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Comments
Is this in reference to Lister-Jaguar and 904 Porsche???
Thanks,
Jim
Funny but when you eat out regularly, it loses its appeal. I travel a lot and Judy would like to eat out more when I am home. From my perspective, the ideal meal is something light (perhaps a pasta dish or fish with salad) at home with a nice glass of wine and my wife and kids for company.
As to the wine, we are blessed with a lovely range in Australia. This year is a severe drought and hence yields are down a lot although sugar levels are very high as is flavour. This has coincided with a period where total plantings are excessive in Australia so the current year will be fabulous both for quality and quantity, for Australian wines. Might even be able to send some overseas if you are really lucky.
Vintage has been declared in the Barossa Valley and most regions will follow unless there is a really early frost which seems unlikely given that we are seeing excessive temperatures and no propsect of the El Nino breaking. Lucien will comfirm what a good year can do for good vines. Now all we really need is a bit of light rain and some botritus mould to get the sticky wines to fabulous taste levels.
Maybe it is the year to go touring for sticky desert wines. Self levelling suspension is vital, obviously, if you are packing in the crates over the rear axle.
Cheers
Graham
Bob
The Beck 904 by Avanti: http://www.zipp.com.mx/avanti/beck_specifications.htm - Avanti Motors has teamed with Chuck Beck to produce a replica of the Beck 904 Porsche. Uses Porsche 911 drivetrain components.
SVO Lister by Avanti: http://www.zipp.com.mx/avanti/lister_specifications.htm - Avanti Motors has teamed with Chuck Beck to build the Beck Lister Corvette. Uses Corvette drivetrain components.
Ed
Steve
Any idea what a Beck 904 would cost? The 904 has been my dream car since childhood days. Unfortunately, I've grown up. Kids in HS & college. No dream cars in the forseeable future. 8~(
Jim
[homer]Mmmmmmm......noble rot........[/homer]
-mike
Now you have GM suing Avanti Corporation because they claim the Studebaker XUV is a Hummer H2 rip-off...
http://just-auto.com/nd.asp?art=40266&dm=yes
Bob
Funny thing I saw yesterday 2 H2s with External Tire Carriers, I bet that frees up some nice space for that 3rd row of seats.
-mike
Ed
Cheers!
Paul
Yes, I believe it is first response:
http://www.4wdonline.com/Subaru/Outback.html
http://www.autoweb.com.au/start_170/showall_/id_SUB/doc_sub000717- 1/cms/news/newsarticle.html
-Dennis
mike - the 3rd row seat, not seats. Singular, there's just one!
-juice
Bob
Cheers Pat.
Note the 16" US-spec WRX alloys on the Legacy and the last-gen US-spec Forester L steelies on the current-gen Forester.
Ed
If I'm not mistaken, all current Foresters—that use the 2.0 engine, as opposed to the 2.5 engine, in the base "X" trim level, still use the 15" steel wheels. North America, Australia and New Zealand, which all get 2.5 Foresters, use the 16" steel wheels on the base "X" models.
Bob
There was also an unmarked WRX wagon patrol car on display; it was loaded down with radar and other cop car goodies but otherwise looked like your everyday European continent-spec WR Blue WRX wagon.
Ed
Bob
Nice photos -- I saw the similar Carabinieri Subarus when I was in Rome several years back.
Ken
Funny how these things seem normal after a while.
In Victoria, our weather conditions vary from intense drought as we are currently experiencing to torrential floods, frequently with little pause between. As I look a the weather radar, I can see that we may get some relief from the current dry conditions in about half an hour when an intense storm cell will pass over us.
In rural Victoria, the Forester GT is used extensively by the police in both plain wrapper and conventional police format. They are also used around suburban melbourne in plain wrapper version - fast and great handling.
The Ambulance Service use them as rapid response vehicles, looking fr those Golden Minutes to get medice to accident victims. Melbourne has tramtracks which mean that many of our major roads have fast through trascks down the centre of the road but travelling on these can be lethal if you slip. The combination of rain and steel is pretty exciting when everything lets go. I can confirm that a Forester GT is the fastest thing you will ever see on these routes alowing a very rapid response time.
One of the oddities of Melbourne is the back up service of the Fire Brigade to the Ambulance service. There is a fair chance that a fire officer can reach site before an ambulance and hence emergencies routinely turn out a fire engine as well as an ambulance. Firefighters are trained farily intensively in first aid and this reduces adverse consequences, particularly for stroke and coronary cases.
I have not seen an Outback used for emergency services in Victoria although they are used in rural NSW where distances etc. are greater.
Cheers
Graham
-mike
Steve
Now, to find a way get around the government bureaucracy...
Bob
Even if the Federal Gov. doesn't take notice, I'm pretty sure the display would be etched into the consumer's mind.
