[Ratmagiclady]

Just be careful of the door hinges, they have a rep for breaking if you open them too vigorously.
Truck looks good though and should give good service after the synthetics upgrade. I have to agree on the snow tires on steel wheels for winter, you will scoot over the junk with good snow tire during any storms.

Yeah, I noticed the driver's side is showing certain wear, that way. Got a hinge parts on the list for the next parts order, actually. They do look like they coulda used a better grade of steel for some of that, since the holes for the hinge pins seem to wear into elongated shapes. (And the springs are long gone, I'll just have to find something that fits there.) Anyway, I do tend to be pretty gentle with doors, since I don't like slammy noises, but this one does take some extra oomph cause of a wee bit of sag there. Apparently I'm in the habit of opening doors European-style, (like with a separate hand on the door handle than the latch, the idea is so it doesn't fly open into city traffic/bicycles. ) It was funny to hear it's actually the law you have to do it that way in Belgium or something. I'd never thought too much of it.

[Mallee Boy]

We run two vehicles. The 'town" or my wifes, car is a 2010 Ford G6E, the premium offering in the now defunct Ford Falcon range over here. I absolutely adore this car, it has only covered some 85,000km. I have said to my wife that when ever I talk about trading it, she is to kick me...hard ! Occasionally I have those thoughts (with an eye on the age of it), but then I take it for a drive. It is beautifully powerful ( a big straight six), overtaking is swift and safe, handling is precise and the ride is luxurious, relaxing and long trips a breeze. this car is used for interstate trips to visit family (eg Adelaide to Sydney) and fuel consumption on these runs is around 7 - 7.5 litres / 100km...less if i don't tap dance on the right pedal and obey the speed limits. after each drive any thoughts of trading are quickly forgotten.

"My" vehicle is a 2010 Suzuki Grand Vitara ddi. Powered by a 1.9l Renault turbocharged diesel, I purchased this last august to take me off road, I would have preferred a Ford Escape (had one which my daughter still drives....very reliable, tough vehicle), but couldn't find one with low enough kms at the right money and tripped over this Suzy whilst searching. So with a deep breath...and a fair bit of research...I bought it, it had 92,000km on the clock. My mandatory requirement was a 4wd lock, preferably with a low range option....and not a lot of those on offer anymore unless you go the bigger suv.
10,000km later I can say the Suzy is a revelation...in most aspects. It is very much a country car, very, very happy on the open road purring along at 100 kmh, sipping away at the diesel around 6l / 100km. Anymore than 100kmh, which it is happy to do, the fuel consumption starts to climb, a bit less than 100 and it is even more frugal. Off road it is very capable, the manual gearbox, coupled with the 4x4 transfer case engaged, takes you pretty well anywhere. Comfort and handling wise it is a different drive to the Escape, firmer and perhaps a little less "refined" but quite comfortable for long trips (eg Adelaide to Flinders Ranges). Tyres are currently a road orientated Bridgestone which I will eventually replace with something more off road(ish), probably Michelin Latitude.
But I did say ïn "most aspects"....and where it is least happy is in a city situation, with a stop go environment. It is a slug off the line unless one really wants to rev it, which I do not, but once going you can putt around in 2nd or 3rd quite comfortably.
I love it, am very happy with it and can see it as the main car should we ever decide to go back to 1 vehicle.....but right now I see a kick coming.......

[monochrome]

Just carried out my typical Step 2 of my auto acquisition strategy. mrs monochrome likes her 2015 Mini, so I bought my own used car for cash at the end of the lease. 42 months, 20,158 miles, fully serviced in perfect shape. $12,196.

Had she not liked it I would have turned it in and walked away.

[Ratmagiclady]

We run two vehicles. The 'town" or my wifes, car is a 2010 Ford G6E, the premium offering in the now defunct Ford Falcon range over here. I absolutely adore this car, it has only covered some 85,000km. I have said to my wife that when ever I talk about trading it, she is to kick me...hard ! Occasionally I have those thoughts (with an eye on the age of it), but then I take it for a drive. It is beautifully powerful ( a big straight six), overtaking is swift and safe, handling is precise and the ride is luxurious, relaxing and long trips a breeze. this car is used for interstate trips to visit family (eg Adelaide to Sydney) and fuel consumption on these runs is around 7 - 7.5 litres / 100km...less if i don't tap dance on the right pedal and obey the speed limits. after each drive any thoughts of trading are quickly forgotten.

