Car lovers?

Ugh. Glad she's okay, and glad that the replacement car may be better than the outgoing.

Yes, glad everyone is healthy! ! That is the scary.

After a couple of weeks of driving I'd be interested in hearing your compare of the X3 and GLC. I've looked at both of them in the past but never pulled the trigger. We did have an RX350 from that model range, very comfy but the tech was frustrating.

Neat video of Chris nerding out about a roomful of Porsche GT3s.

Winter Mode has been engaged.
IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/rdnWnDG/PXL-20201128-145126040-MP.jpg)

Winter Mode on my old Miata meant getting in the wife's Outback.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Welp, we are no longer X3 owners. My wife lost focus for a second last Friday, two days after we moved to a new house, and rear ended someone going about 30. In her defense she’s not familiar with the area and the roads were slick from snow earlier in the day. She was hard on herself but everyone was ok, which is most important of course.

Geico has been really good about the process, with friendly CS reps talking her through and making suggestions. We got a new car seat on them, and surprisingly their valuation of the car covers the remaining loan. So we were looking at a fresh start, albeit with higher premiums for her in the future.

I was never a huge fan of her picking the X3, to be honest. I felt like it didn’t have enough features for a premium brand, lacking lane keep assist, adaptive cruise control, blind spot monitoring, and automatic emergency braking. We took yesterday to cross shop some other cars, with another X3 as the fall back.

First we drove a (all 2017 models) MercedesGLC. I was really pleasantly impressed with it. The sport mode shifting is handled by paddles rather than the shifter, which I find preferable. The interior felt considerably more premium than her BMW, my Cadillac, even the Jaguar.

Second was a Lexus RX350. Comfy but bland. I liked their older designs better.

Third was a Cadillac XT5. My wife scratched it from the list because the acceleration felt sluggish. It was fine in sport mode, but she isn’t up for having to remember to switch modes.

Fourth was a Volvo XC40. I couldn’t stand the seats.

Last was a Range Rover Evoque. This was probably the runner up, but for me it was a bit too similar to the Jaguar, and the rear seating was too cramped.

We ended up going with the GLC. I’m pretty excited about it.

Glad she is ok. Tesla Model Y?

That's a better Winter Mode for sure.

My wife is working from home, thankfully, so on bad days I'll take her awd CX-5 if she doesn't need it.

r013nt0 wrote:

That's a better Winter Mode for sure.

My wife is working from home, thankfully, so on bad days I'll take her awd CX-5 if she doesn't need it.

I tried driving it in the first snow we had after I got it. Had all-season tires on it at the time.

I got about a street and a half away from home before it got stuck on a 1 degree incline. Abandoned it and walked home. Picked it up when the snow melted a couple days later

Which is to say - take it easy out there, man!

Thanks! I'll do my best.

These are full snow Blizzaks, and I had 'em on my 2017 RF and they did.. well enough. Of course, that car weighed ~150lbs more, so who knows how this will go.

Oh, one annoying and unexpected cost getting my winter set installed this year. Apparently the ND1 Miatas used indirect TPMS. They just went by expected rotations. The ND2 Miatas use sensors. So instead of having my winter swap be free, as it usually is, it was $350 to buy the sensors and pay for the installation.

Rude.

r013nt0 wrote:

Thanks! I'll do my best.

These are full snow Blizzaks, and I had 'em on my 2017 RF and they did.. well enough. Of course, that car weighed ~150lbs more, so who knows how this will go.

Oh, one annoying and unexpected cost getting my winter set installed this year. Apparently the ND1 Miatas used indirect TPMS. They just went by expected rotations. The ND2 Miatas use sensors. So instead of having my winter swap be free, as it usually is, it was $350 to buy the sensors and pay for the installation.

Rude.

I went with studded Winterforce on my NA, and it was great in the snow. An absolute blast to drive and never came anywhere near getting stuck. When I had my $1000 beater Mercedes that weighed north of 3000 lbs. and put about 220 hp through the rear wheels I had a similar experience. I through some hakkas on it and it was sure footed and never had a problem even in conditions that had lots of awd/4wd SUVs sliding into ditches. The only reason to slow much below normal dry road speeds was everyone else going slow.

Proper tires for the conditions >> more drive wheels.

