How many on here have "Downsized" ??

[tezxr8man]

Originally Posted by Eagleheart

Falcon to Fairlane here. I love my large Fords & wouldnt consider anything else.

Yeah same here my fairlane is great on fuel too which is random, same as a mates pulsar around town and embarrassas it on the highway, the only thing i don't like is the rego but i own it because i like it not because it's a small car which interestingly they aren't that small anymore, my sisters focus has the same room as my EB

[Mechan1k]

Was looking at a smaller Daily ... like a Mazda 3 or something similar.

But found a 2yo FG Falcon with the ZF was cheaper to buy/service ... and is pretty economical ... and room to boot.

No need to downsize when the current Falcon can be had for cheap on the 2nd hand market ... ZF is great on fuel as well ... outer metro driving can see averages down to 6.6L/100km ... that's small car territory (and better in some cases)

[PHATXR8]

Yes, I'm guilty of downsizing..... from a BA XR8 to an FG F6E!! Less fuel, less cubes and a lot more grunt!

[mik]

apart from the many good points with big cars ,crumple area, safety, comfort, ride, versatility, ease of servicing, one of my favorite quality `s is the off idle torque, your trying to do a right turn across a busy intersection, and with a minimum of throttle and fuss it just easily lopes across the road with no effort, no slipping clutch/spinning wheels and no stress.

[Silver Ghia]

Originally Posted by Silver Ghia

My FG costs around $250 for a normal service, my wifes VW Polo costs around $500 for a standard service. And what do you mean by "Ford dealer tax"?

But yes, I conceed that the Polo fuel costs would be about 30% cheaper than the Falcon, which would equates to about $300 per year if 6000-7000km is travelled like I'm doing at the moment.

So it ends up about the same in my case.

Forgot to mention with the Polo that next year the 7 years is coming up, so I will be up for another $1600 or so to change the timing belt, they also change the water pump at the same time due to access.

Falcon doesnt have that expense, all these extra costs just to save a bit at the fuel pump.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Silver Ghia

Forgot to mention with the Polo that next year the 7 years is coming up, so I will be up for another $1600 or so to change the timing belt, they also change the water pump at the same time due to access.

Falcon doesnt have that expense, all these extra costs just to save a bit at the fuel pump.

Don't take either to a dealership, Bush Inn Motors in New Gisborne are the best mechanics getting around, thats where my cars go to, they're cheaper than a dealership and they knock out much better quality work, I supply my own oil and genuine filters for them to use.

They did my oil, oil filter, air filter, fuel filter (which they had to bleed the fuel lines to do) and all the other stuff like adjust handbrake on my TDCI Focus for $150.

I took my car to Sunbury Ford once for some warranty work, knowing they've screwed us around before and they messed me around big time, never again.

[JG34JA]

Originally Posted by Silver Ghia

Forgot to mention with the Polo that next year the 7 years is coming up, so I will be up for another $1600 or so to change the timing belt, they also change the water pump at the same time due to access.

Falcon doesnt have that expense, all these extra costs just to save a bit at the fuel pump.

Hmmm yes you are right. A BF Egas wagon 2nd hand might be better than a little VW wagon, when servicing is taken into account... It'll also have that off idle torque that Mik was talking about, but it won't have the abililty to tweet... anyone for an ECOPLi/ZF retrofit into a BF wagon?

Also agree with Big Damo, that a known and good independent mechanic can also help better than a dealership in $ terms.

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

Originally Posted by blueoval

Doesnt Bill Gates still drive his 80s Volvo? His reasoning is he still likes it and it still drives fine.

Gates even in the 80's was importing Porsche 959's from Germany into the US than proceeded to be involved in the amendment/change of US laws and regulations to allow him to drive it in the US, where it was not street legal and could not be driven at the time of importation. To the point where the Porsche 959 is now referred to as a Gates 959, as Bill Clinton himself signed off on the federal law.

He also owns and drives or gets driven in any of his huge selection of luxury and sports car, may be he still owns his old volvo sitting in a shed some where, but I doubt he still drives it around as his main vehicle.

I also believe Bill Gates has a priceless gold custom build Bougatti Vyron, worth more money than all the cars owned by AFF members put together, and there is also a gold Porsche turbo, gold Ferrari 599, a 20 million dollar Rolls Royce Phantom etc etc

[Ben73]

Originally Posted by mik

apart from the many good points with big cars ,crumple area, safety, comfort, ride, versatility, ease of servicing, one of my favorite quality `s is the off idle torque, your trying to do a right turn across a busy intersection, and with a minimum of throttle and fuss it just easily lopes across the road with no effort, no slipping clutch/spinning wheels and no stress.

Gotta love the torque of a big engine.
When I had my 4 cylinder softroader, there was a hill on the F3 that I would have to accelerate to about 4000RPM to keep it at 110km/h
But yesterday going up the same hill in the Hemi, it sat on 2000rpm in top gear and still sat on 110km/h.
No effort at all, just smooth sailing.

Plus I love taking off from the lights and reving the engine to a modest 2000rpm while watching most other cars get smaller in my mirror.

When my car was getting serviced last week they lent me a 4 cylinder petrol. It was no fun at all. It was great to get back into my car and accelerate smoothly and quickly while hearing a whisper of the sweet V8 note.

As I said. I sure my next vehicle will be a V8.

[Road_Warrior]

Originally Posted by Ben73

But yesterday going up the same hill in the Hemi, it sat on 2000rpm in top gear and still sat on 110km/h.
No effort at all, just smooth sailing.

Heh, I did this the other day in my XG with a uteload of furniture and crap, up a long hill at 80km/h in 5th, gotta love torque.

[WILDB]

I went from a BA XR6 to an LV XR5 Focus, then to an FG XR6T and now currently waiting for a new Focus ST.

I probably wont go back to another 6 cylinder vehicle now, loved my XR6T but with fuel prices and rego the way they are I just found that it was consuming too much of my budget.

[borough]

I downsized from a '78 Corolla to a '05 Swift. Last year I upsized to new FG XR6 with dual-fuel vapour injected gas. Best move I made, costs the same in fuel as the Swift, about the same to service and much nicer to drive on my daily 120km round trip.

[GTENVY]

I'm in the process of upsizing and going backwards you could say. Going to be selling the Foci soon. Picked up an ED wagon on dual fuel (insanely cheap) and currently fixing her up a bit before I put full faith in her as my daily drive to work hack. Focus was a good car but the wagon is more functional and with bub on the way it will give us a second car besides the TTG that we can fit all the baby stuff in.

Would love to go for a Focus ST but the $$$ are better spent else where at the moment.

[4.0i_SiX]

We just went from a BA Futura to a G6E turbo, so no...

[distortion]

I started off with an ef futura, then moved on to an xr6t, then gave that to the wife, sold her mazda astina (great little car that was!) and bought myself a Pajero... paj and xr6t use the same amount of fuel, but I would rather enjoy my life, than worry about a $10 extra fuel bill once a week...

[On The Edge]

I have down sized.

I went from a 6.0l to a 5.0l (with a supercharger)

Come to think of it not sure i did. Lol

[On The Edge]

I have down sized.

I went from a 6.0l to a 5.0l (with a supercharger)

Come to think of it not sure i did. Lol