Automobiles

[Eddie]

Very nice. Is your 08 a 6-spd? Shame that in 09, the newest body style, the dropped the 6-spd. My two chief complaints, no good diesel wagon options and no manual transmissions.. Only one, Jetta.

Well, it's the 6-speed auto with Tiptronic, but I'm guessing you meant the 6-speed manual? We could have gotten a manual (the dealer in Nyack had lots of these things rolling in off lease), but decided it wasn't the best option for the lady. My truck is a 5-speed manual, which is fun.

Yeah, it's frustrating in that they have many, many more configurations offered in other parts of the world, and only import a select set for the US market. None of the AWD VW's or Diesel Audi's are available over here, presumably so that the two brands aren't competing with one another. Bummer. An AWD diesel Jetta would kill. Actually make that a Skoda and it would be perfect. There's also the A4 Allroad, which I don't believe is coming over (not yet anyway). One of the dealer managers was driving one because they specal-ordered it and couldn't manage to sell it.

The Tiptronic is a sweet feature, esp. with the paddle shifters. Really got to put it to the test when we descended Red Lodge Pass in MT, engine braking with the paddle shifters, and topped out around 100. Holy freaking fun.

BTW we have a B7 and the '09-on are the B8. I've been misstating that all along.

[Ben]

Just to follow up on my earlier post about my new F-150 with the EcoBoost V6: I have about 3,000 miles on the truck now and am more impressed now that when I initially bought the thing. Fit and finish are great. Mileage is not as good as one might have hoped, but all of my highway miles have come driving I-26 through the mountains of East Tennessee/Western North Carolina at 80mph, so that's not such a huge surprise.

The real shock is the performance of the thing. The advertised 365 BHP/420 Ft-pouds of torque is not a joke -- this truck will absolutely fly. My folks have the new 412 BHP Mustang GT, and the kick-in-the-ass feeling you get running the two wide open is very, very similar. Bristol Motor Speedway has a Speedway-in-Lights thing where they festoon the entire track grounds in about a billion Christmas lights and you can drive around and ooh and ahh. Part of the route runs down the adjacent dragstrip -- and like any self-respecting southern boy I let a little gap form in the line in front of me and let 'er rip. My 4x4 truck with four passengers and a cooler full of Shiner Christmas Cheer hit 85mph before I shut it down.

The handling is even more impressive. I have the 20" wheels with Pirelli Scorpions which I'm sure help, but driving this thing is a kind of fun that I've never had in any of the trucks I've ever owned. Well-balanced (if anything it understeers, which I think is hilarious) and shockingly little body roll. It's like a giant, heavy sports car, if that makes any sense at all.

Oh, and it's sitting outside my office right now with my 56cm bike standing up in the backseat with both wheels and the saddle still attached. Not to mention my weekend bag, a banker's box full of documents, and a 20-pound box of tangelos. Let's see your Fit do that. :)

[Jason Musgrave]

yeah, I'm excited about it, and it's been fun to work on.

You work for Subaru??

[nahtnoj]

Just to follow up on my earlier post about my new F-150 with the EcoBoost V6: I have about 3,000 miles on the truck now and am more impressed now that when I initially bought the thing. Fit and finish are great. Mileage is not as good as one might have hoped, but all of my highway miles have come driving I-26 through the mountains of East Tennessee/Western North Carolina at 80mph, so that's not such a huge surprise.

The real shock is the performance of the thing. The advertised 365 BHP/420 Ft-pouds of torque is not a joke -- this truck will absolutely fly. My folks have the new 412 BHP Mustang GT, and the kick-in-the-ass feeling you get running the two wide open is very, very similar. Bristol Motor Speedway has a Speedway-in-Lights thing where they festoon the entire track grounds in about a billion Christmas lights and you can drive around and ooh and ahh. Part of the route runs down the adjacent dragstrip -- and like any self-respecting southern boy I let a little gap form in the line in front of me and let 'er rip. My 4x4 truck with four passengers and a cooler full of Shiner Christmas Cheer hit 85mph before I shut it down.

The handling is even more impressive. I have the 20" wheels with Pirelli Scorpions which I'm sure help, but driving this thing is a kind of fun that I've never had in any of the trucks I've ever owned. Well-balanced (if anything it understeers, which I think is hilarious) and shockingly little body roll. It's like a giant, heavy sports car, if that makes any sense at all.

Oh, and it's sitting outside my office right now with my 56cm bike standing up in the backseat with both wheels and the saddle still attached. Not to mention my weekend bag, a banker's box full of documents, and a 20-pound box of tangelos. Let's see your Fit do that. :)

Sounds cool. I want a truck, but more in the EddieB vein.

Also, the only difference between your truck and the Fit is the front wheel being attached....

[jitahs]

Oh, and it's sitting outside my office right now with my 56cm bike standing up in the backseat with both wheels and the saddle still attached. Not to mention my weekend bag, a banker's box full of documents, and a 20-pound box of tangelos. Let's see your Fit do that. :)

Huh. My bicycle can do that.

BRZ - they're like hot hatches of the early nineties, but grown up. That said 2700+ lbs. is a bit heavy for this ilk. My major complaint w/all modern "sports" cars is they're laden with too much unctuous interference, like early iterations of carbo-bikes.

[rmplum]

You work for Subaru??

Hai. はい

[Ben]

Sounds cool. I want a truck, but more in the EddieB vein.

Also, the only difference between your truck and the Fit is the front wheel being attached....

