Posts Tagged ‘cars’

Out with the old in with the new

Posted: 26/03/2013 by Sharole in Events, News, Pictures, Uncategorized
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Sadly we had to bid the (1993) Camry goodbye after 4 years. She was a quick purchase so as to get around when we first arrived in Australia. It was just wide enough to fit the 3 car seats across the back seat. My dad said it was gray, it sure looked more purple to us though :) I was trying not to spend money in the car department for at least another year, however she cost us a good $1000 over the last year in repairs for a car only worth $2000 and so with this last issue we decided it was time to upgrade so Toby had a more reliable car to commute with daily.

Toby was firm on his only choice of car, a VW Polo (2010). Toby’s been after me for a good year and a half to get one, he did start with the Gulf but then changed his mind to a Polo towards the end of last year. Toby found 2 cars to look at, I went and looked and did the wheel and deal and voila, a car was purchased rather quickly, it’s amazing how helpful a dealership will be when you have 4 kids roaming around the store to make you happy and get you out. We were also lucky enough to sell our Camry within 4 days of advertising, so that was a relief.

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We ended up having to wait 2 weeks for a new part to get installed on her, the dealership gave us a car to use whilst we waited, a jetta, we weren’t impressed with it, and finally picked her up on Saturday just gone. That was the first time Toby saw her. She is a lovely zippy car and has lots of pump for a 1.2 turbo. I admit I am enjoying driving her on my trips to the gym and such, it feels good to have a manual car in the family again. It’s like having our odessey and honda back.

We had another victim in this exchange and that was our fridge. That in itself is a long story but the end of it is, the seals went and were not able to be replaced, so at 15 years old, we said our goodbye’s to Whirlpool and welcomed in the Fisher and Paykel. The kids made comments like, this fridge is hard to open, I said yes because the seals work, and another one said, it’s so cold when I open the fridge, and I replied yes I know isn’t it great, the fridge works properly. So now our food should last longer, yay!

So this month has turned out to be a real expensive month for us. I then decided to look into some of our bills seeing how to reduce costs and managed to find a $1200 saving for our health insurance a year, I was proud of myself. Then to top it off our rent just went up :( $1200 a year. So as least I evened out the costs. Please no more bills or upgrades needed for ages……..

Now the question is, is Toby happy now?

Hit a Dog this morning

Posted: 12/07/2012 by Toby in Uncategorized
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So I’m on Mamre this morning driving into St Marys, and life is good. I’m at the front of the line, thinking about changing lanes cause I have to turn in two lights. Then, very clearly, as if in slow motion, there’s a dog crossing the street from the right. It’s already crossed the oncoming traffic (there was none) and it’s headed across my lane.

Looked a bit like this

It was so close, I figured it would either react, or something, but it didn’t. I didn’t swerve (I rarely do, since I’d rather not hit another car, or telephone pole, or anything else), but I pushed on the brake a little. BAM! There was a car-shuddering THWACK! The car was still rolling, and I looked behind me for the carcass, but there was none. I was still rolling, slowly, and the traffic behind me was pretty slow. After another few seconds, still looking in the rear view, I saw the dog, running down the sidewalk. It may have been limping a little, but otherwise still running around. Then it crossed the street again and ran up ahead. I couldn’t tell if it was even limping any more.

When I went over the dog, I didn’t really get any ‘speed bump’ effect, so I’m guessing it must have gone under right between the wheels and then just bounced back up!

I checked the car when I got to work. On the front bumper, I could see where the dog hit, just to the side of the license plate, the paint is cracked. The impact also knocked the left side loose. I’ll need to take out the nut and re-seat but otherwise not too bad.

Out with the old in with the New

Posted: 10/07/2012 by Sharole in Events, Family, Informative, News, Pictures, Uncategorized
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In January we swapped out our Volvo XC90

for a Chrysler Grand Voyager.

I was really sad to see her go. She was nice to drive and comfortable with good views for all in the family, however she became a bit small inside for our growing family. So after Toby’s research and seeking out a better fit for our family, this is what he came up with. A Yank mobile.

I do love our new car. It’s perfect for our needs :) Thanks Tobes for keeping on top of that. A little slice of America at our doorstep.

Volvo – Side Rails

Posted: 20/09/2010 by Toby in News, Pictures
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My dear husband this weekend installed side rails onto our car. We finally decided on black ones and then a deal came along for some silver aluminum ones at a great price (and in Australia instead of the US). So we decided to snatch them up. We had to wait for the transmission to get fixed and finished and then, we got great weather this weekend which allowed the result you’ll see below.

It serves 2 purposes.

1. To help the kids get in and out of the car.

2. Prevent damage from other people’s car doors onto our doors.

Overall a great outcome. So glad I have a handy husband that saves us money here and there.

How to Rid Yourself of a Spider in the Side Mirror

Posted: 20/08/2010 by Toby in Informative
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Are spiders making webs across your side mirrors? Have you done just about everything you can to gas them out, smoke them out, and spray them out and they still somehow survive and spin ugly webs across your side rear view? Sick of cleaning the webs away? Well we have just the solution! Just follow these easy steps.

Step 1: If you see the spider, try to hit it as hard as you can. Depending on your accuracy, your mirror may end up looking like this:

At this point it may be difficult to determine whether the spider corpse is among the wreckage, but that’s alright, because now you have an opportunity: The mirror is no longer acceptable for use and will need to be removed, and, need I add, its tenant will go with it! Sneaky I know. If only certain neighbours could be removed as easily.

