The .:R36 has arrived!!!

[tryingavw]

Jayse & TryingAVW... I'm getting mine from Burwins VW too. Last I heard it was due at customs on Dec 12th but that was about 3 weeks ago. If it's moved to Dec 10th that's great !

Apparently Customs & Compliance go on holidays between Dec 22nd and not back until approx Jan 8th... so it could be tight !?

Now I have to work out how to sell my Teritory AWD Ghia... any takers ?

i guess if we get them in january we can call them passat 2009 ...... should add some at resale.

When i sold the wifes bmw528 wagon recently i advertised it as a 2000 ( first rego) and the guy took that at face value. but i was looking at a bmw service log which said the car was actually a march 1999 build. it was news to me and probably (bad) news for him if he finds out.

good luck the the territory- reckon that won't be easy. nice car but thirsty. cant be that old?

Macka the great ocean drive idea sounds good - need to be early so we get the road to ourselves.

[Buck]

I received the itinary below from the dealer not long after putting in my order.
If I missed this shipment it was going to be another 3 months or more. since then I believe the shipment gained about 4 days so arrival at port was approx Dec 12th. Then allow upto 5 working days in Customes & Compliance before it departs for the Dealer.

Order Entry Dealer System
12/09/08
Order Entry NADIN
12/09/08
Order Registration IFA
12/09/08
Buildability Check
12/09/08
SGW Rebooking
12/09/08
Current SGW Determination
12/09/08
Allocation of product plant
20/09/08
Handover to production
27/09/08
Start Body Shell Shop
10/10/08
End Body Shell Shop
Start Paint Shop
14/10/08
End Paint Shop
Start Final Assembly
15/10/08
Checkpoint 8 Handover to Sales
17/10/08
Start Service Shop
End Service Shop
Exit Production Plant
22/10/08
Arrival Port of Shipment
27/10/08
Departure Port of Shipment
4/11/08
Departure last Port of Transit
Arrival at Port of Destination
15/12/08
Departure from Port of Destination
15/12/08
Arrival at final Destination
16/12/08
Departure from final Destination
Arrival at Dealer ?

I'll pass on the drive at Great Ocean Rd for now as I'm working through until holidays and then driving up to Nowra for a few weeks with the family.

[Macka]

Macka,

After waiting just shy on 6 months for my car i know of your frustration/impatience/anticipation/etc etc for getting the keys to your very own .:R36 in your hands.

FYI: The car came with Dunlop SP SPORT 01...havent driven them nearly enough to comment but they handled ok in the wet yest.

Will def come back after the weekend with pics and more of my thoughts on the car

Cheers,

Jayse.

Jayse,

How did the weekend go?

Macka

[Jayse]

Sorry guys for the delay in pics and report but this week so far has been hectic with work. Didn't get to clean the car(after the dirty rain on the 1st day i got it) and take pics on on the weekend...but i'll try this weekend. Though seeing weather will be raining this weekend i might just have to take pics anyways.

I'll tell you this tho...i love this car...it's a great place to be in. I find myself counting down the minutes to when i can get out of work for the day to drive home. Def looking forward to driving up to Sydney for xmas!!

Will give more details very soon.

Cheers,

Jayse.

[jmj]

Sat Nav

Hey Jayce,
Just wondering how you find the Sat Nav in the RNS510 system. Are you happy with it? I will be finalising my order tomorrow for a new Passat Wagon and am seriously considering the RNS510. A short review would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

[Jayse]

hey jmj,

The RNS510 is a wonderful unit. For the 2 times i've used the SATNAV since i got the car it's been really good. With street names and directions appearing on the MFD as well as the main screen i've found it both clear and useful. Seeing the unit is touch screen i find it easier to enter an address compared to the X5 or E class turn the dial and push systems! When you plug in a destination address, the SATNAV gives you 3 option routes to take giving estimated time and distance for each option.
Now, only having the car for less than a week thats about all i can say about it...some of the other guys on here who've had their units longer might be able to shed some more light on it. After the drive up to Sydney for xmas i'll really get to see the SATNAV in all it's glory....i hope!
What i'm really looking forward to exploring more on the unit is the 20GB of hardrive to load music/movies etc. (30GB total minus 10GB for SATNAV software) So far just using the radio (probably my only issue with the unit is the limit of only 6 programmable radio stations for both bands combined!!) and CD has been great. I upgraded to the Dynaudio 600W Premium Audio System..awesome...cranked up the volume really loud and no distortion...something to put the Saturday night Chapel Street crawlers to shame!!

All in all i'm def happy i ticked the RNS510 SATNAV option and i would recommend the unit it to you.

Cheers,

Jayse.

[jmj]

Thanks Jayce... your initial impressions are much appreciated. I completed my order today to include Sat Nav and reversing camera. Now for the long wait until March next year!
Cheers

[passatpout]

I had RNS510 in my Golf in London.. sensational, absolutely brilliant and I reckon the best sat-nav I've ever used (including Garmin, Tom-Tom, etc). Watch what it does when you're driving through tunnels and other areas with no satellite reception.. going through the Rotherhithe and Blackwall Tunnels in London, it always had position accurate, nothing like having wheel sensors and accelerometers in there to do the dead reckoning. Even my wife enjoyed using it, and liked that it came up on the MFD with directions. I think it only gave us one false steer - and that was into a street which had recently (as in the previous fortnight) been converted to one way. It guided us around London all the time, as well as to places such as Cambridge, Edinburgh, and Liverpool, and was brilliant for explaining the bit between the motorways and town centre. The only thing I couldn't work out was if it could accept Point-of-Interest download files from web servers, but I assumed it could somehow, although the inbuilt list was pretty comprehensive.

If the quality of the maps here is as good as western Europe (over there, it was quite happy to plan a route from Belfast to about Vienna/Budapest), and everything else is the same, then it's good stuff. Have a go at playing with the map, since it's very easy to scroll it around just by dragging your finger on the screen, then pressing the car icon in the centre will take it back to your current position, plus the zoom function is very easy to use to get either more detail or more area.

As I said, it's a fantastic bit of gear, and I reckon we'll be getting it in our next new cars (only didn't in this one since it's a retrofit, doesn't work quite as well as factory fitted, we're using regular roads most of the time, and needed the car in a hurry).

But the stereo bit has me puzzled - over there, with digital radio, mine was picking up about 50 stations on FM alone, and produced its own list Even the radio in my Passat now (not RNS510) has 12 FM and 6 AM stations...

[3Putt]

Google Maps for Windows Mobile

Check this out if you have a Windows Mobile Device with GPS ...

http://www.google.com/mobile/default/maps.html

Will make in car Sat Navs obsolete, i reckon. Bit cheaper than RNS510...like... FREE!

Then there's always the iPhone!

[Jayse]

Pictures of The Fräulein

Here are some pics i took on the weekend:

[Jayse]

and here are some more...

[gead]

nice...thanks for posting...

[Macka]

and here are some more...

Thanks Jayse looks great. I am biased though because it is the same as mine. Pick it up this Friday 12th Dec.

[Gipper]

Looks Awesome... what Window tint did you get?

[Steve]

That looks very nice