Silly Picture Thread.

[facthunter]

To meet the Russians?  Nev

[nomadpete]

3 minutes ago, facthunter said:

To meet the Russians?  Nev

No Russians streaming into Gold Coast, the Ruskies escape to their enclaves in Bali.

[red750]

How?  Why?

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Looks shopped

[red750]

[onetrack]

I've bought Camrys for SWMBO ever since we bought our first 1990 Camry in 1992. We used to buy low km, around 2 yr old, ex-Govt Camrys at auction for about $17,000.

 

SWMBO had been put in a Datsun 180B by one of her car-selling relatives when I met her, it was a POS. I was always fixing something on it.

I got rid of it to a girl who came back later, and claimed that we'd sold her a pup, and it had blown up. The cooling system collapsed and she fried it, apparently - so not our problem.

 

The Camrys have all delivered superb reliability and fuel economy, and most were sold with about 100,000kms on the clock. We kept our 2002 Camry the longest, 17 years and 140,000kms. It had done 20,000 kms when we bought it.

I probably should've sold it in 2014 when we bought the replacement 2012 Camry Atara - but it was such a good car, I sort of just hung onto it. We still got $3800 for it at 17 yrs old and 140,000 kms. The only major fault it developed (a common one), was an oil pump leak.

 

The oil pump is mounted externally on the front of the engine under the (plastic) timing cover, and it contains two o-rings, and a lip-type seal, which all go hard and start to leak.

The problem is, the leak is hard to find, because the oil leak wicks down the block and along the sump and then drips off the rear of the engine, making it look like the rear main engine seal is gone.

But I cleaned the engine up spotlessly, and then started to look for where the leak was coming from. It took a while, but I finally found it was the oil pump. It took less than 2 hrs to remove the pump, reseal it with 2 new o-rings and the lip-type seal, and we were back in business.

 

Most people drive Camrys into the ground with no maintenance. People don't change the oil on them, and because the oil galleries are narrow, they block up, and the engine starves of oil.

 

I think the 2002 Camry cost less than $1000 in maintenance over the 17 years we owned it, just brakes and tyres, a thermostat and a top radiator hose. I'm always anal about keeping the cooling systems and coolant absolutely spot-on with regular coolant changes and regular cooling system flushes.

All alloy engines have to be treated with care as regards cooling systems, but fortunately, the genuine Toyota long-life coolant is perfectly tailored to protect all the metals in the engine, and if you use it, rather than any "will-do" coolants, you never have any problems.

 

We've had the Atara for 11 years now, after acquiring it for $19,000 at 13,000kms from a deceased estate. It was a steal, they were bringing $23,000-$24,000 at the time. It's a superb drivers car, it sticks to the road and handles like an F1 race car, and only sips fuel. Quite often I can get it down to 6.5L/100km at 100kmh on long smooth straight lengths of freeway. 

 

The problem now is what to replace it with. I can't get enthused about hybrids and I think the current crop of EV's are still in the experimental stage. I've always worked on never being the first to buy any new model, I like to wait and see how the model proves up, whether it's an unreliable POS or provides excellent reliability.

The RAV4 is looking a likely buy at this stage, but perhaps we'll buy a full petrol-powered RAV4, which Toyota stopped making last year. They're not hard on fuel, and buying a horribly expensive EV, just to save a couple of grand a year on fuel, doesn't make sense to me.

 

Plus the outlandish technology of the newer models is offputting, I'm hearing a lot of complaints from friends and associates about the dramas with exotic technologies such as automatic braking, and lane-guiding features of the current models. Friends have told me how they struggle to keep control, as the car wants to do something different to what they want to do.

[rgmwa]

Despite less than regular maintenance my Vienta went for 450,000km before it finally had to go. The 2008 Aurion looks like it will still go a long time too. Currently up to 220,000km.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Right thread this time:

 

Posted 44 minutes ago

I have a 2013 XC90 Diesel.. 2.2l rated at 225bhp when new. We purchased it 1 year old with 10k miles on the clock. It now has 150,000 miles. This was the last of the old shape. They had a reputation for not great build quality, and there have been a few cosmetic issues with it. Within warranty it threw a turbo gate (waste) valve, which was covered under warranty.  Other than that, it has had a bearing in the altnerator go, which was £30 for the bearing and £280 for labour at a local independent.. There was a problem with a prop shaft, but the local independent fella tweaked it for naught and it has run fine since. 

 

It does fo through tyres, though... Worked out to use Michelens that are all season and they hold up well..  Fuel economy for such a heavy car is pretty good - averages around 30mpg on the motorway, whihch was admittedly most of its driving.

 

Since the ULEZ charge was implemented across the wider London area, I don't drive it anywhere near as much, still love it.

Edited yesterday at 08:53 AM by Jerry_Atrick

[red750]

Evidence removed.

[pmccarthy]

Had a Vienta and loved it  way back when.

Edited 23 hours ago by pmccarthy

[spacesailor]

I'm going to look at a 2015 Tesla S 85d .

Alwheel drive , with " don't run over the peasants " technology. 

At my age I need all the help I can get .

Ten years old . And free " supercharge " on this model. 

( not on yours of course ) . Just looking at my 1st pev . It's hard to find were 

the supercharge stations are , as most seem to be in the CBD .

My grandaughter bought a new MG hybrid & seems happy with it ! .

 

But the rest of the family are against me , having another car , even though I drive 

The 4 Lt pajero .

spacesailor

 

[red750]