Confessions of a car addict

Welcome to Have Car, Will Drive. I am a young motoring enthusiast and uni student living in Melbourne, Australia and I have decided to share my thoughts, experiences and opinions on this blog. HCWD will document my driving experiences, and thoughts all all things automotive, as well as share interesting vehicles I see and anything else that is vaguely relevant. Car love for me is not just about exotic vehicles that are out of reach for most of us, but about finding enjoyment in any vehicle. This enjoyment for me is two-pronged, and stems from both driving enjoyment and a less tangible, emotional attachment that I seem to have to anything with four wheels.

Pictured above is my '08 build Ford Focus, my first new car purchase. Two weeks ago I piloted it on a four-day, 1000km round trip laced with twisty bitumen and a good helping of gravel back-roads. It is not amazingly fast, not is it particularly luxurious. And yet with its two-litre four and five-speed manual transmission, mounted on a (relatively) taut chassis and reasonably competent (if a little soft) suspension set-up, it can be quite a bit of fun on a good twisty road.

I hope to write up my recent adventures in my Focus at some point, but the catalyst for starting this blog is my forthcoming trip to New Zealand. Over a period of sixteen days I plan to drive the length of the North Island, see the sights and enjoy the driving along the way. I will post my experiences here, with an emphasis on the driving, and the occasional side note on my other experiences.

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Car Lust: Audi A1 Sportback

It has been quite a while since I last posted anything here. To be precise (I do like to be), it has been exactly 284 days since my last post. Since then many things have kept me from posting, and with every week that passes it has only become harder to give any attention to HaveCar WillDrive. But this week I have come down with such a terrible bout of car lust that I couldn't help but share it here. Yes, I am lusting badly for an Audi A1 Sportback. You may be asking yourself "what could be so exciting about a tarted-up overpriced Volkswagen Polo?" At first glance you may have a point, but let me explain.

Review: 2003 Mazda 6 Luxury

If you are looking for an unbiased review on a used family car, I suggest that you leave this page immediately. For this is a review of a car that is quite close to my heart, my dad's 2003 Mazda 6 Luxury sedan. This is the first car I ever drove, and the a car I regularly borrowed when I had just passed my license test. Even once I've had my own car, I have borrowed the Mazda on multiple occasions, either for holidays not suitable for my then current transportation or just because I wanted a spin in my first automotive love. I've been thinking about writing this review for quite some time, but I was waiting for the timing to be right. Having recently spent a whole week driving this car according to my usual routine, reminding me all of the car's joys and shortfalls alike it feels like that right time is now.

When Is A Diesel Not A Diesel? When It's A Fiat...

Like most small cars, the Fiat 500 is sold with an optional diesel engine in Europe. To date Australia has only had the choice of petrol-engined Fiat 500s, so when I heard that Fiat had announced the Fiat 500 Diesel for sale in Australia I was excited at the prospect of a new version of the funky Italian hatchback offering spectacular fuel efficiency while burning those long-chained hydrocarbons once reserved for trucks and tractors. Unfortunately, my hopes were soon dashed like a diesel-powered boat caught on a rocky coastline. Instead of being a diesel powered version of the miniature Italian, the Fiat 500 Diesel is a special edition of the regular petrol-powered 500 with trimmings designed by an Italian fashion house. 'Which Italian fashion house?' I hear you ask. That's right, you guessed it: Diesel.

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