My First 4X4

Hi. My partner & I just bought a '95 Patrol 2.4 GQ2 RX Turbo-D. We're moving from Adelaide up into the hills and needed a vehicle that could pull decent trailers and could actually overtake something on the roads (the 'town' car is a Mazda 121). We really got it for its towing capacity as well as the need for 2 cars in the family now but after driving it for a week, I'm starting to see the attraction of a good 4WD. You really feel as if you have some connection with the road you're on and the acceleration (when really needed) is pretty good. I'm getting used to the massive turning circle and I no longer swear if someone in a 4X4 has to take two or three goes to fit into a parking space - I feel their pain now. And just as a reformed smoker no longer NEEDS a cigarette, I no longer NEED compact parking spots anymore. I'm happy - no, really - to drive around till I can find a space more than 18 feet long, rather than the 12 feet my little car fits into. I'm sure I'll get better at parallel parking tanks as time goes by.

The Patrol was in pretty good condition, considering it came from a used car yard. It was amazingly clean inside, the engine bay looked almost new, considering the 312,000km it had done and the underside was almost free of dents and scrapes. Little things have come up over the week, new speakers and spare tyre (I think the spare is meant to be at least close to the size of the other tyres) and a few fixes here and there but we're happy. Finding a bullet hole through the floor under the passenger's seat did set us off looking for the kilo of drugs hidden in a false panel but no luck so far :(

Time will tell but I feel we've got a good looking vehicle in pretty good nick and we're going to enjoy it. Neither of us are mechanical but we're happy to learn as we go. We don't intend to take it down the sides of mountains, chasing the brumbies but I feel a little loose dirt & mud will feature in its future.

cheers,

Linley

Ok, I admit that I know even less about computers than cars - how can I make the images open up or load them properly in the first place so they do!

Are these pics any better?

yay, it works now. Why didn't the first ones do that? And how can I embed the pic directly into the post, as some have done, rather that enter it as an attachment?

Did I mention the gallon of Armour All I had to wipe off everything - dash, mats, windows, anything in fact that wasn't actually fabric was treated with it. The outside acts as a fuzz magnet, pulling in all the blossom that's blowing around at the moment and the interior sucks the dust and holds it fondly on display. Why do car yards massage this into everything? I'm surprised the tyres didn't spin, they were that slick with the stuff. I've got some good Meguiar's product to clean, wash, wax & protect so that'll be a project on the weekend, if my partner's Uni work doesn't take precedence - 1 week till every assignment, report, journal and production line piece has to be handed up. The end of three long years of hard work :)

Linley, you may not know much about cars or computers, but you tell a good story. You're going to fit in well around here.

To put full size photos (I set my photo size at 640 x 480)in you posts you need to host them on another website, like photobucket.com. Unlike banks your photobucket account does not attract fees. Once you have a photo saved to photobucket if you hover over the pic a pop up box will bring up 4 options, select the bottom one which starts and finishes with "IMG". Copy and paste the IMG code to your post. If you're putting multiple photos in your post please put them on top of each other, not beside.

Car yards use armour all in large quantities for environmental reasons, they are doing their bit to reduce dust in the atmosphere.

Your Patrol looks good, bit worrying having a bullet hole in the floor though.

You may not be aware yet but there may be a fault with your Patrol that requires action of the most urgent nature. You see your model Patrol was incorrectly assembled using a horn from the then yet to be released Nissan Micra.
Imagine this, you're driving down the street when a 12 year old driving a honda japadore while wearing welding goggles pulls out immedietly in front of you, causing you brake suddenly. You instinctively slap your hand down in the centre of the steering wheel of your man sized truck,expecting to release a blast loud enough to melt their tyres, but all you hear is the muted tones of what sounds like a choking asthmatic cat. You quickly scan the surrounding area but there are no cats, so you slap the steering harder this time, but the cats tortured wheezing is no louder. You now slump down in your seat accepting the the driver of the japadore is more of a man than you.
I'm sure you can now see why this fault needs to be rectified so urgently, your manhood depends on it. You need to go to your Patrol right now even if it's 3 am, and check if you still have the incorrect horn fitted. Don't worry about your neighbors being asleep, if you have the incorrect horn they won't notice, and if you have the correct horn the neighbors will come running waving their arms confirming your manliness.
If you have the incorrect horn you must get in your car and drive immedietly to the nearest auto store and wait there until the manager arrives to open the store. Plead with him to let you in before opening time as you need to buy a horn so loud its out put is measured on the richter scale. The government won't tell you this, but the recent earthquake in New Zealand was actually caused by a p!@#ed off Patrol owner who kept his hand on the horn too long.

Go now and check your car, your manhood depends on it!

Tony

LOLOLOLOLOL.............Your not a bad story teller yourself Tony......hahahahah

But that being said your right on the money & I too had a horn that required the same type of action & it got it in a very similar fashion...hahahahahah

Nice looking Rig you have there Linley & thanks for your persistence in posting your pics..

Thanks Tony. I appreciate the advice as well as the warning. We had to toot a non-Nissan 4X4 the other day who thought that having twice the engine capacity meant that she could occupy two lanes as she turned. Well, I thought I was back in the Mazda 121. She took no notice, kittens came out and rubbed themselves against my tyres and a backpacker with a squeegee offered to give me a spongebath with aromatic oils. Only I have the right to question my manhood, damn-it!

I wish I'd taken the horn off my Mercedes after it crashed a few months ago. Now that was a horn with the power to take on a whole squadron of fighter planes by itself! I wonder if the wreck is still sitting out at Pickles?

Nice clean looking rig there Linley.