Blizzaks are great for plowed roads, but be careful of snow because they are really an ice tire rather than a snow tire; they don't have big enough gaps in the tread to handle fluffy stuff as well as a more snow oriented tire will. They are certainly better than a "all season" (summer) tire though. I like to go with studded tires because it allows great traction both on ice and in snow (and they are allowed where I live). The Ice traction is probably the more important element for safety because black ice can catch you off guard, but I like to not have to worry about (and be able to play in) unplowed parking lots etc.

Yeah, studs are illegal here, unfortunately. And I live just outside of Chicago, so unplowed roads aren't really a problem. Also the lake effect snow we frequently get is super sticky when fresh and super icy when not.

My previous car was a 2015 Mustang GT with ~430hp and I had Blizzaks on that as well. It also did well enough. Better, unsurprisingly, than a lot of the people in the Subaru group I used to be a part of who left their dedicated summer tires on year round. /facepalm

The only real regret I've had after buying my 2016 Audi S4 a couple of years ago was that I didn't have Android Audio because the car was a year or so before that was added. It wasn't a show stopper because I could still run the AA interface on the phone screen. However, I had used it so much on my S8+ that I had burn in from the menu bar on the bottom of the phone screen, which tells you how much I used it for traffic routing on my commute.

I just bought and installed a $220 box from Amazon that gives me wireless AA and CarPlay. (Price has gone up since Black Friday). It intercepts the CAN bus and the video signal to the built in MMI system, and uses the controller dials and buttons to navigate the screen. They actually sell touch screen replacements up to 12", but they're more expensive and seemingly problematic if the forums are to be believed.

So if you think you're stuck with your car's built in radio that doesn't have a phone interface but still have a screen, you might have a path to getting CarPlay or Android Auto.

Nice! I installed a very similar box for CarPlay in my 2016 BMW. It works well, the biggest hassle was squeezing all of the wires back in since there wasn’t much space behind the dash. Recommended!

LeapingGnome wrote:

Nice! I installed a very similar box for CarPlay in my 2016 BMW. It works well, the biggest hassle was squeezing all of the wires back in since there wasn’t much space behind the dash. Recommended!

Oh yeah, I'd watched a video of a guy putting one in an RS5 (same basic platform, so dashes nearly identical), and he talked about how much room there was for the box behind the MMI. While there was a lot of room, the huge wire block that you have to put in the back that you hook the factory block into made it difficult. I didn't do good cable management the first couple of attempts after I had everything electronically working.

Ended up scraping up my hands pretty good.

MannishBoy wrote:

Ended up scraping up my hands pretty good. :)

This is the way.

mrtomaytohead wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:

Ended up scraping up my hands pretty good. :)

This is the way.

IMAGE(https://media.comicbook.com/2019/12/mudhornmandalorian-1201380.jpeg)

MannishBoy wrote:

The only real regret I've had after buying my 2016 Audi S4 a couple of years ago was that I didn't have Android Audio because the car was a year or so before that was added. It wasn't a show stopper because I could still run the AA interface on the phone screen. However, I had used it so much on my S8+ that I had burn in from the menu bar on the bottom of the phone screen, which tells you how much I used it for traffic routing on my commute.

I just bought and installed a $220 box from Amazon that gives me wireless AA and CarPlay. (Price has gone up since Black Friday). It intercepts the CAN bus and the video signal to the built in MMI system, and uses the controller dials and buttons to navigate the screen. They actually sell touch screen replacements up to 12", but they're more expensive and seemingly problematic if the forums are to be believed.

So if you think you're stuck with your car's built in radio that doesn't have a phone interface but still have a screen, you might have a path to getting CarPlay or Android Auto.

My plan for my 2015 GSW (mqb) with the MIB 1 is to swap in the MIB 2 that was available starting the next year. I know it is not entirely straight forward because content protection needs to be removed, coding needs to be done, and AA/ACP needs to be enabled, but it allows not only larger factory screens, but also will allow a later upgrade to the AID digital dash. If I wasn't looking to upgrade additional capabilities like that, something like this would be a great option.

mrtomaytohead wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:

Ended up scraping up my hands pretty good. :)

This is the way.

My experience with working on VAG products is that they often demand a blood sacrifice before resuming full function.

ElectricPi wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:

The only real regret I've had after buying my 2016 Audi S4 a couple of years ago was that I didn't have Android Audio because the car was a year or so before that was added. It wasn't a show stopper because I could still run the AA interface on the phone screen. However, I had used it so much on my S8+ that I had burn in from the menu bar on the bottom of the phone screen, which tells you how much I used it for traffic routing on my commute.

