Taking our Icon cars for granted

[jphanna]

Like most of you I have been brought up with the traditional aussie icon. A Sedan with big lazy 6 or 8 out front. That was the norm it seems, until about a decade ago.

Before you ask…..i started out with valiant 6, that car got cleaned up, (some kid went through stop sign). then came an XE Fairmont, followed by Calais VL. That got smashed to pieces (my fault) so I had to settle for a corolla for a decade, as I couldn’t afford a proper car. I bought a jet ski so I needed a big car again. Finally got a VE commodore. My dad died not long after and inherited his EA 4speed auto. I used that as my tow monkey for the ski, as it did it easier than the VE!! So I had my fair share of lazy big aussie sedans.

To then buy a Holden Cruze with 1.8 auto was my last chance to get a new car with unbelievable trade in for VE. I tried Ford and they offered peanuts for VE.
The cruze…..although reliable to date, is the only car I driven with factory turbo lag, but with a normal aspirated engine!!! People used to laugh about starfire sunbird, but this is worse. So I bought a big 3 seater jet ski a few weeks ago. The cruze has a tow bar and I took it the first week. It’s a 90km trip through Adelaide hills and its roller coaster most of the way, not dead flat as in the north. I had to coax it all the way so the the engine was on the boil but not over rev it, keeping an eye on the temp guage. 1.8 4cyl, in a 1400kg car is not a good idea.

For our second trip, 2 Saturdays ago, my son was going to join us and rolled up to my house that Friday night, with a car he picked up for $1000.00, minutes before hand. (he buys old cars every 6 months) a 250,000km AU fairlane ghia….
It had a towbar!

Not in a million years would I suggest talking a totally unknown car up the river, towing, in 35 deg up hills, in the first 12 hours of ownership…..but he suggested it.

Checked the oil, coolant, power steering, hooked it up and away we went. With the tickford motor up front, I had to remember to only use 2mm of throttle, not 2 cms like in the Cruze. The temp gauge settled on sitting between N and O in NORMAL, for the whole day and did not budge, even on way back when it was 35 degrees in late afternoon. It pulled the ski out the water using .5mm of throttle and didn’t miss a beat all day. This with 250,000kms on the clock and 12 hours old in the family.

After this example of what I missed, a big ballsy aussie sedan, instead of driving a toy, I am now in market for FG XR6. I cant wait to get a real car again.

An Aussie ICON.