Car Torque with Matty J Feb 27, 2026

Is it worth buying a Grey Import?

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Car

Ford LTD

The Ford LTD is a big car made by Ford a long time ago. People liked it because it was roomy and comfortable for families.

Car

Ford Excursion

The Ford Excursion is a very big SUV that can carry lots of people and things. It’s good for big trips and outdoor fun.

Car

Isuzu D-Max

The Isuzu D-Max is a type of pickup truck, which is a vehicle with an open cargo area in the back. It's known for being tough and reliable, often used for work or carrying things.

Term

hybrid

A hybrid car uses both a gas engine and electric motors to help it run better and save fuel.

Term

sport mode

Sport mode is a setting in some cars that makes the car feel faster and more fun to drive.

Term

panoramic roof

A panoramic roof is a big glass roof on a car that lets you see the sky and lets more light inside.

Car

Honda Zrv

The Honda ZR-V is a small SUV that has lots of nice features, especially in the best versions. It’s good for people who want a comfortable and modern car.

Car

The Honda CR-V is a small SUV that many people like because it’s easy to drive and doesn’t have many problems. Even though Honda started making it in Japan, they now make some in other countries like Thailand. It’s a good car for families or anyone who needs space and comfort.

Part

ball joints

Ball joints are parts that help your car's wheels move up and down and turn left or right smoothly. They connect the suspension to the wheels.

Part

tie rod ends

Tie rod ends are parts that help turn your car's wheels when you turn the steering wheel. They connect the steering system to the wheels.

Part

muffler

A muffler is a part under your car that makes the engine noise quieter. It helps stop your car from being too loud.

Term

eco mode

Eco mode is a setting in some cars that helps you save gas by making the car use less fuel.

Term

regenerative braking

When you slow down or brake in some cars, the car can save some energy and put it back into the battery so you can drive farther.

Car

Toyota Supra

The Toyota Supra is a famous fast car that many people love because it can go really fast and can be changed to go even faster. The Mark IV version is especially popular and shares some parts with other cars, which makes fixing or upgrading it easier.

Car

Ford Orion

The Ford Orion is an older small car that was good for families and everyday driving. It’s similar to another Ford car called the Escort.

Car

Honda S2000

The Honda S2000 is a small, sporty car that’s fun to drive because it can go very fast and turns well. People often add special parts to make it even better.

Part

rear brakes

Rear brakes help stop the back wheels of your car when you press the brake pedal. They make sure your car slows down safely.

Part

front brakes

Front brakes help stop the front wheels of your car when you press the brake pedal. They do most of the work to slow your car down.

Part

rocker cover gasket

The rocker cover gasket is a seal that stops engine oil from leaking out of the top part of your engine. Sometimes it wears out and needs to be changed.

Term

transmission fluid

Transmission fluid is a special oil that helps your car change gears smoothly and keeps the parts inside from wearing out.

Concept

gray import

A gray import is a car brought into a country unofficially, not through regular dealers, so it might have different parts or features than usual.

Part

oil filter

An oil filter cleans the engine oil so the car's engine stays healthy. If many cars use the same filter, it's easier to find and replace.

Concept

Yahoo auctions

Yahoo Auctions is a website in Japan where people can buy and sell car parts and cars by bidding on them.

Term

body panels

Body panels are the outside parts of a car like the doors or sides that you can fix or change if they get damaged.

Term

alternator

The alternator is like a small generator that makes electricity for your car while it's running, so the battery stays charged and everything electrical works.

Term

power steering module

The power steering module helps you turn the steering wheel more easily. If it breaks, fixing it can be hard because you might have to take apart a lot of the car's inside.

Car

Nissan R34

The Nissan Skyline is a well-known fast car that many people like because it’s easy to fix and upgrade. Different versions of it use some of the same parts, which helps with repairs.

Car

Toyota Corolla

The Toyota Corolla is a small car that many people drive because it is dependable and easy to maintain. It has been made in many versions over the years.

Car

GMC Typhoon

The GMC Typhoon is an old SUV that was really fast and fun to drive. Because it’s rare now, parts for it can be very expensive.

Car

Nissan 350 Z

The Nissan 350Z is a fast and sporty car that many people like because it looks cool and drives well. It has a strong engine that makes it fun to drive.

Car

Toyota Crown

The Toyota Crown is a fancy car that’s very comfortable and has lots of nice features. People sometimes buy older ones that might need some work because they can be a good deal.

Company

RACV

RACV is a company in Australia that helps with car insurance and roadside help if your car breaks down.

Brand

Saab

Saab is a car company from Sweden that made cars known for being safe and different from other cars.

Term

EV

An EV is a car that runs only on electricity instead of gas or diesel. It uses batteries to move and doesn't pollute the air.

Car

Subaru Xv

The Subaru XV is a small SUV that can drive well on all kinds of roads because it has special wheels that help with grip. It was one of the first to use a mix of gas and electric power to save fuel.

Car

Ford Fiesta

The Ford Fiesta is a small car that’s easy to drive and doesn’t use much fuel. Some people also use it as a small van for work.

Car

Ford Ranger

The Ford Ranger is a medium-sized truck that many people buy because it’s good for work and everyday driving. It’s not too big or too small, so it’s a great first truck for lots of people.

Car

Toyota Hilux

The Toyota Hilux is a strong and reliable truck that many people buy because it lasts a long time and works well. It’s one of the most popular trucks in the world.

Term

recall

A recall means the car company found a problem with some cars and wants to fix it for free to keep people safe.

Part

passenger airbag

A passenger airbag is a cushion that pops out in a crash to help keep the person sitting in the front seat safe.

Car

D9 Denzer

The D9 is a very big and strong machine used to move dirt and rocks on building sites. It’s famous for being very powerful and tough.

Car

Toyota RAV4

The Toyota RAV4 is a small SUV that many families use because it’s reliable and doesn’t use too much fuel. It can carry a lot of people and stuff comfortably.

Car

Mazda Tribute

The Mazda Tribute is a small SUV that’s good for everyday driving and has parts similar to some Ford trucks. It’s a simple and reliable car.

Car

Nissan Xtrail

The Nissan X-Trail is a small SUV that many people like because it can have different types of engines and is good for families. It’s similar to the Toyota RAV4.

Car

Suzuki Jimny

The Suzuki Jimny is a small car that can drive on rough and bumpy roads very well. It’s simple but strong, making it good for people who like to go off the normal roads.

Car

Toyota Land Cruiser

The Toyota Land Cruiser is a big, strong car that can drive on rough roads and last a very long time. People use it for adventures and tough jobs because it doesn’t break easily and can handle hard places.

Car

Toyota FJ Cruiser

The Toyota FJ Cruiser is a tough car that looks old-fashioned but can drive on rough roads easily. People like it for outdoor trips and adventures.

Term

suicide doors

Suicide doors are car doors that open backward instead of forward. This means the hinges are at the back, making it easier to get in and out sometimes, and they look cool too.

Car

Opel Astra

The Opel Astra is a small car that’s good for everyday driving and saving fuel. Sometimes it’s sold with different names in other countries.

Car

MG Cyberster

The MG Cyberster is a new electric sports car that’s designed to be fast and look cool. It shows how car companies are making more electric cars.

Car

Mitsubishi Outlander

The Mitsubishi Outlander is a family car that’s a bit bigger and can save fuel if it’s a hybrid. It’s not very fancy but works well for everyday use.

Car

Byd Seal

The BYD Seal is a new electric car that runs only on batteries and can go far without needing to recharge. It’s made by a company from China and is getting popular.

LIVE

This is a professional radio, gentlemen.

And it's front wheel drive.

Sorry, have you got anyone you want to thank?

Just myself.

And now we do the after hours.

Uh, gentlemen, what would you go for?

They see us in there.

Because it's not a super car.

It's not.

Automotive perfection comes in the form of two letters, A and U.

Long live my LTD.

Welcome to the car talk.

It's Tuesday night here at 90.9 Northwest Affair.

It's me, Matty J, in the studio with Mr Chad the Bell,

online with Mr David Prince and Mr Scotty Doe Johnson.

How are you, gentlemen?

Hello.

Very well, thank you.

Good.

Thank you very much.

Yeah, good.

Good things.

Yeah, good.

Good to see you guys.

What's been happening?

The same evaporating in front of my very eyes, actually.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, good.

That's good.

How has your week been, Scotty?

Yeah, not bad so far.

I'm just getting ready for camp tomorrow.

Oh, Scotty's off.

What are you guys heading?

Dramana.

Nice.

How long is that for till Friday?

Till Friday.

What year level?

Seven.

Okay.

Sevens will be fun.

That'll be right.

I don't think so.

Not for you.

You don't get to have fun.

So is that three nights?

Yeah, two nights.

Two nights.

Yeah, Wednesday to Friday.

Did I do more than one camp per year now?

I'm not sure about other year levels.

There was nothing going on when I was there for years, eights and

nines, but there's a lot of day trips and things and excursions

they do with the year nines.

Yeah.

That's cool.

So you're off.

I'm off next week too.

We've got to camp.

So I'll be in Canberra.

The bush.

The year eights we're taking to Canberra.

Year eights.

So it's just all the year eights in the school?

All the ones that have paid.

All the ones that have been good.

Yes, they've been good.

And you're driving the bus?

I wish I could be driving the bus, but I'm not.

You won't be.

We have a professional coach driver who takes all the route.

We're also joined by Alan, who's in the incredible, amazing,

hard-riding D-Max.

What's going on fellas?

Good to see you.

We're just doing camp updates.

I'm going to camp next week and Scott is going to camp tomorrow.

So you haven't missed out much and he's frozen.

He's back.

Yeah, he's back.

I've got audio.

Unfortunately.

We're leaving you about there, mate.

He's in a bad part of the uphill where there's no reception.

He's in the...

But anyway, moving on.

Until he's got some more reception, we'll put him out to pasture.

And I'll tell you, I'll tell you he's ready.

So yeah, let's crack on with some car updates.

David Prince.

This week, I have driven a few of my cars, actually.

Well, actually last week, last on the Wednesday,

I dropped the FL5 Type R back and bought home a CR-V RS hybrid,

which is the first chance I've had to drive one of those.

That's a pretty impressive car.

Incredible, beautifully seamless transition from hybrid to petrol.

Even got a light to tell you when it's happening,

because you can't feel it at all.

And last night, I discovered the sport mode.

So it actually gets up and bullies that two-litre with the two electric motors.

Yeah, really nice.

Really beautifully built.

I love the panoramic roof, but then I'm a roof guy.

I like a sunroof.

Yeah, a couple of surprising emissions.

There's no 360-degree camera in the top spec car.

Is it in any other parts of the range?

