around 6-9k. I advertised at 5.5k and sold it to the first to view at 4.5k. It cost us $250 each to own for nearly a year, not bad motoring at all. That thing will live on forever! It now lives in Newman, a 13 hour drive North of Perth. Those KMs will definitely keep on going.
Just a broken NSX and the C200 now.
Almost a normal person.
Normal is boring.
Enter #51:
Back to my roots (sort of).
I've never had a S13 / 180SX.
So I thought it was time, while still no NSX.
1993 Nissan 180SX, factory SR20DET 5 speed.
Absolutely bog stock, save the wheels, springs and stereo. Not even an exhaust or intake had been done! Its definitely not perfect but in very good condition for its age. The front left guard is out of line for some reason and the rear bumper a different white. The only rust was where the spoiler met the boot lid. The rest of it has age related marks but nothing major.
241,000 KMs... Plenty but the car looked like it had done far less. It also had an almost full type X body kit (genuine Nissan). The only missing part was the spoiler for some reason.
With a work mate's EVO (yes, he actually chose and paid for those plates, its cool ok?)
No bother, but first things first, get rid of the gay wheels.
Unfortunately, they had basically 90%+ tread, oh well. They definitely had to go. These now live on a Suzuki swift somewhere.
Enter rare 4 stud Buddy Club wheels in the rarer, lower offset.
Much better.
Not a fan of the front being lower than the rear, but hey ho, I'm not spending 1k+ on a set of coilovers...
I also stole more floormats, this time out of a SP25 Mazda 3.
Some more for pictures...
Well, its really light and good fun. It weighs just over 1,100KG and is so grippy and rev happy. Can definitely see why people love these. Even with the KMs it has, it drives so incredibly tight. Kenny has a S13 (same car, different exterior, same interior and driveline, chassis etc), and his feels vastly inferior. His is full of rattles, feels 'loose' and generally tired in comparison.
Besides the wheels, all that was done was an oil and filter change.
I drove it for a while, enjoying it, then it was tax time. Yay, or so I thought. Because I had 4 jobs the past financial year, I now owe the government a big chunk of cash.
I just sold the 180SX, not even 2 weeks ago to pay the bill
.As such, I'm now down to 2 jobs in an effort to pay less tax... Almost feels weird having most nights free now.
A couple pictures at the depot as the car sold sight unseen to a buyer in Melbourne:
The Supra (auto non turbo) is owned by the inspector there.
It's still in transit, hasn't reached Melbourne yet.
So I'm back to 1 boring reliable car and 1 broken car.
A quick C200 update:
Nothing much to report.
Just ticked over 265,000 KMs. Only issue so far, in the last 100KMs, cruise control has stopped working. Very annoying but I'll probably just leave it until the 270K service, where I have rear pads and rotors (off eBay for a steal, quality stuff) to go on, and I just then, 3 hours ago, finally bought a stereo to replace the factory one in it. The reason it took so long, was I wanted one that suited the era (I failed). I did at least get one with customisable lighting to match the cluster and other bits. Yay for Bluetooth, iPod/Phone connection and charging. I'll get this fitted at 270K too. Come to think of it, I haven't washed it in several months now... Definitely on the to do list, along with a wax.
The only thing that I've had to replace recently was the front right indicator. I lent the car to the missus.... once.....
Speaking of the missus.
I finally convinced her to part with some money and 'upgrade' her car, especially as she is starting a job 1.5 hours out of Perth in October. Apparently, whatever she bought, it had to be blue, reliable, (unrealistically) cheap, comfortable, economical and look 'good' (she likes Hyundai Velosters and Range Rover Evoques
).After 3 hours of cleaning... We have this:
a 2004 Honda Accord Euro, 2.4L 6 speed.
To her credit, she actually did help and do a heap of the cleaning!
Its got 207KMs and we actually got it from a dealer, who used to work where I currently work, at Mazda. Safe to say I'm happy at the price we paid for it, though the real test is when it visits Francois to be serviced / inspected in a weeks time.
