Which Ute for $6000 or so V.must be cheap to run

[darwinschops]

The 3.6L V6 on the later models are really showing their age as well. If anything the 3.8L is doing a lot better.

weirdly, all of the VU's i've been in have been manual and all have fairly gone well considering buick boat anchor status... except bits falling off the 3 buick/ecotec engined ones i've had, considering the sheer abuse they got v basic design, they all did pretty fucking well even if 2 died (after mods and head gasket after 330,000km). the early 3.6's i've been i have been barely distinguishable and it's only the later 190kw/sidi ones that make enough difference to matter/cart the extra weight about.

my preference would still be for one of those than the similar year falcs in a best case comparison. just felt more snappy, lively, familiar. clearly i give no fuck for carting shit around. but so, so much harder to find one in decent nick that hasn't had the flat brim/unit/chev badge treatment. see a lot more nice, clean falcons.

The thing that made my au awesome was 1. It was an au3.. One of thexlast of them, so the niggles were all sorted out and they changed the dash lights from grey orange to backlit lcd, and 2. It was a v8.

With my dads ba, the interior is so builf in around you i feel chlostrophobic almost. The au feels really airy inside. And the barra motor whilst has mors power and supposedly faster, its also more highly strung than my old 5l. It used to just lope along.. So understressed!

Mh dads ba is getting rather tired too.. Its only on 420,000km. Fucking weak if you ask me :D
so far its been through 11000 sets of pads and rotors, and a diff rebuild. Original auto, motor etc.. Even original waterpump lolz

yep big k's on aus built normally means the auto/moto will wheeze along for a bit longer but everything else starts faling off after a while and the $$$ start to piss you off. that's where i called it a day with all of my older ones. mod money on maintenance = soiya.

v8 enough reason to take anything over anything else, all being equal enough! hearing that every day would be enough to get over AU presentation eventually... weirdly, i love the wrap around thing a lot more. one of the reasons i fucking love the interior on my car. definitely see what your'e saying though. they are big, open comfy things.

and really, the v8 thing would be a no brainer for me but it's weird, some people actually care about that whole fuel economy thing... would be interesting to know how the old windsor compared there.

[MRMOPARMAN]

On the freeway i used to get 700km from a 68?ish litre tank of gas (carby,not injected). Thats with a steel tray but no sides on it. My dads ba is worse on petrol than mine was, and marginally better on gas (thats gas injection, and tub with canopy)

Stock for stock.. The 5l wipes the floor with the barra

[MRMOPARMAN]

Oh mine was manual, and dads is auto. Also he drives like an old nanna. I did too, but not to his extent!!

[matt b]

Requirements:
Tolls are even more with the jap commercial vehicles too (scam if you ask me when registered for private use).

This should only be the case if you register the vehicle for commercial use when setting up the Govia account.

[RotaUte]

Xh on gas

Been there and yep, good bang for buck, sold mine for $3500, wasn't mint body wise, but mechanicals were perfect

[darwinschops]

On the freeway i used to get 700km from a 68?ish litre tank of gas (carby,not injected). Thats with a steel tray but no sides on it. My dads ba is worse on petrol than mine was, and marginally better on gas (thats gas injection, and tub with canopy)

Stock for stock.. The 5l wipes the floor with the barra

huh, would never have guessed that. it's a fucking surprise really because even post turbo, mine still hovers around 12-14l/100km and 90% of that is in the grind in a nigh on 2t car.

man i'm glad i have an 8, just getting to hear that thing every day would make it worth it if it wasn't for the fact it did other things well... even if you have the I6t spoony, wedge an 8 in there next to it, resale on them makes them really attractive if you want to run something into the ground for a couple years...

10l/100k on carbed gas is pretty awesome. now i just need to go for a drive in one that's not setup like a vacum cleaner...

[MRMOPARMAN]

The stock non xr8 exhausts on the 5ls are utter puss. replace asap as they do sound like vacuum cleaners. mine had the exhaust modded for the gas tank.. i asked them to lose a muffler and replace it with a hotdog. sounded grouse. just needed extractors

[Spoonfed]

Where the fuck are the pics?

Ps. Hi Jess!

haha,fixed

Chick....Ute.....Good on fuel....

Sorted

Fuck, it's not like I was asking how to kill a chick using a ute. ha!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07ltl5Ij1sg
http://www.ancap.com.au/crashtestrecord?Id=341
scary ain't they


After looking at a number of coooooooons and commys on the weekend, there does seem to be a bit of a 'brim/chev' tax on the commys for the $'s.
Each of the coons with more kms seem to hold up better drivablity and finish wise to vs the commys from what I could judge.