Because when Steph and I had a look at those,

you couldn't get it in any of the range,

but you could get it on a ZR-V, which is just like...

Yeah, I was going to say, I think the top spec ZR-V has it,

ours doesn't, because it has the min-spec one.

Interestingly, I thought all our cars were going to be sourced from Japan,

but definitely the CR-V is from Thailand again.

Oh, interesting.

That might be part of the reason,

whether that tech's not available in that facility or not.

But no, that's been great.

I've been enjoying that sitting on about 5.7 litres around town,

which is pretty reasonable for a big car like that.

Yeah, that's very good.

I remember when we test drove, we were impressed with how well it drove.

I think, yeah, that was definitely one thing that we were very impressed about,

how well it drove.

Yeah, yeah.

The safety tech seems to be a bit more intrusive than in the ZR-V.

You can turn it off, but obviously you've got to go and turn it off every time,

and it's there for a reason.

But yeah, that would be, and it's not even much of a criticism,

because it's better to have it than not have it.

That's been good.

Got that for a few more days, dropped that back.

I picked up the Accord SI from Dingley,

and then on the weekend drove that back here.

That's driving far better than it's got any right to,

having said, for 20-something years without being driven.

It's a bit lumpy at idle.

I think on driving it, and Mermaid, who did a lot of the work on it,

suggested that it still might need the injectors and be given a better clean.

Just lumpy at idle, it's happier sitting in neutral,

but still a bit sort of faffy at the lights.

But once you're driving it, it's lovely, smooth,

it shifts beautifully.

Nice ride.

The shockers all seem really good.

New tyres on it, which always helps.

So yeah, I'm looking forward to getting a teeth into that a bit,

but it probably just needs to be driven.

And when you've got multiple cars, as we discovered last weekend,

amongst a group of people I was having a nice dinner with,

it's hard to keep them all running and going and maintained and driving,

but I'll persist.

Then I dropped that today, I dropped that back up to the workshop

where the, who have had the LN Van.

It's driving much better with the new ball joints and tie rod ends.

Does it feel tighter?

Much, much tighter, sits much nicer on the road.

It's got a new mini muffler on it, like a little hot dog mini muffler,

but the guy's not happy with it and he wants it back

because he's going to actually make another baffle around it

and weld another baffle around it

and put some holes in the muffler to actually dissipate some more of the noise

because it is quite noisy still.

Brand new muffler, everything's lined up beautifully, but a hot dog.

Quieter than before at least?

Sorry?

Is it quieter than before?

It is quieter than it was because it had a whole size of your fist in the muffler.

We made it sound absolutely like Formula 1 car.

Maybe from the 60s, but yeah, so he's happy to keep having a play with that.

He's said, no, I'm not going to let it beat me

and his background is in exhaust, so I'm pretty confident.

So when the Accord's checked over for roadie to go on club plates,

then I'll swap them back over again and he can keep working with the LN.

Nice.

Does he reckon there's much needed for the Accord to get on club plates?

He hasn't even checked it yet, but I don't think there's a lot.

There is a little oil leak, whether it's a leak or just a drip as up for dispute.

There's nothing on the floor over there.

It's only since it's been recommissioned and driving, which doesn't surprise me.

I mean, seals, you know, once they've start to heat up again

and probably needs to cycle through a few heat cycles to settle down.

Hopefully, or else needs to remain.

Who would know?

I'll see.

I'll know soon enough and I'll report back.

So that's about me.

I think for the week that's enough.

That's you.

Scotty do.

Yeah, I actually got stuff to talk about.

Yep.

So wash the blade.

Yeah.

But the main one was that on Saturday took Ashley down to look at a car

that she might be interested in.

It was a Nissan Nismo note.

2018 model from memory.

It had 80 odd thousand K's on it.

It had been in Australia for about three years.

And since it's been in Australia, it's done.

It's done about 11 to 12,000 K's every year.

So not too bad.

In white, pretty much the same white as mine.

It's a pearl white.

That's like district nursing conventions, Scotty.

You got to do something about that.

Yeah.

So that's the color.

It kind of just, I was just, because I always go on Facebook.

I've got a place here and there and it just popped up at a price

that I thought was pretty good.

I sent it to her and amazingly,

she said, Hey, we should check it out.

I was not expecting that kind of response.

So I was like, Oh, okay.

Awesome.

Let's do it.

So I made a way all the way over to base water to check it out.

And I always kind of wanted to see one and sit in it and give it

a little oil.

So I was kind of a little bit excited as well.

The seats, fabulous.

Nissen done it again with your seats.

There was a little bit, a couple little dings on the passenger side door.

No paint taken off or anything.

You can just see the dents in a certain light.

So that's something to come off.

Scratches where the door handles are, which is pretty common.

But they don't feel deep.

So I feel like I could buff those out.

And then I just noticed a couple, couple stone chips on the front again,

which is pretty normal.

It's just been serviced to he's got the whole invoice and everything

of it being serviced.

He's got the original auction auction sheets as well from when it did

come over here.

It's got red Joe till the end of the year.

And compared to any other price from private sellers as well,

this one was pretty much the cheapest one.

Okay.

So for those listeners who don't know what this note is,

it's an e-power car too, isn't it?

It's got a petrol engine, but it's just a generator.

So it's got a three cylinder engine in there,

but it's not hooked up to the drive line.

It's just for the battery only.

So it will charge the battery.

Also you can put it into eco mode and it has the regenerative

braking as well.

So that comes on pretty hard.

I'm not used to that.

So I could easily get around everywhere and never have to break.

Yeah.

Is it adjustable?

You can turn that on and off.

Or in instead?

As in adjustable.

Not 100% sure.

Maybe, but yeah, there's still features I hadn't jumped into.

360 camera and normal reverse camera and also in the review

mirror, you can have that to come up as the camera and also

360 camera.

You can have that side by side or just put it back to normal

review, which is what I did because it was tripping me out.

It was really weird.

Like I go to look up and my eyes are trying to focus on it.

Yep.

Of the screen and that was really weird.

So I turned that off quick smart.

Lane departure assist.

It's got active cruise control.

So it's got all your features that you want.

All the mod cons.

It's got your Japanese GPS system.

So you know where you are when you're in Japan.

There's a friend at C.

Yeah, it talks to you.

Still talks to you.

Yeah.

Wouldn't be a Japanese import if it didn't.

No, exactly.

Exactly.

And yeah, I mean, it was pretty zippy, pretty zippy.

But what it was, it took off, it's got nice, nice power.

You kind of feel it kick in and then it reds all the way up and goes all the way through.

So yeah, she put down a deposit and hopefully we'll pick it up.

Maybe not this weekend.

Maybe the following at the latest.

So that's good.

So news with me is my car is I did the brake pads on the blade.

Piece of cake.

Like it was the most easiest thing I've ever done.

Jack it off, take off wheels, two bolts and they weren't even on that.

Like they're on hard but not like ridiculous.

It did use those hex pieces though.

So it wasn't normal bolts, but luckily I had a one and shoved it in there.

Used a breaker bar, tapped it up, came loose, took that off, slides off, take off the two, slide on the new one, slide it back on.

The only thing is that the outer pad is a hell of a lot thinner compared to the inner pad.

Okay.

Both fronts, that's wearing really weird, really off.

You got some spare pads for next time.

Make a pair out of a whole set.

So is it wearing flat but just more on one side of the disc?

Is that right?

Yeah, so the outer one is just a hell of a lot thinner than the inner.

Like it was very, very thin.

Six piston system? Four piston?

Six.

Okay.

And it's got pistons on obviously on the outside of the caliper too, yeah.

Yep.

Three on each side, yeah.

So it's six this one.

Yeah, that's a lot of stuff.

That one's got aftermarket or the brake option, hasn't it?

Yeah, yeah.

It's an aftermarket.

It's an endless brake kit.

Yeah, yeah, that's all I could get at that point.

Yeah.

Endless ones.

That's not a great name for it.

I mean, endless brakes.

You know, brakes as much as you want.

Endless.

It's endless.

And then that got me thinking like, I need new, like I need new rotors.

I tried to clean them up the best I can, but there's quite a lot of pitting on them.

And that's only on the front.

The inner parts are fine.

These ones would be too expensive.

They're the two piece.

Okay.

So, you know, the two pieces are pretty, pretty expensive.

So I've, you know, measured it up.

They've told me the size.

It was three, three, 23 by 30, I think, from memory.

So I was like, okay, I've kind of dived in a little bit more and found out it's the same as the Mark IV Supra.

So it's the same diameter as the Supra in that.

It was just, their brakes are four piston and mine six, which I assume wouldn't really, which wouldn't really make a difference.

As long as the width and everything is right.

As long as the width and the thickness of where the disc sits on that.

If there's a hub difference, you might, you might be in a bit of strife, but what you can do.

And I know my brother did this with one of his brakes.

And I showed the same guy you went to for the brakes for your.

Oh, Jaymax.

Yeah.

Jaymax, he took, he took one of his discs and said, this is what it is.

And they pretty much made it.

You try and match it.

Yeah.

Okay.

So there's definitely, and he had no issues with it.

He reckons they were great.

Yeah.

I think it might be your money, like better bets in, in, in trying finding something that'll fit.

And he might even have those on the shelf too.

Potentially.

Cause, cause, and there was a few cars running endless stuff in Australia.

So.

I don't know why it just breaks.

What was that?

I don't know.

I just doesn't have a Orion brakes.

No, no, you, I mean, it's, it's technically a front wheel drive.

Baby Orion.

Yeah.

Baby Orion.

Orion, if you will.

That's why I was like, I was looking at, um, those, the discs and that.

So I was like, okay, what, what have I got?

What would I want?

And, you know, how to look at the DBA ones.

I'm like, but I don't want to buy a pair of the DBA ones and find out that they don't fit.

So I'm like, do I just buy one of their cheap single ones that I assume wouldn't be too expensive?

And if it doesn't fit, it doesn't fit.

Yeah.

I mean, you could do that.

Or you could, you know, like as, as an internal, you can speak to that guy at, at J max and

a few other places.

And, and, and they do all the hard work for you.

And if they stuff it up, it's on them.

You know what I mean?

Like that's, that's, so, and, and then they're quite reasonably priced for what they are.

I think.

Yeah.

I found him quite good because I sort of needed something that wasn't that readily, readily

available.

And I just took him a sample pad and a desk and then, yeah, he just matched it up to stuff

in his system and put it to go.

Really located.

Camel field.

Okay.

Yeah.

They're pretty good to deal with too.

Yeah.

Well, he's, he's into aftermarket stuff.

You'll froth the stuff he's got in the shop too.

He's got like a S2000 with like APR bits on it and he's got a GDR.

Yeah.

Pretty, pretty hectic.

Yeah.

They got a few nice cars in there.

