18.04 New Country New Car!
Some new wheels were in order to explore the new country we've decided to call home for the year! After the moderate success with the Magna, with the added benefit/feature of car camping, a wagon was always going to be the order of the day.
After much time spent trawling the classifieds on TradeMe and walking the 'strip' in Christchurch looking for the perfect wagon, we decided to look at Turners Car Auctions.
We spent pretty much a whole day working our way through the catalogue looking at some potential transport/sleeping quarters:
A Toyota Previa - ideal as all the seats fold flat to produce a bed & picnics could be enjoyed in the rain while sat in the comfort of the captain's chairs! However it smelt of wet dog & the passenger seat was broken!
A Landrover Discovery - Great 4x4 vehicle, exactly what I wanted for runs into the snowfields and along unsealed roads! Unfortunately, it just wasn't big enough to sleep in, and the V8 might have been a little thirsty too! Others included a Mitsubishi Pajero, a Mazda Capella (626), and a couple of Golf's - been there, done that!
With the plan of heading back to the auction that night, we wanted to check the cheaper end of Moorhouse Avenue. And it just so happened that there was a Subaru specialist, Crowesport, with some cars within our budget! Joanna had always wanted a Subaru for as long as I could remember, especially a blue one with gold wheels! After a test drive and a little chat with Trevor the car was ours!?
So here it is, our 1996 Subaru Legacy GT (B-Spec) wagon, Lexie - Joanna's choice! It has a 2.0L twin-turbo (sequential) motor, which we thought would help us see the all of the country in the short time that we have here. The wheels & the suspension (Bilstein) are factory options, the exhaust perhaps isn't. Try and find a vehicle without a 4 inch exhaust in New Zealand?! I haven't been in a car this stiffly sprung since I was in a Ferrari 348! It certainly shows you where your wobbly bits are!
Crowesport provided us with a 3 month warranty on the car (included in the price), which was just as well, as the cooling system had a bit of a leak (did have to write a list of issues for the problem to be solved finally) & the rear washer spent a lot of time dribbling! We won't talk about the front washers!? Trevor & Linda were very understanding though.
Having had the rear washer sorted out I noticed that water was dripping on our boot cover. So I took a jug of water out and had a look around, it was at this point that I noticed that the rubbers for the washer pipes had not been put back. So I fitted them properly, closed the boot and went to pour the water only to hear the car lock itself! Hmm, I could clearly see the keys on the boot floor!?! Our immobiliser has a special feature that locks the doors if the car is open for a certian amount of time! I called a locksmith who took 3 minutes and 80 bucks and reunited me with the keys again! Lesson learnt!!
After much time spent trawling the classifieds on TradeMe and walking the 'strip' in Christchurch looking for the perfect wagon, we decided to look at Turners Car Auctions.
We spent pretty much a whole day working our way through the catalogue looking at some potential transport/sleeping quarters:
A Toyota Previa - ideal as all the seats fold flat to produce a bed & picnics could be enjoyed in the rain while sat in the comfort of the captain's chairs! However it smelt of wet dog & the passenger seat was broken!
A Landrover Discovery - Great 4x4 vehicle, exactly what I wanted for runs into the snowfields and along unsealed roads! Unfortunately, it just wasn't big enough to sleep in, and the V8 might have been a little thirsty too! Others included a Mitsubishi Pajero, a Mazda Capella (626), and a couple of Golf's - been there, done that!
With the plan of heading back to the auction that night, we wanted to check the cheaper end of Moorhouse Avenue. And it just so happened that there was a Subaru specialist, Crowesport, with some cars within our budget! Joanna had always wanted a Subaru for as long as I could remember, especially a blue one with gold wheels! After a test drive and a little chat with Trevor the car was ours!?
So here it is, our 1996 Subaru Legacy GT (B-Spec) wagon, Lexie - Joanna's choice! It has a 2.0L twin-turbo (sequential) motor, which we thought would help us see the all of the country in the short time that we have here. The wheels & the suspension (Bilstein) are factory options, the exhaust perhaps isn't. Try and find a vehicle without a 4 inch exhaust in New Zealand?! I haven't been in a car this stiffly sprung since I was in a Ferrari 348! It certainly shows you where your wobbly bits are!Crowesport provided us with a 3 month warranty on the car (included in the price), which was just as well, as the cooling system had a bit of a leak (did have to write a list of issues for the problem to be solved finally) & the rear washer spent a lot of time dribbling! We won't talk about the front washers!? Trevor & Linda were very understanding though.
Having had the rear washer sorted out I noticed that water was dripping on our boot cover. So I took a jug of water out and had a look around, it was at this point that I noticed that the rubbers for the washer pipes had not been put back. So I fitted them properly, closed the boot and went to pour the water only to hear the car lock itself! Hmm, I could clearly see the keys on the boot floor!?! Our immobiliser has a special feature that locks the doors if the car is open for a certian amount of time! I called a locksmith who took 3 minutes and 80 bucks and reunited me with the keys again! Lesson learnt!!Labels: christchurch, crowesport, lexie, locksmith, magna, new_zealand, photos, scooby, south_island, subaru_legacy
posted by Nathan at
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