So I have been promising a post for a while, so here goes. I NOW HAVE A TOYOTA AURION!!! Can you tell that I am excited? The following post will explain a majority of my silence for the last couple of weeks, so here goes.
Back on the 18th of March, ManheimFowles were auctioning off some flood damaged vehicles. There was a 2007 Wildfire Sportivo SX6 (FYI, Toyota no longer offer the Sportivo's in Wildfire) there that hadn't travelled too far and barely had signs of water damage. The engine bay was completely clean with no signs of water getting past the guards at the bottom, and the inside had only the faintest smell of dampness. This car would be perfect. All without me knowing, Dad was there bidding on the car and managed to get it for a great price. I was surprised later that night when the car was parked outside when Dad asked me to go out there.
So now came the fun part of taking it all apart to clean it up. With a little help of the service diagrams, the interior came out pretty easily and the carpet was then taken out and given a good wash. The car was given a good clean inside then left out to air for a few days which completely got rid of any smells. Also, since the air bag light didn't turn off after the car was turned on, the air bag module was checked. It appeared to have some corrosion on the terminals, so that was replaced. Quite surprising as well, the air bag control module only cost $137 which was 1/4 of the cost that I was expecting. It even surprised the guys at Southside Toyota when they had to look the part up. I swapped it over and the system self tested fine after that.
While the interior was in pieces, I also took the chance to run cables for my sub/amp which I was to put in once I put it all back together. So once all that was done and the carpet was clean, I layed down some new under-felt (which I was able to obtain free of charge), put the carpet back in and re-assembled the interior. It was just like a new car again. I got a safety certificate on it and then booked it in for a Written-Off Vehicle Inspection; and what a wait that was. There were so many cars that they had to inspect so I had to wait one and half weeks just to get it inspected, followed by the 48 hour minimum inspection time. It was so hard having it in the garage and not being able to drive it. That was such a hard wait especially when I had to spend long days at work.
On the morning of Thursday the 10th of April, the inspection was complete and I was excitedly on my way to pick the car up and have it registered. I got it registered then headed home to install my subwoofer, all my LED interior lights and HID headlights. Also that afternoon, my personalised plates arrived, so I headed back to Queensland Transport to get them fitted to my car. So now my car is pretty much complete. Now all I have left to do is get a window tint for it as non-tinted windows just aren't as good looking.
I am quite impressed with how it all turned out. It is just like a new car again, and for the price I was able to pick it up for, it is perfect. After driving a '91 Camry for the past three and a half years ever since I got my license, the Aurion is quite a change. I have to get used to parallel parking all over again and get used to going easy on the accelerator, but it's all fun. With the Camry, I would be giving the accelerator quite a workout, but on the Aurion, I just have to lightly push on it. There are even some situations when putting my foot down in the Aurion just scares me and I would back off pretty quick. It's certainly a different feeling.
I love my new car.
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