I see no problem in hybrids if they have reasonable engines. I even like them more than electric vehicles.
Escort is finally mine, also not pretty. What I know so far: Brakes are still long-travel and mushy, like the person who fixed them forgot the bleed them. Will be taking it back to that shop when able, but the seller telling me that they would recognize the car is starting to sound rather unencouraging. Speedometer can't hold a consistent reading, instead choosing to wave around in the general range of what it thinks your speed is. May be guilty of inaccuracy as well as imprecision, since its idea of 60+ feels like less than 55 to me. WILL boil over if you let it idle for too long, though it doesn't overheat on the move. It can be felt/heard to struggle briefly and temporarily above certain temperatures - like it's trying to turn on the radiator fan but there's a short (this reminds me of my Sunbird's power windows, which could make the car struggle and even stall if you tried to use them while not in gear). This low key ticks me off, as I can't imagine the seller didn't know about this, and of course my test drive wouldn't have involved any situation that would have revealed it. Has its own fore/aft shake that scared me at one point with its similarity to the Sunbird's. This one is different, however - it only occurs above about 50 MPH indicated, regardless of anything else, and can persist even if I put the clutch out and coast (flooring it at 40 indicated in 5th gear, which would have made the ring-wrecked Sunbird just about shake itself apart, yields smooth but predictably slow acceleration). Is also intermittent. Seller said he'd already replaced one CV axle and the other was starting to wear out, so that could be it; my thin auto-detective skills say that drivetrain issues somewhere downstream of the clutch are a very plausible cause here. Not that the clutch might not have its own issues. One of the previous owners coated the tailgate and rear quarters with Rhino liner. I don't know what the purpose of this is, other than to be really freaking annoying (or hide massive rust). I'm not even sure how you'd get that stuff off. I'm pretty sure it's designed specifically not to come off, ever. Steering column lock has seen better days, as I found by accident that I can pull the key out with the car still running and nothing will happen. This is obviously not how an ignition lock is supposed to work. Left-rear door will apparently fall off if opened. The explanation I got here involves the first owner's son trying to close the door, only to have it jam not-quite-open, not quite closed, and then refuse to open again. Son then goes in the other side and kicks the door as hard as he can, and the hinge gives way instead of the latch. Considering that the car is mostly spraycan black, I have to assume it was that son's car in practice, and that he whipped it like a rented mule. Scarily, the title shows more mileage than the odometer. At this point, I'm not really in any position to be picky; it runs and it doesn't have a rod knock or any other apparent "fragging in 3, 2, 1..." issues, and I got it for non-running parts car money, but I've got a feeling that it won't have much of a service life beyond being my backup car for a few months. Of course, at one point I was toying with the idea of putting a Probe GT engine and transmission in it once I had the Sunbird fixed and a better cash cushion built up, so some of this stuff would end up fixed anyway.
My buddy's XJ is the same way, he actually likes it though. You can lock it and leave it running on a hot day.
You also used to be able to do this with defenders, was apparently an MoD requested feature implemented factory wide rather than just for them, which is strange as they didn't implement the MoD feature of shared keys factory wide. You'd have thought if they're mass producing a matching locking barrel just for MoD usage they'd make that the one with removable key and leave all the other vehicles with regular locks. But then I've also heard of construction vehicles etc doing it on purpose so a foreman can start a piece of machinery but then return the key to a lockbox.
Trying to find stencils has been a washout so far in the world of bricks and mortar; I can find the lettering for the hood and tailgate, but not the 10+" tall ones I'm looking for to put door numbers on this thing. Also, because I only looked at one store and it was a hardware store, I failed to find a hose clamp that was big enough to fit around the steering column so I could mount my tachometer. However, while driving around looking for these things, I've basically confirmed that I do much more accurate downshifts without a tachometer to second-guess myself by.
Zip Ties are always the answer I drive a car with no tach (would like to swap dashes to get one with though) and recently i have started becoming pretty good with rev match downshifts.
