Wow, it only took two days for the workshop to get my bumper fixed. And along with that, no more stupid grill chromes.

Due to an unfortunate event, I had to have my car’s bumper claimed and fixed. Right now, my car is bumperless. And no, I’m not switching to any crappy fiberglass custom bumpers. I am not a riceboy.

Finally, I replaced my car’s window films with new 60% black tints, instead of those cheesy stock Solargard ones. This is a promise I made to myself to further blacken my car. And no, I’m not smoking those taillights…

Since next week we’re going for the Easter celebration at Andreas’ villa in Puncak, I figured that I make some time earlier today to have my car’s shockbreakers upgraded. That has been a target milestone for a while now, since I changed the springs some time ago.

It didn’t take too long for the technicians at Suara Motor to dismantle the front running gear, to install the new upgraded shocks. As per Oom Jimmy’s recommendation, the front shocks are replaced with a pair of aftermarket Gabriel shocks. I didn’t know what type they were using as the new shocks were brought out of the office without any packagings.

Unexpectedly, the stock front shocks that I’ve been using for almost 3 years now, are apparently dead. And for sometime already, the car relies only on the springs. The rear shocks, however, remained intact although it’s not as good as it’s used to be, but at least it didn’t broke down again like before.

For the rear replacements, they used KYB Excel-G gas shocks, which of course performs much much better after I took the car for a test ride after the installation. So now with all the things implemented on the running gears section, I consider the modifications on that section completed.

Sometime ago, I decided to register at SVN-10 Fatmawati (my regular car-washing outlet) for their 1-year car polish package membership, since it’s on a 45% discount and I think it’s worth it. And my car was badly covered with water streaks. Yesterday, I put my car back in so they can polish its interior because they didn’t get the chance to do so last week. Now everything is slick and clean!

And not only that, the engine compartment also gets its own treatment. Very clean indeed! I love the way they do their job. I’m a happy customer so far.

Lower, but not to low. Just the way I wanted it. It handles perfectly, very minimal body roll. Just perfect!

After 2 years of unsuccessful plans and mishaps to the car, today was a relief that I finally got all my running gears to be the way like wanted it to be. My car is now lower, more stable, and of course, looks better.

My selection landed on the Eibach Pro-Kit. Not only that Eibach is one of the few springs manufacturers that actually make springs to the Avanza specifications, Eibach probably has the best springs for Avanza in the market compared to those lousy and probably-fake Jamex and those other cheap springs. These Eibachs are supposed to lower the car to up to 40 mm, exactly what I am looking for.

Here are the guys at D2 Concept, changing all four springs of my car. The process itself takes a little less than 1 hour, so it’s not that long and boring to wait.

Here is what the rear springs look like when done. I took the car immediately for spooring afterwards, which only takes about 15-20 minutes to adjust everything to the new springs.

After the mods, I haven’t took the car for a thorough test, I will need to corner quite hard to see the difference. But so far, I’m happy with what my car looks like. Money well spent.

Okay, so maybe it’s not that wrecked, but this is what you get when you got hit by a bus, when you’re trying to avoid a collision with a fucking motorcycle rider. I just don’t get them, how badly would it cost them to replace those dead taillights? Does it take your entire year of salary? Of course not. That’s just how it works here. If you hit them, no matter if you’re right or wrong, the car is always left for the blame. So my option is really, brake hard and let the bus hit me, or hit that fucking motorcycle and let the guy die. Oh, believe me! I would opt for the latter if this is not Indonesia…

To those fucking motorcyclists:
I am truly wondering, why can’t most of you ride your damn motorcycles decently? I know some people who actually does. They ride motorcycles and they obey the law perfectly. So if they can, how come you can’t? You got no helmets, no taillights, no headlights, you ride on the opposite direction, you drive pass through traffic lights, and you got no consent whatsoever for other road users. I can even bet that some of you doesn’t even have a damn license. So I don’t give a shit whether you can or can’t afford a taillight bulb replacement, so just fuck off, die, go to hell, and rot! Because when you do that, Indonesia is instantly a better world!

Well what do you know, Shell never seizes to amaze me for sometime now. Not only that they have the best gas quality in the country, they have a fair price of 4.950 rupiahs a liter on their Super fuel. I just found that out when I took the car and top the fuel up earlier tonight. And if this is the case, all I can say to Pertamina is, they should pack up and burn the company down. Well of course, sometime ago, that’s exactly what they did, literally. To me, right now, there is no reason to like you, or your shitty fuel. If Shell can provide an exceptional fuel quality with that kind of price, why can’t you?

Nyonyo, Decca, Yudi, Bhagas, and I went to the 14th Indonesian International Motor Show at JHCC yesterday. Frankly, I wasn’t too impressed with the overall event, in fact I think the one before was better. And except for the new Toyota Camry which is based on the Australian Toyota Aurion, which is strikingly fantastic, IMHO, nothing could keep up to its par… Well, concept cars aside, of course.

The new Hyundai Santa Fe was surprisingly much better than its squiddy predecessor, this is quite a milestone for a company that always has tremendous design flaws with its cars. The new Accord is a total disapppointment, now it looks like an overgrown Baleno Next-G, and it also looks cheap like those made in Korea. Despite the huge breakthrough with the new Camry, Toyota’s Superman Edition Yaris is nothing more than a cheap modification with a cheap taste.

The new Avanza/Xenia was also a disappointment, well, at least for me, since I’m an owner of an older one. The interior looks cheap enough, probably because of it’s beige and not dark grey like the one I have. Beige interiors work well with large and more sophisticated cars like the Innova, Fortuner, or Camry. But budgetary beige interiors definitely don’t work with cars like the Avanza. Very very cheap looking.

During our visit, we also took the chance to snap some pictures to send in to our friends at Add More Horsepower! I’m sure they’ll be more than happy to see what the visitors’ cars look like, heheh.

Anyway, I’ve compiled a set of pictures in the gallery.