aniken

Yeah, in NSW start out at the following URL and go from there: http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/registration/num...tes/custom.html

It may help if you told us what state you are in

Congrats Love the plates too

drool Bring on April (or may, or whenever my car is turning up ...)

Out of the most reliable of my calculations, the best I have got out of a VX 'S' (basic V6 ecotec) is 7.7L/100k. I have a few very low figures of mid 5's to high 4's per 100, but I will have to get the auditors in to check those ones. Routinely get mid 8's in largely freeway conditions, and mid 12's for city-only driving. Worst ever is 14.7 in the first month of driving (after changing over from an old Mazda 626 - couldn't help but put the foot down a bit).

In my so far limited experience with fleet companies, they would only issue a PULP fuel card if the vehicle must have PULP to operate (eg, the vectra of a couple of years ago would only take PULP - it even had a reminder on the fuel cap!). As Ford have clearly said the XR6T will run on either ULP or PULP, then I don't like your chances. :( As to not meeting the advertised level of performance, I would like to be a fly on the wall when you try and argue that you MUST get a PULP card because you will only be able to accelerate to 100km/h in 6.2 seconds rather than 6.1 My only suggestion would be to come to some sort of arrangement with them whereby you make up the difference in cost between an ULP and a PULP card.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! And whats with the big cut on the wheel? Did she try and mount your car or something (I know they look great but...)?

I'd let Mrs richdave do anything she wanted

sounds like you know your nobs Lisa

Never seen the point in having these protectors. I'd rather put up with maybe a few small paint chips (although I haven't had one of those in living memory) than the massive (relatively speaking) plastic do-hickey on the front. And hey, just like people, cars get old too - a few chips shows good character Save your money and put it towards the premium sound system

Ordered mid-December 02. Current ETA is April at the earliest :(

Very well done richdave, particularly for putting us 30 year olds in the 26 to ... group

Go Smurfs Go Smurfs. And whatever happened to Marty the Monster, or even The Harry and Ralph Show? Where do kids go today to get that sort of quality - Dorothy the F'ing Dinosaur?? I think not! All hail Papa Smurf!!!

Yes it has. 30 for the record.

When I was a kid adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were when they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five kilometres to school every morning uphill both ways through year 'round blizzards carrying their younger siblings on their backs to their one-room schoolhouse where they maintained a straight-A average despite their full-time after-school job at the local textile mill where they worked for 35 cents an hour just to help keep their family from starving to death! And I remember promising myself that when I grew up there was no way I was going to lay a load of rubbish like that on kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it! But.... Now that I've reached the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a goddamned Utopia! And I hate to say it but you kids today, you just don't know how good you've got it! I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet--we wanted to know something, we had to go to the goddamned library and look it up ourselves! And there was no email! We had to actually write somebody a letter--with a pen!-- and then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there! And there were no MP3s or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had to go to the goddamned record store and shoplift it yourself! Or we had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ'd usually talk over the beginning and mess it all up! You want to hear about hardship? You couldn't just download porn! You had to bribe some homeless dude to buy you a copy of "Hustler" ! Those were your options! We didn't have fancy sh*t like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal! And we didn't have fancy Caller ID Boxes either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was. It could be your boss, your mom, a collections agent, your drug dealer, you didn't know!!! You just had to pick it up and take your chances, mister! And we didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation videogames with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like "Space Invaders" and "Asteroids" and the graphics sucked ass! Your guy was a little square! You had to use your imagination! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen forever! And you could never win, the game just kept getting harder and faster until you died! Just like LIFE! When you went to the movie theatre there no such thing as stadium seating! All the seats were the same height! A tall guy sat in front of you, you were screwed! And sure, we had television, but back then that was only like 5channels and there was no onscreen menu like on cable today! You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! And there was no Cartoon Network! You could only get cartoons on Saturday morning... ...D'ya hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK, you spoiled little brats! That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy You're spoiled, I swear to God! You guys wouldn't last five minutes back in 1984!

Lucky barstand! I ordered mid Dec '02. Spoke to our fleet managers today and advised that delivery is tentatively in April :( . As if that wasn't bad enough, my order was given as being on 'preference' with a dealer, which means there is no definite date at all, and the order could slip a month or more

Maybe they are on a stake-out What exactly have you been up to ?

Saw a citric acid XR Ute parked outside a Ford dealer. Hard to compare a ute to a sedan, but it did not look quite the same as richdaves pics; there is a stronger hint of green when you see it on the street compared to the photos. Personal opinion is that it looks very striking from a distance, and would choose it as my colour in a second . My only doubt was whether I would still like it in 2 years time . In the end I went for blueprint. PS. it was a cloudy day and, from what I have seen of other colours, probably looks different again in full sun. PPS. if you do go CA, I would also get tints for the windows - would set off the yellow nicely I reckon .

Get's a bit complicated . Purchasing, day to day management (repairs, fuel cards blah blah), and sale of vehicles is handled by Commonwealth Fleet Lease on behalf of my employer. Vehicles are purchased via a finance facility with a bank (not which bank) - so, technically, the bank owns the car, my employer leases it off the bank, and we drivers meet the lease cost from our pre-tax salary (which means we have to pay Fringe Benefits Tax). Lease cost covers purchase of vehicle, and all running costs and repairs. Lease is cheaper the more you drive because the rate of FBT Tax reduces the more you drive (not environmentally friendly but I'm not complaining ), and this more than offsets the higher running costs (petrol etc..).

Our leasing arrangement means I change cars every 18 months or so :sorcerer:, depending on how long you take to reach the maximum of 40,000 kms (18 months is based on 25k p.a.). The more k's per year the cheaper it is

Doh!

Aniken = Aniken Skywalker = Darth Vader = Great white hope who switched to the dark side :alien: I drive a Late model camira and am switching to my first Ford due to the overwhelming force of the XR6 Turbo :D (when it finally arrives).

Maybe not that bad, but I am switching from a non-supercharged VX Late model camira S (series 1). Looking forward to the performance boost.

If you go to ford.com.au, 'citric acid' is now being shown as an available colour.