Some good info in this thread, 10l/100km seems too good for carbed gas. I've based 18l/100 or so for Egaser normal day driving, 13-14l/100km same yoooooooot petrol. Hilux/B2600/whatever else petrol about the same from all accounts.

The BA dual fuel got snipped up. 2002 AU III Egas, for under just under $6000 is the go atm (only gaids is it's a tray so). 220,000kms but seems petrol ones have mainly similar kms and $'s anyways. $11/100km vs $20/100km = winning.



Pic for Millsi/Usezzzcunts.

[irsa76]

Been told the Jumbucks are bloody expensive to insure for what they are.
Not to mention I'd rather a Brumby over a Jumbuck, not really much better these days.

[beeraddd]

why does i t have to be a ute???
i have a 97 mitsubishi wa express van lwb. bought if for $3800 and has way more room than any trayback ute i can think of. goes well with the 2.4 injected petrol jobbie and is good on fuel. i actually love the driving position of these things. they're just a triton underneath, so all the shit seating position stuff of driving a van is out the window. parts are dirt cheap, and you can sleep in the back with a piece of foam when going to drink-ups!

[Spoonfed]

Van could be an option...... see jumbuck for the same reasons though. Express van matches it . Depends if it's a factor though.
97 is injected, seems to be many newer even 2002 that are carby vans, weird? Quite a number with under 200,000km and engine rebuilds too which I thought was a bit odd.
Super practical though like you said!

A van though can be more comfortable to drive than a hilux/rodeo/whatever from needing a kidney belt point of view lol

[gbanger]

I work on AU/VT etc all the time and the I find the commodores feel very lose compared to a same year falcon.

AU onwards spec I6, slap a transmission cooler on it and they go forever.

+1 ,No brainer AU series 2/3 FTW................

[dave_vic_ozz]

On the Ford gearboxes.

Mate is a car nut and has a fairlane / LTD looking thing. He has a thermocouple on his trans to measure its temp. Towing a heavy caravan is no problem. It gets hot in peak hour traffic but only to about 95 deg C on a hot Melbourne day so he never bothered with a cooler. He has a new one in the box and he is the type that fits that sort of thing.

A catch a taxi often. Tim the driver has Ford guys all the time. He tells me the last Australian made transmission had to do a minimum of 450,000km before needing attention. He also avoids doing oil changes. Just leaves them. You need he factory oil, so the ford dudes tell him.

[gbanger]

On the Ford gearboxes.

Mate is a car nut and has a fairlane / LTD looking thing. He has a thermocouple on his trans to measure its temp. Towing a heavy caravan is no problem. It gets hot in peak hour traffic but only to about 95 deg C on a hot Melbourne day so he never bothered with a cooler. He has a new one in the box and he is the type that fits that sort of thing.

A catch a taxi often. Tim the driver has Ford guys all the time. He tells me the last Australian made transmission had to do a minimum of 450,000km before needing attention. He also avoids doing oil changes. Just leaves them. You need he factory oil, so the ford dudes tell him.

Ive had quite a few Late model fords, 3 Au's,Ba's, Bf's,territory etc....
The most commom cause for "Fraud" 4spd trans gearbox failure is the trans cooler cracking internally and feeding coolant through the trans fucking it royally.BF on ZF 6spds run a separate heat exchanger on the block,thats another story.........
Remove lines bypassing radiator trans cooler and run a large external unit,no longer being a problem.
Change trans oil every 50,000ks,25k or less if draging cars/heavy shit around all year. The oil will be burnt and dirty every time.

Granted they do last forever but require general servicing to do so,Cabbies dont often know what the fuck gets done to there cars they just pay the bill. Our Ford "silverline" cab driver and his Taxi AU fairlane got 975'000k out of it,before he sold it for $1000 was still a very nice car when he sold it.
A good Taxi FORD Mechanic know how to keep the AUs going forever.

[darwinschops]

...Taxi AU fairlane got 975'000k out of it,before he sold it for $1000 was still a very nice car when he sold it.
A good Taxi FORD Mechanic know how to keep the AUs going forever.

that's just awesome. and all said and done, mate's AU does cost him sweet fark all to run and he's fixed every fault (radiator tank, problem with the gas setup, minor other electrical bits) to again, the cost of sweet fark all.