CelticFalconFan

There are are large number of Ford dealers in Melbourne. Which are the good ones/ Regards, Jason

Wife and I have our visas, so we will be arriving in Melbourne on 16th October! Back on-topic: would something like one of these high-kms at Freeway Ford be a sensible buy: http://www.freewayford.com.au/preowned.html Are Freeway Ford any good? They will be our local Ford dealer for a bit.

Not sure if any of you have seen the following website: http://www.rri.se/ Essentially, these people test cars to determine their actual power and torque figures at the wheels. Some interesting results (no Falcons tested though).

OK, thanks for the info.

Entered Ford Falcon XR6T on a search engine (don't remember which search engine though!).

How do Aussie insurance companies view people moving in from overseas - for instance, people moving from the UK? Do they take into account insurance history with UK insurers, or are you a totally unknown quantity and have to start building your no claims history from scratch? JD

Interesting 'car' that Maraudar! Back to Oz-made cars. Didn't Mitsubishi have a plant in Oz sometime back? Talking of Falcons; Ford had some demon ones over here a few years ago. Couple of road tests: http://www.autocar.co.uk/ford/falcon/ http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/carreviews/firstdrives/42529/ford_falcon_xr6_turbo.html If only Ford would sell them at 21000 GBP in the UK!

Does your mother want it back now you have 'changed' it somewhat?

The four seasons in one day didn't appear to occur during my November visit! Orange Capri has long gone - don't think it had any stripes on it (I was only about 3 at the time). Last Capri my father had was a black 2.8 Injection Special with LSD and Recaro seats. He kept it for six years. Changed to an XJS 4.0 straight six 5-spd manual... He has a Triumph Vitesse MK2 convertible that he has owned from new.

Well, higher wages and cheaper big-bore performance are two of the reasons why I want to move down-under; plus the fact that the UK appears to have no money for anything important, not to mention the weather - spent last November in Melbourne (with some trips to Sydney and Cairns), came backt to the UK and at night it was -10 deg. C or colder for nigh-on a month! Day temperatures struggled to go positive! Only things that didn't seem so good in Oz were the TV (don't watch much of it anyway), and some of the fashions (more relevant to my girlfriend)! One thing noticed was that there didn't seem to be so many 'classic' cars on the road as in the UK (or, least, classic British cars from the 50s, 60s and 70s). Lots f bright green, yellow, oragne etc. coloured Fords and Holdens though. Some of the colours reminded me of the colours available on cars in the 70s in the UK. My parents had an orange Ford Capri in the mid-70s!

Well, for 25000 GBP, I don't think there is a six cylinder available in the UK. Yes; emissions-based taxation has realy affected the car market - maybe the previous Labour Government thought people would be willing to pay several hundred pounds a year road tax for large cc and multicylinder engines. You can't blame people for trying to save money by buying cars with zero orvery low road tax. Perhaps it would have been fairer to have taken the actual figure of CO2 emissions per km and converted that into pounds (e.g. 99 g/km = 99 GBP; 242 g/km = 242 GBP). I agree, the XFR is not a cheap car in any country. It is a very nice one though! Of course, salaries in Australia are much higher than in the UK - I understand that the minimum wage in Australia is 18 AUS Dollars per hour) - which is about double the UK minimum wage. A car costing 25000 GBP in the UK is approximately the average national salary in the UK (give or take a bit). What is the average salary in Australia? The equivalent of about 35000 GBP? Or would it be greater? House prices seem similar, or maybe somewhat cheaper, than the UK (particular in relation to income). 500 000AUS Dollars seems to buy quite a nice house in a good part of Melbourne - unless the market has taken off in the last six months. Ah, you mean Celtic Football Club! I mean Celtic as in Welsh!

rab; Not quite sure I follow your joke there, mate! Not all British cars are crap - the Jaguar XFR is a very impressive performance saloon (albeit very expensive in Oz from what I have seen). Trouble is, in the UK, the Government has 'persuaded' people to move away from large, petrol-engined cars unless they have a premium badge on them. Ford don't offer a true performance car anymore in the UK - they have gone 'Ecoboost' 2.0 litre turbo. For info, the road tax for my 3.0 V6 (petrol) Peugeot coupe is 425 GBP (about 640 Aus Dollars at current exchange rate), with a similar figure for insurance. As for fuel: Texaco High-Octane (97 RON) is 139.9 pence for litre (about 2.10 AUS Dollars). When I visited Melbourne last November it was the equivalent of about 80 British pence per litre....Has it gone up much since then? bunna; thank you for the info - much appreciated.

Sorry if this has been discussed before, but I did a quick search and came up negative... I'm interested to find out who makes what car, and where they make (or assemble if you prefer) them, in Australia. Ford in the UK make the Transit and engines. We also have Vauxhall; Jaguar-Land Rover; Honda; Nissan; Toyota; MINI; Bentley; Rolls-Royce; MG and a few others. What is the situation in Australia? Regards, JD.

All cars have been petrol-engined; no diesels! Some boring (if 'off-beat' first and second drives: 1994 KIA Pride 1.1 L in White; 1000 miles on it, and a month or two old when I bought it. 1998 KIA Pride 1.3 L in Cobalt Blue; bought new as KIA were selling them off at a discount. Moving onto something a bit more serious: 2003 MG ZR+105 (1.4 L) in Solar Red; first proper car and only car I have actually had 'built-to-order'. Really fun warm hatch. Now for the 'big' cars: 2005 MG ZTT 160 (1.8T) in Starlight Silver; bought a a result of MGRover going into admin, and the the adminisrators having a 'firesale'. Rapid and practical estate with good economy. 2007 Peugeot 407 Coupe 3.0 V6 Tiptronic auto in Aluminium with dark red leather seats; bought in 2008 when it was a year old but with only 35 miles on the clock (and at a discount). Very smooth and refined GT. Handling not quite as good as the MG ZTT. Done 19,500 miles in her. Front tyres last about 10,000 miles, reaers just about 18,000 miles. Did think of bringing out to OZ when I move out later this year (assuming visas) - but the Oz Government is rather strict on importing cars! And the cost of cars in Oz - Ouch!! Too used to UK prices!

G'day! Just joined. Have a confession to make: I don't yet own a Falcon nor am I located in Oz, but, all being well, both issues will be resolved reasonably soon. If all goes well, I'll be living in Melbourne from mid-October this year, and, once a few paychecks have gone in the bank, I'll be able to start to look for a Falcon. Currently living in the UK, and driving a Peugeot 407 Coupe 3.0 V6 Petrol Tiptronic Auto. I understand these are expesnive in Oz! JD