-Dave
In a perfect world, if Subaru can actually get these vehicles into the hands of local police/fire/rescue departments, that would be best, as the exposure to the public would be far greater.
Bob
Cheers Pat.
Ed
-Dave
Cheers Pat.
Ed
In Cali I saw a lot of Isuzu Amigos on the beach in use by the patrols, I think it's much more accepted there. You probably won't see import brand vehicles near the capital or in rural areas.
-juice
I actually e-mailed a couple of dealers in Germany but I never got any replies.
Cheers Pat.
Cheers Pat.
http://www.blueovalnews.com/2003/trucks/foreign.bantam.021803.htm
Bakkie would be a great name if Subaru were to ever offer a (real) small 4x4 truck, to compliment the car-based Baja.
Bob (who is dreaming again...)
What do you think Ed?
http://www.theavanti.com/XUV.html
http://www.zipp.com.mx/avanti/studebaker.htm
Bob
Here are a few photos of 1950s Stude pickups to give you an idea.
First, 1950:
The first minor restyle was in 1954; here's a 1955:
Finally, an ungainly fiberglass grille that was added in 1957. Here's a 1959:
In 1960 Stude launched the Champ, a pickup that shared its front clip with the Lark passenger car.
Ed
Bob (desperately trying to justify my earlier post...)
Ed
As a marketing slogan they could use:
"What would Kit Carson drive?"
Bob
Very nice looking trucks.
bit
They've actually already had a face-lift since then. The new front-end on the Fiesta is far, far more attractive.
Sliding doors? My bad assumption - I thought they were suicide doors. I should have noticed the tracks. The H2 is too small inside for its bulk, so maybe this will utilize space better.
-juice
Are you referring to the "bakkie" post? If so, my main reason for posting that was for that name—which I love. If Subaru should ever decide to offer a "real" pickup or Wrangler-like vehicle, that would be a perfect name IMO.
Bob
I currently have a 2000 Legacy GT in very good condition with 45,000 miles.
I pay $360 per month and my payment ends for another 3 years.
BMW has a current offer of $299 a month 36-month lease on 325i with 3,000 down plus taxes & fees.
And of course it has free service and maintenance for 4 years or 50k miles.
This is tempting for me cause I really like to try a BMW.
Assuming the difference of the monthly payment is $60 (plus taxes),
$60 * 36 = $2160 will be the overall difference of monthly payment (estimated)
I would lose around +$840 in this case since the downpayment of $3000 for the lease (without adding the fees)
minus the $2160 that I would save from the monthly payment for 36 months.
I drive around 12k miles a year and I don't really modify my cars with after market stuff.
Is this a good deal for me? Thanks for your inputs.
P
Sorry if it sounds like I'm lecturing but you did ask...
-Frank P.
let's see what a 3 year-old 3er goes for with 36,000 miles... hmm nada.com says with popular equipment you're looking at $21,500 trade in, $24,500 retail. say the 2003 325i you're looking at is an even $30k for argument's sake (they can be optioned far higher of course).
so in effect, you have paid almost $14,000 for a vehicle that probably will only depreciate $5,000.
sounds like a bad deal to me. they say leasing vehicles with high resale is the way to go because the residual is higher and the lease cheaper, but if this is the typical economics I'll be buggered if I know what the lure is. I do realize that putting only $3k down on that car with a 6yr loan looks a LOT worse than that $299/mo lease... but still I don't get it.
-Colin
My guess is that the residual of that 3-series is around $18k. So, it would be a bonus to him to purchase it at the residual price, rather than the market selling price (which in this case is $7k higher than his 'residual'). Even more, he could sell the 3 at that time, thus negating any extras he paid. That $7k could be used for the next vehicle lease. ;-)
I've always read/heard that it's better to put as little money down on a lease. I suppose in this case you could say the $3k up front is sort of paying for the 'free' maintenance.
You also may want to inquire with your local credit union. They sometimes have a package available that lets you get lease-type payments with an actual loan (sort of a balloon loan). You can walk away at the end, or pay (or finance) the remaining balloon).
FWIW. YMMV.
-Brian
Surely the GT would last 8 years reliably, or 5 more years. So yeah, 3 more years of payments, but then at least 2 years of total freedom from car payments.
Two advantages - you could put $360 per month in savings, and after 8 years the GT would still be worth $6 grand or so. $360 * 24 = $8640, that's more than $14 grand you'd have saved up!
Then you could BUY whatever car you want with such a huge downpayment.
Long-term ownership will always make you come out ahead, without a doubt. You gotta break the cycle of getting the itch to swap cars every 2-3 years, in the long run that'll cost you a fortune no matter how they try to mask it with attractive lease deals.
-juice
At that point you are ahead of the game and if you have maintained your vehicle well it is still worth money at that point.
Cheers Pat.