Car lovers?

EverythingsTentative wrote:
Gravey wrote:
EverythingsTentative wrote:

I don't know if you have considered a wagon instead of a small SUV

That's the story of the whole continent of North America.

These things are what ruined wagon's for Americans...

I would so drive the first two wagons!

I don't know if you have considered an F1 car instead of a small SUV, but Manor is selling four of their cars now.

Gravey wrote:

I don't know if you have considered an F1 car instead of a small SUV, but Manor is selling four of their cars now.

Well I suppose I could live in it ...

I've had a Range Rover Sport (supercharged) for 10 years. Despite very low mileage - only 19,000 - I have had a series of problems with it:

- the paint is peeling on the roof
- the alarm goes off randomly unless you really slam the doors
- I had to repair the suspension to the tune of $3,000
- the spare wheel mechanism rusted shut and had to be replaced.

Hard to recommend it.

I'll be replacing it next year and am thinking about an Audi Q5 - I don't really need something as large as the Q7. I have an R8 and am very impressed with Audi's quality and luxury feel. Very happy with my local shop as well - they're a bunch a car people. My mechanic used to be a professional rally driver in Finland

Moggy wrote:

I've had a Range Rover Sport (supercharged) for 10 years. Despite very low mileage - only 19,000 - I have had a series of problems with it:

- the paint is peeling on the roof
- the alarm goes off randomly unless you really slam the doors
- I had to repair the suspension to the tune of $3,000
- the spare wheel mechanism rusted shut and had to be replaced.

Hard to recommend it.

I'll be replacing it next year and am thinking about an Audi Q5 - I don't really need something as large as the Q7. I have an R8 and am very impressed with Audi's quality and luxury feel. Very happy with my local shop as well - they're a bunch a car people. My mechanic used to be a professional rally driver in Finland :-)

Maybe I'm reading a bit between the lines here, but I believe the consensus is now that Glanton should get an R8.

Or that I should buy a man from Finland.

Gravey wrote:

Well they've been missing out!

IMAGE(https://jjizzle.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/volvo_855_btcc_lammers_big.jpg)

This was the wagon that ignited something in me.

IMAGE(http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll120/MrDeVil_909/Audi_RS2_zpsaj2quwrd.jpg)

I'd take one of these:

IMAGE(http://photos.ecarlist.com/0m/1U/yf/3J/4g/lB/fg/Tm/Ij/QX/4g_640.jpg)

So interesting experiment from the last few days: I have about a 15 minute drive to work, and between the drive and actually being on our campus, I'm probably seeing 10 to 15 cars that don't have dealerships within a one hour drive of here (Volvo, Infiniti, Porsche, Range Rover, Jag, Volvo and Porsche being 1 hour and the others about 2). This town's population is probably about 150K.

I agree that it would be a large hassle--and a big problem if something serious goes wrong--but a lot more people are doing it here than I had realized.

I replied to this earlier, but don't see it.

MannishBoy wrote:

I'd take one of these:

IMAGE(http://photos.ecarlist.com/0m/1U/yf/3J/4g/lB/fg/Tm/Ij/QX/4g_640.jpg)

A guy from our local Caffeine and Gasoline has this wagon in red.

I saw it on the cruise night for sale a month or so ago.

My coworker drives this slick E63 AMG Wagon:
IMAGE(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18735195/Images/vehicles/E63%20AMG.jpg)

-BEP

Ignore

bepnewt wrote:

My coworker drives this slick E63 AMG Wagon:
IMAGE(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18735195/Images/vehicles/E63%20AMG.jpg)

-BEP

Someone in my neighborhood drives one of those in red. It's an old dude who wears pastel polo shirts and babies the heck out of it. I keep telling him, if he needs someone to hoon it he knows where to find me.

Counting down to the first major races of the 2016 racing season!

This coming weekend:

And then a week later:

Season's already started!

IMAGE(https://j.gifs.com/ER00Gv.gif)

Sno*Drift is this weekend!

Gravey wrote:

Season's already started!

I knew someone would point that out. Maybe this will be the year I get back to watching WRC.

LupusUmbrus wrote:

I knew someone would point that out. Maybe this will be the year I get back to watching WRC.

There was a 20% off promo code (WRC2016) for WRC+, but I don't see it advertised anymore so maybe it's expired. Redbull.tv also had the one-hour highlights shows for free, but there's nothing up for this season yet.

So this is actually the best 2016 racing video:

Evo wrote:

Sno*Drift is this weekend!

Maybe this year I'll finally remember to watch Launch Control.

Gravey wrote:

Maybe this year I'll finally remember to watch Launch Control.

Launch Control is archived on Youtube. The only way I know how to watch it. Still has the same monotone narrator, though.

