The "What Do you drive?" thread....

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Chip Chester

"its PAID For"

#1 attribute I'm looking for in a car. They all are, except the wife's Volvo v60, which is 3/4 paid-for.

Keeping the 2003 Suburban, at 120k miles it's barely broken in, but sadly rusty.
Still, with Quadrasteer, it's currently irreplaceable with a new ride.

Keeping 50+ year old Sunbeam Alpine.
Keeping 30 year old, 9000-mile Honda Pacific Coast (just got it...)
Keeping 20 year old, 90k-mile Lazy Daze Class C
Keeping 2005 Mini Convertible (54k-miles) until my wife wants some other cute car...

With you on that. So far every vehicle I own has been bought with the cash I had at the time, and no financing.

I seen that quadrasteer in the manual for my 02, and kinda wonder how it compares to the standard front steer of mine? Wonder if it reduces townig payload? Rust repair on burbans ain't fun... mine had got in a fender bender by it's previous owner and got a combined dent fix rust patch...all done with nothing but a crap ton of body filler and paint....2 winter's in it rusted under most of the previous crap work... removing the old BS and rust and rebuilding the missing parts with metal has been an interesting time consuming experiment...one I hope not to repeat on a utility ride.

I'm still driving the Lincoln too. She just turned 70K and celebrated by eating all her belts, and springing a leak in the lower steering/power brake hydraulic hoses....2/3 are still original since when the first sprung a leak it was such a pain to remove I decided not to open the other 2 cans of worms....1 definitely opened it's self...one day I gotta pour some money into that car and nicen it up.

[Chip Chester]

Towing payload is 9600 or 9800 lbs. vs. 10K with the 6.0L. I think the 8.1 was 12K. No Quadrasteer with the 8.1 due to torque limitations of the rear end. (Which is actually the Dana front end off some 4x4 truck, I was told.)

There are people who have transferred QS to a Savannah van of similar vintage, so "portability" would make things interesting.

It is certifiably great for towing maneuvering. Low speed and highway. That ad wasn't kidding...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0pbf4uNp3I

On the rust, I've got some new rocker panels for it, and a plan to re-engineer the inner rockers with something more structural, and tack the outer rockers on for 'looks', not structure. Things haven't sagged yet, so I'm hoping that addressing it this fall will work out. The new metal will be galvanized...

[freakaftr8]

I usually buy my cars broken, bent, or salvaged.. Fix 'em up myself. I cant stand financing.. The wife wants a new Escalade... Nope... Sorry babe.. Ill look used..

[MadMan]

Originally Posted by mr_rye89

I kind of have a phobia of new modern cars. Crossovers, Self driving, hybrid, all electric, CVTs, tiny displacement over stressed turbochaged 4 bangers, gas direct injection, dash tablets/infotainment, automatic transmissions......All stuff I don't want or need.

Automatic transmissions were not a problem at all... right up until they started making 8, 9, and 10 speed units. Even though the engineering is ok on those, they never seem to work right because a computer can't anticipate a driver's every move. With a 3 or 4 speed, it really didn't matter because they didn't have to shift every second.

CVTs are just misunderstood. Like any new tech. That, and getting parts can be impossible. So yeah, I wouldn't advise getting a CVT, just because parts are scarce and/or expensive!

Gas direct injection would be perfect if they could just vent the crankcase to the atmosphere instead of letting all that oil into the intake to get burnt onto the valves. Pity.

[mr_rye89]

With auto transmissions it's a driving preference thing, I just feel like they always shift at the wrong time. (notable exception is the later Ford CVPIs) For me driving feels wrong without the tactility of working a shifter lever and clutch. And yes there are very good auto transmissions out there that outlast most manual ones.

Also for small sports cars (like my NB Miata) auto transmissions are stupid. period. It's part of the driving experience for this type of vehicle. I don't think I would even buy a Corvette if it was auto, and yes the new midship 'vette is auto only, damn shame

To be fair about CVTs all the ones I've driven have been half-baked slip-o-matic jobs that are doomed to failure (coughNISSANcough).

And finally for the GDI solution, just run port injectors along with the direct ones to wash the crap off the intake valves

[Telecolor 3007]

Can driving a bicycle can be counted?
(it dosen't have a motor).

[Sandy G]

Sure-Why not ?!?

[bgadow]

Quick story: I had a few errands to run around town Sunday afternoon & decided to take my 70 year old Packard. I pulled into my last stop and this little kid comes riding up on his bicycle, maybe 5-6 years old. He was really excited, "Mister, mister, that's such a cute car!" He then said something to make all of us feel old:

"It must be from the NINETIES!"

[Electronic M]

Cringe...