I just bought and installed a $220 box from Amazon that gives me wireless AA and CarPlay. (Price has gone up since Black Friday). It intercepts the CAN bus and the video signal to the built in MMI system, and uses the controller dials and buttons to navigate the screen. They actually sell touch screen replacements up to 12", but they're more expensive and seemingly problematic if the forums are to be believed.

So if you think you're stuck with your car's built in radio that doesn't have a phone interface but still have a screen, you might have a path to getting CarPlay or Android Auto.

My plan for my 2015 GSW (mqb) with the MIB 1 is to swap in the MIB 2 that was available starting the next year. I know it is not entirely straight forward because content protection needs to be removed, coding needs to be done, and AA/ACP needs to be enabled, but it allows not only larger factory screens, but also will allow a later upgrade to the AID digital dash. If I wasn't looking to upgrade additional capabilities like that, something like this would be a great option.

It would be nice to have a touch screen, etc. I don't really have the option, because my car is the last year of the B8.5 platform before they started selling B9's. So there is no "OEM" path forward.

Depending on how long I keep the car, some of these whole screen replacements like below might get the bugs worked out. I don't mind a few annoyances at $200, but I would at $800:

IMAGE(https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1905/1643/products/S2123Q5_2048x2048_f6974a0e-8d35-4fd3-81c2-84dc85468b2c_2048x2048.png)

fffuuuuuuu......

Finally got around to watching that... it’s a two door wagon? Or a $900k hot hatch?

New blood in the latest Gymkhana. Travis Pastrana (and family):

Well that was just completely bonkers!

And rad.

The look on Travis' face during the hairiest parts of it are priceless.

Jonman wrote:

The look on Travis' face during the hairiest parts of it are priceless.

Yeah, Ken Block looks like he's concentrating. Travis looks like a guy scaring himself and probably loving it.

As to the car, that wing is pretty cool. You've seen active arrow on hypercars, but this is part flight control.

MannishBoy wrote:

As to the car, that wing is pretty cool. You've seen active arrow on hypercars, but this is part flight control.

There's a few race series, including F1 that call it DRS - Drag Reduction System.

I dunno if I'd go as far as to call it active aero - that would suggest some kind of closed-loop control, managed by the system itself, as opposed to a driver-operated on/off switch. But I'm splitting hairs.

Jonman wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:

As to the car, that wing is pretty cool. You've seen active arrow on hypercars, but this is part flight control.

There's a few race series, including F1 that call it DRS - Drag Reduction System.

I dunno if I'd go as far as to call it active aero - that would suggest some kind of closed-loop control, managed by the system itself, as opposed to a driver-operated on/off switch. But I'm splitting hairs.

Understand about race cars, but this is "active" in that it's not in a static position. It's not automatic active, or computer controlled active, but it's still active.

And it's air attitude control in addition to surface braking.

MannishBoy wrote:

Understand about race cars, but this is "active" in that it's not in a static position. It's not automatic active, or computer controlled active, but it's still active.

And it's air attitude control in addition to surface braking.

You're not wrong, it's just that "active aero" has an accepted meaning that involves a control system constantly monitoring and modulating the aerodynamic surface.

A 1960s Cessna doesn't have active aero because the ailerons move when you push the stick to the side, for instance. A 787 does because the Gust Alleviation System moves the ailerons without pilot input to maintain commanded attitude.

Many modern sports cars have active aero. Both my current R8 and my prior Cayman S had a spoiler that would pop up over a certain speed and drop back down once you were going slower. Not always the same speed during acceleration and braking. On my R8 the spoiler pops up at 60 but doesn't drop back down until 30-40ish

Moggy wrote:

Many modern sports cars have active aero. Both my current R8 and my prior Cayman S had a spoiler that would pop up over a certain speed and drop back down once you were going slower. Not always the same speed during acceleration and braking. On my R8 the spoiler pops up at 60 but doesn't drop back down until 30-40ish

Right. Pop up spoilers are fairly common. But this is basically an air brake at full extension and functions to raise the nose of the car while in the air.

Reminds me more of the Bugatti air brake functionality.

The Mitsubishi 3000GT (GTO) VR-4 in the 90s had active aero, too. The Senna supposedly makes pretty amazing use of it, but certainly not amazing enough to offset how outrageously ugly the wing is on that car.