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PCjr sidecar posted:self-harm So I found an older car about an hour outside of Portland, Oregon What should I expect to pay a mechanic from a classic car shop to drive to the car, inspect it, drive back and give me the run down. That's what 3 hours labor? 3 hrs @ $150/hr = $450 plus tip is $500 cash? I am out of state what's the best way to handle cash for title
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Feb 24, 2022 06:20
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thepopmonster posted:Does anyone know if there is a good mechanic in or near Wilson/McManus/Norwood in LA? Looking at a 2nd hand 2012 cx9 with 180k on it (carpocalypse drives us to strange places) but it's 3+ hours from any mechanics I know are trustworthy and I somehow don't think the owner will let me take a 7 hour test drive.... suggest you ask in a relevant LAN thread, more likely to have someone local to you.
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Feb 25, 2022 02:25
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Oh yeah for those following along, this morning I got an email from Vroom, asking me for the paperwork. You know, the paperwork I sent them in December, which they also called me about last month. I called, and the person on the phone said they had already sent my registration to DMV, so that email must have been in error. I also begged them for the fourth time to renew my temporary registration, which expired Jan 26th, and which they told me twice would take 2-3 days. This afternoon, my California license plates arrived in the mail. LOL I don't have title in hand yet, but my ordeal is almost over! Do not buy a car from Vroom.
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Feb 25, 2022 02:27
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Leperflesh posted:Do not buy a car from Vroom.
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Feb 25, 2022 03:10
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its super funny that all the companies trying to disrupt the lovely dealer experience have made... lovely alternate experiences
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Feb 25, 2022 13:21
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How is Carvana?
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Feb 25, 2022 17:42
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A MIRACLE posted:How is Carvana? I used them last year to get a '14 VW Jetta SportsWagen TDI and it was painless. Even did the gimmicky vending machine for delivery.
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Feb 25, 2022 17:48
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A MIRACLE posted:How is Carvana? They confused my county treasurer's office with their paperwork, causing me to be out and extra $1300 for a couple of months while I got the extra tax refunded by the state. They also gave me a car with a garbage battery, but that was quickly remedied with no other issues to report.
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Feb 25, 2022 17:57
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Was chatting with my brother who just bought a new car and he was saying how much of a pain it was, so out of curiosity I had a look around myself, searching for random common cars at local dealers and man, wow, I know I'd read about "chip shortages" and stuff but no joke, dealerships around me had a big fat zero in stock of some real common popular cars I see every day. Obviously not at all the best time at all to buy a new or used car. The conversation with my brother though did kinda spur me to think about my own car situation, which does suck. I could use something different than what I have now. Given how tight the stock of cars are and how expensive used cars have become, it may not make sense for me to buy a car right now, but maybe at least I can start to think about what I should be looking for and start to do some exploring. Right now I'm driving a 1995 Jeep YJ which I somewhat impulse bought several years ago since I saw it for sale nearby and my car at the time was dying. It is actually a remarkably decent car for city driving around Vancouver, but lousy for road trips (bad on gas, loud af). It's slowly rusting away. I think it's going to be another "pandemic summer" around here in BC where I don't travel abroad and instead stay here and road trip around the province. Drive way out to the remote family cabin and fill the car with lots of stuff to be able to stay for a while. With that in mind I think it could be a good to find a car that is a lot more enjoyable on longer road trip drives, while still being good for compact city life. When I impulse bought the YJ I thought a nice upside would be that it would be great for getting to more remote camping spots, and it is, though I have to admit in practice over the few years I've owned this vehicle I've barely used it in a situation where a lifted 4x4 was required. I should be honest with myself here that with the style of camping I most often do (front country and mild back country) I probably don't need a 4x4. I can access a lot of camping in BC with a car that is simply decent on forest service dirt roads. Proposed Budget: Would be nice to be sub C$30,000 (US$23,500). Would be nice to be sub C$25k tbh, but seems like recent price inflation might make that hard. With road tripping in mind, I've basically only driven old dumpy af cars my whole life so it might be nice for a change to have something that's only a few years old and is actually kinda nice. New or Used: Either. Normally