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Hi from Sydney Australia

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2014 2:40 am
by dreamerman
Big hello from Down There. Big fan of the stick. Bought a manual light truck or a ute as we call it here. Its a 6sp 2.0L common rail diesel and recently chipped to reduce turbo lag.

Re: Hi from Sydney Australia

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2014 3:01 am
by potownrob
Howdy from the land of dieselphobes and automatic SUVs and trucks!! :lol:

Welcome and feel free to ask any questions :twisted:

Re: Hi from Sydney Australia

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2014 9:41 am
by Squint
Welcome! That's probably a fun truck to drive with the quicker turbo and the diesel's torque.

Re: Hi from Sydney Australia

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2014 10:36 am
by theholycow
Too bad 6sp 2.0L common rail diesel utes aren't common here in the US, we could really use that sort of thing but there's nothing about it that would appeal to the folks buying new utes here (and obviously there's no reason to build for those who buy used).

Re: Hi from Sydney Australia

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2014 9:41 pm
by dreamerman
Yes it is a fun truck and being 2.0L it won't burn a hole in my pocket. It is probably the smallest in size compared to other mainstream trucks like Toyota Hilux, Mitsu Triton, VW Amorak etc.

http://www.ssangyong.com.au/showroom/ac ... fications/

Re: Hi from Sydney Australia

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2014 9:59 pm
by watkins
I spent three weeks exploring Australia a few years back. I really wish I could have brought a ute home with me.

Re: Hi from Sydney Australia

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2014 10:29 pm
by dreamerman
watkins wrote:I spent three weeks exploring Australia a few years back. I really wish I could have brought a ute home with me.
Same here. I have not been to the US but I do admire your big-boy trucks like the F350. Now that is a TRUCK. Fuel cost will probably push my wife and kids on to the street.

Re: Hi from Sydney Australia

Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2014 12:01 am
by Rope-Pusher
dreamerman wrote:
watkins wrote:I spent three weeks exploring Australia a few years back. I really wish I could have brought a ute home with me.
Same here. I have not been to the US but I do admire your big-boy trucks like the F350. Now that is a TRUCK. Fuel cost will probably push my wife and kids on to the street.
$2.80 per U.S. Gallon is what I paid for gasoline last Sunday - this is a nice drop from $3.50 per gallon a month or so ago, but having very little tax added to the price of motorfuels is what makes owning and driving those big pick-m-up trucks somewhat affordable here.

Re: Hi from Sydney Australia

Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2014 12:42 am
by IMBoring25
Only on a comparative basis is on the order of 25% "very little tax."

Re: Hi from Sydney Australia

Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2014 12:06 pm
by Squint
Rope-Pusher wrote:
dreamerman wrote:
watkins wrote:I spent three weeks exploring Australia a few years back. I really wish I could have brought a ute home with me.
Same here. I have not been to the US but I do admire your big-boy trucks like the F350. Now that is a TRUCK. Fuel cost will probably push my wife and kids on to the street.
$2.80 per U.S. Gallon is what I paid for gasoline last Sunday - this is a nice drop from $3.50 per gallon a month or so ago, but having very little tax added to the price of motorfuels is what makes owning and driving those big pick-m-up trucks somewhat affordable here.
Unfortunately, that's not the price of diesel. At least around here, diesel is always >$0.10 more than premium.

Re: Hi from Sydney Australia

Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2014 5:51 pm
by dreamerman
At Down Under, regular diesel (not bio) is about A$1.48/litre so in US terms that should be about A$5.52/gallon. That is about twice of what you folks pay there. That would explain rather small capacity diesel motors here compared to US. I must say the F350 is a FINE LOOKING TRUCK.

Re: Hi from Sydney Australia

Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2014 2:37 am
by potownrob
dreamerman wrote:At Down Under, regular diesel (not bio) is about A$1.48/litre so in US terms that should be about A$5.52/gallon. That is about twice of what you folks pay there. That would explain rather small capacity diesel motors here compared to US. I must say the F350 is a FINE LOOKING TRUCK.
diesel around here is even more expensive than regular gas (petrol), usually at least 20 cents more per gallon. as for the F350, it is a big truck and good at what it's designed to do, but it is huge on the roads, and many of the non-commercial ones used as regular daily drivers are just loud and menacing. despite the american "bigger is better" stereotype, you will find a lot of americans who don't care for big trucks, or even regular trucks and SUVs.

Re: Hi from Sydney Australia

Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2014 10:02 am
by theholycow
potownrob wrote: as for the F350, it is a big truck and good at what it's designed to do, but it is huge on the roads,
Meh. It's not that huge, it will go pretty much everywhere you want to be without too much hassle. It feels larger than it is, you just gotta get used to it.
and many of the non-commercial ones used as regular daily drivers are just loud and menacing. despite the american "bigger is better" stereotype, you will find a lot of americans who don't care for big trucks, or even regular trucks and SUVs.
Word. It is often used gratuitously by people who seem to never get used to its size and just use it to burn extra fuel and block visibility for everybody else while they drive alone to the office. These douchenozzles see you sighting down the road for a traffic opening to make a right turn, pull up next to you for their left turn, and pull forward to block your view even though they have no need to since they can see over your car and everything else that might block their view.

Of course, making utes available here wouldn't help...people don't want them, they don't care about the bed and they pretty much resent it, they just want a faux rugged image. Yeah buddy, nothing's more masculine than a suit and briefcase getting out of a huge shiny spotless truck with a tiny bed in a parking garage.

Okay, rant over.

Of course, there are also plenty of people using it for exactly the sort of thing it's meant for...hauling materials, towing trailers, plowing snow, etc.

Re: Hi from Sydney Australia

Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2014 10:40 am
by potownrob
Yeah, I was talking about the douchenozzles who shouldn't be driving a monster truck. And the hugeness was from the perspective of other drivers on the road; I would hope to get used to the huge size as the driver. :twisted:

Re: Hi from Sydney Australia

Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2014 6:01 pm
by watkins
theholycow wrote:It feels larger than it is, you just gotta get used to it.
Thats what (s)he said.

Now that we got that out of the way:
Some of the bigger trucks really are huge. A Ram 3500 Mega Cab dually is a very large chunk of truck, for instance.