Car lovers?

When was the last time you had the tires balanced?

Yup-- checking the wheels for balance, and the alignment, would be my first thoughts.

Been a while, I supposed, but would that have a very sudden onset? Like this started two or three days ago and I went from going down the highway at like 70ish no problem to suddenly 60 feels awful.

Could be a pothole messed up the alignment, could be an old wheelweight fell off.

Experienced the same thing a few years ago when I had the tires rotated. Rebalancing solved the problem.

Me: My car starts to vibrate when I go above 60mph.
Mechanic: Don't go that fast.

Tires were my first thought as well. I had that problem once, and the tire had started to separate. Fortunately I wasn't far from a tire store.

Getting a shiny new Tiguan. Never should have strayed from VW to begin with. One week after handing a deposit to a Ford dealer, I haven't even had any specific car secured. Here, I walk into a VW dealership yesterday afternoon, and today the car, moved across half the state, is being prepped as we speak.

Gorilla.800.lbs wrote:

Getting a shiny new Tiguan. Never should have strayed from VW to begin with. One week after handing a deposit to a Ford dealer, I haven't even had any specific car secured. Here, I walk into a VW dealership yesterday afternoon, and today the car, moved across half the state, is being prepped as we speak.

Maybe you are looking for something they don't have on lot, but this baffles me. These dealerships should know most people want to be able to drive someting off the lot. Even on a special order they need to hurry up. The longer the sale waits the more time they have to reconsider.

PoderOmega wrote:
Gorilla.800.lbs wrote:

Getting a shiny new Tiguan. Never should have strayed from VW to begin with. One week after handing a deposit to a Ford dealer, I haven't even had any specific car secured. Here, I walk into a VW dealership yesterday afternoon, and today the car, moved across half the state, is being prepped as we speak.

Maybe you are looking for something they don't have on lot, but this baffles me. These dealerships should know most people want to be able to drive someting off the lot. Even on a special order they need to hurry up. The longer the sale waits the more time they have to reconsider.

I also though so, but looks like Ford dealeships are still stuck somewhere back in the 90s.

The first that I visited, the one closer to my town, had a bingo parlor vibe to it, and I got a quote so outrageous that I didn't even haggle -- just went to the next dealership on my list. There, things were a little bit more energetic, but it took the salesperson 2 days each time he tried to secure a swap for me at some other dealeships that had the model/config I was looking for. When I asked him why won't he phone them all 3 AT ONCE and see which one comes thru first, so that no time is wasted, I could hear the gears span in his head, followed by a stifled "Whoa!".

I now shop for price via phone. Dealers have an "Internet salesperson" who will give you their price on whatever configuration you're looking for.

So I look at cars at whatever locations are convenient to me, and then I call around to find the best price. I've save a few grand off of what I thought was a decent price by doing this.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

I now shop for price via phone. Dealers have an "Internet salesperson" who will give you their price on whatever configuration you're looking for.

So I look at cars at whatever locations are convenient to me, and then I call around to find the best price. I've save a few grand off of what I thought was a decent price by doing this.

We bought my wife's Mini through Costco, which basically works the same way, only Costco do the legwork. We got a quote from a dealer about 50 miles away. We took the quote to a closer dealer (the one we'd been working with to determine which model to get) and said match it and we'll buy from you just for the convenience. The manager of the dealership told us she couldn't get with $3,000 of our quote, so we bought from the dealer further away. Definitely worth a shot if you're a member.

Just drove a BRZ. That car is much, much more fun than I expected. It doesn't have the power or the gadgets, but it's a blast to shift.

Miashara wrote:

Just drove a BRZ. That car is much, much more fun than I expected. It doesn't have the power or the gadgets, but it's a blast to shift.

A feature in my eyes.

Anyone got any experience (good/bad) with Minis?

MudderFudder used to own two of them, and loved them. I'll let him know you're asking.

Cod wrote:

Anyone got any experience (good/bad) with Minis?

We've had one for a couple of years now. Mini Cooper S Clubman. It's my wife's car but I drive it when we're both in it.

It's been very reliable with only a couple of minor recalls - we've one outstanding on the sun visors - and one issue with the driver-side door sill that was fixed easily enough. Nice cars, if a little pricey for what you get. We have the Nav system, which I quite like. Certainly no worse than any other I've used and a lot better than most.

We got the Cooper S with an automatic transmission. After extensive test driving - including aggressive figure-of-eights in a large dirt overflow parking lot nearby - we decided that the 'S' was needed to make up for the loss of power the automatic. Plenty of space for two with baggage - the extra 9 inches helps - and the back seats are manageable for two adults. The passenger side suicide door really helps in getting in and out of the back.

My wife adores it and I'm very happy with it. I couldn't possibly "adore" any car and if I could, it would have to have at least 500 hp

Cod wrote:

Anyone got any experience (good/bad) with Minis?

I bought an 06 MINI after my deployment almost two years ago now. It's a blast to drive and gets solid gas milieage. Buy used and you can get a lot more car for your money.

Cod wrote:

Anyone got any experience (good/bad) with Minis?