used, but seems like used are so expensive that weirdly new could make more sense (if one can find one). Body Style: Sensible 4 door hatchback seems to make sense to me. Maybe I could be convinced a small SUV could work? How will you be using the car?: I actually barely drive. Usually no need in dense Vancouver. I ride my bike to work or WFH. When I do drive around, a small compact car that is able to fit into small parallel parking spots is ideal. I've found that being able to fill the car with big stuff (ie. big hockey bags + small furniture) is very useful, which suggests at a hatchback. I've had a VW Golf in the past, which worked great. I'd like to be able to enjoy a road trip drive. In this category I think almost anything will be better than the Jeep YJ I have now. Being able to drive to the ski hill is useful. Maybe something with AWD makes sense? Or maybe it's good enough to simply buy snowtires. As mentioned before I think most of the sort of camping I go to is accessible by either paved roads or Forest Service Roads that are pretty decently maintained dirt roads. If I was to focus on this use case a bit more, something with higher road clearance could be useful, but I'm not sure if I need to focus on this. Kind of seems like I'm wanting to have my cake and eat it too if I'm asking for too many use cases here. Do you prefer a luxury vehicle with all the gizmos?) Doesn't really matter but it could be a differentiator between similar vehicles. Less tech is probably better. Quality over quantity. A really bad and unresponsive infotainment system will probably really piss me off. What aspects are most important to you? cheap, reliable and sensible is probably more important than razzle dazzle speed and features. The best intersection between load capacity, compactness and quality is probably the most important thing. (I live in Canada) Given all that I've said about how I use a car, it seems like maybe something like a Mazda 3 hatchback or maybe Subaru Impreza hatchback could make sense? The Subaru has AWD and more vague "good at outdoors" pedigree so maybe that's better for going to the ski hill and down dirt roads but I dunno if that's just branding bullshit with no basis in reality. Mazda seems to have had some issues with their radios being insanely messed up so maybe I need to be very precise about what year I'm looking at here if I get one of those. If I wanted to have a slightly better time on dirt roads while camping potentially there's some higher clearance small SUV that could make some sense? I really have no idea about that market. I kinda feel like I'd like a small hatchback would be best for the typical city use, but maybe there's some small suv that works well in that use case too. Thx for any thoughts folks have. Next steps for me I suppose would be to search around, maybe cold call dealers and get a feel for just how hard it is right now to get one of these vehicles before summer road trip season. That's actually kinda new to me. The only way I've ever bought a car before is buying some $5000 thing from someone on craigslist lol. So I'd appreciate any advise on how to approach this car search too. Femtosecond fucked around with this message at 21:44 on Feb 26, 2022 |
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Feb 26, 2022 21:39
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Explosionface posted:They also gave me a car with a garbage battery, but that was quickly remedied with no other issues to report.
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Feb 26, 2022 22:22
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I would go for either a Toyota RAV4 or an off-lease AWD BMW 7 series, maybe put some high profile tires on it
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Feb 26, 2022 23:42
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My car was totalled, need a replacement. lovely timing! Proposed Budget: $35k New or Used: No preference, likely used due to inventory issues Body Style: 4 door, sedan/wagon/hatchback. Not a CUV How will you be using the car?: 80 miles/day back roads commute. Need rear seat for occasionally hauling children. No towing, I do that with my other car. I want something that's reliable, responsive/not boring to drive. Doesn't have to be fast but shouldn't be *slow*, comfortable and gets decent fuel economy (I'd say high 20s MPG minimum when not driven like an rear end in a top hat). Better fuel economy would be great if it's not a big compromise on other things. My last car was a 2019 VW Alltrack and that checked all my boxes perfectly, other than I was going to eventually tune it to increase power and maybe improve the suspension. I don't want anything physically too big, I park in a single bay 90s sized garage. The Alltrack fit quite well. Have test driven so far: VW Golf. The 1.4 engine was OK but the auto trans was trash compared to the DSG in the Alltrack. Would probably be fine with a stick though. Am considering: VW: Alltrack/Sportwagen and GTI/GLI Honda Civic Sport and Accord. A late model Chevy Volt maybe? BMW i3? I love the interior, a coworker has one and raves about it, but there's no charging available at work so I'd probably need a range extender model and I'm not sure how I feel about that. Seems like added complexity, cost, and weight, when a slightly bigger battery would accomplish the same thing for me. Saw a Buick Regal TourX wagon that looked pretty sharp but it was already sold so I couldn't test drive it. Apparently they're rebadged Opels and Buick only sold them for 3 years. Anything else I should look at?
