The General Car Thread - The Facelift.

[New Oyashima]

Does anyone here track their car down the 1/4? So far my best is 10.9 in my NSRT.

[Novus America]

For what?

Just hypothetically, if you were buying a large, off-road-capable luxury SUV. (I should have added the new G-class in the question, so that's another choice.

Why no Tahoe/Yukon/Escalade?
Those are built on a working truck chassis.

[Cannot think of a name]

For when people went to school up hill both ways in the snow.

[Petrolheadia]

Just hypothetically, if you were buying a large, off-road-capable luxury SUV. (I should have added the new G-class in the question, so that's another choice.

Toyota all the way. Reliable, durable, can go off road, and it's a Toyota.

Range Rovers can go far deeper offroad than anyone expects. And the importance of durability and reliability depends on how much you need to have it on first call, and how long you're keeping it.

The choice still depends on the circumstances of purchase.

If I needed uncompromised reliability, the Lexus LX570 would be my choice.

If I didn't care that much about reliability, and wanted the on-road performance just as much as off-road, the Range Rover. The big one.

If I wanted a mix of decent refinement and decent reliability, a high-end Lincoln Navigator would be my choice.

[Special Aromas]

For when people went to school up hill both ways in the snow.

And it still runs, that's amazing

[Novus America]

Toyota all the way. Reliable, durable, can go off road, and it's a Toyota.

Range Rovers can go far deeper offroad than anyone expects. And the importance of durability and reliability depends on how much you need to have it on first call, and how long you're keeping it.

The choice still depends on the circumstances of purchase.

If I needed uncompromised reliability, the Lexus LX570 would be my choice.

If I didn't care that much about reliability, and wanted the on-road performance just as much as off-road, the Range Rover. The big one.

If I wanted a mix of decent refinement and decent reliability, a high-end Lincoln Navigator would be my choice.

Though honestly one size fits all cars are generally not great.

If you want conflicting qualities in a car, it is probably best to get more than one car.
If money is an major issue you probably cannot afford a 70+k car anyways.

If you want true off road, a luxury SUV is not the best choice anyways.
How many people actually take their Escalades, Navigators, Range Rovers, G-class, etc, off road anyways? Most just cruise suburban and urban streets.

The 4 wheel drive used only for bad rain and snow.

[Vassenor]

Range Rovers can go far deeper offroad than anyone expects. And the importance of durability and reliability depends on how much you need to have it on first call, and how long you're keeping it.

The choice still depends on the circumstances of purchase.

If I needed uncompromised reliability, the Lexus LX570 would be my choice.

If I didn't care that much about reliability, and wanted the on-road performance just as much as off-road, the Range Rover. The big one.

If I wanted a mix of decent refinement and decent reliability, a high-end Lincoln Navigator would be my choice.

Though honestly one size fits all cars are generally not great.

If you want conflicting qualities in a car, it is probably best to get more than one car.
If money is an major issue you probably cannot afford a 70+k car anyways.

If you want true off road, a luxury SUV is not the best choice anyways.
How many people actually take their Escalades, Navigators, Range Rovers, G-class, etc, off road anyways? Most just cruise suburban and urban streets.

The 4 wheel drive used only for bad rain and snow.

I mean I've sat behind an X5 that certainly looked dusty enough on the tail to have seen plenty of field time.

[Novus America]

Though honestly one size fits all cars are generally not great.

If you want conflicting qualities in a car, it is probably best to get more than one car.
If money is an major issue you probably cannot afford a 70+k car anyways.

If you want true off road, a luxury SUV is not the best choice anyways.
How many people actually take their Escalades, Navigators, Range Rovers, G-class, etc, off road anyways? Most just cruise suburban and urban streets.

The 4 wheel drive used only for bad rain and snow.

I mean I've sat behind an X5 that certainly looked dusty enough on the tail to have seen plenty of field time.

Most likely the owner was just too lazy to wash it though...

[The Two Jerseys]

I mean I've sat behind an X5 that certainly looked dusty enough on the tail to have seen plenty of field time.

Most likely the owner was just too lazy to wash it though...

Trail dust, or pollen? That is the question...

[NeoOasis]

Does anyone here track their car down the 1/4? So far my best is 10.9 in my NSRT.

I did to a couple of cars I owned. I don't remember what times my Honda Civic got, but I remember my Ford Contour got a 16.6. First time on the track, but managed a perfect launch, perfect shifts, and and no engine issues. Overall a fun experience.

[Cannot think of a name]

Range Rovers can go far deeper offroad than anyone expects. And the importance of durability and reliability depends on how much you need to have it on first call, and how long you're keeping it.

The choice still depends on the circumstances of purchase.

If I needed uncompromised reliability, the Lexus LX570 would be my choice.

If I didn't care that much about reliability, and wanted the on-road performance just as much as off-road, the Range Rover. The big one.

