Cars for Australian Conditions

[Wretched]

Cars built for AU conditions? Biggest load of tripe I have ever heard.
May be back in 60's and 70's but now it isn't true.
Our climate is similar to that experienced in the US, actually they have worse conditions, snow, heat (Mojave Desert), salt on the roads, etc.
Our roads are rubbish but there are a range of these all over the world.

My Focus XR5 after 6.5 years, 160000km, has an interior like new, leather seats have kept their bolstering and show no signs of fade and the dash, still in tact and no cracks.
Compartievly my BA Falcon by 110000km had a worn out steering wheel (cracks and peeling), the dash was coming adrift close to the windscreen and the seat bolstering had diminished completely. The saving grace I'll admit is the A/C, the Falcon's one outshines the one in the Focus by a mile.

[simon varley]

Originally Posted by chrisandsharon

Yeah I had a bit of a laugh Martin when I heard about its massive 550kg towing capability when it first came out.....the same vehicle was rated to tow 2000kg in Europe.

Here's the info link:

http://m.motoring.com.au/news/2013/t...capacity-36841

Cheers

look at Focus and Kuga tow capability versus Europe. It's a fact that we have steep hills and hot weather together and that can limit tow capability based on eng and trans temps. Yes I know Eu has steeper hills but at the top they are freezing. Brown Mountain is just as hot at the top as at the bottom and that's Ford's local benchmark for trailer tow.

[chrisandsharon]

Originally Posted by new2ford

By the way, I live in the country, out of town among the roos. Statistically only a tiny percentage of people in the bush might have to deal with more extreme situations and they will probably use a 4WD with a bullbar - which are readily available on the market for those who need them.

Agree with the bush folk and bullbars comment comrade. We lived in NW WA for 5 years and I worked around the clock at any time. Extremely rare to see a car out after dark unless it's tourist season and they think their million watt spotties will stop a bull walking out of the scrub in front of them.....suicide. Main concerns were camels/horses/donkeys and cattle. Cattle were the worst. We were stuck on 50km/h outside of Marble Bar one night because they were that bad.

We had a Prado take out a horse a few years back ......write off. Mate hit 2 cattle in his new Hilux.........definitely breakable.......they scattered the hiluxes ashes at the local wrecking yard.......affected the mates head as he then bought a Land Rover (all jokes aside a tough unit)

Worse was a tragic fatality on the mates wife side........hit an emu at speed and killed the driver. Luckily their 10 year old lieing down asleep on the back seat was spared............the body of the emu came straight through the windscreen, it was a car not a 4wd. We had a close call with one on a bend, bastards blend in.

Lastly Roos are massive out here........I thought the Shoalhaven ones were rabbits with big hind legs

Cheers

[castellan]

Originally Posted by Wretched

Cars built for AU conditions? Biggest load of tripe I have ever heard.
May be back in 60's and 70's but now it isn't true.
Our climate is similar to that experienced in the US, actually they have worse conditions, snow, heat (Mojave Desert), salt on the roads, etc.
Our roads are rubbish but there are a range of these all over the world.

My Focus XR5 after 6.5 years, 160000km, has an interior like new, leather seats have kept their bolstering and show no signs of fade and the dash, still in tact and no cracks.
Compartievly my BA Falcon by 110000km had a worn out steering wheel (cracks and peeling), the dash was coming adrift close to the windscreen and the seat bolstering had diminished completely. The saving grace I'll admit is the A/C, the Falcon's one outshines the one in the Focus by a mile.

You would have to go to Ford Australia and Holden and find out why they test there cars on them tracks they have to test there cars on.

As to holden they got the Opel commodore and put it on there test track and it fell apart you know, then they did spend many dollars testing and made the VB commodore for our conditions you know.
Hey wheels i think even drove one to the cape to prove how good it was remember.

No you are all wrong if you think your import car was tested for what ford aus or holden were on about.

Holden built chev were even a fair bit diffrent to the USA ones.

I think holden and ford aus sold a lot more cars in aus than others and had to prove them good for it.

I hate 4x4 and such cars as they are all gutless ill handleing junk, if you drive a lot ? when i have to drive them i can't wate to get out of them soon enought they are such a pain to drive it's sicking.

I see only 4X4 as only good for real of the track work as a commodore can go almost anywhere other then the real off tracks if you know how to drive and i have even passed 4X4 that have cut out from water and seen them bogged due to them being idiots who can't drive for jack.

What some would think they would never even think of driveing a 4x2 car some can and do without a problem in the world.

I have had city mates say in my car you can't drive there thinking theres no way you will make it in a commodore spinning out full on you will need a 4X4

[Wretched]

Originally Posted by castellan

You would have to go to Ford Australia and Holden and find out why they test there cars on them tracks they have to test there cars on.

As to holden they got the Opel commodore and put it on there test track and it fell apart you know, then they did spend many dollars testing and made the VB commodore for our conditions you know.
Hey wheels i think even drove one to the cape to prove how good it was remember.

No you are all wrong if you think your import car was tested for what ford aus or holden were on about.

Holden built chev were even a fair bit diffrent to the USA ones.

I think holden and ford aus sold a lot more cars in aus than others and had to prove them good for it.

I hate 4x4 and such cars as they are all gutless ill handleing junk, if you drive a lot ? when i have to drive them i can't wate to get out of them soon enought they are such a pain to drive it's sicking.

I see only 4X4 as only good for real of the track work as a commodore can go almost anywhere other then the real off tracks if you know how to drive and i have even passed 4X4 that have cut out from water and seen them bogged due to them being idiots who can't drive for jack.

