Automobiles

[Saab2000]

VW has announced a wagon version of the Arteon, but naturally it won't be coming to the US. The Arteon in sedan form is itself kind of interesting as a wagon substitute due to its liftback construction. I sat in one at the dealer and it's better looking in person than in pictures and with the rear seat folded the space is cavernous.

Unfortunately it's also pretty expensive, so not really a budget buster Audi substitute. It absolutely encroaches on Audi-like prices, though it's bigger than the A5 and therefore more useful. But it's almost $50K kitted out nicely.

[AngryScientist]

wow, that wagon looks great.

[sk_tle]

We have a few years old base model Golf Wagen that we got basically for free as a trade form our similar TDI. My biggest gripe is it's auto versus our old manual.
Half working on my wife to swap it for a manual Alltrack before they go away. Not seriously though, but I'd rather we owned AWD and stick for the next ten years than our base model auto.

How do you guys manage switching from stick to auto? I hace only owned stick and everytime I get to drive an auto, which is very rarely, my left foot muscle memory always makes me slam the brake pedal when coming to a stop at a light. I have to focus a lot on not doing it but I always eventually do it in a ride. I guess I should left foot brake when driving an auto.

[Lionel]

I hace only owned stick and everytime I get to drive an auto,

That's the issue

[Saab2000]

How do you guys manage switching from stick to auto? I hace only owned stick and everytime I get to drive an auto, which is very rarely, my left foot muscle memory always makes me slam the brake pedal when coming to a stop at a light. I have to focus a lot on not doing it but I always eventually do it in a ride. I guess I should left foot brake when driving an auto.

There have been times I reached for the shifter in my automatic car and I’ve even caught myself moving my left foot for the clutch.

About once a year I reach down to shift the down tube shifter on my bike even though I haven’t used one regularly in more than a decade. Some times I try to shift my Shimano with the Campagnolo Mickey Mouse ear shifter. I’ve even reached down to loosen a toe strap that I haven’t used in 20+ years. Muscle memory is a funny thing.

[rwsaunders]

Well if I had money
Tell you what I'd do
I'd go downtown and buy a mercury or two
Crazy 'bout a mercury
Lord I'm crazy bout a mercury
I'm gonna buy me a mercury
And cruise it up and down the road

[Scott G.]

Muscle memory is a funny thing.

Brother in Law Nick, tries to pull the collective on his car.
Maybe Bell stole the first collective lever out of an Subaru ?

[72gmc]

I'm gonna buy me a mercury
And cruise it up and down the road

For a good shade of yellow, look at old cars and trucks.

[NYCfixie]

BMW now charges customers a subscription fee to use features already installed in the car?

[j44ke]

Still time to get your bid in on this nice blue Buick Invicta to benefit the Roeliff-Jansen Community Library (our local resource.) Auction house is the same one that does the bicycle swap meet in Copake NY every year. July 25th is the auction date.

1962 Buick Invicta to sell July 25 for Roeliff Jansen Library – COPAKE AUCTION INC.

[rwsaunders]

I had a 1973 Olds 98 in silver, with a Rocket 455 as my “mill car”. Full power everything, fender skirts, burgundy velour interior with matching burgundy vinyl roof. I bought it used for $300 in 1979 as I had to drive an American car for my job in a coke plant and I gifted it to my brother in 1986, when he was at Kent State. It was abandoned somewhere in Ohio after he graduated, but I guarantee that the engine was still running. It ate starters, though.

[lumpy]

In the spring of 1987, when I was a college freshman, I paid $200.00 for a 1963 Buick LeSabre sedan, like the above blue example with a few detail changes. Had the same Wildcat 445, which is a torque figure - it's a nailhead 401. The transmission was a Dynaflow, which has little stators to change the effective gearing, so you never feel it shift. But the downside was it wouldn't burn rubber despite all the torque.

It ate starters, too - the springs had settled, so the car sat real low, and the lowest point on the car was the ring gear and a bunch of teeth were broken off - you could see the housing was all chewed up, and the problem only got worse as I'd drive it up to the state forests and national forests to ride bikes and climb. When the starter was on a spot without teeth, I'd have to get out and turn the motor over by hand to get it to a spot where the starter motor could get a grip. No joke with a high-compression 401.

The other peculiarity was that a previous owner had hit a deer on the driver's side, and so the sheet metal was all bent up and there was only one headlight on that side. I swear it must have made a sound with exactly the opposite effect of a deer whistle, a sort of come-hither whistle, because it seemed like every time I made a long drive, another deer would obliterate itself. Most spectacularly, I had a full car going down the coast road to Santa Cruz late at night, and a big buck launched off a steep bank and we hit it hard enough to spin the car, covering the whole front of the car and the ski rack with gore and hair and necessitating pulling the fender sheet metal away from the tire with, to start, a comealong tied to a telephone pole, and once we got impatient, with the car's momentum.

I drove it home to New England over the summer, and back for the fall. Both trips were a lot of work - tires were bad, shocks were done, car was wandery, no a/c. Probably not the most responsible thing I ever did.

It also did not have any keys, you just turned the switch to turn it on, and you couldn't lock the doors. If I had known anything, I would have taken the lock cylinder to a locksmith and gotten a new key made, but I didn't know anything.

By the fall of '88 it needed lots of work, and the prospect of getting the flywheel off, sweating off the ring gear, finding a new ring gear, etc. was deeply unappealing. Particularly because it was a grubby, leaky, sinister looking car and chicks emphatically did not dig it. So I sold it to a guy who offered be $80, mostly in two-dollar bills. Before long, it was stolen and totalled.

In conclusion, I will not be bidding on the blue one. Thank you.

[rwsaunders]

Not your run of the mill 1949 Triumph 2000...parked outside the coffee shop/departure point this morning. My man Vince has always has a trick car or two, or three, or four up his sleeve...usually a Porsche. PS, he also has a matching right hand drive model in his garage.

[lumpy]

Is that the tastiest column shifter ever? All signs point to yes.

[rwsaunders]

Is that the tastiest column shifter ever? All signs point to yes.

PS...the glass that you see on the panel behind the cockpit is a fold up windscreen for the rumble seat...not kidding.

[robin3mj]

New Bronco turned out better than I'd expected.

[Matthew Strongin]

New Bronco turned out better than I'd expected.

Sure did! And it's available in a manual!!!

[Lionel]

Looks like the new defender from this angle.

[Saab2000]

Looks like the new defender from this angle.

I'm really liking the new Defender and wondering how quality and durability will be over time. We hear stories about Land Rover reliability.....

[robin3mj]

Sure did! And it's available in a manual!!!

4-door base, with manual looks like a fun get around vehicle.
Top and doors come off - maybe easier than on the Wrangler.