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Feb 27, 2022 00:36
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Apparently VAG had its major wiring supplier in Ukraine so you might not get another VW anytime soon
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Feb 27, 2022 01:00
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shortspecialbus posted:In other news of things I asked the thread about besides the tractor, my wife put in an order today for a 2022 Toyota Tacoma SR5 AWD for only about $1500 over MSRP, which considering how much literally every single other truck is going for, is actually really reasonable. Should get it in a month. For an update on this, it actually showed up in the timeframe it was promised and came with bonus fog lights for whatever reason. They unloaded it off the truck last night and we picked it up this afternoon. For hardly having any new stock and with all used inventory hilariously overpriced, the place was really busy and we were like 5th in line for paperwork until our salesguy got us sorted at their sister dealership across the street which wasn't as busy.
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Feb 27, 2022 02:58
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Tyro posted:Am considering: oh this is extremely my jam Buying another Alltrack/Sportwagen/GTI is probably a good choice. The Golf is slow and generally not available with a stick in recent years (it also died off a few years back, as well). Civic hatch is a good car overall. If you can sacrifice the not-super-useful hatch, the Si is excellent. The Accord is big, I wouldn't bother. The Volt is decent, my father owned one for quite some time. It's not all that useful from a packaging perspective - the hatch is large but very raked, and the rear seat is tight. It's decent to drive and a really nice piece of kit. They are bit tough to find. The Regal TourX is a nice car but very heavily weighted towards comfort. It's also sixteen inches longer than the Alltrack so I have a feeling that may not quite do it with your parking. Other things to consider: Mazda3 hatch - it's good. Not much else to say, it's one of the usual recommendations in particular for those who are looking for a bit of jinba ittai in their life Hyundai Veloster / N - the N is excellent, the regular one is fine. I personally think it looks kind of dumb but that is subjective; it's a good car. Corolla hatch - by all accounts, a decent car. Maybe not super exciting, but competent. I'd probably focus in on Mazda3/Civic Si or hatch/another Mk 7.5 VW
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Feb 27, 2022 03:24
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Thanks KGJ. Yeah I was already leaning towards staying with the VW family, at a minimum I want to test drive a Civic though. I've still got the OE valley wheels and tires from my Alltrack in the garage too... A Si is on the list if I can find one, the normal Civic Sport is a lot more common near me. A friend went from Civic Sport > Acura ILX > Civic Type R and loves the Type R, I think it's a bit too boy racer looking for me. (Like the Veloster N) CarMax is shipping a volt to my local location so that I can test drive it. It's white, which is not a color I want, but it seemed the easiest way to check one out in person. Yeah the length on that Buick isn't ideal, but could work if I move things around, width is the more limiting factor. Ref Corolla hatch - rental car now is a Corolla sedan and it is not great. It's fine. I wouldn't want to own one. I was considering a Prius until I drove this for the past few days. CX30 turbo was on the list but they're expensive compared to the competition and I don't like the looks, I'll have to check out a 3 if I can
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Feb 27, 2022 11:27
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Maybe check out the V60 too? I think used they're down around 26ish. Might be an Audi A5/4/3/Allroad in that range as well.
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Feb 27, 2022 14:45
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The V60 is good, but I figured out of the price range. They are not reliable, even compared to Volkswagen product. The A3 is tiny and useless in back. It might be OK if your kids are like, ten and big enough to not require booster seats, but not so big that they actually require space. I am 5'10 170 ish and sitting in the back of a friend's A3 is hellish. If you want a sporty ish drive, the TourX is not going to provide it. The regular Regal is a little bit less sedate.
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Feb 27, 2022 17:42
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Nah my kids are toddlers, need car seats still, so that's a no-go. The Golf backseat is a tight fit for them and requires me to move my seat up a bit more than I prefer, but it's not often that I need to do it. I did sit in a V60 that felt nice, but I had a friend with a S60 that had a lot of issues so between that and being slightly over budget I crossed it off the list. Good to know on the Regal. Might consider A4s since I'm already looking at GTI/GLI, but I suspect that in my budget would mean higher mileage.
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Feb 27, 2022 17:49
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Yeah my personal opinion on something like the A4 versus GTI is that the A4 is better if you want a nicer, more luxurious interior, AWD, a sedan body shape, and a quieter, more compliant drive. If none of those things matter to you, it's not a better car in any other way, and you'll pay more for an example of similar quality. The rear seat is still not all that large.