We saw him last time we clean at our workshop.

He used to be right next to where they are.

All right.

Yeah.

Pretty, pretty nice too.

Yeah.

All right.

Yeah.

So that's probably where I'm at.

But as I said, easy to fit those pads.

Piece of cake.

No.

If I was in time constraint and I had to get it done really quickly, I could probably

do it in like 30, 45 minutes.

I reckon.

Beautiful.

That's awesome.

That's good.

Easy.

Was it hard to find pads Scotty?

Because I already had previously contacted Endless Japan with the product number on that

because it's a special order.

Oh, okay.

And they told me that, yeah, it's a special order and they told me the disc, the disc

size and thickness and what pads it takes.

Okay.

That's awesome.

So I know what pads the front take and what the rear take.

That's good.

That was easy.

And they come with, so when you get the pad, it comes with this sticky bit that you put

over there.

So instead of, you know, usually by the tube for the stop squealing.

And he squeal.

Yep.

Yeah.

So I don't need that.

It's like a pad that goes and sticks on.

Oh, cool.

Sticks on the back of the pad.

It just slides straight in.

There's no metal clips.

There's nothing.

Yeah.

Very easy.

You don't have to take them all apart just to change the, and then you get scared that

you know, piss is going to come out all the way.

Because those are, you just take the pins out and then they slide out, don't they?

It's like a cartridge.

Yeah.

They just fit right back in.

Yeah.

Love that.

Very good Scotty.

LMD.

Uh, no big highlights for me.

Just running, you know, my regular work drives are about, what, 700 kilometers a week.

So, you know, but normally better on the field.

We're getting about eight and a half leaves trying to chase.

So I'm happy about that.

It's in a D max.

Yeah.

Far out.

It's not bad.

That's really good for a truck.

Yeah.

Um, but some would say I do drive like a bit of a grandpa.

So, yeah, it is what it is.

I'll take the extra fuel economy over, you know, damaging the car and all that sort of

stuff.

Some would, some would say, uh, your tires are making up for it with the.

Yeah.

And some would say I'm only driving slow because I'm getting paid by the old, but

that's not the email there.

Chad updates with you, my friend.

Um, not a whole lot.

It's been kind of quiet on the car stuff, um, but I have got the last of the, some of

the last of the manual swap stuff for the magnet.

So clutch and the bits and whatnot.

Yeah.

So kind of got most of that ready to go.

It's going to make some time to actually do the swap now.

Uh, so I'll try and tee something up soon and yeah, have a sort of a weekend to get

it all done.

I think we could do a car talk working.

Yeah.

A car talk working.

Sounds fun.

Yeah.

Um, what else?

Uh, yeah, I last weekend was just a clean out day.

So I cleaned out the garage, got all the, got all the stuff that I need to throw out

and put that out on for hard rubbish.

Got rid of a lot of car stuff, which is good because it's just been like, just parts that

I can't throw in the bin that I've just been like holding on to, you know, like bits and

pieces.

So, um, that's all gone now.

It's everything's nice and tidy.

Um, got the Tarago and new battery because the battery in that's just been cooked for

forever.

Every time I go to drive it, I, every other time I go to drive it, it needs a jumpstart.

So just sort of like the batteries and the life.

So I've got a nice little century for that.

Used a few gift cards from the days and stuff.

So it really cost me nothing in the end.

Yeah.

That's pretty much it.

I think.

Um, yeah.

It's just Magna coming up soon.

Magna coming up soon.

What about you, Maddie?

Uh, what have I done?

Well, um, David's awesome son, um, Mitchell has given me a set of fog lights for my senior

dose, Mr. Two.

And I've put a, uh, I've ordered some parts for, I've got them all from work.

A driving light kit, a wiring kit with a relay and everything all ready to go.

And, uh, and I also managed to, I think I mentioned this earlier, I've got a, a genuine

factory switch from the UK because they, they offered, you know, fog lights for it.

So got to figure out how I'm going to make all this work.

Um, but it shouldn't be too hard.

So that's just a conventional switch just to, to, um, it's just a click and click out.

It's, it's, it's actually, so in the, in the MR two, there's a, there's a blank, like a

round blank and that's where the fog lights go.

It's actually a rear fog light switch, but yeah.

It is.

It's still fog light switch.

So I'm going to make that, um, into the new light switch.

Um, so try to keep it as factory inverter commas as possible.

And so, and Mitch is also awesome because he printed off.

Um, so I made these, these, these stickers cause like it's got a vigor on there cause

these ones are, are, are, are, is it a Honda bigger?

Honda bigger.

Yeah.

So yeah.

So they've, um, so I tried to keep it in the same style and then I put like the Toyota

logo as like this as it is on the MR two and I put like, and then I'm at an MR two

logo one, but I haven't decided which one I want to use yet.

Um, so what comes on the factory?

Uh, they just say Toyota.

Toyota.

Yeah.

So, um, and they're like two-toned, but so I've kind of mixed them up a little bit

and kind of a bit of a play, but I haven't decided what, which one I'm going to use yet.

I think that might be the last thing once I get it all working in and that's all, that's

all sorted.

So that'll, that'll be probably my Saturday evening.

I might do that after work on Saturday.

You guys are more than welcome to come around and have a beverage and, um, watch me, you

know, crack.

Do worry.

Um, like I've put in driving lights before, like I put in light bars and stuff and it's

pretty much the same thing that you are into your headlights.

So it triggers.

So when your headlights are on, then you can, then you can get the access to switch them

on.

Yeah.

Okay.

It gives a power.

Yeah.

So I've done that before.

So I've kind of got an idea of what I'm going to tap into.

And there's a guy made a tutorial online, not a great one, but roughly of what to do and

how he did it.

And he, using the factory switch as well.

For an amount of.

Yeah.

So I do have to ask Mitch one thing about them because it's got, it's three prongs and

I'm, and because these are retractable fog lights with, you know, with the, with the yellow.

Um, yeah.

So the colors like come up, come up.

Yeah.

So cause there's two in one, one is definitely ground, which is the bottom one, but two in

the top, I'm assuming one's for the light power and the others for the, for it to retract.

So I want to know if he, if he, he showed me how he worked.

He hooked up to 12 volt battery and got it to, you know, ping go up.

I wanted to know if he, if you put them on the same circle, cause if you did them happy

days, that's pretty easy to do.

I can just, just wire them both in and then they'll be, that they'll all be, yeah.

Okay.

So, but I'll have to send him a message about that.

Also got to thank him too.

Cause I didn't get a chance to, to thank him yet for it.

And I was walking in and we can see his STI.

That's, uh,

It's looking good.

So, so yeah, that is the MR two, which we'll get some love this week.

What else?

The lasers going in next week while I'm away to get a bit of work done.

Like I just haven't had time to change the problem.

I did the rear brakes.

I just haven't done the front brakes.

I'm going to do a rocker cover gasket on it because the, the, the one I got is not great.

So I've got, I've got another better quality one.

Pop that on and, um, what else?

And it's still got a bit of a vibration from the gearbox and I don't know what it is.

So I've bought, I've bought new transmission fluid and like a, you know, like an additive.

Um, just to flush it out.

Like I'm, I'm just not happy with it.

Um, like it drives fine.

Everything is just, it's got a bit of a wearing noise.

Like it sounds like it sounds bearing, but sometimes it goes away and I, it's just,

it's doing my head in a little bit.

So I'll say you got a week with the car.

I'll pick it up on, on, on, on the following Saturday.

Please, please fix it.

So, um, that'll be, yeah, that'll be getting sorted with that.

And apart from that, I've definitely done any other car load things guys.

So moving on to tonight's topic now, Scotty, again, you, you've now got another Japanese car in the family,

like, like a gray import.

Um, David's got a gray import.

Is yours 13?

That's an important silver.

Yeah.

Um, I've never owned a gray import.

Oh, have you owned a gray import?

No, I have.

Oh, technically, I guess the cars we had as family in New Zealand, a lot of them would have

been gray imports, but I personally have, have not.

So yeah, wanting to know guys, owning a gray import.

Now, in terms of insurance and in terms of, you know, livability and parts, you know,

availability and stuff, people always say, Oh, don't buy a gray import because XYZ is that

warranted?

Like, is that, is that a fair assumption?

Um, to have, you know, uh, you know, some fears about owning a inverted commas gray

imported vehicle, um, because of like parts here, like, like, for example, David Prince,

your, um, Honda N1 RS, like there's got to be like one or two in the country and like

three at most.

Oh, yeah.

There's, there are actually three manuals in Melbourne, I know of, um, uh, black one

and a yellow one and mine.

Um, but the good thing with, um, that's a 660 in the Honda is that uses the same oil filter

as every other Honda does.

Uh, so that's easy.

That's, that's a complete no brainer.

Um, I've a friend of mine travels to and from Japan quite a bit.

So I've got, I've got front brake pads for it.

Um, I'm seriously, I think next trip, I'll ask him to get a clutch kit for it.

Not that it needs it now, but I think that would be tricky to get, uh, you needed one.

Um, and I plan on keeping this car.

So yeah, look, it certainly crosses your mind.

I remember when we went over to the old Japan day and Adelaide in the, in the last 10 when

I had, uh, I was absolutely, uh, very concerned about the windscreen.

Yeah, flicking up a stone and losing the windscreen, but, um, I've got that insured with

channels and that includes a free windscreen.

So assuming if that needs a windscreen, then that's their responsibility to find one.

So, um, I mean, these days you can pretty well get stuff from Japan, pretty quick smart

if you need it.

Um, I mean, a lot of cars are having problems with parts and a lot of cars, all cars build

overseas now and quite a few of them, particularly, um, I've heard some horror stories with some

Chinese stuff, not being able to get the parts back up for them.

Well, yeah, it's a calculated risk, but the, the, I sort of came to terms with it from

the point of view is would I rather not have it or would I, because it might be hard to

get parts for, or would I rather have it?

And it was, that wasn't it made it easy.

That's an easy decision.

Panels would be a nightmare, of course.

I'd be very concerned about that, but, um, yeah, let's not hope we need panels anytime soon.

So you've owned many imports.

I think is the only non-imported car you've owned, like, like obviously like grain imported

car, you own the Liberty.

No, it would probably be the BMW and the Mercedes as well.

Other than that, yeah, they've all been grain imports.

Yep.

What about the 31?

Oh, yeah, that one too.

Yeah.

That's Aussie.

Yep.

Can't get more Aussie than that.

Exactly.

Have you ever had a nightmare issue with like trying to get something for a car that you

need to get running or keep running?

No, not really.

I think because you, if you're not really into cars, I'd probably avoid it.

Yes.

Yeah.

You know, because you're not going to find parts.

You don't have connections.

You're not talking in the groups, the forums back in the day.

