What Kind of Car Do You Drive?

I do not drive an automobile, nor do I have any desire to drive an automobile. Does this mean I do not exist?

"85 Olds Delta 88. 195,000 miles. Class IV hitch (you can't even do that with many SUV"s). Doesn't require oil between changes. 24 mpg highway. Sounds like a wash machine but no bad internal noises. Only the best tires (Goodyear Assurance). My goal is at least 300,000 miles. I think of it as a glorified pick-up truck. And it looses weight every day!

I hope you realise that at 24 mpg on the highway (and even less on city roads) this is a huge waste. Such cars should be banned from the roads.

Mine's a 2001 Vauxhall Vectra 2.2 CD which I bought because I could get it for £100. It had a broken engine but I knew I could fix it. Vauxhall quoted me £2800 for the repair but it cost £308 to do it myself. With the addition of new oil, filters etc. I have a newish, reliable, economical car with all the toys built in for about £500.

That's as much as I have ever paid for a car, I have always bought them because they were available at the right price rather than going out to look for a specific car so I don't know how that defines me?

My daily driver is an '02 530i, next in line is a Toyota Tacoma Prerunner, weekend cruiser is a 67 Coronet R/T, currently working on a stroker 440 (493) for a 69 Roadrunner. They aren't show cars but they're fun to drive! Not sure what that defines me as.

The word is Car Crazy

The daily rider is a BMW R1200GS, about 50mpg with a slightly limp wrist. The Harley 1200C Sportster is more for fun - not even sure what the mileage is on that. The Miata is for rainy days but it gets about 35mpg on the highway and sometimes the sun does come out later in the day. The Toyota FJ is pretty much for winter and hauling stuff. That's only 20mpg. I don't like to think about it much.

I guess that makes me a schizo idiot. How many people have a convertible to drive on rainy days?

'99 Camaro Z28 Convertable and an '06 Dodge Dakota Laramie Quad cab.

My dream car is a Plum Crazy 1971 Plymouth Hemi 'cuda convertable.

And with the price they're going for, all we can do is dream about it. Sorry I ever got rid of my 70 'Bee 440+6.

"And with the price they're going for, all we can do is dream about it"

When I win the lottery, I'll get one

01 vw jetta diesel, 145000 miles, good on diesel and fun to drive. 05 Jeep Liberty Diesel, 50000 miles, needed a 4wheel drive that can tow 5k lbs and gets good mileage, about 25 on the highway. Favorite is my 95 toyota tacoma 2wheel drive 5 speed, 4 cylinder. Used, abused, up to 10,000 between oil changes, hauled everything imaginable, 205,000 and uses no oil. Also, 06 Triumph Rocket III, gas mileage is not so great but twisting the throttle is like no other experience! In the strange position where my jetta gets almost twice the mpg as my motorcycle.

Anything 4 cyl or less and costs around $1000. Then I drive it until there is nothing left. Usually 3-5 yrs

The last one was a 1996 VW Jetta and my current is a 1997 VW Golf.

I usually get around $150 to $300 when I sell them for parts or drag them to the scrap yard.

I've currently lowered my price to around $500 to buy one. I like a challenge.

Hey I picked up a 96 Jetta with 135k miles for $1000. It now has 195k miles and I may have put $1000 into it over the last 3 or so years I've had it. It leaks, eats ignition parts, starting to rust, but runs perfect. You have to be a DIY'er to keep a VW on the road. The reason old ones are so cheap is because the average person can't afford to pay the dealer repair costs so they become financially unviable. With that said, the drivetrain in a MK3 generation will last forever (with some minor wrenching involved), it's the rest of the car that will fall apart around it.

I think for my next commuter car, I may splurge and spend $5-6K for a fully loaded Saab 9-3 with mileage in the 70-80k range. Gas is cheap relative to the cost of a "new car."

Though my preferred mode of transportation is my Triumph Thruxton.

2002 Toyota 4-Runner LTD

Has been airborne a couple of times, in 18° F mountaineous weather, 115° F desert heat, maneuvers daily through some of the roughest roads I have encountered in Juárez. It wades through 2 feet of water during each significant rainfall - about two times a year (nowhere for the rain to go here) and crosses streams during camping/photography trips.

