Thread: Favourite Aussie-made vehicle?

Originally Posted by BigJon

Nissan Ute.

The marketing department went all out on that one.

Had one as a company car,was the upmarket version,same as a Falcoon Spac.It was a 5 speed and had 24 months warranty and double the km of the Falcoon with its 12 month warranty.
It even had a the standard ford stamped key.
It was $5000 cheaper than the exactly the same spec Falcoon ute.
ONLY new car I have had,loved it.
PLENTY asked my WHY I put a Nissan sticker on the tailgate
Andrew

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

Valiant VC. Comfortable, rugged, roomy, mechanically simple. I managed a fleet that had 70 of these as rep's cars. The most nearly maintenance and repair free vehicles we ever operated and the rep's loved them. Slant Six and Torqueflite. What could be better.

Next would be the EH Holden. simple, reliable, no built-in faults other than the three on the tree gearbox which was a little fragile in unsympathetic hands, economical, and fast. No trouble punting 200,000 mile 149 ex-taxis up the Putty Rd. and New England to Brisbane in 12 hours and 30 mpg.

I mentioned in my post on VC Valiants that the reps loved them. This is important. If your drivers dislike the cars then they will flog crap out of them in an attempt to destroy them in the hope they will get a better make/model next time. One bloke, I discovered, when we were forced into Sigmas by senior management falling for the "four cylinder economy" myth, would drive long distances with the auto in 2. Others, who got Ford Telstars which they not only disliked, felt were demeaning, and dangerous on the dirt, made a joint decision to hit as many potholes at speed as possible.

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

Next would be the EH Holden. simple, reliable, no built-in faults other than the three on the tree gearbox which was a little fragile in unsympathetic hands,

And a fibre cam gear which was known to fail.

Gipps Aero GA8 Airvan. Probably could best be described as the Land Rover Defender of the skies.

4 cyl Lycoming ? or the 6 ?

Originally Posted by d2dave

And a fibre cam gear which was known to fail.

Not often enough to be a major problem. Plenty of cabs and fleet cars did 200,000+ miles without failure.

The grey motor had the same fibre cam gear,it was a designed weak point to stop constant over revving, I did one in my EJ wagon coming onto the Bruce H'way from the Redcliffe interchange,picked up to highway speed 100kph and then it died got it towed home and 1 new cam gear and a set of pushrods later as sweet as a nut.

Competition Grey motors had an alloy cam gear fitted.


A bit like the soft cam fitted to the Buick/Rover 3.5 litre motor,dirty oil=worn cam,they need regular oil and filter changes,I do mine at 5,000klm intervals.


cheers

So did red motors, aluminium or bronze. Not suited for domestic use because they made a racket.