Step 2: You’ll still need a side mirror by law, so you’ll have to set about getting a suitable replacement. One of these would be quite easy to get hold of, dirt cheap and super easy to bolt on, but you need to bear in mind the word suitable.

You might want to check your local car dealer and see how much the one-for-one replacement will cost new. It could potentially be reasonable. In our case, it was anything but. A quick call to the Volvo dealer revealed the following replacement cost:
New housing $1,200
New motor $800 (we could actually salvage the motor it was still working)
New mirror $600
Installation $250

We didn’t really think the spider was worth quite that much, so I got on the phone to every wrecker in town I could find and asked whether they had a nice side mirror off an XC90 that had wrecked more along the left side, or more to the rear, you know, leaving the right side mirror intact and in good nick. Despite my best efforts the story was the same everywhere and I mean everywhere. I even called to Melbourne and Canberra, thinking I might be able to swing a trip out that way. Sadly, I couldn’t and wouldn’t get one for love or money. Even the dealerships had standing orders for ‘em (which I thought was quite interesting, they must have a buffing machine out back – just a quick brush up and it looks and costs like new!).

I looked online as well. Truth be told the online distribution here is nothing compared to what I was used to in the States. There simply aren’t that many websites, and I’m guessing there just aren’t enough people who would use ‘em and make ‘em a profitable venture.

Thankfully I wasn’t limited to the local market. Thankfully, UPS, FedEx, and all those little postal companies send stuff globally. Thankfully, there is an online marketplace with enough critical mass to be a true go-to website for all things buying and selling and you know what that website is: eBay!! A quick gander at eBay revealed a RH side mirror complete for $300. It was about another $100 to get it here, but the math wasn’t that difficult. Even a 2nd grader, maybe a 1st grader could tell you that $400 is a LOT less than $2,850.

Check it out!

Now that the gear is in your hot little hands, it’s time to make the swap. Spider’s abode for a non-abode. To be covered in my next post: Spider Part 2.

Faith Demoting Story

Posted: 24/12/2008 by Toby in Other
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You’re probably familiar with stories of goodness and kindness, people doing things for each other in the spirit of Christmas, spreading smile after smile. This is one of those stories that probably won’t be reapeated much, in fact, you probably shouldn’t read it, because it’s a perfect example of what not to do on a chilly Christmas Eve.

The stores were going to close at 6 pm, and we were low on potatoes. We were also low on chocolate. The potatoes I could get across the street, but the chocolate was a little further, in the next town. (more…)

Dune Buggy

Posted: 16/12/2008 by Toby in Informative
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Check this dune buggy out.

On first impression my reaction was: Rad!

My dad used to have a dune buggy, and I have always wanted one.  Not living near any dunes, however, there seems to be no point right now.  Maybe one of these days, when the kids are old enough, we’ll get one or two and head to the bush.

On second impression, however, getting one of these designer things would probably take all the fun out of it.  There’s something about having a motor dropped into a welded frame and fat tires that’s essential to the experience.

On a side note, a great movie with an example of some dune buggying would be The Thomas Crown Affair.

A little Awesome ur way

Posted: 08/09/2008 by Toby in Informative
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I would drive this.

This is one of the entries for the 2008 Peugeot design contest. Click picture to go to the website.

For the love of Cars

Posted: 22/08/2008 by Toby in News
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This was definitely one of our favourites, for anyone who’s watched the movie “Gone in 60 Seconds” you’ll know what a Shelby is. This one had been fully restored to it’s orginal colour and is worth over $200,000. It was a beautiful piece of machinery and boy would we have loved to drive out with it as our very own.

On the weekend just gone, our little family had the opportunity to go to a Festival/Car Show up in Frederick. Naturally Toby and I were more keen on the car show the kids more keen on the festival. A perfect compromise, where both parties get satisfaction.

Whilst filling in forms for Toby’s migration papers to Australia I was reminded as to our (Toby and my) first conversation which allowed us to see eye to eye on a love we both have, for cars! We both owned Toyota Celica’s prior to our missions, mine was a beautiful metallic blue/silver 1982 Coupe, with the flip up lights, it had the most comfortable seats I’ve ever had and she was one smooth ride. I’ll let Toby rave about his own celica, ok!

Well to make a long story short, we got to salivate over some beautiful cars and start dreaming about the cars we’d like to drive, own or do up one day, here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure. We even managed to see a car we’d never seen before. Points go to anyone that can tell us the make and model!!!! It’s the white sports car, with the sliding doors.

And for our adorable kids – Here’s TJ and Gigi Kettle. We also got to eat ice cream and play games, Gigi was a winner every game she played that involved prizes she won, TJ wasn’t so happy he wasn’t the one eating the lollies/candy.

Auto Body

Posted: 12/08/2008 by Toby in Other
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I love my car. Maybe more than I should. It will be hard to let go when we move, but my consolation is that we absolutely positutely must get another Civic. I think the new Civic looks nice. We even test drove one in October when we went to visit. The ONLY thing that was an irritation besides the price was the fact that, “Oh, yes, you can get alloy wheels of your choice, but you still have to buy the ones that come from the factory because we just wouldn’t know what to do with them, so the better wheels would be on top of the price of the car.” Curse you pitiful Aussie car dealers who have minimal inventory and no service shop to speak of in which you could use the factory wheels and sell them to someone else!! And don’t worry we wouldn’t buy new, not with the reliability the way it is, we’ll get one that’s maybe 2 years old, that should knock the price down by at least 40%.

Getting back to my unhealthy love for my car… (more…)