I guess that's Facebook groups now.

So you're not involved around that.

Yeah.

So everything's going to be impossible.

You're going to rock up to mechanics and they're all going to tell you to go away because

you don't know the right ones to go to.

You've got an imported Toyota or something.

You take it to Toyota, they'll tell you where to go.

The thing is you can still go to some of those places to dealerships and get parts.

Yeah.

You know, they can still get them.

They might charge you when I'm in a leg with certain things, but you can still get them.

I mean, you got these connections through Yahoo auctions and things now.

You can get everything.

You can still get body panels brought over here if need be.

It's just unfortunate that that's what panel beaters do now.

They don't actually try and repair.

Yeah.

They just want to replace the panels and they'll look at it and go, oh, that panel is too expensive.

It's going to take too long to get.

And then most likely insurance company will go, yeah, it's too expensive and write the car off.

So that can be pretty common.

You know, if you're already kind of in the know and whoever's got the car, you can source the part yourself for them.

You know, because most likely they're going to have no clue and you can go, hey, I can get the part here.

Get it imported a lot quicker than them stuffing around and get it.

Servicing.

I don't think there's really a problem with servicing because majority of these engines are very interchangeable with other models that either are local.

So the one in that Nissan knows like a three cylinder and it's used in like Renault's and stuff as well.

Yes.

Very, very common.

The same as my blade.

I mean, it's the two GR.

It's used in Lexus and all the Toyota's you could think of.

Yeah.

So easy, easy parts.

Yeah, I think that's what I mean.

A lot of the body parts would be easy because the body is the same as the car that was sold here.

Most of the suspension parts that people use is from a Lexus.

Oh, really?

A Lexus.

So a lot of the suspension.

So if the people are upgrading and stuff, they get a lot of those parts, suspension parts from one of those Lexus.

So they tend to grab some of those bits.

I think the sway bars and something are bigger on that.

So they tend to grab that and put it on.

Okay.

Get some bigger, thicker sway bars on it.

Yeah.

So it's about getting in the know and being involved in whatever car that you're importing.

You know, you don't want to just choose it and go, oh, I like to look at that.

Yeah.

And then that's it.

You need to know stuff about it.

You need to know if there's anything you need to look out for for future problems.

You know, I've heard with the blade, the alternator, once that goes, it's a pain in the arse to change because of where it's located.

Yeah.

You know, the power steering module, you got to take out the whole dash pretty much.

Oh, wow.

So, yeah, I mean, does it deter you?

Ah, it's no different than any other car really.

They're all going to have problems.

Yeah.

Where, you know, it's going to be a pain in the arse to remove something.

You can get a car that's brand new here if you're like, you know, MGs and stuff, but you still got to wait for body panels.

Yeah.

It's not like they're available just because it's a locally sold car.

Yeah.

And, you know, if you're still sticking to your skylines and everything, there's a billion parts out there.

There's a manufacturer is just making parts for these cars.

Yeah.

It's very, very common.

The oil filters have never changed.

You've got like 12 different models or something.

Yeah.

I think the oil filter is from the R31 all the way to like R34.

Yeah.

It's just all the same.

It's the same one.

Yeah.

I think it was like the whole stretch that Ford did as well with the same one.

Z9 forever.

Yeah.

Nothing but the Z9.

Yeah.

What was, was Holden the 154?

154.

Yeah.

154.

Yeah.

Oh, gosh.

I can't believe I remember that one.

Z154.

A few of those.

Yeah.

Back in the super cheap days.

But see.

Yeah.

I mean, I get that your common maintenance bits would be, would be, you know, yeah, whatever.

But like, you know, again, like, like a panel would scare me.

You know, especially like on a, on a blade, like the front end is different to a.

Corolla.

And, and, but like, I get there's a lot of blades, you know, blades around, but in particular,

like, if you're being really picking and getting like a N1 RS, for example, there's

what, six, seven in the country, you know?

Yeah.

And if there is there one being wrecked, is the other thing?

Yeah.

But, but the thing is like, with my blade, I had the, the side skirt that I broke and

actually got a big crack in it and actually underneath pieces missing broken off.

Right.

Went to one panel be like, replaced, you know, if you get, if you find one will slap it

on, paint it 500 bucks.

It was an optional extra this, this part, it was made by Modelista.

There's, there's no way I'm going to be able to find one, especially on the passenger side.

Yeah.

You know, that's going to fit because there was TRD side skirts.

Modelista, there was just the normal one and there was, there was one more as well.

So like, there's no way.

So that's when you got to go for those, that's when you got to really do some research and

dive in for those old school panel beaters, which I found and he did some good plastic

welding and made a piece and put it all in there, painted it up 500 bucks.

Completely brand new.

There was no way in hell you would know that that had been broken and cracked.

Yeah.

And you've repaired a part instead of just getting because for your case, it's like very slim

chance of finding.

There's no way I'd be able to find it.

So if you did, you have to pay for the part, you have to pay for the transport and then

you're going to pay to get it color matched and put on.

So you're looking at like 1000 plus thousand dollars.

Yeah.

Easy.

I mean, they're going to charge 500 bucks to fit the paint.

Yeah.

That's crazy.

And this guy did the whole repair and that for 500 bucks.

Well worth it.

He was, he was fantastic with what he did.

So it's just, you know, find those old school panel beaters.

They'll be happily, they'll happily do it properly.

Yeah.

Also interesting, like interestingly, sometimes it's a situation where, all right, this, whatever

damage has occurred is like car wrecking level of damage.

And that's kind of a, it's happened.

You're not going to get a replacement parts, but then you also have the opportunity to

become the replacement guy.

So you can then get to part out this car, not that it's the greatest experience in the

world, but having to part out your car.

But then you like, also, if you've got this rare car that few people have and you're,

you've got parts that you can now part out and kind of, you know, sell to people that

also in itself presents an opportunity.

You wreck a regular car.

That's just going to the, you know, the yard.

They'll give you 150 bucks for it, whatever it is.

And you know, panels of glow.

Whereas now it's like, Hey, I've got these panels that you might need because I can't

get my car whole, you know, bring me some cash.

It might give you over time enough cash to kind of go get yourself into something else.

Yeah.

That's the kind of opportunity it presents in that crisis moment.

And secondly, I guess you make it a good point there.

I'm about like, no, you can use that as a point to, to, to kind of make some money,

but then you're going to say something else.

The second part is, I guess it doesn't always have to be that you're getting a car that

is just completely not available in our current market.

I think the Honda jazz slash fit is probably one of the better picks that these days I've

seen a lot of jazz is on the road that are technically fits, but, and then the hybrid

models.

So you've essentially just gone and gray imported.

A car that's already sold here, just a version of the car that's not available, which is

the hybrid editions.

So apart from what we see the hybrid engine and driveline, the rest of stuff is very much

it's the same bloody car.

You can get the same panels.

So you kind of save yourself at least that trouble of, oh, if I do get into a fender or

something, I can at least get panels pretty regularly from regular jazzes.

But, you know, the, the, I guess the more, you know, engine related parts, you might be

looking a little bit hard to get the mechanical stuff, but you, you know, you've, I guess

you got the best of both worlds where you got yourself gray and bought something that's

not available here, but if something does go wrong, you've got a lot of availability

still.

Yeah.

That's a fair point.

So all right.

So I think we've established that, you know, parts are available, a little bit harder to

get, especially for stuff that's a bit more niche, which, which, which to be fair is the

same with any car really.

Like, you know, it's four and a half grand for a rear bar second hand for my typhoon these

days, which is, which is cooked.

Which is a likely made car.

It's likely made car, but they, it's, it's, it's disgusting how much it's, it's, it's,

it's, it's extortion drug money.

So, so there's that.

And then, and then I, I think, well, they only brought 150 fiesta STs mark 8.5s to this

country.

So, you know, body panels for that are even getting harder to get.

So, hey, Clarissa for listening, bring me some parts over when you come back.

So, but yeah, you know, I guess, I guess a lot of that kind of crosses over with, you

know, um, hard to get cars and, and limited run vehicles and, and, and the like.

And I guess, I guess you can kind of put them into that sort of category.

But for example, a lady I work with, well, she should actually move schools and I'll tell

you the reason why in a second, she's got a standard Nissan note, um, like an orange one,

like a, it's not any power, like a, um, just like that, you know, that burnt orange that

they did.

It's a cool color.

It looks like the, the 350 Z color that they used to do.

Yeah.

Like yellow.

They called that a track orange.

It was a, it was a, it was a very similar color.

I don't know if it's the same.

It could be, I like, you know, it wasn't a, it wasn't a Nismo Scotty.

Sorry, mate.

Um, so she drove from past the Geelong to my school every day and for some context, this

is like, yeah, massive.

Anyway, I think she was, she was, she was probably about 50 Ks past Geelong from where

she lived.

And when I found out that like she was leaving at like, you know, five in the morning cause

cause she'd go to the gym, um, work out, have a shower, drive straight from the shower

to, to work.

And she was doing that every day for like the last 200 years.

She now no longer works at the school cause she, she got a job closer to, to, to where

she is.

And she's like, thank God for that.

But every day I'd see her on the freeway on the, on the, on the ring road, um, you know,

driving and driving a little note.

And I'm like, well, this is a car that's racking up K.

Like she, she did.

I'm just trying to think how many Ks.

I think, I think she would have done close to, you know, eight.

Like it's always Jim Barlow level of kilometers in, in, in, you know, in a, in a short time

on, in this way.

No, I don't know.

I don't listen.

No, I should say.

Um, and she loved that.

She reckons it was a great little car and, and, and you know, never had any issues.

But so, you know, I guess with regular maintenance and it's all the same, same sort of stuff.

You'll be fine.

But again, like, like you were saying earlier, David, and alluding to about your, your, your

window breaking or your windshield.

I mean, that'd be something I'd be scared of.

Like, geez, okay.

That, that's a big, that's a big ticket item.

It's a big, big dollar, big dollar bill to.

Do we have a metric?

Sorry.

On what we count as the Jim Barlow level of kilometers where it's like, yeah, my car's

done a Jim Barlow, mate.

You know, it's a 450.

It's going to be like 200 K a day or something.

He does more than that.

Oh, yeah.

Dude, he does like 1500 Ks a week.

Bar out.

Yeah.

It's a lot of Ks.

It's a lot of kilometers.

Yeah.

So, so I think, I think Jim Barlow level is, uh, let's just say, is the gold standard

and measuring how much kilometers you do.

I'm going to work that out.

I'm not very good.

I'm not a math teacher.

Clearly 375 a day.

I think, I think that's about right.

And divide, divide by seven.

Like four hours on the road.

Two and 15 Ks a day.

Yeah.

So, um, so Jim, you know, we, we commend you.