Too bad in so many ways about Australian car manufacturing closing down, but I do like hearing about stuff we don't have over here. I've always thought that if I ended up in Australia, I'd just have to find something of that sort. Probably a wagon or a ute, assuming I was doing similar things to what I do here.

[Just1MoreDave]

That Chevy S10 has some nice places to tie stuff to the front. My Frontier really doesn't - it's either plastic or covered in plastic. I made something removable, inspired by bull bar accessories, but out of some 2x4s. It's not quite symmetrical.



It will disintegrate in a crash, but all it has to do is give me a place to tie some ropes to a canoe. I had to improvise the rest in a hotel parking lot in the rain, but it worked at 75mph for a thousand miles.

[Mallee Boy]

Too bad in so many ways about Australian car manufacturing closing down, but I do like hearing about stuff we don't have over here. I've always thought that if I ended up in Australia, I'd just have to find something of that sort. Probably a wagon or a ute, assuming I was doing similar things to what I do here.

Yes, it is very sad that we have lost our car industry but its pretty hard to keep going when you are 4 times more expensive at manufacturing vehicles than your competitors...it only becomes a matter of time. Some will argue the govt should have increased subsidies and others will argue the industry priced itself out of work.
Meanwhile South Korea is very very happy as sales of their vehicles take off.
We used to make some pretty cool utes, sort of your El Camino style of thing and they drop a V8 in some of them for the white knuckle, butt clenching on seat experience.

[Ratmagiclady]

Yes, it is very sad that we have lost our car industry but its pretty hard to keep going when you are 4 times more expensive at manufacturing vehicles than your competitors...it only becomes a matter of time. Some will argue the govt should have increased subsidies and others will argue the industry priced itself out of work.
Meanwhile South Korea is very very happy as sales of their vehicles take off.
We used to make some pretty cool utes, sort of your El Camino style of thing and they drop a V8 in some of them for the white knuckle, butt clenching on seat experience.

Yeah, over here everything like that gets called an 'El Camino.' We're so into actual trucks over here that they hardly ever sell or think of selling them here unless they test the market with something with the big-time high-performance engine and probably too much lowering to be really practical. You know, those crazy Maloo kinds of things) Which I suppose can only really meet the novelty-muscle market for those that want to get tail-happy or something.

We did get a few Holdens over here as like the Pontiac GTO and plainer versions; plus some police cars: in the former case, they made the mistake of not shouting far and wide "Rear drive! Horsepower! Stick Shift!" cause they didn't *look* much different from anything else on the road, so a lot of people just thought they were like overpowered Hondas or something until it was maybe too late for sales figures.

Also, Dave, I like your bull-bar thing. I've considered whether we might want to accessorize this S10 up front, but these kinds of things have gotten expensive. Also tend toward being more massive than they need to be for us. It'd be nice to have some winching capacity and maybe a step tucked into the bumper, though it's already fairly tight in there from being compact in the first place. Making the truck longer up front might not really be the ticket, but it'd probably be groovy to have like a lightweight brush guard that fits that nicely around here, possibly just to put one of those new LED bar-lights in if we really need that.

[Canada_Rockies]

Also, Dave, I like your bull-bar thing. I've considered whether we might want to accessorize this S10 up front, but these kinds of things have gotten expensive. Also tend toward being more massive than they need to be for us. It'd be nice to have some winching capacity and maybe a step tucked into the bumper, though it's already fairly tight in there from being compact in the first place. Making the truck longer up front might not really be the ticket, but it'd probably be groovy to have like a lightweight brush guard that fits that nicely around here, possibly just to put one of those new LED bar-lights in if we really need that.

It looks good enough to be factory, Dave.

M'Lady, watch out for weight transfer to the front of the S10. They are already a bit light on the back axle, as are virtually all RWD pickup trucks, my Tundra included. I don't think you want to have to add weight to the rear to compensate. The Tundra has enough HP that adding four patio blocks (concrete ~80 lb each) in the bed for winter doesn't make much difference. The suspension is set up for our 5th wheel so they just help with the slipping.

