Well, she’s almost up to 5000km and she’s doing fine. The Turbo’s a great car for the money, but hey it ought to be and there’s a few intollerable differences I am really pissed off with.

First of all there are really ugly looking panel gaps between the drivers’ side quarter panel and the door. The panel fit is slightly jagged and a little off. There are subtle panel fit quirks elsewhere too. Secondly, the back bumper (perhaps it’s because my car is the metallic silver), in broad day light, looks really badly painted.

Now for the biggest gripe of all. The intercooler to air intake pipe. That blow off valve sound I mentioned when I first got the car, was the hose clamp bursting and the host itself coming off of the intercooler mounts. The car left the factory like this! After several failed attempts, we managed to get this clamp to hold and i’ve had no trouble since. With this clamp off, the acceleration is laclustre to say the least as the intake sucks in warm engine bay air and the intake goes to waste. When the clamp does what its meant to though, vive la difference. It fucking canes!

Apart from all these issues, the six speed is fantastic for highway cruising. It only has manners when you roll along in sixth. Even fifth has decent pickup throughout the rev range. Fourth gear is just plain rude on the highway if you’re trying to stick to the limits. Put simply, you don’t have to struggle with gears to make use of all that torque.

Ultimately, 46 grand might not be a lot of money to some to spend on a car. To others it may be a king’s ransom. But you should get decent paint and panels at any price on a domestically made car. So too a decently made 5c hose clamp. Work out these quirks and you’ve got what must be one of the most enjoyable, if not remarkable, big family sedans in the world.