Respect, you know, uh, that poor little civic just keeps going.

Uh, so yeah.

So if you're doing Jim Barlow level of kilometers, like, you know, I, I guess like a, you know,

saying, you know what, I might go for a fuel efficient car, IE jazz hybrid or fit hybrid

as they know over there and taking the funds.

So, you know, this might be a safe bet because it's, it's jazz.

99% the same on 95% jazz here.

Um, just with a few different quirks and, and ATC Cardo.

Um, yeah, every, every, every time you start the car.

Uh, but you know, it's, yeah, I, I get, I get the hesitance, but I would also say, and

I think we've come into a grains with, if you're not really an enthusiast, and this

lady was definitely not a car enthusiast at all.

I think she's, I think she chose it for the color cause it looked, it looked great.

It's fascinating.

Yeah.

It'd be fascinating to find out why she chose it.

It's quite an obscure thing.

You know, it's not, especially not the performance version.

I wonder if there's actually a group down in Geelong called Davey motor group and they

do a lot of grain ports and they're big in, in decay trucks.

Um, and actually, uh, interestingly regarding the conversation we're having, they bring

a lot of parts in as well so that they bring in mechanical parts and also accessories like

you know, all that's, and all that sort of stuff.

So, um, I wonder if the car came from there.

I mean, they've got quite a profile down there.

They're in, um, can't think of the name of the suburb of Geelong.

It's, um, it'll come to me.

But, uh, but yeah, they, if you go on their website there at any time, they've got probably

60 grain ports for sale.

That's a big operation.

Yeah.

Huge.

Uh, I mean, that wouldn't surprise me if that's what we wish you were.

She's like, I'll do something cheap and easy to run.

Oh, he's just three cylinder, you know, little missing.

Go for it.

She'd be like, oh, all right, I'll take that.

Yep.

I mean, it kind of feels like a no brainer for a car dealership, like an import, like

gray import or imported car place to do that also because they're hoping to keep those cars

running obviously.

And also they're ensuring that, you know, they kind of get the business for when insurance

or people need parts of those cars.

Yeah.

And, and let's just say like you do buy a car and a week later, it gets pranked or something

and you're just going to go back to the business and say, Hey, can you help me repair this?

Like, oh, sorry man.

It's a great import.

We don't touch that.

It's like you sold me this bloody car.

There's a bit of that.

Just on insurance.

Um, I've probably have said previously, but my, the first one I had was the first one

in the country.

Um, so when I rang Shannon's to ensure it, they said, well, we actually don't have the

record of any record of that.

You know, I said, well, he's the first one in the country.

Let's give us 24 hours and we'll get back to you.

And they go, went away and did their due diligence and researched the model and the range and what

was available and all that sort of thing in Japan and came back, you know, within, within

24 hours and said, yep, we'll ensure that.

Um, because yeah, I mean, people are always saying, Oh, is that that's one of those inboxes?

Isn't it?

Is that electric?

No, it's not electric enough.

Uh, but, uh, yes.

I mean, it was, it was quite obscure at the time, but now they, now, now it's certainly

listed and I don't know a couple of the other people that have them.

Um, and there, there are, there are some of the cheaper ones.

Like the other thing that's popular to import as a gray import is the base model of the cars

too.

So the non-turbo, um, versions with, um, just the, the light cream interior and plastic

hubcaps, you know, because in Japan at auction, they're the ones that come through and they're

dirt cheap.

So they could bring them in.

They're still a cute, you know, little K car import sort of thing.

Um, but they haven't cost them a lot of money.

So, um, and yeah, they're under 10 grand now.

You can buy anyone for under 10 grand.

Easy.

So for example, you're looking at, you're looking at buying one.

Yeah.

And, and they come back to you and say, okay, you know, let's say you're normally insurers

like your, and we won't name names, but we'll call them FAMY and RAC Y and all these, all

these companies, they say, no, we're not going to touch that.

Would you specifically have to go, you know, like a, like a Shannon's or like a, like a

car enthusiast one?

Cause like sometimes they do charge a premium for that service.

And you know, that might detract from the experience, but I guess if there's a fair

few, a fair few of them here that might, they might kind of say, oh no, we've seen them

before.

We've seen them come through.

I mean, they're all underwritten by, by either like I AG or Sun Corp.

Like they'd have an, they'd have an understanding like, you know, of, of that.

Um,

Look, I think that aspects part and parcel as, um, Scotty was saying earlier about the

enthusiast, enthusiast aspect of the cars, you know, if you, if you're going to have

something different, um, I think you've got to be aware of that.

You know, you can't go to budget direct and like just, oh, sorry, we're not mentioning

names that way.

Uh, budget, um, budget, that's, that's no way around.

That's not criticism of the companies, but yeah, I mean, if you're getting something

a little bit specialist, I think the problem is when people, and it doesn't happen so much

now because people are more aware, but, but I've known people in the past that have bought

cars that have been great imports and they didn't know.

So then they want to get, uh, I had, had some family friends and he had a, um, four wheel

steer, a white one with red interior.

And I looked and I said, Oh, that's interesting.

I said, that's a local car.

Uh, he said, Oh yeah.

I bought it.

I bought it privately.

You know, I said, yeah, yeah.

And it had an Australian complaints plate on it, which I'm sure had no relevance to that

car whatsoever.

So I'm sure there have been dodgy, some dodgy things being done.

The little, little Japanese characters are getting next to the door locks weren't enough

of a giveaway to him, but, uh,

it's working in Japanese.

Yeah.

That's right.

But it's certainly not an Australian car.

And had he gone into Honda Australia, if they had gone by the VIN number or, you know,

to get parts on, you know, some of them may have fitted, but a lot had a lot of different

things.

Like it had climate air where the other, the, our cars didn't have climate air and all

a little different specific things like that.

So that would run into power.

And I feel sorry for people that buy them and don't know what they're buying.

I don't know what I thought, but I think that's the minority really.

Yeah.

I think it's one of those things where, yeah, it's got to touch a good point.

You've got to be, you've got to be into the car.

I think what we all end up doing when we, when we buy new cars, you go on, well you used

to go on forums and find the forum that you sort of belong to, right?

For that car.

But now you go and search the Facebook group.

And through that, you end up sort of in the place to be when you need something or you

need, you need advice or, you know, whatever it might be.

So I think being able to like, you can get a crown for like, you know, you can get a

beat up Toyota crown for maybe three grand in Japan.

Yeah.

By the time you're imported, it's nine grand or seven grand or eight grand or something,

right?

By the time you comply, it's ready to go.

And like, there are a lot of crowns here.

So it's something like that.

It's still going to be what one in every thousand cars is you're going to have a different car,

right?

So you're still going to be in an interesting, cool car, like an interesting car at least.

So in that aspect, you can even get something that's not that uncommon, but uncommon enough

that it separates you from pretty much everything on the road.

Well, in any given time around you, there won't probably won't be another crown, like

you just say, right?

Yeah.

If you leave a fuel in like Springwell, then it's going to be just around every second

car.

But yeah, you know, you can still have a fun car and it doesn't have to be super expensive

to, you know, get super expensive for parts and stuff.

So it's still going to be more than a Kira Rio for parts.

But yeah, again, like it's, I think you got to like sort of nail what you're wanting and

how much, how much effort you're willing to actually put into if you need to replace something,

if you need to find something new for a new part for it.

Yeah.

Insurance companies aren't really that scared of them anymore, like back in the day.

Yeah.

If we're thinking back early 2000s and that, it was hard to try and find anyone that would

insure them.

Yeah, that's true.

Because they just never had on the list and like, ah, no, don't do imports.

But now, I mean, even back then and now, I've always done RACV.

They've always had them.

Yeah.

Every single car that I've owned, including the blade, so it's always on their system.

Not so much the roadside.

I don't know why it doesn't use the same car list, but for some reason it doesn't.

Yeah.

So for the Toyota blade, insured as a blade, but for roadside assist as close as I get

was a Corolla.

A white Corolla.

If the Toyota was like, yeah, I guess that's a Corolla.

Yeah.

It's got the same number plate and it's white and everything.

So that's all that matters.

But yeah, for some reason that doesn't work.

I've had no dramas with them.

Um, yeah.

So I think that's probably a positive now.

So compared to back in the day, remember just car insurance.

I do.

Shannons we came.

Shannons overtake them.

Yeah.

But insurance companies have always been a little, little adverse to risk.

You know, we say that they want to stack the cards in their favor, don't they?

Absolutely.

When I was, um, a long time ago, uh, last century, when I turned 18 and was buying my

first car, I, uh, I wanted a Saab 9 9 EMS.

So that was a 75 model Saab.

So the funny, quirky, weirdo looking Saabs.

I always love quirky, weirdo cars.

Um, I really like this stood for ejected manual sports.

And because it had sports in the name, they, they wouldn't ensure me at 18 in

driving a Saab 9 9.

So I tried a few insurance companies.

Um, oh no, no, it's a sports car.

You can't have a sports car as an 18 year old people later.

Um, they were quite happy with me in my district nursing car roll of the day ended

up buying.

Um, but, uh, I suppose they did me a favor.

Had I bought a Saab for my first car, things might have turned out very

differently in later years.

Uh, it'd be, uh, it'd be, instead of going to Japan, it'd be gone to other places in

the world.

But the thing is the Saab 9 9 was probably the safest car on the road at the

time.

It was absolutely built like a bank vault.

And, uh, you know, you just, it would have been impenetrable for a pretty

player, not so much an SE Corolla sedan.

Yeah.

Well, you, well, you know, it's funny, David, like it's funny.

You're mentioning that back then to, to now, like two of my year 12s.

Well, one this year, one last year.

They've got Toyota crowns.

Wow.

Really?

One's got it.

One's got a Majesta VA.

Yeah.

My year 12s.

Oh, no way.

Yeah.

And one's got a, um, there's a Majesta VA one.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Hello.

They drive another.

I think the kids are going to be okay.

Yeah.

It's good to hear.

Yeah.

So, so got, got one of those and the other ones got a, um, a V6 one.

Um, and it, but it's, it's like, um, Julia.

There's millions that came out and I'd like that really rare purple car.

Like they made like 200 of them.

Oh yeah.

And he's got one of them.

And he went, he went to bloody middle of nowhere to pick it up and he,

and he brought it back.

Yeah.

And yeah.

And, and, and you know, love it.

And these are kids driving crowns now because like, you know,

back in my day, they're all driving Commonwealths and Falcons.

Yeah.

And now they're in Mazda twos and Mazda threes.

Now it's, well, they want something interesting and cool.

They're going by VA Majesta.

You know, like, you know, which is, which I was like, hang on.

I said to, I said to this guy, I said, it's not yours.

It's sort of the red P plan on it.

