Here’s a fun game – fire up eBay on your browser, hit the automotive section and marvel at what you can find near the top when you set your search for ‘Cheapest price first’.
Undoubtedly you’ll see plenty of Toyota Corolla Hatchback’s in there but you might just be lucky enough to land on one with personality, like today’s find ‘The Red Baron!’
When it’s time for you and your humble Holden Barina to parts ways, there’s a few options. You can list your Barina locally in classifieds and even include a nice little side on picture to really get your phone ringing. You can put your Barina on the internet with lots of room for details so you can answer as many questions as possible. You could stick your Barina on the side of the road with a For Sale sign and a phone number, hoping for nibbles.
Or like we’ve discovered today, you can make an absolute epic video production about your Barina and expose it to the world..
Surely I’m not the only one that’s walked into a car parts store that caters for every make and model under the sun, only to walk out empty handed because the one and only car they don’t happen to have parts for just happens to be mine…
My brother in law is a cowboy hat wearing, boot scooting, ‘if it ain’t a ute, I want nothing to do with it’ type of guy who loves his Bundy, shindigs round a bonfire, sliding sideways through the dirt in a Datto and anything at all to do with Lee Kernaghan. He loves the land, carby fed blocks and steak and chips. So when it comes to confusing technical questions, he usually refers them to me.
And this time around my advice was actually 100% accurate for a change, saved him from getting ripped off in a dodgy online scam and has hopefully educated him a little more about sharks on the Internet.
I wonder what beer he’s going to bring around as a thank you for this?…
It’s an interesting pub question – do you know what ever happened to the first car you ever bought (not the first car you ever owned if you ended up with a hand me down)? My first ever car I owned was a 1989 Ford Laser, but the first car I ever shelled out my hard earned for was also from 1989 – A series 5 Mazda Rx7 turbo imported from Japan. And until recently I thought it had ended up as a pile or rotary parts in the back of someone’s backyard…
If your windscreen wipers are starting to look a little shabby (the whole mechanism, not just the blades themselves) then there’s a few options. You could buy a whole new assembly, go to the wreckers for a better-than-your-current-set from a similar model or do what we did: break out the tools and really get to work. (Note: there’s not that much work involved.)
What a terrific thing to face on a freezing Friday morning – the best eBay ad ever for a 96 VS Commodore!
It’s always the way isn’t it? If it isn’t one thing it’s another – case in point for project WRX was just finishing up the pulley swapover when the Subaru power steering pump started to groan like a small business getting a massive tax bill. A power steering noise? And here I was thinking that was the end of the whining in the Rex’s engine bay…
We’ve already mentioned how much we enjoy casting an eye over eligible imports over at Iron Chef’s Facebook page and today was no exception as we came face to Facebook with the hilarious Mitsuoka MC-1…
We were just going through our favorite classifieds at the moment (Gumtree for those playing at home) looking for a suitable candidate for our next foray into Bargain Bangers when this lovely example of 80’s Japanese motoring drove right in front of us – a first gen MR2 AW11.
A tale of the importance of checking everything when buying a second hand car. Especially the things you wouldn’t even think of at first glance…like the rubber grommets on the gearbox..
Oh Japan, please don’t ever stop your amusing ways. Especially when you bolt vinyl wood panelling on the side of your Nissan Cube’s and give them the same name as a much beloved character from Toy Story…
The latest edition to the Driveanotherday HQ is a 1994 Australian delivered Subaru Impreza WRX, completely stock save for the nice boxer rumble from the dealer fitted Lucas exhaust. And while this low k, well kept example cruises very nicely on the open highway, it’s come with a high pitched whine very similar to a supercharger winding up…
Depending on where you drive, sometimes your car windows attract more crud and crap than the underside of a well worn engine bay. And when your windscreen wipers throw up the white flag of defeat against the grime build up (or spend more time smearing it further across the glass) then sometimes it’s time to call in the big guns (and possibly change your wiper blades)…
There’s nothing like a brilliant head turning paint job on a car, especially one that isn’t seen as often as you’d like on the roads. Case in point being this fine looking Ford XR6 Harlequin Paint Ute that’s changed 6 different colors in the time it’s taken to read this sentence…
Finally there’s a use for Facebook that doesn’t involve vague angsty statements, attention seeking updates, pictures of food or general game invite rubbish: Namely checking out amazing cars available for import from Japan..
So what does $500 buy you nowadays? Well for $500 you can buy a block of shares on the Australian Stock Exchange (but you’ll also have to pay brokerage on top of that), a pretty decent acoustic guitar that isn’t made out of a packing crate or one weeks premium petrol for monster ported Rotary.
Alternatively for the team here, $500 could get you a trip back in the Automotive time machine to an era where luxury meant be able to change settings on your in car analog graphic equalizer while on your way to a board meeting with massive shoulder pads and a tie as wide as the road – you guessed it, sitting pretty in your upscale 1988 Mazda 929…
It’s amazing what’s ended up in my tool kit here at DriveanotherdayHQ since I decided that DIY car maintenance should be something I should learn – over the years many random brand name sockets (of all sizes and qualities) have ended up grouped together in a massive tool tub in the shed. Of course I can never find the right socket at the right time which is why I always have a set of ring spanners on standby in the hope they’ll be of some assistance…
