with retuning and ecu tweaking you can make those things haul at over 500nm of torque and over 250kw of power, yet still have 2x the reliability when compared to a 3.6l r36 engine. This will cost ya less, and you’ll get the v8 performance.

i know people who made these 3V engines do 5.0s flat, with extractors, tune, cai and 3.73 diff from bf xr8 manual coupled to the 4 speed auto, but assuming that they make 220rwkW to get 5.0s stock.

still you’ll get this cheap, and now days 5.4L 3V falcons are under $12000

but are slower …. its the way their 4 speed auto is designed, diff, suspension set up etc …. they are mainstream normal every day family and fleet cars.

say for instance, FG XT 195kW/391Nm, or 204kW/420Nm on RON98 petrol …. hmmmmmmmmm lets see what happens if we give it 275mm rear rubber, LSD, 3.91 diff and a ECU tune …

some so far have claimed 232 flywheel kW from stock standard FG XT and 450Nm of torque with stock cams, extractors and high flow cats only.

and they clocked 5.5s 0-100km/h.

R36 is a highly advanced with 4wd, technical bits and pieces that make it technically sophisticated ….

but put its 3.6L engine on Fords 4 speed auto or 6 speed ZF with 2.73 diff ratio and it will soon drop its 5.6s 0-100km/h to 7s.

in other words , Ford Falcons I6 4.0L all pretty much run on tall gearing and their big TORQUE!

and that is why they last a million km!

think about it.

there is something about that I6 we have here in Australia, it must be the nature of the I6, the capacity and tall gearing and low down torque they make, but also the engine note and exhaust note they all generate , since EAII till AUIII till the current FG.

its Aussie made, engineered, cheaper to run and easier to use, plus its a bigger car at the end of the day

go the G6E Turbo, lets hope the series II G6E comes with xenon lights.

But I love what Im reading and feel pretty sure about getting one.

The R36 is exceptional. Exceptional build quality, no disappointments from moving from the Beemer, great ride, seats, visibility etc. Engine sounds throaty, the whole car has an extremely solid feel. I’ve traditionally been a manual driver but love the DSG.

Goes like stink and stick like shit to a blanket. Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic. If you are entertaining the thought of moving from BM, Merc or Audi to an VW R36 I can highly recommend.

Great car…

Its a nice car, just had a race with one and thought should look up the specs! My mazda 6 MPS with 42.5k kms is well broken in and was too good today, but it was very close (Cannot divulge speed but >90km/hr). Having a smooth calm everyday car that turns into something very close to hardcore performance cars in a real treat. Depreciation for new car buyers of this niche is not so nice though :(

I recently bought an R36, since I recently became a father.

I used to drive a Mini Cooper S convertible, so you can imagine the ‘change’ of pace! Every day I drive the R36, I’m continually impressed by it, and I love it more and more over the old Mini.

I love it because it gives me what I need now.

I can be ‘responsible’ for all the reasons the review and everyone else has quoted. And because it’s a very practical car and ‘cheap’ for what you get.

I can also be ‘two fingers to the green crowd’, and thrash the f*&k out of it when it’s just me. It sounds awesome. Moves like stink. And really is an fantastic drive.

Why have two or three cars when you can have one. :D

The R36 is a surprise package. Once you hit the start the exhaust burbles away telling you something is not quite what it looks like. Drive in anger and wow! Real life driving includes driving in the rain, and the AWD will come into its own then. Handling isn’t meant to be like an Evo, but it still is direct and tight enough for “normal”, this is not meant to be a comp/track car.

DSG works well too with very quick change, I don’t mind when it auto changes up when you hit the rev limit. My current car does that and I find you go quicker.

Hope the comments help.

You are right about the big T wanting dollars, but wrong about their size. They sell more cars, period, but are not up to VW turnover.
VW is now a massive company who own Audi and several other brands – whose recent market capitalisation was advertised – exceeds that of Exxon Mobil. For me, having had many makes of models, including several performance vehicles, the R36 wagon was my choice. Comfort, fantastic driving, space for several sets of golf clubs, towing jetski, performance, DSG, different – and who cares whether the other driver likes it. I looked at the lot, including Audi s3 and 4 variants (at $40K dearer and you lose $40K when you drive it out the door), 135i cab (quoted in September at $94K and now $70K drive away for a demo with 2000k), replacement Liberty GT ($7K dearer), Lexus 250i etc.

As others have advised, horses for courses, otherwise we would all have a Lada. We have a choice, so we should be damn grateful about it !

p.s. to others, if you are not interested in the R36, write to the discussion page for the brand you like, not this one.

I could live with an Aurion Sportivo quite happily.

VW make nice cars but i doubt if they will ever topple Toyota as market leader.

Disappointing they never gave this one a 6 spd manual option, as good as the DSG is.

Iz – its because the company realised profitability comes from selling to the masses not to only people who know and enjoy cars. Toyota is a corporation, its there to make money and only money… Anything else is a PR/marketing campaign.

It Doesn’t matter if the cars are from different classes; in different price brackets; with different platforms different engines different body styles or built for different purposes etc.. so long as they can try to make people think that the Toyota is a far superior car to anything else above it or below it that’s all that matters.