He's like, yeah, like it's a VA.

He's like, yeah.

I'm like, like, what the hell?

You know, he probably got it because it's not on the list to ban cars

because they don't know it's banned.

They don't know it's banned.

It's a cheat code.

Is what that car is.

Yeah.

Right.

That's what it'll be.

Yeah.

Um, so, you know, complete cheat code and like, I had a look at it,

you know, very nice car.

Like, I, you know, they're beautiful.

Majestas are awesome.

Yeah.

They've got like every bell and whistle.

Um, you know, like, you know, beautiful in terms of like, you know,

like a good first car, like it's an incredible first car.

It's in terms of cars.

We better than all my cars put together really in terms of quality.

But, you know, this is, you know, I guess we're at a point now where we,

because we don't have, we don't have anything, um, to protect anymore.

I guess gray imports are becoming a lot more of the norm.

And, you know, there are companies that are, that are really selling, you know,

like the one in, uh, I think it's on malaysia on the road, they're,

they just import, you know, EV or hybrid, you know, Japanese, Japanese car.

Yeah.

And they're selling them by the bucket load.

Like, you know, I'm seeing them more and more and more and more on the road.

There's so many.

They're everywhere.

You can bring anything that's EV or hybrid.

So it's just open.

Like it's anyone.

It's still going to be on the seds register, but it's eligible to put on the seds register.

So this is one of the changes that came in the end of 2019.

So instead of having to qualify three out of five, I think criteria,

it's our one out of four.

Oh, cool.

And one of them, the environmental one is what the, what the K cars coming on.

So one of the limitations or one of the characteristics of the environmental one is the

660 CC engine limit, um, and the, and the physical dimension limit,

but also anything electric or hybrid is eligible.

So you're seeing these big S class benzes that we never got in hybrid coming in.

Um, yeah.

Uh, yeah.

It's even, um, like master acceleros.

So Mazda three hybrid that you can bring any of those through, um, Subaru XV hybrids

long before they, you know, was a thing that on the market here, they're coming through.

Um, yeah, that's the thing.

It's the hybrid's been around for so long in Japan and other parts of the world.

Now we're, we're just so behind on it.

Like we're only just getting, I mean, not just, but in the last like five,

six years has been really popping off for that sort of car choice.

Yeah.

I just want to go back to the majestic for saying I don't want to know how much the

insurance costs.

I would be too scared.

It would be the price of the car per year at least.

Well, it'd be under his dad's name.

I'm assuming.

Yeah.

And he'd be a, uh, a driver.

Yeah.

Mr.

Driver.

Oh my God.

You, you crashed.

What?

Yeah.

Uh, so yeah, it's look fair, fair play to the kid.

Like he's, like he loves it.

It's immaculate.

He keeps it really clean.

I saw it today.

I'm like, well, that's, you know, every time I see it, like it's nice car.

It's cool.

Yeah.

It's a nice car.

Yeah.

And I was like, well, you know, that, that, if that was my first car for you, but like,

it's an, you know, it's an expensive first car, but I guess he's like, well,

everything here is kind of boring.

I wanted something a bit different.

And I get it.

Yeah.

Cool.

And I think that's why we own such crappy cars when we were at P plate is because

imports were so expensive.

Like even a, and there was a lot less cars you could import to back then.

Right.

So that's right.

Um, because they're different.

Yeah.

The rules were way different.

And, um, you know, that you weren't going to be able to get insurance for it easily

or at least for cheap.

And the car was going to cost you an arm and a leg.

So it was just like, I'm going to drive an AFL.

You know, like,

I agree with you.

Yeah.

And, and I mean, like that's, I mean, they were expensive for their time.

But now they're like, for example, as, as you know, 34s and stuff, you can't,

you can't even look at them.

Sorry, Scotty.

Sorry.

Um, but like, you know, in comparison, these are what these kids are, you know,

I guess the, the entrance, as you said, as you mentioned alluded to earlier,

David, the, the, um, the barrier to entry, like the, the, the entry point for a

cool Japanese car is you said under 10 grand really, like freshly imported on,

you know, complied you to first owner in Australia for, you know, for a K.

And that's, that for me is like, geez, if my first car could get for, you know,

the first, the, my first car that I actually bought was my $500 laser,

but the second one actually bought was my, was my nicer laser, which I still own.

And that cost me a grand.

Yeah.

And I was like, wow, this is, this is a pricey car.

Yeah.

Everyone was like, oh, you know, you, you're spending money.

I'm like, well, I don't know.

I'm sorry.

But in the grand,

I grant you can have a crown.

You can have a crown for a crown.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So, yeah.

Interesting times.

And I'm glad in a way that they've finally opened up the, the,

100% like the rules because they had to eventually,

because what was going to happen every second hand car was going to be a minimum of like

$10,000, $15,000, no matter how crap it was.

Because that's what it would have got to eventually unless you open the floodgate

for other cars to come in.

Yeah.

Because otherwise there would have been one exception to be able to import,

which would have been like the personal import thing.

Well, I mean, some of the other SEVS like stuff,

but easily attainable ones.

It just wouldn't have been, you know, that easy.

I've been asking my sister to either buy a Fiesta van or,

or another.

Oh yeah.

Funny.

As an input.

Keep it through and bring it in.

Imagine a Fiesta van.

Princess T-Way.

Yes.

David Prince, I could see you in a Fiesta van,

working out of a Fiesta van.

So yeah.

Like she's like, oh, I don't need it.

I just walk everywhere or take the bus.

I'm like, no, you're there for a reason.

Another point.

So, so when I go visit her,

I might say, all right, I'm buying this and it's just going to,

it's going to be registered to you and just bring it back with you.

Yeah.

But no, you're right.

Like they had to, they had to open up the gates and,

and you know, it's funny you say that because like,

what's every new, every kid's first go going to be a freaking

Ford Ranger on a Toyota Hilux.

Like, you know, like that's all that sells in this country.

So pretty much, you know, I'm,

I sure as hell wouldn't want that as a first car.

Yeah.

Absolutely not.

But anyway, so let's,

let's finish off with some points here before we get to the quiz.

Point one.

I think you don't have to be necessarily an enthusiast,

but you need to be aware of what you have.

If you're buying one of these cars, would, would we agree with that?

Yeah.

Especially like, for example, my friend,

who I worked with, you know, she, she drove a note every day.

So again, it is possible.

And, and I did mention, I just, oh, you got a cool car.

She's like, oh yeah.

It's just, you know, I don't even think she realized,

I mean, she probably did, but, but you know,

she was very blasé about it.

Second thing, make sure that your insurance will,

I guess cover you in a lot of ways because it's just,

because it isn't important.

You just got to just read the fine print with a car like that.

I think it's important.

Yeah.

Thirdly, entry point is a lot lower these days for,

you know, getting into it, getting into one.

So, you know, bear that in mind that, you know,

you might get a good car or might get a, you know,

not so good example.

So, so bear that in mind.

And thirdly, get on, sorry.

And fourth, I should say, get onto the forums and the,

and the owners groups because they would be your best friend

in these, and tell you where to get parts from, et cetera,

et cetera.

So I think, I think once you got those kind of four things

down pat, I think you're,

I think you're pretty safe getting an import these days.

It's never been easier.

Yeah.

Again, like seconding that owners group kind of thing,

whether it's a forum or a Facebook group,

like before you even decide to really take the plunge,

just hang out in that group, see what people post.

Like just, you can,

if people are regularly posting about a specific type of part,

you can already kind of preempt that and like,

if you're, if you're importing the car yourself,

try and also find that part while you're getting the car

imported to bring it with the, with the car itself.

Cause you're like, well, this part's going to go.

I've already got it.

And I have to be, you know, worried.

I mentioned also, sorry, Alan, keep going.

I was just going to say at the same time,

you might also just find one of the cars for sale in that group

and just, you know, get yourself sorted over there.

Also, um, YouTube.

Yeah.

Most likely someone's done a review on the car.

Yeah, absolutely.

May, most likely someone's done some DIY things

that might go wrong all the time on that car.

Yeah.

Um, you know, look at the, the rally up Magna one that popped up

and he was wearing your t-shirt.

He was.

Yeah.

That was quite funny.

I was like, I was in the video and I'm like,

I had to, I had to, I had to.

I'm like, oh my God, he's wearing my shirt.

Yeah.

That was pretty cool.

Um, and also again, be, be, be bold.

Like sometimes that's, you just got to do it and jump in.

Um, even, uh, like there's a guy in the States.

He does a channel that's not related to cars at all,

but he, he did post about his car.

He's got a Nissan Figuero and he's in like Michigan and like,

like rural Michigan, I'm pretty sure, but like he's,

he's not going to have a great time finding any parts,

but he's again, he's willing to kind of bite that bullet for

something that he's like, this is unique.

This is something I'm quite interested in.

I'm going to go for it and you just kind of repay yourself a

little bit.

You're like, I'm having something that's quite out of the ordinary

and I'm going to steal myself a little bit in going the extra

mile to keep that running.

Also, I think to add to that, to that point is like a,

like a finalized point.

Like, yeah, and if you go, if you're ordering something like

really rare and that goes with any kind of rare-ish car,

you know, here and we all own them, you know,

if you can get things here and there, get them,

like get them while you can, you know,

and just put them away because you never know.

Yeah.

You don't know.

Sorry.

It's a good piece of advice.

Ladies and gentlemen, cool.

All right.

Well, let's finish that off and let's get into the quiz.

So, you know what it is with the car quiz.

We have 10 questions plus some bonus questions.

I'm doing half and half.

So I'm doing this this week, half with, you know,

some bonus questions and other, and I'm doing,

I'm making it five questions related to brochures for Australian cars.

All right.

So, so now the winner list, David,

do you want to know about your score?

Oh, God.

There was shenanigans last week.

There was some shenanigans last week, but

there was no way to be seen to call it.

That was very disappointing.

Shenanigans.

Well,

I wasn't here either.

Funny thing you asked that.

I think we should just eliminate last round just from the records.

Yeah.

To avoid any conflicts.

No.

Ed is on one.

David is on two.

Everyone else can get the score.

So let's just, there's plenty of time where there's like,

you know, it's another 40 weeks of this,

of this year left.

40 to go.

Only 40 to go of this.

And, you know, if you want that HSP slash, you know,

Oh, is that what the prize is?

Yeah.

Nice.

Yeah.

So HSP or pub meal.

It's up to you.

You know, you got to find hard.

All right.

Question number one.

What Ford models,

keyword models as 1.8 here,

have been recalled again this week to fix the already fixed recall?

Chad.

Is that Ranger and Everest?

That is correct.

Chad.

Well, on two points to you.

So they've done a recall to fix the recall.

Nice.

Which is just, just four things.

