Toyota TRD aurion? Much to gloat about?

[Crazy Dazz]

End of the day, it's fundamentally an Interesting Camry. Well built, reasonably sorted, and reliable. If only FoA could have mimicked Toyota on those fronts, they might still be making cars.

[onemanempire]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

Gotta respect the crew who decided to take a large displacement wrong wheel driver and slap a positive displacement supercharger on it,Must have been on orthopaedic surgeon payroll over at TRD - get more customers from busted wrists when it blows the front wheels off it and decides to steer wherever the front wheel drive gods decide One-man driving around:

Funny as Mr... what a great way to start my Tuesday.. knowing I have a 'god' that's happy to take da wheel if things get hairy..


One Man

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Big_Daz

Yeah, a guy I worked with got one of the first run at $39,990. Its not the better "Rallye" version but a HEAP of car for the $$$. He still has it and loves it. At that price they where competing with Fiesta ST/I20N.. No contest. Now, its $55k for the normal one, $60k for Rallye. If you where in the market you would buy the Corolla GR for $9k more and have a larger, more useable 4 door.

But your right. At that $60k hot hatch price you really only have I30N, GTI Golf and (for a bit more) GR Corolla. No more Focus ST, RS Megane. Ironically the 2 gone where the 2 to have... I did enjoy the I30N DCT Hatch, didnt like the sedan as much though. If I where in the market, Id look for one of the last RS Focus LE's and save the $$$.

Franco, did you old man look at GR Corolla before buying the I30N? They are manual only. Or was he specifically after FWD?

Budget was $60K which limited it to GR Yaris, Subaru WRX and i30N - problem was compared to the WRX and the i30N it's not value for money at the same coin for a Fiesta sized car which you get with the GR Yaris, so that was immediately off the list.

He hated the build quality of the WRX, got in it and said the shifter feels like a toy, instantly canned.

Which left the i30N sedan, the industry claims Australian consumers have so much choice for cars, but it's full of shit, you only have a zillion choices if you're a stale old man who enjoys watching the weather channel on Foxtel, you can have any choice of a billion slushbox SUVs

Criteria was:

Turbo
Manual
~200KW
White in colour
$60K DA budget

There was only 3 choices, we did go to Essendon Ford trying to chase up a new Focus ST if there was a cancelled order but because he was picky about manual and colour (must be white) we got laughed out of the dealership

He would have also gone the i20N but they discontinued it at the time, same with a WG Fiesta ST but Ford had pulled them and the Focus ST out of Australia, Hyundai and Subaru wouldn't have even got a look in if Ford still offered both their hot hatches but they're only interested in selling shitbox diesel utes to people who cosplay as farmers from western QLD.

I'm not impressed with the i30N sedan, I reckon it's a piece of shit and I don't like driving it, seats are shitful, cruise control doesn't work properly and the throttle mapping decides when and where it will respond to your inputs,

Which the latter is very interesting because my brother in law's I30 N-line with the lower spec turbo 1.6L is way more responsive to throttle inputs than the i30N.

The only good thing about it is the stereo and the interior lighting you can change the colour on.

I've got his old Fiesta ST and it's a way better car to drive even with 240,000km on the clock I'd take it any time over the i30N. The Fiesta ST is like driving a go-kart, it encourages you to have fun every time you drive it, I took it on a 4000km+ road trip and I had a ball taking it through Metropolitan Sydney with their fast paced driving styles.

He's changed his driving style with the i30N, its more of a tourer rather than a performance car,

If it was my $60K I'd be buying a Tesla Model 3 because it's over for me as the market pulled out on me, if you don't care about a manual box then you can't beat the Model 3 in that $60K price range

The WRX is tempting but instant power and torque in the Model 3 and $2/100km running costs with no servicing, last week I did 1200km commuting around Melbourne for work in four days so that's now a consideration.

The Suzuki Swift Sport looks interesting but it's only 103KW/240NM and they want mid 30s for it, it's not even a warm hatch.