Well, finally the time has come. After more than ten years, and ninety thousand kilometres, it is time for a new car. Not that there was anything wrong with it, it is more a preventative measure. Sell while it is still sellable. You can read about my current car in my Nullarbor trip story. The falcon still runs great, and just recently took myself and three others to Swan Hill and back, getting pretty good mileage of 8.4 l/100km. Not bad, considering the car had four people in it, with the air conditioner running nearly the whole time. It’s a great car for eating up long distances, loping along the highway at a lazy 1700 rpm.

The new car is a Honda Accord Euro. Strangely named, because in Australia (and New Zealand), we get two models of the Accord, both with the same name. There is the Accord Euro, sold in Europe and Japan as just the Accord, and the US as the Acura TSX; and there is what we know here and in the USA as the Accord, which is sold in Japan as the Inspire.

We went for the Euro because it is a bit more compact, with a more powerful 4 cylinder engine (although the regular Accord is also available with a V6) than the other Accord. Mind you, it weighs nearly as much as my old Falcon. Still, Honda quote a 0-100 time of 7.8 seconds for the manual transmission model we have bought, which is better than what the auto falcon could manage. Although, to get that, I’d say you’d be spending a bit of time in the 7000rpm range - alien territory for a falcon owner with a 5500rpm redline.

I’ll put some photos up when it arrives - two more sleeps to go…