Day: June 19, 2012

New car on the way – Subaru Brumby

I’ve talked about this one for a while. At long last, the right vehicle has come up and I’m heading to Melbourne Friday afternoon to pick up my first ever ute – a Subaru Brumby.

This is it.

——

So why a Brumby?

I’ve been looking for one of these for some time. The first utes were developed in Australia and feels like a rite of passage for an Aussie bloke to get one at some stage.

More than that, though, they’re just so incredibly practical. Our Saab 9000 can take a heck of a load in it, but I get sick of vacuuming leaves and twigs out of it (and worrying about the creepy crawlies that might have made a new home under the seats). It’ll be great to just chuck some junk in the back and clean the tray out afterwards without having to worry about damaging the upholstery.

These Subarus have a reputation for being pretty much unbreakable. There are examples for sale right now with well over 300, 400 and even 500,000 kilomoters on them. The only common problem is CV joint failure, which isn’t a problem on this car and should be easy to fix if and when it happens.

And the best part – this one is rust-free, only has 100,000kms on the clock, has air-conditioning and was fitted with power steering! That last one is an extra-special bonus because the Brumby never had power steering.

The unmarked interior…..

The car was owned from new by an older gentleman. He passed away recently and it’s being sold by his son. The Dad fitted power steering because he was older and didn’t like fighting to turn the car any more.

It’s got a new windscreen, too!

The only blemish is a small dent in the tailgate. Other than that, it’s all good!

We’ve got heaps of garden waste stacked in various parts of the yard, and plenty of other rubbish waiting to be cleaned out. This Brumby’s going to be my daily driver and weekend workhorse.

Can’t wait!

The Brumby has both low and high-range four-wheel-drive. It’s powered by a 4 cylinder, 1.8litre, carby boxer engine driven through a four-speed manual transmission. That’s not an inspiring sentence from a driving enthusiast’s point of view, but then that’s why I’ve got the Alfa Romeo GTV6, isn’t it?

This one’s for work and maybe a little bit of play on a muddy day out in the bush 🙂

More photos will come in due course.

——

Encouraging little Brumby factoid…..

These cars carry some great residual values. They’re all 20 years or older and many of them are still fetching up to a third of their new car price. I’m getting this little red wagon at a decent, but fair price and I’m quite sure it’s still going to be worth every penny IF I go to sell it in a few years from now.

Stuff I (might) like: Microsoft Surface tablet

[cp_divide color=”#919191″ height=”1″ width=”100″]

Microsoft just managed to do something that hasn’t been done in a loooooong time – launch an exciting new product without any leaks beforehand.

The product is their new Surface tablet and I have to say, it looks like a very attractive bit of kit.

This story has everything you need to know: Microsoft Surface Event 2012

——

According to the stuff I’ve been able to find, the Surface is less than 10mm thick, runs a Gorilla Glass 10.6-inch HD screen, two full USB ports and other media ports as well. It’ll come in two models, a standard version and Pro version with capacity up to 128GB and a built-in stylus. The Surface will be the feature machine for the launch of Windows 8.

I really love what I’m seeing so far about the cover – it attaches magnetically but acts as a keyboard and scrollwheel when connected. You can get either of two different covers, a ‘touch’ cover that’ll supposedly provide a better/faster typing experience than working on glass (not too hard to believe) or the ‘type’ cover, which adds actual clickable keys, whilst only adding 2mm to the cover’s thickness.

This photo shows the ‘touch’ cover, which will be available in five different colors.

——

I’ve been a Mac user for around 5 years now and I don’t think that’ll change in the near term. I have made efforts to keep my options open, however.

I made a New Years Resolution back in January that I wouldn’t get an iPhone or iPad (which I’ve stuck to) and I’ve tried to keep myself from getting too deep into Apple’s quicksand customer ecosystem. I really love the Apple products I’ve owned, but other than buying a few songs off iTunes, I don’t want to tie myself too tightly to their system.

I don’t own a tablet and when I tried an iPad earlier this year, I didn’t like it that much. My theory is that whilst many people love the iPad as media consumers, I skew more towards being a media creator, and the iPad just wasn’t that practical for me as someone who writes a lot. This looks like something I could get into if I had the tablet urge.

I changed from a Windows laptop to a Macbook Pro in 2009 and I welcomed the increased portability of the MBP, as well as its improved media-making performance and rendering (very important when you’re working on the web as I was). I’m not travelling anywhere near as much nowadays, but if I was, a fully functional tablet computer like this would make much more sense than an iPad and if it’s any good at photo-processing and movie making, you might even make a case for replacing the MBP.

I really hope the screen is a beauty because this looks like a nicely thought-out machine. And hey, it’d be nice to see Apple get some hipster competition, wouldn’t it? Keep the bastards honest, I say.

Exit mobile version