If I wanted a mix of decent refinement and decent reliability, a high-end Lincoln Navigator would be my choice.

Though honestly one size fits all cars are generally not great.

If you want conflicting qualities in a car, it is probably best to get more than one car.
If money is an major issue you probably cannot afford a 70+k car anyways.

If you want true off road, a luxury SUV is not the best choice anyways.
How many people actually take their Escalades, Navigators, Range Rovers, G-class, etc, off road anyways? Most just cruise suburban and urban streets.

The 4 wheel drive used only for bad rain and snow.

I've off roaded in a Range Rover. It was at a Range Rover demonstration, but still...

[Novus America]

Though honestly one size fits all cars are generally not great.

If you want conflicting qualities in a car, it is probably best to get more than one car.
If money is an major issue you probably cannot afford a 70+k car anyways.

If you want true off road, a luxury SUV is not the best choice anyways.
How many people actually take their Escalades, Navigators, Range Rovers, G-class, etc, off road anyways? Most just cruise suburban and urban streets.

The 4 wheel drive used only for bad rain and snow.

I've off roaded in a Range Rover. It was at a Range Rover demonstration, but still...

And it was not yours. Real off roading is usually hard on a vehicle, you are still going to get dings and scratches. For an old Silverado nobody cares if it gets a few more dings.

But on a new luxury SUV, I doubt most people want to get it all dirty and the paint scratched.

[Special Aromas]

I've off roaded in a Range Rover. It was at a Range Rover demonstration, but still...

And it was not yours. Real off roading is usually hard on a vehicle, you are still going to get dings and scratches. For an old Silverado nobody cares if it gets a few more dings.

But on a new luxury SUV, I doubt most people want to get it all dirty and the paint scratched.

10 years ago I would have agreed with you, yet now here I sit sleeping comfortably at night while my 18 month old, $50,000 truck sits uncovered in the front yard with a couple of decent scratches on the front bumper and a nice dent in the tailgate. If I was earning twice as much, I'd probably feel the same way about a $100,000 luxury SUV as well despite the fact I can't quite picture myself giving that less of a shit about such an expensive vehicle in my current financial situation. Or maybe it's because I'm technically just leasing it, I don't know. Anyway, smoke em if you've got em.

Nonetheless, there's still plenty of off-road situations where you can benefit from a raised ride height and low range without damaging your car in the process. Sealed roads get soft and pothole all the time; it's nice to be able to drive straight through them without worrying about getting stuck or scraping. You can technically manage that sort of stuff in a lower car I'm sure, but you can't deny it's easier in a Range Rover.

[Cannot think of a name]

Get that shit dirty.

[Novus America]

And it was not yours. Real off roading is usually hard on a vehicle, you are still going to get dings and scratches. For an old Silverado nobody cares if it gets a few more dings.

But on a new luxury SUV, I doubt most people want to get it all dirty and the paint scratched.

10 years ago I would have agreed with you, yet now here I sit sleeping comfortably at night while my 18 month old, $50,000 truck sits uncovered in the front yard with a couple of decent scratches on the front bumper and a nice dent in the tailgate. If I was earning twice as much, I'd probably feel the same way about a $100,000 luxury SUV as well despite the fact I can't quite picture myself giving that less of a shit about such an expensive vehicle in my current financial situation. Or maybe it's because I'm technically just leasing it, I don't know. Anyway, smoke em if you've got em.

Nonetheless, there's still plenty of off-road situations where you can benefit from a raised ride height and low range without damaging your car in the process. Sealed roads get soft and pothole all the time; it's nice to be able to drive straight through them without worrying about getting stuck or scraping. You can technically manage that sort of stuff in a lower car I'm sure, but you can't deny it's easier in a Range Rover.

Oh I am not denying luxury SUVs have their uses. Sure they do well on bad roads and in bad weather. But that is not off roading, that is just using them for daily driving on urban and suburban streets.

Simply pointing out they are not especially well suited for real off roading.

[Petrolheadia]

One of the best ways to learn about history is to learn from those who have experienced it. And as I assume we all have working memories, why don't we teach each orher some history of cars?

I'll try to provide some of my memories of growing up in Puławy, Poland, in the 00s.

Back in the day, American cars were some hot shit, thanks to all these glam rap videos. Who wouldn't want a Hummer, a Viper, a Corvette or even just a Mustang back in these days? One of my mom's friends had a Chrysler PT Cruiser, and it was one cool thing back then.

This brings us to another trend of those days - minivans. Every mass-market company wanted a piece of the action, and even some luxury ones (e.g. Mercedes) did. There were city minivans (Peugeot 1007, with its sliding doors in a city car), small minivans (rather booming segment), large minivans (from the old hat VW Sharan/Seat Alhambra to the huge Chrysler Grand Voyager), sporty minivans (Ford S-Max) and even the Renault Avantime, a coupe minivan!