I'm in the bad books with the mother in law because its a downgrade from her 2006 Hyundai Accent, because it is older.
Update on the broken car?
Right.
I bought custom plates for it
The replacement motor, gearbox and clutch are now as one, and physically inside the car.
(Thank you Kenny and his mate)Mounts are all lined up and in.
Clutch line is in and full of fluid, however we couldn't bleed it properly.
The clutch also needs initialising. We couldn't get this to work for a month. Kenny then decided to try something else, and it seems we've got this done.
I'm the most useless person ever with a spanner (because I am one). Kenny made me do many things, the most recent of which, was lie underneath the car doing up all the header bolts. I swore so often and so frequently.
. I do not have small Japanese hands like he does (he's half Japanese). I'm glad that's done.Now its a matter of sourcing and buying replacement parts that are missing. For some reason, we are missing many of the suspension bolts, flywheel cover, miscellaneous interior bolts, etc. Then there's the specific NSX tools that we don't have. The crank on almost all Honda's is 50MM. The manual NSX motor is 45MM.
. Shout out to Wayne (again) who sent his over. But we can't use it yet, as no one I know owns a torque wrench that does 250NM. I'm kind of unwilling to spend several hundred to get one (tightass), for a one time use. I know my work has one, but that's off limits as it doesn't leave the property unfortunately. Still trying to work this one out.I've also just paid for a manual steering rack - that's on its way. I'll need to find a universal joint for it to fit. Enter another several week wait.
The manual tacho I had fell (literally) through. The seller dropped it and it broke
. I'll probably just end up paying over the odds (1.5-2k) for an early factory manual cluster as I won't have EPS either.Still a long way to go, but progress does happen, even if its glacial.
I put the BBS LMs under the shell just to see what it would look like...
Damn, I promised myself an early night, its now nearly midnight.
In the last bit of news, I'm going to be in Europe for 2 weeks in September! Excited to say the least. I've booked 6 laps around Nurburgring (will be my first) and have a week in England to visit dad and the family. Simply cannot wait, though this has ensured that I stick with just 2 cars.... for now....
Thanks for reading!
Edited by Ten Four on Thursday 10th August 16:50
Awesome, managed to read the whole thread in many small chunks over the last week or so! Love the NSX and the story with it, it'll definitely be a keeper when done!
What are you driving round the ring? Have you booked one of the swift ring cars? A mate i went with earlier in the year owns one and i couldnt believe how good it was round the track!
What are you driving round the ring? Have you booked one of the swift ring cars? A mate i went with earlier in the year owns one and i couldnt believe how good it was round the track!
scottos said:
Awesome, managed to read the whole thread in many small chunks over the last week or so! Love the NSX and the story with it, it'll definitely be a keeper when done!
What are you driving round the ring? Have you booked one of the swift ring cars? A mate i went with earlier in the year owns one and i couldnt believe how good it was round the track!
The NSX is definitely a keeper when its done What are you driving round the ring? Have you booked one of the swift ring cars? A mate i went with earlier in the year owns one and i couldnt believe how good it was round the track!
. I've booked an E36 328i from Frankie at Need for Ring... Can't wait.Rensko said:
The WA government must love the amount of stamp duty you chew through with buying and selling 50+ cars!
Accord Euros in the second hand market are a bit of a bargain considering what you get. Plenty of power, safe, reliable etc!
Tell me about it... We picked the Accord Euro up for $3.5k with 6 months rego (~$400). Only thing I can tell so far, is may need drive belt and definitely wants engine mounts (all 3 ordered for $135). Great cars for the money indeed!Accord Euros in the second hand market are a bit of a bargain considering what you get. Plenty of power, safe, reliable etc!
fido said:
Ah, found this thread again. My dad's family moved to Perth and I often wonder what my motoring life, and life in general, would have been like if he had followed them.
Never too late . Just be weary that this country/government hates cars...Edited by Ten Four on Monday 14th August 03:16
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