Ladies and gentlemen, just, just, just new Ford thing.

Oh, they're not alone.

Ticada, when they had the Ticada recalls,

they had to recall Subaru's twice because some of them,

they're fitted upside down.

Passenger airbags and impressors were fitted upside down.

So they had to get them back in to make sure the other way.

It'll be protecting the windshield.

Yeah.

Question number two.

So Chad, do you want to score check?

Oh, yes, please.

Chad, you're in two.

Nice.

Everyone else on yet to score?

Good stuff.

Question number two.

What is the luxury arm of BYD calls?

Chad.

He's on Chad.

Chad's on.

God damn it.

We'll cover this.

It is

Ling Fang?

No.

I remember this because it's a funny name.

Yang Wang.

It's not Yang Wang.

Oh, it's David.

David.

Denzer.

It is Denzer, correct.

What was the Yang Wang?

Yeah.

What was Yang Wang then?

Yang Wang was something GWM's like.

Oh.

I think that was just like a model or something.

Wasn't it the Yang Wang of the car?

I thought it was going to be a nice performance car.

No, because I thought the Yang Wang was like the Rolls Royce

of the Chinese cars.

But it's not BYD's one.

It's not BYD's one.

Denzer.

Denzer, yeah.

Denzer Washington is now in the car.

Question number three.

You'd have to call it.

If you had one, you'd have to call it then.

Oh, absolutely.

One of the ladies at work, she came up to me yesterday,

actually.

And she's like, Matt, you're in the car.

I'm like, yeah.

She's like, okay, I saw a funny plate for you.

I'm like, go ahead.

So it was on a Tesla.

And before I had the chance to go,

she went, the plate was whatever.

You know, like, whatever.

And I was like, all right, that's fairly fair.

That's not too bad.

That's a very Tesla thing to do, isn't it?

Yes.

One of those things.

Question number three.

Good friends in America, David Prince?

Sure.

Sure, yeah.

The Trump administration has called for an end to which car feature?

David.

Automatic stop start.

Automatic stop start is correct.

Yeah.

Did you see the video about it?

He's like, yeah.

It's so annoying.

You know, he talks.

It was so funny.

It was so annoying.

It's the worst feature in the history of cars, maybe ever.

Let's see.

That's good stuff.

Question number four.

One car company recently had to take its ad off the Australian market.

David got in there.

Oh, David.

I'm calling it shenanigans.

It's all the internet.

It's a bit harsh.

It was Toyota.

Well done, David Prince.

By Lux.

That's not the bonus question.

Do you try to do a bunting?

But he couldn't.

It was a bonus question, though.

Oh.

It's a question.

What was...

Okay, Alan, go.

Let's get the question.

No, I appreciate the question.

Alan, no, you guys did.

No.

That's shenanigans.

You've got to give an answer.

Look, it was against Australian standards

because they were being petty about them putting all the dogs in the boot.

You know what?

I'll surprisingly pay you, Alan.

Thank you.

I'll give you a point.

So why did they cancel that they did not like it?

It was because of portrayed practices or actions of which if they were to take place

on a road or road related area might breach a related law.

When you consider the amount of dogs that were in that tray,

like in what world is a person getting, you know,

at this point, they might as retroactively ban the 200 kilowasps ad

with like 80 people in the RAV4.

Yeah, correct.

Yeah.

And what if you're allergic to wasps?

I don't know.

Yeah.

Can I just say that is a great ad, the kilowasps ad,

but the highlights with all the dogs, that's a great ad.

I thought it was fantastic.

And, you know, it wasn't harming anybody.

It wasn't like it's clearly fake.

Can they redo the ad with just one dog in the tray

and the dog like, you know, raised his eyebrows just to let you know

that they know that they, you know, it happened.

What I call breaking the fourth wall is always cool.

Yeah.

Super cheap can keep doing their ads.

Yeah.

They're better oils ones where they're thrashing cars and stuff,

and that's okay.

But one with just some dogs gets kicked off.

It's because of the Mr. Beast era.

The people like, look how many dogs I got into this ute,

just like the ad.

And then the next thing you know, the dogs are doing like a,

I forgot the name of that Korean TV show.

Squid games?

Yeah.

Squid game.

It's like dog's squid game next thing you know, you know.

What?

It's, it's, look, I'm just saying the intense about a place in here.

And that's, that's why everything's wrong.

Yeah.

Well, I'm just saying I think that satire goes a long way.

So it's like something is obvious.

That's the thing.

Nothing is obvious anymore.

Correct.

It's clearly a joke.

And they've just completely taken it out of context.

It does my head in.

I don't know.

Question number five.

Which American car company has officially announced its lowest

profits since the global financial crisis in 2008?

Chad.

Cadillac.

Cadillac's incorrect.

David.

So the Ford, Ford Motor Company.

So what was that?

Ford Motor Company.

It is the Ford Motor Company.

That's correct.

They're in, they're in a lot of, they're in a lot of pain.

They're in big trouble.

Big trouble.

The Ranger sales keep them propped up.

Just for Australia.

That's keeping them in Australia.

All right.

Halfway.

So we're the first, the first of our questions relating to

brochures.

The blank series two.

Transform every day into a heart stopping adventure.

Slide behind the leather wrapped wheel of the blank blank.

Turn the key.

Feel the power.

Take control of this ultimate sports machine.

Harness the adrenaline pumping performance of the all new

generation three.

5.7 liter alloy V8 engine.

David.

I'm going to say.

For this needs to be quite specific.

So, but oh, oh, yeah.

Oh, now you tell me.

That's all right.

Sorry.

I'm going to say, I'm going to say series two.

Is the Manaro CV Z eight?

Incorrect.

Scott.

I'm going to say VX series two.

Incorrect.

It is a holding product.

I'll keep it at that.

Yeah.

So move through the six speed manual transmission.

Experience the rush.

So key features now available in this series two.

You know, you now know it is a series to hold in.

I might say what it is.

Six speed manual trans all new gen three 5.7 liter alloy V8

engine.

So when did that model come out?

Just bear that in mind.

So it was a series to the series once had the iron line in

this in this certain vehicle traction control on automatic

transmission only limited slip differential for superior

handling 17 by eight inch alloy wheels wrapped in low profile

tires.

Chad.

I'm going to do Commodore VZ like club sports or something.

Incorrect.

It's you're very close.

Like all of you are very close.

So Scotty was probably the closest there to be honest with

you.

Wow.

Yeah.

High wing sports seats with fabric that compliments exterior

paint color.

That should be a big hint and driver and passenger airbags.

What car am I?

So, you know, it's a holding, you know, it's a Commodore, but

which one?

Alarm.

It's a VT.

Yeah, that's it.

Like a VT Commodore.

Give me a I'll give you what I'll give you a point five because

it is a VT.

What is this?

What is the which one in the lineup?

I'm a close foot.

Incorrect.

It's the VTSS series two.

So that's when that car introduced the 5.7 liter.

Right.

So it all VTSS series ones were online series twos were

which were LS LS ones gen three.

Why did they come out?

No.

Oldman sports machine.

Yeah.

It doesn't say anything about coupé in that in here and slide

behind the leather up wheel of this car.

Turn the key.

That's why I went with an arrow.

Sorry.

David.

Second.

David's like, I'm taking a half point away from Ellen.

All right.

Score check.

Chad to 11.5 David for squatting at the score.

Come on, Scotty.

There's still time.

Still time.

Did you say 0.5 or 1.5?

1.5.

Thank you.

I need that.

He's keeping his own score.

The full drive with the soul of a sports car bear that in mind

because this company was all about being sports car oriented at the time.

Welcome to the world of blank blank.

The full drive designed by the company that's created some of the world's

greatest sports cars.

The blank blank is the full drive that is both agile enough for the city

and rugged enough to take you into the outback.

It offers the perfect blend of city family transport and tough weekend tour.

Rough terrain is handed easy by blanks long wheelbase and generous ground clearance

while its command seating position provides an unrestricted view of what lies ahead.

Choose from two engines of 2.3 litre four cylinder petrol or three litre V6 engine

both available with four speed automatic transmissions to provide power for

quicker acceleration and city traffic along with impressive time capability

capacity and off road muscle.

Tackle the city confidently with the nimble handling provided by sophisticated

multi-link in suspension and precise racquet pin steering dual front side

and driver and driver side front and rear SRS airbags safeguard occupants

across the entire blank range.

Take city comforts into the bush with generous features like that feature

on all models including aircon, remote central locking, ABS, power,

operator windows and mirrors and a city player.

Let the blank take you to the outback and back.

Alan.

Before you go Alan, I'll give everybody a hint.

It is in the 2000s this car came out.

So Alan.

Is it some kind of Audi?

Incorrect.

All these questions you said earlier.

Australian delivered cars.

Is it the Mazda tribute?

It is the Mazda tribute.

What gave it away was the engine option.

Everything else I was thinking like X-Trail or RAV4.

No engine options.

They had no V6.

So that's the only one.

They had the 2.3 and the three litre V6.

Very good.

A legend returns.

From an uncompromising vision to go anywhere or do anything

built on the cornerstone of its illustrious four wheel drive heritage

and destined to become a legend in its own right.

The new blank blank embodies rugged dependability, durability

and grunt with head turning design features.

Stylistically it makes a bold statement.

Striking modern.

The blanks design also clearly references the past.

That's a big hint.

David.

Is it a Jeep?

It is not a Jeep.

Alan.

Is it a Jimny?

It is not a Jimny.

And while it's wide stance and bold colors,

anything but drive attention,

it's the unflattering four wheel drive capabilities

of this groundbreaking vehicle that set it apart.

Its territorial advantage built it with purest in mind

and tested some of the toughest terrains in Australia.

From the red earth to the mud flats

to sheer rock climbs and slippery bitumen.

The blank doesn't bulk at any challenge.

And little wonder its four wheel drive capabilities

including part time four wheel drive active traction control

and push button rear differential lock.

Make it adventure ready and with reinforced steel chassis

and 200 kilowatts of power,

it's tough enough to go almost anywhere.

With the new, I almost said the name,

but with the new bike,

a legend has certainly been reborn.

And one of Australia's most iconic symbols of go anywhere toughness

has been returned to power.

But when you consider its pedigree going beyond all expectations,

it's practically second nature.

I'll give you a hint, gentlemen.

It was only available as a petrol.

And it was based on another chassis in its...

Chad.

Is it the adventurer?

Not the adventurer.

Yes, but not the adventurer.

Scotty, it's up to you.

Bring it home, mate.

Wouldn't have a clue.

Was it a land cruiser?

I'll give you a point five, Scotty.

Can you give me anything else?

The Jero?

No.

It was the FJ Cruiser.

Oh, FJ.

FJ Cruiser, 200 kilowatts.