I have a Cooper S. I like it quite a bit. It's a blast to drive and economical (MPG-wise). Maintenance is expensive and some colleagues with them have had some serious issues with theirs. Mine recently had two of the vacuum pipes in the turbo develop leaks. I'm still under warranty, but that would have been ~$1500 to repair.

All in all, it's great, though.

Having said that, I don't know that I'll keep it long.We're talking about having a kid soon and I'll probably trade it in for a family car for the wife. Then I'll get my MG fixed or something that is a daily driver.

Cod wrote:

Anyone got any experience (good/bad) with Minis?

I have a Cooper S Roadster and couldn't be more in love with it. It's fast, ridiculously fun, and gets pretty damned good gas mileage (30-35mpg) even though I drive it like an absolute maniac. The ride is a little rough due to Run-Flats and the sport suspension, but that's probably not an issue if you don't go for a performance model. No maintenance issues yet (I only have about 6000 miles on it, since I walk almost everywhere). My lifestyle is pretty well-suited to my little car, but someone with spawn running around might find it a bit cramped.

Another bonus of the Mini: if you want to try Autocross/Solo II, they are godlike on the track or parking lot.

Evo wrote:

Another bonus of the Mini: if you want to try Autocross/Solo II, they are godlike on the track or parking lot.

Except I've seen three of them boil their brake fluid during tracking. If you're going to track, upgrade your fluid to a racing fluid like Motul.

Moggy wrote:
Evo wrote:

Another bonus of the Mini: if you want to try Autocross/Solo II, they are godlike on the track or parking lot.

Except I've seen three of them boil their brake fluid during tracking. If you're going to track, upgrade your fluid to a racing fluid like Motul.

Won't have that problem doing a few 60 second runs on an autocross course, but, yeah, do track days in your daily driver at your own risk.

Moggy wrote:
Evo wrote:

Another bonus of the Mini: if you want to try Autocross/Solo II, they are godlike on the track or parking lot.

Except I've seen three of them boil their brake fluid during tracking. If you're going to track, upgrade your fluid to a racing fluid like Motul.

Honestly, if you're going to do some serious track day stuff, that's solid advice for just about any vehicle out there. But like Evo said, when you're doing Autocross/Solo, you're not getting much past 3rd gear and breaking isn't super heavy.

So a long while back I mentioned my boss at work got a '13 Camaro SS.

He'd already completely rebuilt the suspension, gotten a CAI, and done most of the exhaust. Well, he finally decided to go all out. Whipple supercharger, new cam, headers, you name it. They just put the supercharger on this morning, so it's a canned tune and not evened out yet, but... video.

IMAGE(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v282/Thin_J/th_CecilsCamaro.jpg)

I'm not sure what he's going to end up at, horsepower wise. It won't be Moggy's crazypants Audi (in that or any other way really :P), but it'll be pretty gross.

That sounds amazing.

Thin_J wrote:

So a long while back I mentioned my boss at work got a '13 Camaro SS.

He'd already completely rebuilt the suspension, gotten a CAI, and done most of the exhaust. Well, he finally decided to go all out. Whipple supercharger, new cam, headers, you name it. They just put the supercharger on this morning, so it's a canned tune and not evened out yet...

I guess he voided his warranty.

PRG013 wrote:

I guess he voided his warranty.

If you haven't you aren't doing it right.

Or you just have way more money than most people.

I was in need of something with a little more space after the new child came around. Thus began the search. I was originally after a sport wagon but in the end decided on a 2014 Mazda CX-5 GT. I am a few weeks in and still fascinated at how well this thing drives.

IMAGE(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-3E7sGMDmYTE/UcinlbxbVeI/AAAAAAAAD9Y/zdwPsQn75co/w499-h300-no/cx5front.jpg)
IMAGE(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-89i6NgY1ysQ/UcinlXVE2aI/AAAAAAAAD9c/xmPgToMp2yQ/w535-h289-no/cx5side.jpg)
IMAGE(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-od0slhqOSlc/UcinlQYDN-I/AAAAAAAAD9U/EtprXImF2dw/w495-h289-no/cx5back.jpg)

lancejt wrote:

I was in need of something with a little more space after the new child came around. Thus began the search. I was originally after a sport wagon but in the end decided on a 2014 Mazda CX-5 GT. I am a few weeks in and still fascinated at how well this thing drives.

IMAGE(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-3E7sGMDmYTE/UcinlbxbVeI/AAAAAAAAD9Y/zdwPsQn75co/w499-h300-no/cx5front.jpg)
IMAGE(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-89i6NgY1ysQ/UcinlXVE2aI/AAAAAAAAD9c/xmPgToMp2yQ/w535-h289-no/cx5side.jpg)
IMAGE(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-od0slhqOSlc/UcinlQYDN-I/AAAAAAAAD9U/EtprXImF2dw/w495-h289-no/cx5back.jpg)

How you like it? It's one of the cars on our list for the wife.

I'll be doing this in about two weeks. I'll be driving the Lamborghini Gallardo LP560 and the Ferrari F430 around Gingerman Raceway in Michigan. I will report back with pictures.