Looks like I get to put another $x00 into my current car, as I've got a vibration/noise from the rear wheels again (I'm suspecting another wheel bearing), and my check engine light also decided it would be a perfect time to put me on notice.

So all the station wagon posts in the last couple of pages have been kind of intriguing -- I have a 10 year old Subaru wagon with a bit over 100000 miles on it -- since I'm leaning toward getting another wagon of some sort. And lower to the ground doesn't bother me, because it means I'll actually be able to put things on top of the car without assistance...

I was checking out the features of the newer Outbacks on the local dealer pages, and checking out the interior photos. I noticed that the parking brake seems to be nonexistent, and see that it's an all-electronic pushbutton system now. I'm not well versed in the technology of current cars, but this struck me as a potentially troublesome (e.g. as likely to fail as the system it's supposed to be backing up) way to design an emergency system. Am I missing something? Are my instincts overreacting because the car I had before this one ended up with leaky brake lines?

Leaking brake lines is poor workmanship more than anything else.

As for EPBs, they're pretty settled as far as technical merit and reliability goes. In a lot of ways, they're really superior to manual PBs, since there's zero risk of them being under or overengaged.

I'm feeling very lost. What's the difference between a manual pushbutton and an electronic pushbutton?

Katy wrote:

So all the station wagon posts in the last couple of pages have been kind of intriguing -- I have a 10 year old Subaru wagon with a bit over 100000 miles on it -- since I'm leaning toward getting another wagon of some sort. And lower to the ground doesn't bother me, because it means I'll actually be able to put things on top of the car without assistance...

I was checking out the features of the newer Outbacks on the local dealer pages, and checking out the interior photos. I noticed that the parking brake seems to be nonexistent, and see that it's an all-electronic pushbutton system now. I'm not well versed in the technology of current cars, but this struck me as a potentially troublesome (e.g. as likely to fail as the system it's supposed to be backing up) way to design an emergency system. Am I missing something? Are my instincts overreacting because the car I had before this one ended up with leaky brake lines?

As someone who is 6'4" and owns a newer outback, I wouldn't count on being able to put things on top easily.

As for the parking brake being electronic, my experience has been that it's much easier to use. It gives you a nice hill-holder option, too. It auto turns off when you try to drive the car with your seatbelt on. It can be turned on while driving in case of normal brake failure, etc. Not too different than the old center pull e-brake. And it, like older e-brake systems, don't use the pneumatic lines, so leaky brake lines should have nothing to do with the e-brake/parking-brake.

My current car has a lever to pull to activate the emergency brake, which is presumably attached fairly directly to a cable that activates the brake (a mechanical connection). As opposed to a button that closes an electrical circuit that activates a servo of some sort to activate the brakes.

As for the brake lines, that was as much a factor of living in the rust belt, and having an older car that was just starting to have parts wear out. I expect rust / road salt / dried out rubber may all have been contributing factors.

I guess I'm also wondering how it works in the situations I've wanted the an emergency brake: engaging it after the car is off when parking on a hill; in an emergency when my other brakes have failed (only time that's ever happened was those brake lines. And the fake situation in driver's ed where the instructor reached over and turned the car off on an isolated hill so I could practice "put car into neutral and engage parking brake to stop it"); and, in my current car, "engage parking brake partway to turn off the daytime running lights when parking at the observatory, so as not to disturb the astronomers".

But how do you pull awesome j turns without a manual brake?

Dakuna wrote:

I'm feeling very lost. What's the difference between a manual pushbutton and an electronic pushbutton?

Parking brake.

AnimeJ wrote:
Dakuna wrote:

I'm feeling very lost. What's the difference between a manual pushbutton and an electronic pushbutton?

Parking brake.

I am not the smart

Katy wrote:

I guess I'm also wondering how it works in the situations I've wanted the an emergency brake: engaging it after the car is off when parking on a hill; in an emergency when my other brakes have failed (only time that's ever happened was those brake lines. And the fake situation in driver's ed where the instructor reached over and turned the car off on an isolated hill so I could practice "put car into neutral and engage parking brake to stop it"); and, in my current car, "engage parking brake partway to turn off the daytime running lights when parking at the observatory, so as not to disturb the astronomers".

As far as I know, you can engage the electronic e-brake after the car is off. I seem to recall using it like that and not having a problem. You can engage it while the car is moving, you just have to hold the button in and it'll turn on as if you pulled of the center brake on an older car.

You might be screwed on the last one. There is no way to "kinda" put it on. You would have to put a DRL kill switch in to let you run without DRLs to avoid that issue.

Thems the brakes.

Most vehicles with DRLs have a manual off switch now, or at least any vehicle I've driven with them in the last decade or so has.