Last week it almost served as a bullet sheild, as another assasination was being executed (no pun intended) about half-a-block away; I heard the unmistakeable short automatic bursts of an AK-47 popping through the sounds of a normally busy street, as the assasin was chasing a gold-colored Nissan Moreno down Vincinte Gurrereo Ave. which passes in front of the Honeywell plant I was visiting. The Moreno was shot up pretty badly and came to stop against a semi-trailor in the IGMex plant trailor parking area, down the street.

Can be quick and agile for a SUV and has come in quite handy more often than not. Gets about 21 Miles per gallon, gas here in Mexico is $3.24/gal. for premium.

Next vehicle will likely be a Toyota FJ Cruiser. Waiting for Toyota to improve the mileage on that one first.

"say hello to my little friend"

I drive a 2000 VW Jetta 1.8T. Five Speed, about 131,00 miles, light mods. It's a decent car getting me 26 city and about 30 highway.

Ditto (year, make, model, engine, transmission all same, in very dark blue). "Only" about 127,000 miles on mine, though; bought used with under 80k. Getting 30 mpg driving 60 miles each way to work & back (30k per year does add up). Takes curves at speeds that are between "How the hell did he do that?" and "How the hell did he get by with doing that?"

Yeah I know what you mean, I have some nice tires and wheels that help, but i'm thinking about getting a different suspension and make it maybe an inch or inch and a half lower. I drive to Gore once a week in the winter so I don't want to go to too low. One of my buddies put a 3inch exhaust / Aem Intake and it makes the car breath much better, though I'm not trying to invest that much into it.

911 GT3. I try to be as impractical as I can.

You lucky (impractical) dog.

I don't know how much luck is really involved, but I have always lived by the maxim; practical = boring.

Congratulations on the 911. The closest I've gotten to one is a 911 sticker for my phone from the fire dept.

I've seen a couple of brave souls who've taken their GT3 on the track.mainly at Porche Club or NASA events. Could you have been one of them?

I drive a silver Hyundai Tucson because it has the space we need, gets good mileage and it was the color they had. I also have a "Corvette yellow" 1980 Pacer that doesn't run at the moment. I want it restored so I can drive it in the local parade or go to local car shows or just cruise through town occasionally. I intend to paint it black to match the interior. I don't know what that says.

For longer distances I drive a Seat Cordoba 1.6 (1998, 100 hp, 187,000 km). In the city I drive an electric car, "Puli", it's a Hungarian car (2 persons, 7.5 kW, 80 km range).

I drive a Land Rover Defender diesel, heavily modified.

She will go anywhere, and I can live out of her for a couple of weeks before re-provisioning, which is a good thing since i tend to head out into some desert area of North America every year for a month or so.

Kevin

1980 Mazda RX7, yeah the one with the "Wankel" rotary engine. No, it's not my everyday driver but it's the one that I enjoy most. Now honestly, doesn't the rotary engine seem appropriate for a pump guy? I also have a '75 Goldwing for fair weather days, and my everyday driver is an Olds Intrigue which recently replaced my Eagle Vision TSI. I seem to have a penchant for abandoned marquis.

The Wankel was a great motor, amazing torque from such a small package. I know a guy who uses one in his rock crawler, the truck can almost climb a tree to visit squirrels.

kevin

I'm surprised by your comment about torque. Torque and gas mileage are the rotaries two weakest points. maybe your Friend has one of the experimental Australian diesels I've heard rumors of.

last I saw him, about three years back, he had a gasser, screamed like a bumblebee and was moving about walking speed. I would not be a bit surprised to hear he also had a diesel, for that matter I would love to have a diesel rotary. That would be the bee's Knees in my Rover.

Kevin

I have to agree, a diesel rotary should be able to burn low grade byproduct if it isn't anymore picky than gas rotary's. that and the relatively flat power curve and it would probably have a wider rev range since wouldn't have all the complex moving parts a boinger diesel needs. Mazda has a pretty advanced hydrogen prototype that is being distributed in Japan for evaluation. I can only DREAM!

