Your Other Cars?

[Ritter]

1999 silver Honda Civic. It can be tough to figure out which one is ours in a parking lot. Great mileage and nearing the 100,000 with nothing but normal maintenance, brakes and tires. It was our first new car.

2007 silver Honda CRV. So far, I love it. Decent mileage and quite comfortable for kid hauling duty. We downsized from a Honda Odyssey that was purchased by overcompensating new parents 4 years ago.

And the 1978 Westy, of course. Hoping to make it a weekend warrior one slow step at a time.

[twinfalls]

Because, I am the frog eater on service here ( and I like it ) I ought to report.

_Citroen 11 CV ( from dad ).
_Citroen ID19 ( DS19, with smaller engine ) (from dad ).
_Peugeot 204 break ( bought new, because I was stupid and needed space for my loved first son ).
_VW bus 10 seater, for fun. A blue one, second owner, about 1972.
_Fiat 850 Nekar, very used and very low cost. Fun to shuttle to work, and near killed me on a master brake cylinder failure.
_Golf Rabbit ( new in Boston 1976) A car that did move in the blizzard that jammed all other cars. Same later in Elmhurst Ill.
_VW 1974 Westy ( bought used from North Chicago 1977 )
_VW 1985 Golf GTI ( new in France )

Today, I maintain the Westy and the Golf.

All of my friends and relatives don't understand how I can keep such old stuff.
Agatha, a smart neice,of mine, told me: "Uncle, do you know, your car qualifies as an antique".
They are changing rules about the "antique car" status; But I wait to see clear things, with little care.

[twinfalls]

How come,
In the 70th you ran cars, totally enable about snow and ice.

Sure you had powefull pickup trucks, but no good when serious conditions occured.

I remember 1976 in the US: All cars and trucks stuck in winter storms. Because of rear drive and useless overpower.
Amazing to see: All was wrong.While the front wheel drive and low controlled power was the obvious answer.

Well, I was amazed to see people watching theirs landing on the moon, mostly enable to move their big cars for shopping.

Give me a Rabbit, and a buddy; No blizzard can stop us, on any US suburbia.

May be you've improved today; With cars that, match better, your road and weather conditions.


In winter cold areas: What cars do you use, nowdays.

[vwlover77]

Many, if not most, cars on American roads are front-wheel drive, even the American brands, so things are much better now. The high-end rear drive BMWs, Mercedes, and Lexus all have traction control. Of course, almost all trucks sold here are four-wheel-drive, as are many SUVs like the Explorer, etc.

The problem now is with drivers of four-wheel-drive SUVs and trucks that believe that four-wheel-drive suspends the laws of physics.

On a snowy, winter morning, these are the vehicles most likely to be seen spun out in the median of the interstate highways due to overconfident drivers.

One trend works against smaller front-wheel-drive cars, and that is the tendency of the manufacturers to install very wide tires (like my New Beetle with 205mm tires). Compared to the 155mm width on a Rabbit, it reduces the pressure per unit of area on the road, which makes the tires more likely to slide.

[hambone]

Twinfalls I'm like you, I hold on to everything until it's almost falling apart. Patch patch patch! It's not dead until it's dead.
Yeah Midwest winters are really hard on cars. Snow ice below zero salt more ice then you have holes in a 10 year car. I remember my dad spraying ether into the carb and cursing on a few frigid days. That familiar low battery slow crank...And then after it starts everything is really stiff and hard to turn.
Driving a Beetle at those near zero temps is a real adventure. Only a small defrosted porthole to peer thru the ice, speedometer sqealing like a mechanical rabbit, crust of salt on everything. But they sure handle nice in the snow.

[Sylvester]

Give me a Rabbit, and a buddy; No blizzard can stop us, on any US suburbia.

One of these days I am going to get a Wabbitt just to tinker with.

[twinfalls]

Give me a Rabbit, and a buddy; No blizzard can stop us, on any US suburbia.

One of these days I am going to get a Wabbitt just to tinker with.

This was about blizzard conditions in Elmhurst Ill or Belmont Mass.
The buddy, main act, is to go out of the car, when stuck, to add his weight on the front, sitting on the engine hood.
With skill; Things rarely ask for the snow showel, and or the buddy outing in the cold.

[justgimmecoffee]

my other car has half the engine and one less wheel..

[spiffy]

OOOOOO That one wins!!!

[Sylvester]

I agree! That is like Fonzie cool!



Aaaaaeeeeeee!