I'd have replied nah, folks were riding buggies in the 1890's!

Some of my least favorite periods for cars of every make is the ~49-54 models that came once most makers finally ditched their pre-war designs. Most cars then if you removed all the chrome changed the grille and the lights and removed the extra bars in the middle of the front and side windows would be darn hard to distinguish from a 1990's car...

Many of the 62+ model cars also were kinda plain and boxy like 80's cars just with differences in chrome grille and lights.

There were some exceptions in both eras, but that has been my generalization for a while.

The finned era cars of the late 50's and the pre-war body styles (that got warmed over for a few years post-war) feel like the only cars not to have the same boring lines kept in cars of my time (as a child of the early 90's I saw plenty of 80's beaters still crawling the roads).

[Dude111]

Thanx for sharing everyone!!

[hi_volt]

Originally Posted by mr_rye89

With auto transmissions it's a driving preference thing, I just feel like they always shift at the wrong time. (notable exception is the later Ford CVPIs) For me driving feels wrong without the tactility of working a shifter lever and clutch. And yes there are very good auto transmissions out there that outlast most manual ones.

Also for small sports cars (like my NB Miata) auto transmissions are stupid. period. It's part of the driving experience for this type of vehicle. I don't think I would even buy a Corvette if it was auto, and yes the new midship 'vette is auto only, damn shame

I presently own six cars and none of them have automatic transmissions. All of the slushboxes I've tried to drive over the years continually hunt for the right gear, so I guess I just don't know how to drive an automatic.

Last year I test drove a car with an automatic and a turbocharger. To me, it was a bad combination. You hit the accelerator, the transmission downshifts, the engine RPMs pick up, the turbo spools up, and then the engine red-lines so you have to let up on the accelerator . I ended up buying the same model but with a 5 speed manual.

[Telecolor 3007]

Bad post

[MadMan]

Originally Posted by hi_volt

I presently own six cars and none of them have automatic transmissions. All of the slushboxes I've tried to drive over the years continually hunt for the right gear, so I guess I just don't know how to drive an automatic.

Last year I test drove a car with an automatic and a turbocharger. To me, it was a bad combination. You hit the accelerator, the transmission downshifts, the engine RPMs pick up, the turbo spools up, and then the engine red-lines so you have to let up on the accelerator . I ended up buying the same model but with a 5 speed manual.

That's kind of the nature of a turbocharged engine, though. It needs to rev high to produce power. If you drive at real low rpm all the time, you're not gonna get much power or efficiency.

[compu_85]

Originally Posted by hi_volt

You hit the accelerator, the transmission downshifts, the engine RPMs pick up, the turbo spools up, and then the engine red-lines so you have to let up on the accelerator .

Sounds herky-jerky

We've racked up 45,000 miles on our Tesla Model 3 since April last year. Only problem has been a failing air conditioning compressor (it didn't totally fail, it was getting noisy). Some back of the envelope math says it's lost about 5% of its original range... on par with other cars and if the trend continues to match it won't fall much more for the rest of the cars life.

-J

[bgadow]

I've been doing some dangerous daydreaming this week: my '51 Fordor is as close to a personal "daily driver" that I have since we downsized our fleet. If my wife has to go somewhere and I want to go out it has to be in the Ford. Well, it's at the mechanic right now getting some overdue love including a front-end rebuild, carb rebuild and, uh-oh, it seems it blew the head gasket between the middle 2 cylinders. (Meaning, it doesn't overheat but almost no compression on those 2 so it runs terrible.) With it out of service for a while, and winter weather fast approaching, I've been browsing Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist. Hmmm, wonder what $1000 (or so) will buy, sez I? Some tempting stuff in that price range: '81 Dodge Ram with a slant 6, auto and power windows (!), back brakes don't work. '95 Dakota 4wd with a bad transfer case, replacement sitting in the bed. AMC Eagle wagon (really!) that "needs front suspension work, parts included". A couple rusted out first-generation S-10's & some Rangers/Mazda's, all in running/driving condition. A '73 LeSabre sedan. I drove by the low-end used car lot just across the state line and spotted out of the corner of my eye what I thought was an R-body Chrysler (c.1979 "full size") but turned out to be a '75 or so Pontiac Grand Ville Brougham 4dr hardtop. Once among the most expensive cars Pontiac would sell you, today this one has degenerated into something close to what only a demo derby driver could love.

Will I really pull the trigger on one of these beasts? It would be easy enough to do: where I live you can very easily tag any of them as Historic and, with a phone call to your insurance agent, you're on the road...no inspection. (Safety First!) The dear Mrs. seemed skeptical, though she did kinda like that Buick (that was her second car). Time will tell!