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Automobiles? Any other car freaks out there?

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Chevette Girl said:
how many Europeans have 50 km or more daily commutes? My poor Chevette did around 500 km per week for the ten years I was working where I was).
Click to expand...

You might be suprised. I drive 50km a day to and from my job, and
at least half of my department do the same, or farther. At a price
of 1,6€/l diesel thats no fun at all. Lucky I drive diesel, and a
verry small car at that, people who drive petrol pay 1,8€/l, and use
more for the same distance. If only I was not so allergic to trains :).

PS: For our American friends: thats 7,7$/gal for Diesel, 8,7$/gal for
Petrol.
 
I got 28 U.S. mpg in a Dodge Caravan with gasoline before ethanol was ubiquitous and now get 22 mpg. My wifes Sebring got 33 now 25. My work truck Dodge Hemi gets 16 at 65 mph both before and after. I get to pay more for fuel and I get to pay subsidies to farmers producing the corn, distillers making the alcohol and the vehicle wears out faster. People on 1200 calories a day in India probably see little logic in our choices. I do not uderstand how a nation as rich in oil as Canada tolerates paying what you do for fuel so a segment of the population can feel good about themselves. Since we in the U.S. tolerate a Government owned company producing Chevy volts at a $49,000 per copy loss each, I acknowledge we have the same segment here.
 
mrperq said:
You might be suprised. I drive 50km a day to and from my job, and
at least half of my department do the same, or farther.
Click to expand...

Sorry to generalize there, mrperq. Most of the guys I was dealing with on the chevettes forum were Brits of one flavour or another, and most of them moved to where they had shorter daily drives or could take public transit because the petrol prices were just so horrid. I couldn't rely on public transit here even if I wanted to, it couldn't have gotten me to work and it won't get me to my horse, it will only get me to one of my current jobs once a week...

And to be fair I think a lot of the money Canadians pay into gasoline actually goes to taxes, we're often taxed way more than Americans, although often not as much as the Europeans pay...


Vance, maybe it's a carburettor thing? I don't take that kind of hit on my mileage when I intentionally seek out gasoline with ethanol. Maybe the Chevette's too low-tech to notice...

And in other Chevette news, I finally got a new battery for the Beast, got sick of having to use my booster pack just about every time I needed to start it...
 
It is far more likely to be an "early North American fuel injector" thing. The control systems on those early (especially the single, throttle body) injectors were so lame that the introduction of anything outside of the parameters of gasoline to a fuel mix really played hell with mileage. More modern systems, like those in use for about the past decade in American vehicles, have rendered those issues largely moot.

BTW - with my old Chevette (1980 vintage, so definitely an oldie, and definitely carburetor rather than fi), the mileage actually improved slightly when early ethanol "gasohol" blends were introduced. Of course most of the non-metal parts in the fuel system eventually dissolved in the mix, adding to it's relatively early demise (only 110K miles when I had to retire it).
 
wayneb said:
It is far more likely to be an "early North American fuel injector" thing. The control systems on those early (especially the single, throttle body) injectors were so lame that the introduction of anything outside of the parameters of gasoline to a fuel mix really played hell with mileage. More modern systems, like those in use for about the past decade in American vehicles, have rendered those issues largely moot.
Click to expand...

I think it still left a bad taste in a lot of folks' mouth, my mom calls it "that $hit", as in "I don't want that $hit in my car" because her early-90s Honda didn't like it, she says it ran like crap and my dad's early-90's Honda did get worse mileage while my Chevette's improved...

wayneb said:
BTW - with my old Chevette (1980 vintage, so definitely an oldie, and definitely carburetor rather than fi), the mileage actually improved slightly when early ethanol "gasohol" blends were introduced. Of course most of the non-metal parts in the fuel system eventually dissolved in the mix, adding to it's relatively early demise (only 110K miles when I had to retire it).
Click to expand...