What some would think they would never even think of driveing a 4x2 car some can and do without a problem in the world.

I have had city mates say in my car you can't drive there thinking theres no way you will make it in a commodore spinning out full on you will need a 4X4

Had a few too many for lunch?
That post made no sense.

[Ducati888]

Originally Posted by XP6

Hell no, why would I want a 4WD for hyway use

They're multi purpose vehicles. The Hilux is the third best selling vehicle in the country. It also comes as 2WD, so your argument is mostly moot.

People want a car they can use for work during the week and play during the weekend. I believe that Hilux, Triton and Ranger were all in the top ten best selling cars last month. Why do you think that is?

The cost of rego and insurance is so high, it's prohibitive for most people to own a toy for weekends alone.

[castellan]

Originally Posted by Wretched

Had a few too many for lunch?
That post made no sense.

YOU YANG PROVING GROUND. why did they bother ?
It's about aussie conditions not just stuck up city twerps point of views who would not know jack, the city mates of mine would not know or understand because it's all beyond their comprehension and they still don't know and i don't care what they think because they only live in there own little world.
But i have to live it day in day out so why would i listen to fools. gee whizz they must be right as they have no idea.

The problem is they don't want to know, but i do know what it's all about and i am not driving no FWD car off the main type of roads because they are rubbish in fact and i don't want any BMW Merc etc out on such roads.

I get this type of reaction from people nowadays from people who look up on the nett about my job and instantly they think they know more about my job than i do and i have been in the trade for over 30 years but you can't tell them nothing they know better, gee i might put an apprentice on and learn from him.

[simon varley]

Originally Posted by castellan

i am not driving no FWD car off the main type of roads because they are rubbish in fact

fair enough. your loss then mate.

[Crazy Dazz]

Originally Posted by Yellow_Festiva

No such thing as 'Australian conditions' IMO.

What conditions do we have that other places don't?

98% of us drive in conditions that mirror any other advanced country.

So you're not Australian? Because you'd be the same ****head nomatter where you lived?

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by Crazy Dazz

So you're not Australian? Because you'd be the same ****head nomatter where you lived?

Other than not making any sense this post is insulting, which is certainly not needed!

[Nikked]

I think the "Australian car" has been made redundant as cities grew and roads got better...I don't really see Australia as having any greater extremes in conditions compared to other countries...

[jpblue1000]

Ive had the pleasure of owning or having access to many cars, sedans hatches, utes, trucks and 4wd's over 30 years of driving.
And Ive been lucky enough to have lived and traveled over much of the globe and much of Australia and Our B roads are amongst the best in the world. Our A roads are equal to the rest of the western world, our tracks on the other hand are as bad as anywhere else I have been, ruts, corrugations and dust match any bad conditions anywhere Ive been, but worse?. Our summer temperatures are lower than many places and we certainly don't get that cold. There are better cars to travel large distances in than the falcon or commodore and better cars for hacking about in the inner city and much better cars for handling the goat tracks out of our cities. Of course most of us live in the city and barely leave, those that live out of the cities mostly have B roads and those living in the 'outback' buy a car suited to the roads they live on.
The Australian product is not great at anything but good at most things, we shoudl be proud of what our fellow Australians have produced in our local cars for the price. But don't believe only these cars are capable of surviving the 'Australian condition'

JP

[chrisandsharon]

Depending on where you live in this huge country some of our summers/wet seasons are hotter than most places.

[zilo]

Originally Posted by XR6Runner

So the the sun over Africa or any other country is different to our "aussie"sun?
.

yes it is.

Australia is the one country most affected by excess UV due to the depletion in the ozone layer.

This has a significant impact on plastic based products such as dashboards.

We also have the highest skin cancer rates per head.

[Nova 8]

A surface temperature of 69.2°C was recorded by a NASA satellite in the badlands in the Queensland outback.

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/cli...alias-badlands


Either way in my experience cars are more resilient then you'd expect and if you just go out and hack about the car will do surprisingly well. Just watch a top gear special, Botswana for example.

[chrisandsharon]

Originally Posted by Nova 8

A surface temperature of 69.2°C was recorded by a NASA satellite in the badlands in the Queensland outback.

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/cli...alias-badlands


Either way in my experience cars are more resilient then you'd expect and if you just go out and hack about the car will do surprisingly well. Just watch a top gear special, Botswana for example.

That is hot! We've had heat guns measuring the ground at 73° in the Pilbara........we call the place the devils lair

[ZGM86]

Originally Posted by jpblue1000

The Australian product is not great at anything but good at most things, we shoudl be proud of what our fellow Australians have produced in our local cars

They are a great all-rounder for sure, that's what I like about them.

[outback_ute]

When you get off the bitumen is where you appreciate Australian cars, well Falcons at least. I haven't driven Commodores in the same conditions, and frankly I can't imagine they would do as well.

Modern cars in general are worse in such conditions with lower profile tyres, longer overhangs and lower ride height. You don't have to get out of town to appreciate that either, just find some steep driveways or common size concrete carpark chocks.

[Ben73]

Originally Posted by outback_ute

Modern cars in general are worse in such conditions with lower profile tyres, longer overhangs and lower ride height. You don't have to get out of town to appreciate that either, just find some steep driveways or common size concrete carpark chocks.

That's true. I have owned 2 cars & 2 4x4's. The 2 cars would often scrape on driveway entry/exits, carpark speed bumps, carpark chocks and gutters and many other obstacles in the city. My last car couldn't even get in my own driveway without scraping it's belly.

No wonder so many people buy small SUV's these days.
The missus needs a new car soon, and I probably will try to steer her towards one.