Well...looks like Dad may be getting me an old Audi for my first car. While he was looking online, he found an A4 Quattro (unknown problems) for $800, and then he found an A4 Avant Quattro which the owner says has got a coolant leak and a couple other mechanical problems. Considering that I just wanted to get a Buick Century or something like that for my first car, that's actually rather cool, but I fear that an Audi probably wouldn't be the most reliable of cars to own.
Depends on the model year the ones my family owned were all reliable except an audi 80 from 91 or so that had alot of problems the other ones were fine
To be honest, almost all modern cars are equally (un)reliable. Sure there are some models that are known to be particularily bad for reliability, but outside of them everything will break at some point in some way or another, so the best you can try to do is maintain it well and keep your fingers crossed that yours will be solid for as long as possible. The variance within any particular model is probably greater than the variance from brand to brand. How the car has been treated by previous owners will also have a big effect on reliability, so make sure to check for rust etc. If a car isn't clean it probably hasn't been cared for etc. One thing that is often worth while is looking up the specific engine model and seeing what common issues it has. Then make sure to check that as best as possible before buying a car and keep some change spare in case that component dies.
I've never driven a manual with a tachometer (only manuals without tachos and automatics with tachos ) and I'm perfectly fine with shifting without it.
My mom did. Everyone was tired and miserable thanks to airport delays (we were supposed to be home almost a full 24 hours before this was filmed) so cooking was out of the question
After watching the Doug DeMuro 1977 Cadillac Eldorado review, I decided to make an $12k Eldorado vs an $12k Mercedes specification comparison. Here is it: $12k Mercedes 230 equipment sheet: manual A/C, power mirrors, central locking, AM/FM radio, cloth seats, midsize body, mediocre trunk space. $12k Cadillac Eldorado equipment sheet: automatic A/C, high altitude package, towing package, HD radiator, performance axle, power mirrors, windows and driver seat, central locking, signal-seeking AM/FM/cassette radio, CB radio, self-levelling suspension, anti-theft system, pinstriping, leather seats, fullsize body, cavernous trunk. --- Post updated --- It'll probably be quite unreliable. A mismaintained 4WD Audi is a ticking time bomb.
For one, I despise this body style, they're ugly, feel cheap, and have a terribly laid out interior, not to mention the mechanical aspect. This particular truck is one of our old Game Warden trucks at work, so it's a really low option truck, which doesn't bother me, but what does bother me, is that Ford decided the best place for the window crank was in a position that you can't comfortably reach without scooting halfway out of the seat, and then, you have to hold your hand upside down to roll it up or down. You can't comfortably look in the back seat without getting out of the truck, because of the very sharp, poorly covered center console bracket, which stabs you in the kidney anytime you look slightly to the right. The mirrors are too low to see over the bed, the pedals are too close to the floor, so you have to keep your right foot at an uncomfortable angle to be able to use both the gas and brake with the same foot, which in turn makes your knee rest against the hard plastic cup holder and transfer case shifter boot, and it's got the loudest, most obnoxious dinger I've ever heard. It's got a 5.4, which is something you all know I hate with a burning passion, that ticks, knocks and squeals like nothing I've ever heard before, it's got no power, but it still manages to be super touchy, you can push the gas pedal a full inch before it decides to do anything, and when you reach your inch of travel, you get about 70% throttle, so backing up to a trailer is unnecessarily difficult, with lots of accidental tire chirps or little holes dug in the dirt, and in four wheel drive it seems like it's twice as touchy. And finally, the hooks for the safety chains are way too far up under to the truck for any normal trailer chains to reach. I hate that truck, and today I got stuck in it, whoever drove my white Dodge last must've hid the keys somewhere, because I couldn't find either set. My other options were a 2003 3/4 ton GMC, a 97 Ford F-250 with a really uncomfortable seat, or a 2001 2wd V6 half ton Dodge. The GMC was out, as someone else had already grabbed it, the old Ford isn't a bad truck, but it doesn't have A/C and the seat sucks, and the little V6 Dodge just plain can't go where I needed to go, and by this point, everything was already loaded into that green Ford. My regular truck, 2001 3/4 ton 4wd Dodge, 360 automatic.