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Feb 27, 2022 17:52
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I have an A4 and I think it's bomb as hell. Between 3 Series (which was significantly more expensive when cross shopping used) and A4, I don't think I'll need another type of car maybe ever unless I have a family situation that really needs a crossover or a large vehicle. The BMW M340i is probably also my favorite 'realistic dream car' if I want to blow a bunch of extra cash. One main thing stopping me is I live in a big city, so I think I would almost never get to its limits without risking my license and jail. Although these days, electrics are getting seriously competitive, so there are electric models I would consider that are around the same price as the M340i but faster. I dislike a lot of things about Tesla but it's hard to argue with a Model 3 Performance. Inner Light fucked around with this message at 18:12 on Feb 27, 2022 |
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Feb 27, 2022 18:08
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Inner Light posted:The BMW M340i is probably also my favorite 'realistic dream car' if I want to blow a bunch of extra cash. One main thing stopping me is I live in a big city, so I think I would almost never get to its limits without risking my license and jail. I live out in relatively the middle of nowhere. I don't get my WRX anywhere near its limits on public roads. If you want to do that, take it to a track day or autocross or something. Even rural public roads aren't for driving a BMW M340i at its limits.
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Feb 27, 2022 18:30
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The M badge, especially by the time its on a 4 door sedan, is being sold on the merits of driving your car like an rear end in a top hat in rush hour traffic. Which is maybe not a unique perspective compared to how WRXs and american muscle cars (and Teslas, max accel and brake force lol) are sold but I'm not going to line up and go out of my way to take an M3 to a track and well might as well go back to the Miata for a daily driver track car.
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Feb 27, 2022 18:50
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shortspecialbus posted:I live out in relatively the middle of nowhere. I don't get my WRX anywhere near its limits on public roads. If you want to do that, take it to a track day or autocross or something. Even rural public roads aren't for driving a BMW M340i at its limits. These are all the normal talking points that you run into outside of AI, and I respect them, they are valid and there's nothing wrong with those opinions. But I do disagree in certain contexts. For example, there is a reason the Autobahn works so well. We should have something like it in the US especially in rural areas. I don't think driving fast or at a car's limits automatically means you are an rear end in a top hat or being unsafe, if you are on a road and in a situation where you can be reasonably confident about the conditions in front of you and next to you. Yes, that is possible on public roads in certain areas. I will never win the argument though, I acknowledge that, I just want people who like to drive fast to have a voice. There are dozens of us. The rest of the public would probably be very happy with a 75MPH or 100MPH governor on all cars.
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Feb 27, 2022 19:12
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There are ways to push a car on public roads that make you an rear end in a top hat, and ways that don't. Unfortunately for the people who actually do try to be considerate the second group is in the minority so they get lumped in with the first one, and honestly that's not unreasonable for everyone else who just sees roads as a utility to get places.
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Feb 27, 2022 19:53
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I've never driven a fast car, but I feel like if you understand the limits of the car and are in an appropriate road/area, accelerating fast isn't necessarily unsafe. I guess the first two assumptions are pretty key though. I'm kind of opposed to the governor. It'd create situations where it would take minutes to pass someone on the highway. People who pass cars on the highway going 1 mph faster than the traffic are annoying IMO. I think it is safer to accelerate faster and to just get it over with.
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Feb 27, 2022 19:55
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this is a bad post and you should feel bad about it. if you want to drive fast, there are plenty of venues for you to drive fast that are not public roads. public roads are for transportation, not racing. while crash rates have decreased on all other types of German roads, they have stayed constant or increased on the Autobahn. there are strong pushes to eliminate unrestricted speeds and over time more and more sections of the Autobahn have speed limits. edit: specifically, InnerLight's post since a couple others weighed in in the interim
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Feb 27, 2022 19:56
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:this is a bad post and you should feel bad about it. if you want to drive fast, there are plenty of venues for you to drive fast that are not public roads. public roads are for transportation, not racing. while crash rates have decreased on all other types of German roads, they have stayed constant or increased on the Autobahn. there are strong pushes to eliminate unrestricted speeds and over time more and more sections of the Autobahn have speed limits. Thanks, I acknowledge some of my opinions are bad and I I evolve my views when I get perspectives that show I’m wrong. What is the point of fast cars if they can only be driven on a track? I feel it is a slippery slope. Do you feel a road is only for transportation at 1am in a rural area with no one for miles? No room for fun? Yes the world would be unquestionably safer if everyone drove the speed limit at all times with no exceptions, not disputing that either. Sorry I don’t want to derail, I am also not comfortable spewing dangerous opinions without considering if they are wrong and hearing from others.