I have a BMW 332ti as my "toy car," a BMW 740 as my daily driver, a Dodge Ram crew cab pickup, and my wife's car is a Chrysler 300C Hemi AWD. I believe, "Life is short. Always drive a cool car."

WTF is a 332ti you ask? It is a 1996 318 that's been converted to an M3--it has a 1997 3.2L M3 motor, suspension, drivetrain, limited slip diff, lowered, and an M3 body kit. Haven't had it on the track yet, but I've hit 130+ on the back roads around here.

Here's a photo of the 332ti (finally figured out how to insert photos)

If you want to get on a track( a far safer environment than 130mph on the "back roads") go to www.nasaproracing.com and find a region near you. Sign up for HPDE and learn how to get the most out of your car safely!. I run my RX7 in the Midwest and Great lakes region. In fact, I'll be at Grattan Raceway in MI NW of Grand Rapids this weekend. If anybody comes out, it's the old black car w/louvres #89. The black louvers don't make it faster but they do make it distinctive. Seriously, It's safer when everyones going the same direction and watching out for each other.

Thanks for the tip about NASA. As it turns out, I campaigned a 1990 AWD turbo Eclipse last year (355 hp at the wheels) in NASA (see photo below). I plan to take the little BMW 332ti out to run in HPDE4 this year, probably at Mid America, Road America, and a few other tracks. If you look closely, you can see the NASA decal on the left front fender of the Eclipse.

Pump content: The 20G turbo in the Eclipse pumped air into that little 2 liter 4-cylinder motor at 24 psi. 355 dynoed hp at the wheels is probably 400 flywheel hp, so the "pump" helped it generate 200 hp per liter!

I have been doing car stuff like this since 1972. Here's a photo of us (wife and me) at the 1973 Press on Regardless rally:

I agree that NASA is a wonderful way to explore the limits of everything from a street machine (like the GT3 mentioned above) to an all-out race car. It's also pretty cheap, too (About $300-$400 for two track days, all the "hot laps" you can take, and free instruction).

Any other road racers out there?

Well that puts to rest that your a( yahoo!!! kid ) with more money than brains. Your just a YAHOO! adult who pretends he's still a kid. ( that describes me too ) I forgot to tell you how sweet your "332ti" looked. I'm also impressed that your wife did some serious rallying with you. Can I presume that she was the navigator? My wife insist on driving since she gets car sick unless she's at the controls. Ergo, we've only done some charity events. But she does serve as my pit crew at NASA Events. I almost got her to take her Miata on the track at a SATCAR event a couple of years ago but it rained that morning and she was afraid to take her "BABY" out on a wet track.

I may be old, but I never matured.

My wife was such a great pro rally navigator, she was offered a pro ride in the Cooper Tire-sponsored car after we finished 20th on the Press On Regardless WRC rally. She was the highest-placing American woman that year. Three lady navigators on works teams from the UK and Poland finished higher. I never got offered a pro ride. Grrrr.

The old rally rule, "Never lift off the throttle until your navigator starts to whimper," didn't apply to her. Nothing scared her, except Forest Road 5 on the Sunriser 400, a six-mile twisty gravel road along the side of a cliff. We "recced" it one Sunday afternoon, and she saw all the sheer dropoffs. When we ran it on the actual rally at night, she closed her eyes and said, "Just tell me when it's over."

We only won one Pro Rally in our stock-engine 510, but we had a great time. When they send me to the Home for the Bewildered, I will tell rally stories out on the porch with rest of the old geezers, not racing stories. Passing a car on a one-lane bridge, hitting a deer, getting shot at, tear gassed and roadblocked--stuff like that.

Life is nothing more than a series of experiences. I pity the poor folks who will have nothing to talk about on the porch except bowling and television. You and me, dude--we don't watch much TV, do we?

We probably ought to vacate this thread. It has nothing to do with pumps and we are probably boring everybody else.

I found this thread because I wanted to post a question about sump pumps, but I got carried away.

