DINGDINGDINGDING
Well, Hot Dog! We Have - A Weiner! FINALLY I hit 400k in a car of mine (EB parted out at 370k, EF sold in shit condition at 395k)
Other than the suspension issues that were semi-fixed at the time, this car still felt fine at the 300,000 mark. But now that it's hit 400,000 it's getting pretty sad, and feels like an old car. It's well down on power, it creaks & groans, its bushes are rooted, and I swear the other day it actually farted - I have no idea what the go was there, it just made this "phhrrrrt" noise & 5 secs later my eyes were watering & I was retching from the stench.
It's developed a temp issue also - if the car is idling or I'm doing low speeds, the temp gauge likes to climb up a fair bit. It'll do 110 down the freeway in 40*C heat no worries, but 40kph uphill on a 16*C day? Hello 2/3 temp gauge.
Still, having said all of that it gets me to & from work with no dramas & fires up every time without skipping a beat. I've even taken to the rally track to get to/from work (daylight hours only!) - crunching into the potholes on pebbly gravel helps mask the other underbody noises.
The wife's just bought a newish hatch for herself (2011 Corolla, yawn), so the bulletproof Camry can sit in the shed as my backup car in case the Fairmont shits itself. The current plan is to see out most of the year & get an Amarok on novated lease once I'm on shift work, then we'll flog off the Camry & the Fairmont.
Estimated LPG savings with this car to date - $19k gross, $16k net. We've basically gotten the wife's hatch for free with the savings made on LPG
I'll advertise the Fairmont later in the year - trust me the gas system is awesome, & if anyone wants to chuck a Fairmont interior into their XT, mine's still in good nick.