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Feb 27, 2022 20:02
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Inner Light posted:Do you feel a road is only for transportation at 1am in a rural area with no one for miles? e: this is also assuming a straight well-lit highway obv Anne Whateley fucked around with this message at 20:22 on Feb 27, 2022 |
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Feb 27, 2022 20:07
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i like nice words
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Inner Light posted:What is the point of fast cars if they can only be driven on a track? I feel it is a slippery slope. Do you feel a road is only for transportation at 1am in a rural area with no one for miles? No room for fun? Uh, fast cars ARE pointless from a purely practical point of view. If you want to drive fast on a road at 1am, it had better be a controlled-access highway, and well-lit. Driving really fast on an unlit country road is kind of dangerous, IMO.
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Feb 27, 2022 20:11
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Just test drove a 2018 Civic Si. Fun to drive but asking well over original sticker with like 40k miles and rashed up wheels. A good bit more road and exhaust noise than the VW too, not a deal breaker and I guess I shouldn't be surprised by that. gently caress this market
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Feb 27, 2022 20:22
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silence_kit posted:I've never driven a fast car, but I feel like if you understand the limits of the car and are in an appropriate road/area, accelerating fast isn't necessarily unsafe. I guess the first two assumptions are pretty key though. Accelerating fast isn't approaching the limits of the car normally, so long as it's not a mustang leaving cars and coffee. Edit: I still have fun driving my WRX, and I accelerate harder than I need to a lot of the time and I'll corner faster than I need to and the like, but I'm not doing anything where I'm reaching the limits of mechanical grip if I can avoid it, I'm not leaving my lane ever, nor am I flying super fast around blind rural corners where you're likely to run into a tractor or animal. You can absolutely still have fun in a fast car without driving like an unsafe dipshit on public roads. ssb fucked around with this message at 22:55 on Feb 27, 2022 |
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Feb 27, 2022 22:52
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shortspecialbus posted:Accelerating fast isn't approaching the limits of the car normally, so long as it's not a mustang leaving cars and coffee. yeah this, I own a car whose limits cannot really be reached anything like safely on public roads, but that just means on the street I have to have the kinds of fun that exist within limits. Accelerate fast, take corners quickly, etc. Not "the US should have unrestricted speedlimits so I can do whatever I want" Inner Light posted:Thanks, I acknowledge some of my opinions are bad and I I evolve my views when I get perspectives that show I’m wrong. What is the point of fast cars if they can only be driven on a track? I feel it is a slippery slope. Do you feel a road is only for transportation at 1am in a rural area with no one for miles? No room for fun? Nobody's advocating that you can't drive fast cars on public roads you loving moron, just that you have to do it in a legal manner. Yes, roads are for transportation. What is your opposition to going to the track? Did a track beat you up as a kid?
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Feb 27, 2022 23:11
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:Nobody's advocating that you can't drive fast cars on public roads you loving moron, just that you have to do it in a legal manner. Yes, roads are for transportation. What is your opposition to going to the track? Did a track beat you up as a kid? Agreed. I've owned some pretty fast motorcycles in the last 20 years. The one i own now is 350cc and makes maybe 25WHP. It's very fun to ride on the streets, because I can actually ride it close to it's/my limits.
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Feb 27, 2022 23:24
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60mph here, unsafe.  60mph here, full marks if you can pull it off. 
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Feb 27, 2022 23:31
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Dirt Rally in VR is loving great. I otherwise drive a CX-5 and it is very cozy and slow.
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Feb 27, 2022 23:37
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There are a few things in the US where the highway patrol shuts down a straight-ish stretch of highway and you can legally go well over posted speed limits as long as you pay the entrance fee and have the appropriate safety gear. There should be more of that. As an aside, that's why 0-60 times are becoming a big driver for car sales. You can actually legally/safely do that on an empty onramp.
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Feb 27, 2022 23:37
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One of the most fun cars my friends and I drove was my buddy's hand me down 1991 Honda Civic with (factory) 95hp. It was probably in the high 80s by the time he got his hands on it. You actually needed to drive that flat out most of the time just to keep up in street traffic in 2000 with 220hp SUVs
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Feb 27, 2022 23:39
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I need to look into replacing poo poo like wipers, air filter, probably due for an oil change as well, in the next 60-90 days. I could also use new floor mats. Any tips on where to look for deals on this kind of stuff? I figure if I can set some sort of google alert then I might end up saving a few bucks.
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Feb 27, 2022 23:59
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RockAuto has a decent selection of compatible parts.
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Feb 28, 2022 01:49
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