Speaking of sump pumps, after replacing 3 purpose built Pond/Waterfall pumps in as many years. I bought a sump pump on sale at Menard's that includes the float, of course, and I'll see how long it lasts. I'm pushing approximately 8k gph over 60' to about 10' of head in 2" pvc. I told my Landscaper that I wanted to supply my own pump system from the beginning but he insisted to trust the "PRO's" They did replace the 1st under warranty and the 2nd was 1/2 price but now their playing the "blame game" My company designs and sells waste water and phosphoric recycling systems but we don't do much with submersible pumps since we're rarely concerned with the "noise distraction" as in a water garden setting.What was your sump question?

I will open a new thread on the pump blog. Sump pumps don't belong here. Unless, of course, we are talking about dry sump engines.

Well, shoot. I tried to open a new thread on sump pumps in the pump forum, but all it will let me do is put it under mechanical engineering.

Anybody know how to open a new thread here?

Well you can't pull a 30 foot boat with a light weight vechile. You might get it moving but you would never stop it.

Mine is a compromise to get a little of what I need and wanted. Needs, seat at least 5, be able to lay seats down for hauling, be able to navigate snow (we had 8' last winter), milage over 30 mpg, cheap, dependable. Wants a nice music, a little get up and go, hadling that is solid for the tight turns.

Car: Pontiac Vibe GT the same as a Toyota Matrix XRS. A 5 door station wagon with toyota's 1.8L VVTL-i 2zzge engine (the same engine in a Lotus Elise). Oh and a 350Watt stereo/10" sub. Added all the TRD suspension and engine enhancements for under $20,000US.

$20,000US!!!!........

The most I've ever paid for a car is £500. My last one (Ford Mondeo) was trouble free for 3 years & I gave it to my son when I picked up my current car (2001 Vauxhall Vectra 2.2 CD) for £100. After spending about £300 on the bits to repair the engine it runs perfectly. The dealer had quoted the previous owner £1800 for the repair & they were going to scrap it.

There was a story in the local paper about a local junkyard/used car dealer, who eked out a living by buying broken imports, fixing them up, and selling them on his lot. Every time I went down there looking for parts for the Eclipse race car (we don't buy new parts from the dealer any more, because they come from China and are junk), the cars on the lot were pathetic, beat up, rusty, 1980s-vintage Hondas and Toyotas--all "tired iron" with 150,000+ miles on them, and he sold them for about $1500.

Now, because of $4+ gas, he has a waiting list of people wanting to buy that tired iron sight unseen, and he sells everything he can fix. Oddly enough, folks are not trading in their Tahoes and Explorers and F250s--they are keeping them. They are just buying cheap puddle jumpers that get good gas mileage. (In Boston, they call such cars "Beantown Bombers.") Apparently, everybody thinks this $4 gas is just a passing fad, and they will be able to drive their 12mpg Escalades once again, so they are keeping them until it all blows over.

Wow-what a question. These days, my vehicles are limited to a 1995 Nissan 4x4 pickup with 220,000 miles and a 1992 Harley-Davidson FLHTC that just crossed 75,000 miles. I know that is not many miles for a 'bike of that vintage, but I once had five (5) motorbikes at the same time. And, at the same time I still owned a 1983 Porsche 928-S, a 1981 Toyota 4x4, and an 1974 VW beetle-the third and the last. I tend to keep all vehicles in good shape, and keep them a long time.

What would I like to drive? I would like a newer pickup that is similar to what I now have, and not a full-sized truck. And of course the new 96 in3 twin-cam FLHTC is very nice. I am really not into cars at all these days, and have not owned one for several years.

But things for that I lust-perhaps for sentimental reasons related to my youth. Ah, a 1978 to 1982 Porsche 911 SC-now that's the ticket. I owned two (2) different Porsche water-pumpers, but I never owned the legendary air-cooled flat six boxer. And, a 1978 to 1982 Harley-Davidson FLH 80 in3 shovelhead with kicker and points. That is also the ticket. Are either "great" vehicles in terms of economy and reliability? No, they are not. But each has a timeless styling that I like these days-unlike the old pumps I see on a daily basis.

Best Regards,

Ing. Robert Forbus

'83 Mercedes 240D with only 260k miles.

Biodiesel (because I support local energy production).

RS