so i'm looking for a 2nd car...

[Dell'Orto]

+1 for Falcodores, if you can get one thats had LPG fitted they're cheap as hell to run. Plus you can pick up a tidy VT for near that sort of price range now.

[CelicaGT8]

peugeot 406... dont buy a euro unless its new, keep it for 5 years and then sell it!

[1I1]

The suspension is multi-link all round and gives a good ride, although perhaps a little too on the soft and wallowy side. One main flaw with them is increased road noise over other cars in the same class.

I noticed the road noise and thought it might have been due to the type of tyres good to know it's not just this one! Also the 4G63 doesn't require you to put your foot down or need to be reved (cough 20v's) to get up to speed - handy for the economy!

[FANGIN]

Mazda Sentia?
Lexus LS400?

Both of these are sweet sweet cars and can be had fairly cheeply these days. A mate picked up an LS400 for less than $4k, and I've seen Sentias sell for $2.5k. Both are big autos with heaps of torque.

[touge_ae101]

Galant GLXi, meets most check points and you can go for a ride in mine to confirm the awesomeness of them....

not sure i am ready to retire and move to fielding yet mark.

station wagon preferable. i think its just a case of biding my time and grabbing a tidy stagea or legacy when i have saved enough money...

really having to fight the temptation of flagging a second car and putting a link and cams in my trueno...but i know eventually i'm going to want to trailer it to the track rather than driving 6 hours to hampton downs then racing all day and driving it all the way back.

[1I1]

If towing is a neccessity definately do your home work and check what the braked/unbraked capacity is of the car. I think my car is only rated at around 1000kg braked which means no trailering the Corolla

[touge_ae101]

shouldn't be too much of an issue as the farm trailer i would use is braked and my trueno is less than 1000kg!

[metal_sean_head]

I vote link and cams first.!

[fuel]

peugeot 406... dont buy a euro unless its new, keep it for 5 years and then sell it!

sounds like a typical one-eyed Toyota owner.

[iOnic]

Falcodores

Bang for buck, you're not gonna beat a Falcodore for useful-ness

[touge_ae101]

newish mondeos with high kms are fairly cheap on trademe! they are quite nice and would look great with some 17's and lowered.

have heard good things about these engines that they keep going and going. this includes the zetec?

[fuel]

Mark III Mondeo is a huge step up from the Mark II, however they still have issues. They can often blow head gaskets, and when they aren't blowing head gaskets they are busting their automatic transmissions (go for a 5 speed, it's a night and day difference between the two). Pre-04 models also have an issue with flaps in the inlet manifold falling apart and being ingested by the engine resulting in expensive damage. However you can fit the 'fixed' uprated parts onto a pre '04 model fine, just costs about $100 and a few hours labour.

I had an '04 2.0 5spd wagon which was an ex-reps car travelled 398,000kms and I'm sure if you covered up the odometer you would think it had only done 1/3-1/2 the kms it really had done - the only give away was stone chips and interior wear, the engine and gearbox were still strong, smooth and quiet. It was a nice car to drive too and the interior design is well thought out, in many ways the Mondeo is better than most the competition but there are still some inherent reliability issues which can either be avoided or addressed.

[Snoozin]

Aussie tank seems the most sensible option to me. If you're gonna tow shit then in my opinion you want to do it as capably and stress free as possible. You'll get so much car for not a lot of cash.

[Quint]

Get a coon over a commie, generally the same spec coon will be cheaper.

[Bling]

shouldn't be too much of an issue as the farm trailer i would use is braked and my trueno is less than 1000kg!

1000kg will be total weight though, not just what the car weights, trailer might be half that again

[Al]

i wouldn't touch a 3sgte with a 10 foot pole.

have been thinking recently of a peugeot 406.

What have you been smoking? Please pass it around.

[touge_ae101]

peugeot 406's are nice looking cars!very classy styling and i have always had a thing for them. plus its good to be different.

3sgte's - well in my uneducated opinion i have heard lots of horror stories about manifolds warping, turbo's blowing and the like. just count the number of project threads where a 3s has gone up in smoke and gets a rebuild. small repairs ie seals etc i don't mind but don't want to have to do a rebuild or new engine on a daily.

[B1NZ]

Get a rotor

[Snaps]

Get a coon over a commie, generally the same spec coon will be cheaper.

Well there's gotta be a reason for that.

[rollaholic]

i wouldn't touch a 3sgte with a 10 foot pole.

have been thinking recently of a peugeot 406.

What have you been smoking? Please pass it around.

i think you had enough already mr renault

ps just to keep it on topic, +1 for falcodore