Built on the Parado chassis.

Parado, that's right.

The most messed up door, as you can imagine.

It's got suicide doors in there.

I like it.

I think they're cool.

OK, next one is...

We're up to nine?

This is nine.

Yeah, two to go.

Since it was launched in 2009,

the blank has become the best-selling small car in the country.

Now, the Series 2 blank

is set to become even more popular

as it's the only small car built in Australia.

The blank continues.

Blank's proud Australian heritage

and its localization represents a significant investment

in Blank's Elizabeth plant in South Australia.

It's the Holden.

That is partly right, yes.

Was it the vehicle?

No, I think it's 0.5 to you, David Prince.

Chad.

Holden Astra.

Not Holden Astra.

Not the Astra.

That's the best-selling small car.

Yeah, best-selling small car.

I want to show you, just so you know,

because he's going to be pissed off.

I'll continue.

The heartbeat of the company's

entire vehicle manufacturing operations,

the blank is the small car

that is giving Australia the Australian automotive industry

a big future.

It didn't.

Let's be honest.

You know that from personal experience.

Yes, Alan.

Alan.

Was the cruise?

It was the cruise.

I'll give you the other 0.5, Alan Holden.

How was that?

The best-selling small car in Australia.

You tell me.

People didn't know it was being shipped.

Yeah, it's sad.

It sucked.

Sorry, what was that, David?

It was a small car.

You know, but here, the new Series 2 cruise,

it's not just a small car.

It's Australia's small car.

God, I hated it.

I hated that marketing campaign

because it wasn't Australia.

It's a bloody day-woo.

It's a GM product.

Yep.

That's no reason.

From 2009.

Okay.

Yep.

Sorry.

I mean, they did have a cruise earlier than that,

but it wasn't...

That was a better one.

Yeah.

That's the one that people want.

That one, no one would get.

I would get it because I'm sick.

But no one else would get that.

And I'll show you guys in a second.

Let me just find this last one.

All right.

Here we go.

Last question.

A four-door coupe

with exciting contemporary styling.

The blank, blank hardtop

sets the standard above public, David.

The master of Steena hardtop.

Oh, my God, you're good, David.

Prince, it is correct.

That is absolutely correct.

How's that?

They did this one because it was a pillarless...

Well, pillar's four-door, really.

Wait, are they pillarless?

Yeah.

Pretty little cars.

Pretty pretty.

Well, I did not know that.

Did you know they were available with a two-liter V6?

They were.

The same as the 30-axe.

30-axe.

Yeah.

And the 1.8-liter four-cylinder as well.

Jeez, David, you're good at that, aren't you?

Look at you.

You're trying not to smug or anything.

The obscure ones.

Because, yeah, I'm a lover of obscure cars, I suppose.

That's fine.

David's just started looking at menus and stuff

to be like, oh, you know,

where am I?

Where am I fancying a nice meal?

Yeah, he already is, yeah.

The advantage is, the more of you take me,

I can choose from the seniors now.

So, you know...

That's all right.

Having a dinner or two?

Come on, gentlemen, you're not putting up much of a fight.

Chad started like a house on fire.

You're on fire, Chad.

You were out of the box.

Not crying.

Well done, David.

Well done, mate.

Thanks.

Score check.

Scotty.5.

Alamom 2.0.

Chad on 3.0.

And David on 5.5.

Well done.

So, anyone you want to thank, David?

Just myself.

Thanks.

Very good.

Scotty, did he do you justice there?

Yeah.

Exactly.

The funniest part,

a bit of that quiz was showing Chad the cruise

and just seeing him like...

Right.

You buckled, man.

You just broke.

I was thinking,

ah, the Astra's not...

Sorry, yeah, the Astra's not right.

See, part of Chad doing that was like,

ah-ha, you know, for me.

I was like, no one reacts like that to regular cars.

Oh, shit.

I saw a great post on Instagram.

It was from a Batuta advocate,

and it was like...

Did you say it?

It was like...

Yeah, absolutely.

It was the absolute POS

that sells a single mom and two kids

and used a hold on cruise.

You know who said that to me?

Did I say that to you?

No, Steph.

Oh, really?

Out of everybody.

She's like, like, God, it's true.

It's so true.

That's funny.

And it was like,

it must be the Carrington Carco

that sell all those single moms like...

Yeah.

Yeah, because...

I think that's a podcast, gentlemen.

That was good fun.

Let's start with some plugs.

Scotty's Golf Tip of the Week.

Yeah, when you go to any golf tournaments to watch,

you know, live golf or PGA tours and things,

when they do yell at four and things like that,

watch out.

Right?

What does that mean?

There's a video I just recently watched

where it smacked the guy right on the head

and he just fell down like a sack of potatoes.

So he just shoot and just fell and just boom.

It's pretty funny.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

So, a car talk top tip, bring a helmet.

Yes.

Yeah, just, you know,

watch out when they yell at four.

Don't just stand there.

Shield your head.

Yep.

Absolutely.

Onto the fetal position if need be.

That would be good.

Like it, Scotty.

Alan.

If you would like to get yourself into an electrical sports car

that looks like it's been kicked in the arse by a giant,

OK, the MG Cyberster,

you can hit up our good friend, Rizzy Ross,

at carloop.com.au.

Also on Facebook at carloop...

Facebook.com.

He is the man in the know when it comes to electric car space

and he can let you know where it's worth it.

Sitting in a car that looks like it's been kicked in the arse

by a giant.

It's got cool doors.

Yeah, it's got cool doors, but that's about it.

I saw one on the road the other day.

Yeah.

Anyway, but we won't get into that.

We'll let Rizzy tell you about that.

He's also the man in the know when it comes to the new car space.

So don't be paying too much.

Hit him up.

Absolutely.

Hit him up.

David's wisdom.

Oh, look, tonight, I think I should quote Mr. Nelson Mandela,

especially given the quiz result.

I never lose.

I either win or I learn.

Oh, nicely done.

Jeez.

If that's him throwing shade at all of you, I don't know what.

It does sound like it.

You're a notice, Prince.

You're a notice.

We're watching you.

Oh, very good.

I love the speed.

What kind of thing?

It's absolutely free feeds a free feed.

Like, you know, we'll we'll have to do a video call with with him.

Just just just eating slowly and savoring.

Chad, any plug things you want to plug today?

No plugs.

Just any deliveries.

I don't always.

Chad's transmission conversions.

Transmission conversions.

Yep.

Chad's garage cleaning.

Car vacuuming.

So if you need some parts, yeah, you know where to go.

Like us.

Our Facebook page is cartoff to our queue.

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It's not all up on iTunes.

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So don't forget to subscribe.

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So, you know, give it some feedback.

You know, we'd love to hear it.

If there's something you'd like us to do better or improve,

which I want to get to just before we end the show.

So I do want to mention we've also got our updated merch site on,

which is the links are in our show notes here.

Please buy some merch if you want to support the show.

You know, again, we give you all this free content.

So we've got updated or a whole bunch more new designs coming.

We've got all our designs up on there at the moment.

So we've sold some, some more Magna stuff as well.

And I've got all the magnets individually put on there too.

So if you want an individual version of a magnet, it's on there too.

Awesome.

Thank you to our patrons for being our patrons.

So if you want to become a patron, go to patreon.com forward slash cart or podcast

and support the show there.

But also I want to say we gave some good consumer advice the other day, gentlemen.

Well, the list that when we talked about the cherry versus rough board.

Yeah.

I got, I got an email, a lovely message.

I said, no, I got text messages.

Who am I old back about, you know, when her decision was and she's like,

I'm not getting the cherry anymore because her brother bought a cherry

and was trying to convince her.

And then he's getting back to what we're talking about.

His infotainment system completely died.

Oh, wow.

And they said on a brand new car brand new car.

And they said, oh, we got no time to fit you in until you bring it for service.

Sorry.

So he's going to have no music or anything until he gets his car.

That is rubbish.

That is horrific.

That's absolutely rubbish.

She's like one where he can't remember if it was cherry or maybe some other Chinese

brand brand new car and unveiled it.

And then this infotainment screen is not working.

And they're like, oh yeah, just bring it back later.

You know, it still drives.

You can still listen to music, but you can't press the buttons like it doesn't come up.

How can you deliver a car like that?

I would say no.

I'd say fix the car.

He said, no, I'm not collecting it until it's actually working properly and left.

Wow.

That sucks.

That's so bad.

But anyway, so she went and test drove a, let's be honest.

It's not exactly a special car, but a new Outlander.

Any Z trim?

So not the highest, but the second highest.

And she got quoted in low 50s drive away with a 10 year warranty.

So she's going to do that.

Or she said she's going to go look at a BYD seal.

But yeah, also the, that was the sea line.

Sea line.

They said like the petrol, like the hybrid one.

So there's a few of those getting around.

So I said, let's say, look, I think for that kind of money, I think that's probably a better

bet that or all the Outlander, but yeah.

But look, just letting you know, she listened to our advice guys.

There you go.

So someone's listened to us.

We talk some sense on this show.

So yeah, I'll let you know how she goes getting on with getting on with the car.

She said she'd like to know which one she goes for.

It's very good.

But gentlemen, honour is always.

I'll see you next time.

Take it easy.

See ya.

Bye guys.

About this episode

The conversation covers a range of car-related updates and experiences, including driving impressions of the Honda CR-V RS hybrid and a revived 20-year-old Accord SI. Scotty shares his experience checking out a Nissan Nismo Note, a Japanese e-power import with advanced features like regenerative braking and active safety tech. The group also discusses maintenance tasks like brake pad replacement on a Subaru WRX STI and exhaust modifications on a classic van. The episode blends practical car care tips with insights on grey imports and hybrid technology, highlighting the joys and challenges of owning diverse vehicles.

alternator ball joints body panels eco mode EV front brakes gray import hybrid muffler oil filter

Byd Seal Denza D9 Ford Excursion Ford Fiesta Ford LTD II Ford Orion Ford Ranger GMC Typhoon Honda CR-V Honda S2000 Honda ZR-V Isuzu D-Max Mazda Tribute MG Cyberster Mitsubishi Outlander Nissan 350Z Nissan Skyline Nissan X-Trail Opel Astra Subaru XV Suzuki Jimny Toyota Corolla Toyota Crown Toyota FJ Cruiser Toyota Hilux Toyota Land Cruiser Toyota RAV4 Toyota Supra

Original notes

On this episode of Car Torque, Matty, Alam, Chad and Scotty discuss their latest updates. The boys then discuss Grey Import Vehicles. They explain if it is worth it and the pros and cons of buying one in Australia.

The boys then battle it out in the quiz at the end of the show!

Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review!

Please follow this show on Spotify. It really helps!

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David and Eds Podcast Autoretro

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Car updates