New Car!

[Babalonian]

I'd have to dig up the details on them, but I splooged for my mother's birthday about 5 years ago for some really nice premium all-purpose Michelins on the AWD CRV I was just talking about (this was less than two-months after she went off the road into the snow bank in the truck, so I was going for a road safety theme).  Worst tires ever (and you're talking to a guy that buys the cheapest made in korea tires for my old daily drivers), by manufacturer defect in the rubber formula.  They were fine for that winter and first 6 weeks, but had to get them _all_ replaced 6 months later as they had gone bald...  Worst part was it was their defect and I had to pay for it, after two years fighting with them I gave up and can only pitch my sob story and try to steer as much buisness away from them that I can.

Edit: I think they had less than 8k miles on them... I'd have to dig up my old file on it at home later to get the nity grity on them.

[CAP1]

Ford Fusion AWD or Taurus AWD

Then again... I am bias.

 THE town where my shop is is supposed to be getting 6 of the supercharged tauruses, and 6 non.....but i think the officer i was speaking with did say they're all gonna be awd.

[CAP1]

True, awd will even be able to pull out of some slides if driven properly.  But, and this is huge, the driver needs to be able to fight the desire to mash on the brakes or crank the wheel and instead, apply some light throttle so the tires can correct the vehicle.  Most people just can't do it!

Case in point, we were traveling through the hills of PA last year around christmas, on a downhill with a left turn below, the logging truck in front of us started sliding on the hard packed snow covered street.  I hit the brakes lightly and they just slid, the truck ended up sliding sideways into the ditch up against the rock wall but I was able to hit the gas, get the truck corrected and get around the corner ok.  

The trucker waved us on as he knew there was nothing we could do to help, but my sister in the passenger seat, who's Ranger I was driving said that she never would have thought to hit the gas and probably would have ended up sliding in behind or into the truck.


This.

 funny you say that....cause i'm a cocky bastage. many many cars out there(nearly all of em actually) can outperform my dakota in pretty much every way. yet, i find myself able to outperform nearly anyone in nearly any car. why? because they don't have a friggin clue how to actually USE their car. 

 the way you mentioned driving out of a slide......i was doing that back in the 80's when i had my lifted chevy 4x4. had to do it a couple times with my jeep this past winter.

[CAP1]

You do realize they don;t make the same car 10 years latter nor does it come out of the factory with only 101K miles on it right.  Your one customer does not represent the universe.   

 true, but when i talk with other audi owners, and hear the very same thing, over the years....that does.

 so, that's a nearly 30 year run of hearing/seeing/fixing things on these POS's that shouldn't be bad at that point.


 you should realize by now, i don't say stuff like that due to only my opinion, but rather i say stuff like that due to my experiences. 

[CAP1]

2 x 4
4 x 4
AWD
Traction Control

Which of the above can replace skill behind the wheel?

You may get going a bit better, but if the road is slick or icy, none of them will make a vehicle stop any easier.  The easiest thing to do is to adjust one's driving to the road conditions.

A good set of tires never hurt anyone, though

(Image removed from quote.)

 none of the above. i like the idea of awd, but to be honest, they're all crutches, and generally driven by non-drivers.

[CAP1]

i'm gonna toss a reminder out here. someone up the page a bit mentioned awd being more dangerous on ice.

 do you all realize that you cannot drive a roadworthy car on just ice?

[Bronk]

THE town where my shop is is supposed to be getting 6 of the supercharged tauruses, and 6 non.....but i think the officer i was speaking with did say they're all gonna be awd.

Supercharged??? Don't you mean twin turbo SHOs?

[Babalonian]

Supercharged??? Don't you mean twin turbo SHOs?

Shwing!  Wonder what that's gonna get per gallon ontop of the AWD package... 

[Masherbrum]

Shwing!  Wonder what that's gonna get per gallon ontop of the AWD package... 

Eco-Boost engines get very good MPG.

[ToeTag]

Cap? Are you a one man racing club?

[CAP1]

Yup, with us doing the best we can with roation and maintanance of our tires, we still have to replace all 4 at the same time after a little more than two years about give or take a couple months.


Hot topic today, ain't it?

uh huh.

some of the AWD cars, you don't have to do all 4 at once though. i think the honda pilot is one of htose, although i'm not sure.

[CAP1]

comes with it's own quirks that a driver should be educated/trained on to use safely.  I

sorry to hack your post up.......but the lack of the above sentence, is in all actuality the cause of at least 90% of the so-called accidents on our roadways.

[CAP1]

Can not agree with you any more.

Funny story two winters ago (funny because the only casualties were a 4-foot tall pine sapling and a scuff to the bumper), my parents were vacationing at the cabin and my mom ran to town in my dad's truck (RWD) for groceries.  Before she left she unfortunatley removed the four sacks of weathered concrete we had in the back over the tires, not knowing any better (she was born, raised, and learned to drive in New Jersey, so derned if I know what she was thinking).  On her way back a blizzard rolled in and she suddenly drove the truck off the road on a bend and into a snow bank and pine sapling, so there was no damage but it was stuck.  Neighbor happened by shortly and kept her warm with her car while calling us to let us know and she got winched out about an hour later (afterwards, the tow truck driver helped her load some rocks into the back over the tires, lol).  She understands now to load it up with rocks or any other deadweight in the back if it's going to be icy/snowing while driving the truck.

we can go years without a major snowstorm here, so it is possible that she never experienced bad snow. glad she wasn't hurt.

 i learned to drive on a 67 mustang, and a 71 ford station wagon. used to take both of them to empty parking lots, doing donuts, and generally being a stupid kid(cause i'm invincible and all) throwing those cars around.
 the funny thing is, that it got to a point where i actually couldn't get a good fun spin from either of them, as i was correcting without realizing i was. used to do the same with an old boss's ford superduty tow truck, and once or twice with his UD rollback. rollbacks are funny when you do that....friggin sloooooowwwwwwwww motion.

[CAP1]

bbs burp

[CAP1]

bbs burp again