Howdi [ Belgian 2000 Galant Estate inside]

[avander_be]

Hi all,

I bought a 2000 Galant Estate a couple of months ago and have been crawling the internet since then in order to learn more about it, that's the way I ended up here too by the way.

I owned several Honda's before this one but when I had to replace my 1994 Accord Aerodeck there was no roomy estate left in the Honda range ( except the brand new Tourer agreed but that's another financial story), so I started looking at other estates and finally bumped into the Galant.

I had been looking a while for a V6 with automatic gearbox but it was too hard to find with an acceptable milage so I settled for the entry 2.0l petrol engine (4G63) that came with an exceptionnaly low milage: 43.000km ( equals 26,719.0 miles).

I had all my Honda's converted to LPG and did it again ( oops) with the Galant!

Pictures are on their way, stay tuned.

Avander

[Nick Mann]

Welcome! Look forward to the pictures. Any plans for modifications?

[Kieran]

Yes, Welcome!

How well does the Galant run on LPG?

[Spirit]

Welcome to CVR-4 mate - look forward to seeing the pics :-b

[avander_be]

Yes, Welcome!

How well does the Galant run on LPG?

It's a bit early to say but so far it runs fine, I chose to install liquid injection LPG from Vialle which at the moment is THE top technology, plus a valve saver called Flashlube.

I don't know the price of LPG in the uk but here in Belgium it's 1/3 of the regular petrol price, on average use i spend about 10 to 15€ a week on LPG which you will agree is very acceptable :-D.

The LPG mod costed some 2350€ all in, at the actual pace i will be break-even in less than 18 months. It is my intent to keep this Galant as long as possible.

[avander_be]

Welcome! Look forward to the pictures. Any plans for modifications?

Hi Nick,

Just plans for the moment, if I compare the Galant with my 1994 Accord Aerodeck the first thing that need's to be enhanced would be to replace the stock suspension with a decent spring/shock lowering kit plus front strut bar.

If you have any suggestions on this subject i'm all ears.

[Nick Mann]

There are lots of good comments about the Eibach Pro setup. A search would probably reveal more detail.

The VR4 gets a strut bar as standard, and again I think a search will reveal part numbers and approximate costs.

Good luck!

[avander_be]

As promised I just uploaded the first bunch of images to my personal webspace ( this way I'm not flooding the forum and keeping control over the images can come in handy too).

Reading thru the post you know already this is a 2000 estate with the 4G63 engine and it has the automatic gearbox INVECS-II.

You may have seen the first one elsewhere since i'm proud of it and use it as my avatar on other forums. Ready to take the tour? Fasten seat belts, here we go!



It's not obvious but the colour is Trigger Mauve ( a kind of grey metallic with a drop of purple added), personnaly I hoped for a lot more purple...



I brought it to the car wash just before the shoot.





The 2000 model can easily be distinguished from 1997 models since it has clear blinkers and oval fog lamps.



Did i hear 'lower it'? Plenty of room here anyway... nothing dramatic intended though.



Rims are stock, tires are Bridgestone something sized 195/60 R15. No intent to change these for now, although i like rims with 5 large spokes better...



Let's take a look under the bonnet, everything is still neat under here, I was lucky to find it with just 43.000km ( +/- 26.000 miles). As you will see below there's something special in here...





No doubt, it's a Mitsu! :-b





The sun is still shining ( we're in Belgium after all ) so we have time to walk around the other side...







I'm definitely hooked on estate cars since i had to give up the 1989 and 1991 Honda Prelude :rolleyes: for the 1991 and 1994 Accord Aerodeck and now the Galant, trunk size is not enormous but still very nice...





As mentioned earlier i'm running the Galant on LPG,you can see here what the LPG tank is like, it takes up the spare tire room completely so the trunk stays clear for luggage et al.



A quick look at the central console with the tiptronic gearbox, sorry i didn't clean the interior ( look at the dust on the gearbox, yuk) so that's all for now...



Hope you enjoyed the tour and don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions.http://

[Brunty]

Nice work - I feel ashamed that I've only recently taken photos of my VR4 which I bought in November!

What are the doo-daas in the bottom left of the last photo?

Steve

[adam_shaw]

How do you find the Galant with the hand controls? [ I assume that's what they are]

I have a colleague here in Germany [wheelchair user] who is looking for an alternative to his Passat, and quite likes the Galant.

Nice pictures as well.

It used to be raining everytime I was in Brussels, now I'm there more frequently I have seen some sunshine.

Are you in Brussels or further south?

Cheers,

Adam

[avander_be]

many thanks for the comments, it was a nice occasion to try out my first digicam.

Brunty > you just won a price 'cause you're the first that noticed the portable hand controls i use to drive around since i also happen to 'drive' a wheelchair :rolleyes:.

In fact i bought these in the uk, you can see how it works here http://www.lynxcontrols.com/


adam_shaw > you're dead on, bingo!

I used this system on both my Prelude, both Accord Aerodeck and now the Galant, i think this is an excellent system, i like it better than all those rigid systems that have to stay on the car. Before i had to buy my car whithout even trying it, here i unscrew everything, put everything in place elsewhere and i'm off! There's only one backdraw i can find: it's not suitable for everyone, you need good upper body strength. Need i say that i can't wait to bolt these onto a VR4? :-b

I work in Brussels, just a the end of the E411 speedway but live further down towards Namur.