Yeah, the Chevettes were considered outdated by the late 80's, and were replaced by the Sprint/Firefly, which were front-wheel drive and fuel injected and got pretty spectacular mileage if I recall, they even had a three-cylinder model. Had the same kind of engine wobble that my Beast has always had (two slightly low cylinders)... I had read that they had problems with the seals etc on military jeeps run on straight ethanol, so I always made sure every couple of tanks to run regular stuff through it (this was before 10% of regular gasoline could be ethanol), and my first Chevette's engine made it well into the 300,000 km region (had to swap frames though), and this one's over 350,000 km now (and slowly losing compression, but I'm pretty sure that's either valve or rings which I'm sure ethanol wouldn't have played a part in, and all its new leaks and degradations are because of the little engine oil leaks that piddle all over my engine compartment).
 
My 2005 Mustang got 25mpg no matter what gas I gave him.

If you're concerned about world hunger you quit eating beef...come to think of it, that's good for decreasing global warming as well...but that's a subject for another thread.
 
Car nut here. I am building a 97 Nissan 240SX. Right now the main mods are suspension.

Coilovers
An LSD
Adjustable rear upper control arms
Front and rear sway bars.

The rear still needs toe and traction rods and maybe lower control arms. (pita to install)


The front needs along tension rods, tie rods and LCAs.

After that then it will be time for the engine.
 
Ooh, that's a sweet little car! I used to drive by a purple one, but I guess they sold it or moved since I haven't seen it in a few months... Good luck with yours!

My Beast just got new brake pads (apparently the old ones were misshapen after getting the calipers unseized) and a pair of brand new winter tires so we're good to go for messing around in all the snow! And after coming home from Sudbury in the dark, my Xmas present to the Beast is going to be a new pair of headlights, apparently my sealed beams aren't sealed anymore, as there's condensation in them, not so good for illumination...
 
^Thanks. I hope to be able to make around 380WHP on it one day. Then I can start an 88 Monte Carlo build. I've always dreamed if having a twin turbo LS2 Monte SS.

I just read through this. All the talk of snow driving. Ha. GA got around 2.5inches of snow in 2011. Half the state shut down. People were trapped in their offices in northern GA.
 
A lot of us who're used to some amount of snow laugh at that, and think things like people freezing to death in their cars in Washington because the temperature went a few degrees below freezing are just incomprehensible... but we forget that when you're not used to something, you don't have the tools and infrastructure to be able to deal with it... I guess I'm somehow lucky to live somewhere with a temperature swing of 60 degrees celsius (+30 to -30C), but we're screwed if too much or too little rain...

Well, I certainly didn't become enamoured with Chevettes because of their power... 68 horsepower brand new off the line... 0 to 60 mph in thirteen minutes... (ok, more like 30 seconds but still).

Ooh, I've always wanted a Monte Carlo... I think the Cutlass Surpreme was its Oldsmobile equivalent... :D
 
Resurrecting an old thread... had to share the story of what happened the other day when we took the Beast off to pick up our "new" car (2004 Accord) at my parents' place... Beast got us there just fine, met her new sister, went to the next town to the north to go to the Ministry and get plates for it, came back, plated it, and I took the Beast and my husband took the Accord to my mechanic's in another town to the south and left it so it could get safetied and emissions tested, and halfway home from dropping it off, the Beast had a hissy fit and spat her PCV valve out. Right out of the engine block, right off the end of its vacuum hose. Fortunately THIS time she didn't eject it completely from the engine compartment, I heard the whooshing noise I associate with this misbehaviour, pulled over, and found it sitting between the valve cover and the carburettor... The last time she pulled this trick, I had to fake it with electrical tape until I could get home for the spare part because she spat it out onto the road, never to be seen again (we know, we looked). As my roommate pointed out, the sibling rivalry has started already...
 
Resurrecting an old thread... had to share the story of what happened the other day when we took the Beast off to pick up our "new" car (2004 Accord) at my parents' place... Beast got us there just fine, met her new sister, went to the next town to the north to go to the Ministry and get plates for it, came back, plated it, and I took the Beast and my husband took the Accord to my mechanic's in another town to the south and left it so it could get safetied and emissions tested, and halfway home from dropping it off, the Beast had a hissy fit and spat her PCV valve out. Right out of the engine block, right off the end of its vacuum hose. Fortunately THIS time she didn't eject it completely from the engine compartment, I heard the whooshing noise I associate with this misbehaviour, pulled over, and found it sitting between the valve cover and the carburettor... The last time she pulled this trick, I had to fake it with electrical tape until I could get home for the spare part because she spat it out onto the road, never to be seen again (we know, we looked).