Leave it to VSers to say that "the only difference" between a 2,500-pound import subcompact and a 5,600-pound domestic full-size pickup is whether you have to take off the front wheel before putting the bike inside. ;)

[davids]

Oh, and it's sitting outside my office right now with my 56cm bike standing up in the backseat with both wheels and the saddle still attached. Not to mention my weekend bag, a banker's box full of documents, and a 20-pound box of tangelos. Let's see your Fit do that. :)

Yeah, I have to take the front wheels off to do that.

Oh, wait - you said just one bike?

[Jacques]

I bought my first car a few months ago at age 25. Fixed a bad ground to get the fan blowin', new mirror for $20, got the radio code. Boom! best $1000 ever spent. Only got 150 000km on it and it'll do a thousand on a single tank of gas. Fits two bikes without moving the back seat. I'm in love.

[Auk]

E34 BMW touring. An absolutely unbreakable car. Sitting with 323k miles on it and it just demands that you change the oil and feed it fuel. A water pump R&R takes under 45 minutes and can be done on the side of the road if need be. Have been swearing for the last two years that I'd do a 5-speed swap into it to correct the blindness that BMW had when they didn't send the tourings to the states with it. Do a susupesion, add some bigger wheels, and the looks improve.

Mine's hauled five people, five bikes (3 up top, two out back on a Saris Ride-On) extra wheels, and more gear bags that any of us actually used for the weekend.

[Philster]

This is what I've been day dreaming about:

Renegade Hybrids

One of Porsche's best handling cars ever (the 944) with an aluminum GM V8.

[caleb]

Here's the bottom line up front: Can I drive an Xterra without looking like a douche?

The backstory is that my wife and I moved out to a little lake in the country and our new house is a half mile from the public road. Our community association is supposed to handle plowing in the winter, but they don't specify a guaranteed timeline. That's a problem because sometime my wife needs to be at work on a pretty strict schedule. The simplest solution is to just buy a four wheel drive. While I'd enjoy a diesel F250 (mentioned many pages ago), the enclosed/heated back end of an SUV would be more useful to me than a truck bed. My only requirements are that it have (a) 8"+ of ground clearance, and (b) be cheap so I don't have to care about it. A locking differential would be nice, but it's not necessary - chains will get me out as long as I can clear the snow. We're only going to be here a year or two, so I'm not going to invest in anything nice.

Two vehicles hit both points, a Nissan Xterra and a Mistubishi Montero. Both are cheap Asian pieces of crap that nobody wants on the used market, and both have serious clearance. The Xterra is cheaper, so I suggested it to my wife. Her response, "You know that character Andy in The Office? He drives an Xterra."

So... is an Xterra a vehicle that just can't be driven with a shred of dignity? Or, does that stereotype only apply to the yellow ones?

[rmplum]

Here's the bottom line up front: Can I drive an Xterra without looking like a douche?

Just make sure you get the Xterra SE model, and before you do anything, move the SE from the back of the badge to the front. Then put some Austin Powers stickers on it. Douche problem solved.
(we did this to a friend's Xterra without his knowledge - took him about a week to notice, and he just left it like that, enjoying the joke)


On a serious note, the 1st gen Xterra was pretty crude, if that's the model you are looking at (cheapo on the used market). But it will get you from point A to point B with plenty of ground clearance.

[chasea]

So... is an Xterra a vehicle that just can't be driven with a shred of dignity? Or, does that stereotype only apply to the yellow ones?

Mmmm. Buy something older and cheaper and spend the rest in repairs. Or take the douche hit, bro.

[Jason Musgrave]

um... did you just say xterra ---- hahahaha

What about an older 4-Runner or a Subaru.

Edit: Tacoma?


Or you could buy my Land Cruiser. It'll get you anywhere with supreme reliability and be worth more when you go to sell it in 2 years than it is now. ;-)

[sjauch]

Wow, what's wrong with the Xterra?? I leased one for 3 years and it was great. Kinda wish I bought it.

[davids]

Caleb,

I mean this in the nicest possible way: Get over it.

I drove a 99 Mercury Sable Wagon for a number of years and, honestly, it was kinda fun. Despite the (cracked) leather and automatic climate control, the thing was simply a mule - it was freeing not to care about image projected by the vehicle I was driving. As long as it started up, was reasonably reliable and hauled our stuff around, it kept its place in the driveway.

You hop behind the wheel of this for a few years and you begin to get your ego reinforcement elsewhere:



If an Xterra makes sense for your needs, get it.

[Eddie]

Caleb, it's not what you drive, it's how you drive it. Don't wash it, rag the shit out of it, embrace dents and scratches, and show up like that and don't care.

[caleb]

Caleb,

I mean this in the nicest possible way: Get over it.

I drove a 99 Mercury Sable Wagon for a number of years and, honestly, it was kinda fun. Despite the (cracked) leather and automatic climate control, the thing was simply a mule - it was freeing not to care about image projected by the vehicle I was driving. As long as it started up, was reasonably reliable and hauled our stuff around, it kept its place in the driveway.

You hop behind the wheel of this for a few years and you begin to get your ego reinforcement elsewhere:



If an Xterra makes sense for your needs, get it.

You're not going to believe it, but if I didn't need four wheel drive right now I'd be interested in a Taurus, Sable, or Ford Focus wagon. Driving one of those it's clear you don't care about your car, they're cheap, and they're really useful.

An Xterra is more risky. It's a piece of crap car along the same lines as that Sable, but not everyone got that memo. I just don't want to do the 4x4 equivalent of driving a Honda Civic with pipes and ground effects.

[caleb]

Or you could buy my Land Cruiser. It'll get you anywhere with supreme reliability and be worth more when you go to sell it in 2 years than it is now. ;-)

Long ago I think I said I want your Land Cruiser. Are you actually selling it now? If so, fire me a PM.