I've a rather small sport wheelchair so the Galant is ok, the chair goes as is in the back facing the road. When i'm on my own i put it on the passenger seat, i must admit that my 1994 Aerodeck was a bit roomier up front though.

regards.

[Brunty]

Brunty > you just won a price

Blankety Blank chequebook and pen for me then

I had a look at the website - having never really thought about hand controls before, I was surprised how simple this design actually is...neat solution.

Cheers

Steve

[triplexke]

hey avander, blij nog een belg te vinden op deze site Ik woon in knokke, en rij met een v6. zalige site hier, je kan er echt ALLES vinden! BTW, heb lidgeld betaald, en heb het me nog geen minuu beklaagd! welkom dus

Bonjour avander, je suis heureux de voire encore un belge ici! j'habite a knokke, et je roule un galant V6. Tu vas vraiment aimer ce site, tu peux trouver vraiment TOUT pour ta voiture ici! A propos, j'ai payé pour etre dans le club, j'ai pas encore eu aucun regret! bienvenu! (je m'excuse pour mon francais, je suis flamand, mais je fais mon mieux tu parles et ecris l'englais vraiment extraordinaire!)

Greetz, Tripke

[avander_be]

Hi Triplexke,

DUTCH MODE ON
Bedankt voor je reactie, ikzelf woon in de buurt van Namen en werk in Brussel, ben van vlaamse afkomst maar zat al vroeg op een franstalig internaat vandaar perfect tweetalig ( zoals alle Belgen ;-), ik werk in de informatica-sector waar engels dan weer de voertaal is... vandaar.
DUTCH MODE OFF

How did you get your hands on a V6, I have been looking for a V6 estate but no luck, i even considered buying one in germany but since the car's milage is not guaranteed over there... to risky for me.

Glad you like the CVR4 membership, i consider joining too but wat benefits are there being a paying member ( except choosing your own avatar...), i understand there's a members only forum also?

cu on CVR4.

[triplexke]

Well, first of all i was driving a bmw 316 before this one (it had the complete m3-kit, and i fell in love with it's exterior right away). However, i was NOT happy with the performance, so i started looking for upgrades, even considered a turbokit, and so on. Now a good friend of mine's father is a mitsubishi-dealer, and i visited him often for all upgrades and maintenance. He knew i was considering the turbokit, and then came up with the perfomance-sheats of a v6. He said you'll pay less buying one of these, than you'll pay for your turbokit. (selling the bmw and buying the v6, i only had to spend 1200 euro's, instead of 3500 for the turbokit). Good, that's the first and easy part of the story. Now he had me convinced, we had to find the car... To make it even a little harder, i only wanted a manual shift (the prefacelift model doesnt have tiptronic on its autoshift) . We had to search about a month and a half before we found one. We found it in Limburg, another
Mitsudealer had just bought it from a client. So it took us about two months to find the one we wanted. I have kind of bad news for you, during that two month-search i don't recall seeing any v6 estates... But as i am searching for another v6 saloon right now (a relative of mine who has fallen in love with my car, wants one too ), I will let you know as soon as i see a v6 estate, ok?

Now for your second question, I joined as a member for several reasons. First of all, i was so glad to have found a group of people sharing the love for their car just as i do, i felt i just had to jump in and become a member. Second, all the information you can find on this site, has saved me so much time, it would have easily costed me the 20 euros in electricity to find it all myself. Third, i reaaaaaaally wanted to have the clubstickers to put on my car, because (this may sound strange) i kind of fell in love with this site, and wanted to share it with other people. Fourth reason: i was really curious for the members-section, and i haven't been let down! you get discounts from several shops, you get all the possible info you could ever want, and if you have a questio, they'll really try to help you out as fast and good as possible.

I think that's about enough reasons to join in best 20 euros i spent last year

Hope this (too) long reply helped you out a little!

Groeten, Trip

[Kieran]

Now for your second question, I joined as a member for several reasons. First of all, i was so glad to have found a group of people sharing the love for their car just as i do, i felt i just had to jump in and become a member. Second, all the information you can find on this site, has saved me so much time, it would have easily costed me the 20 euros in electricity to find it all myself. Third, i reaaaaaaally wanted to have the clubstickers to put on my car, because (this may sound strange) i kind of fell in love with this site, and wanted to share it with other people. Fourth reason: i was really curious for the members-section, and i haven't been let down! you get discounts from several shops, you get all the possible info you could ever want, and if you have a questio, they'll really try to help you out as fast and good as possible.

I think that's about enough reasons to join in best 20 euros i spent last year

Hope this (too) long reply helped you out a little!

Groeten, Trip

:hurrah: :boing4:

I hope the other Club members in the UK have the same feeling of satisfaction when they read this post. It's really great to know that people in Europe and beyond also find this site and it's membership useful and worth the membership cost. Thanks fo your kind words Trip! :thumb1:

[triplexke]

straight from the heart mate

[Kieran]

straight from the heart mate

:beerclash

[Spirit]

:hurrah: :boing4:

I hope the other Club members in the UK have the same feeling of satisfaction when they read this post. It's really great to know that people in Europe and beyond also find this site and it's membership useful and worth the membership cost. Thanks fo your kind words Trip! :thumb1:

......what Kieran said !

There are also other things like group buys sometimes and of course merchandise.

[avander_be]

Well it looks as if you'll have to deal with two Belgian Galant owners from now on... i just did my thing thru PayPal! :-D