As my roommate pointed out, the sibling rivalry has started already...
 
I'm a car nut but mead has taken over. I sold my 69 road runner convertible to make room for the TARDIS.

nabezydy.jpg


That was her at the auction site.


Sent from my galafreyan transdimensional communicator 100 years from now. G
 
Sorry about the repeats, it kept telling me it had timed out instead of posting...
 
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You need a Mini wagon.. Maybe not the Cooper version, but the regular ones haul well, get decent mpg, and aren't a boring organic shape. My economy car when I was young were VWs. Still play with those!
But the most fun car I had was a 70 Pinto. After a bit of surgery, i put a 350 hp 289 V8 in it. Now that was fun.
 
LOL, my Chevette was wearing the winter tyres from a Pinto for a while. I wish Hercules still made 'em that small, best winter tyres I've ever had.

My mechanic swears by VW's but I've heard that these days they're assembling 'em in Mexico and the drivetrain will still last for frigging ever but all the other things keep breaking.

I wonder how much headroom the minis have, my husband's head hits the headliner in the Accord even with the seat all the way down... we'd need a truck for him to sit up straight, methinks... Although our friends' Caravan isn't bad for him.

And the "new" car got its first dent within two weeks of being brought home. And I didn't do it!! Bahaahaahaa!!! ...I'd have cried if it'd been the Chevette...

Finally got all of the fuel issues resolved between the gas cap and the carb, and it's still misbehaving so I'm seeing a carb overhaul in the Beast's future.
 
I'm 6'2'' and I fit very well in a mini. I suspect that 2 more inches is about the limit if I remember correctly.

Airnwater, did you paint flames on the back of that Pinto and get a plate that said "kaboom?" Lol.


Sent from my galafreyan transdimensional communicator 100 years from now. G
 
Chevette Girl said:
Yay, Prius! And yeah, they do look pretty silly, dunno why they had to make it so weird looking...
Click to expand...

Have you seen what the google car that drives on autopilot looks like?
The Prius is positively stylish.

I like the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV.
Chargeable at home, uses petrol elec hybrid.
Gets 1.9 l/100km

(That's about 124 mi/gal in silly units)
And it's an SUV.
Practical and environmental.
It's beginning...
 
I don't know why they had to make so many of the hybrids and electrics so ugly and weird. They all seemed to have that thing for the enclosed rear wheel for a while, it's like they wanted them to fail. Just make them look like regular cars that's how you get people to buy them.
On a different note I saw a beautiful red T-bucket with a huge big block rumble by today with what looked like functional wheelie casters. Always loved the look of open engine hot rods.
 
Honeyhog said:
I don't know why they had to make so many of the hybrids and electrics so ugly and weird. They all seemed to have that thing for the enclosed rear wheel for a while, it's like they wanted them to fail. Just make them look like regular cars that's how you get people to buy them.
On a different note I saw a beautiful red T-bucket with a huge big block rumble by today with what looked like functional wheelie casters. Always loved the look of open engine hot rods.
Click to expand...

Yep...it sure seems to have worked out for Tesla. Those things are all over the place around here. Gorgeous cars. Not so gorgeous price.

I am now lusting over the new 'Cuda. Anyone seen the very cool cryptic TV commercials that show only the hood scoop? It's just the car revving and one line..... "If you know...you know.." Well buddy, I know. And I'm getting one as oon as they make a drop top. I don't know what the F they are waiting for with the Challenger. Maybe now that both the Challenger and the (Chrysler?) 'Cuda will be on the street, the ragtop can't be far behind....mine will be triple black with black stripes and the biggest hemi they offer. And I'm going to drive the freaking wheels off the thing.

I had the Road Runner convertible for 12 years and it was all original/correct and a show car so I had to be careful where and when I drove it and what parts I used and everything was sooooo expensive. I was exhausted after basically being the caretaker for such a long time. I'm "almost" glad I needed the garage to construct the TARDIS. Now I can get a 'Cuda which is my favorite Plymouth but I can't afford a real 1970. AND can do burnouts without worrying that I'm ruining priceless Firestone wide ovals... ;)
 
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