[Ratmagiclady]

It looks good enough to be factory, Dave.

M'Lady, watch out for weight transfer to the front of the S10. They are already a bit light on the back axle, as are virtually all RWD pickup trucks, my Tundra included. I don't think you want to have to add weight to the rear to compensate. The Tundra has enough HP that adding four patio blocks (concrete ~80 lb each) in the bed for winter doesn't make much difference. The suspension is set up for our 5th wheel so they just help with the slipping.

Yep. (Though this one's 4WD which probably makes that a bit worse in all likelihood. We actually live up on a ridge here, so that's actually required, even if I'd ordinarily prefer RWD simplicity. ) Once we account for some pent-up demand for dirt and gravel I have to haul here, I'll be putting a toolbox in to help a little, (And carry chains and straps and etc in) but the thing needs new lock cylinders and hydraulic props and maybe a coat of paint anyway, so I took that out for now. The balance overall isn't *too* bad, for all that, relatively speaking, (basically, as pickups go) cause a lot of weight is carried between the axles. Winter driving here is often just to be avoided in some ways, 4wd or not, because they basically don't treat the roads and so many *others* out there just don't have the skills to drive in that usually there's little point risking the damage if I can stock up ahead of time. We'll want to be good for emergencies, though. Particularly to get up and down our own hill.

Anyway, it's possible our winching solution could end up being something we can put on the receiver hitch in back when we need it, and otherwise not-carry at all. It's not like we go off-roading anywhere but within walking distance of the house. For now we've been using chains and tow straps and a hand-powered ratchet comealong for shifting heavy stuff around.

[ChrisPlatt]

I used to car-top my canoe with a simple inexpensive carrier that used four styrofoam blocks.

At highway speeds the included flat straps vibrated so loudly you had to shout to be heard in the cab of the car.
And even though I used to wax the car then those "soft" styrofoam blocks eventually dulled the paint.

Chris

[SSGGeezer]

I used to car-top my canoe with a simple inexpensive carrier that used four styrofoam blocks.

At highway speeds the included flat straps vibrated so loudly you had to shout to be heard in the cab of the car.
And even though I used to wax the car then those "soft" styrofoam blocks eventually dulled the paint.

Chris

Taking the wife's kayak home from the store I found out that the straps are obnoxious, especially when you have over an hour to get home.

[Racer X 69]

I used to car-top my canoe with a simple inexpensive carrier that used four styrofoam blocks.

At highway speeds the included flat straps vibrated so loudly you had to shout to be heard in the cab of the car.
And even though I used to wax the car then those "soft" styrofoam blocks eventually dulled the paint.

Chris

Give the strap a half twist . The air spills more cleanly around them and they won't flutter.

[ThorSanchez]

The carpocalypse continues apace. At least in the States. Ford announced yesterday that they're discontinuing US sales of the Fiesta, Focus, Fusion, Taurus, etc. If you want a Ford it's going to be a pickup truck, an SUV or a Mustang. Or, I suppose the few hundred GTs they sell to hedge fund managers and Jay Leno.


Bleh.


The standard line is that sales of soulless SUVs give manufacturers the profit margins to be able to develop and sell exciting vehicles. You can put up with a Porsche Cayenne or a Alfa Romeo Cereal Box or a Jaguar F-Crate existing if it means the Cayman and the Giulia get to live. But if manufacturers kill off their car lines altogether?

[aslyfox]

The carpocalypse continues apace. At least in the States. Ford announced yesterday that they're discontinuing US sales of the Fiesta, Focus, Fusion, Taurus, etc. If you want a Ford it's going to be . . . an SUV . . .

the revenge of the station wagon ???

I still can't get over the idea of an SUV by Lincoln, Cadillac, Mercedes, BMW

just doesn't seem right to me

[ThorSanchez]

the revenge of the station wagon ???

I still can't get over the idea of an SUV by Lincoln, Cadillac, Mercedes, BMW

just doesn't seem right to me

It's the revenge of the people who didn't take physics or dynamics or statics. Bigger, heavier, higher center of mass, less aerodynamic. You can't overcome physics. An SUV will be worse handling, worse performance, and have worse gas mileage than a comparable sedan/coupe/wagon. You're trading enjoyment of life for high driving position and fractionally more cargo space.