However, the #1 thing was compact 7-seat minivans. Safe diesel family haulers from a diverse roster of makers, from Renault to Mazda. They're still on the road, waiting for something expensive to break down.

Yeah, break down. New cars of those days weren't masters of durability, especially in expensive parts. Quality assurance wasn't on par with technical development, so new fancy family wagons and minivans would freak out electronically (sometimes leaving you outside), leave clouds of smoke, and run up repair bills (at least picked up by warranties back then).

But I was in Poland, so few people had money for that. A more popular trend was sticking a rear trunk on a small car, so people who couldn't afford anything nicer could buy themselves something like a Renault Thalia, Fiat Albea, Dacia Logan or Chevy Aveo.

But these could not compete with the post-tariff common EU market import cars. A deluge of used cars drove prices down. Couple that with a lack of sentiment for communist cars, and one could buy a working Fiat 125p for less than 500 PLN (~$165 today), a 126p or Trabant for less than 200 PLN, and a Syrena for less than a hundred. (assuming these cars had paperwork - if they didn't, it'd be quite a lot less).

But for some reason, the car crowd wasn't buying depreciated BMWs and Benzes. The trend was to pimp your ride as far as possible - why buy an E21, E30, E12 or E28, if you can give your Trabant a pearlescent paintjob, a bodykit, custom interior, a banging sound system and alloys? 
However, the more expensive the car got, the cleaner it was. MK1 Golfs had a modicum of taste, Mk2 were lightly modded, and anyhting from a Mazda 323F up was kept relatively stuff.

So that's my own two cents. Wanna share your memories?

[New Oyashima]

Does anyone here track their car down the 1/4? So far my best is 10.9 in my NSRT.

I did to a couple of cars I owned. I don't remember what times my Honda Civic got, but I remember my Ford Contour got a 16.6. First time on the track, but managed a perfect launch, perfect shifts, and and no engine issues. Overall a fun experience.

It always feels faster then what you're actually going lol.

[Elwher]

One of the best ways to learn about history is to learn from those who have experienced it. And as I assume we all have working memories, why don't we teach each orher some history of cars?

I'll try to provide some of my memories of growing up in Puławy, Poland, in the 00s.
Wanna share your memories?

Growing up in Western NY, USA, in the 60's and 70's.
Bigger was better. Gas was 30 to 45 cents a gallon, so mileage was not a factor for most anyone. If your family was at all cool, you traded in a car after two years for a new one, even though the old one was fine. If the husband and wife each had a car, they alternated so that there was a new car in the driveway every year.

There was an obvious progression, If you were a GM family, you started out with a Chevy or maybe a Pontiac, then went up to an Oldsmobile, then a Buick, then if you were rich enough a Cadillac. Ford families went Ford, Mercury, Then Lincoln; Chrysler families had less choices, Dodges then Chrysler models up to the Imperial.

Foreign car people were a weird bunch (my family was among them). The economy car crowd were considered somewhat unamerican because we did not go for the biggest car we could find; the sports car crowd was a bunch of wild, road racing freaks who could not be trusted on the highways cause we'd race anytime, anyplace. Foreign luxury cars were owned by Hollywood types or snooty tycoons, not by real people.

To really be among the cool kids, you had to own a car, and preferably one you had modified in some way or another. Certain roads were known for late night drag races, and the cops just let it go as long as the kids made sure there was no other traffic on the road before the run. Along those lines, if the cops caught you driving drunk, they made you park your car on the side of the road and drove you home. Getting back to you car was your problem for the next day.

You could not go for more than three or four blocks in the city, or five miles in the country, without passing another gas station. They all had mechanics on duty and all pumped your gas, checked your oil, and cleaned your windshield.

[Cannot think of a name]

On the subject of buying a VIN plate.

[Special Aromas]

On the subject of buying a VIN plate.

Yup, that VIN is about to be grafted onto a regular Road Runner, which will then mysteriously cease to exist (on paper).

[Auzkhia]

One of the best ways to learn about history is to learn from those who have experienced it. And as I assume we all have working memories, why don't we teach each orher some history of cars?

I'll try to provide some of my memories of growing up in Puławy, Poland, in the 00s.
Wanna share your memories?

Late 90s and 2000s. Various places in the United States. First in Phoenix, Arizona, then Virginia, and now southeast Pennsylvania.

In Arizona, white was by far the most popular color.

My parents were definitely followers of the SUV craze. My friends' parents, however, drove Minivans, especially the Chrysler Town and Country, some had Toyota Sienna minivans though, but Dodge and Chrysler were the top of the heap when it came to minivans, and Plymouth too, before it tits up. As a kid, minivans were the perfect car, they had lots of room and were comfy to sit in and to get in and out of. If I had say when my parents bought their 2003 GMC Envoy XL, they would have walked with a Pontiac Montana, if they wanted a minivan, they should have gotten a Dodge Grand Caravan. Oh well.

My Dad basically was my intro to car culture. His car in most of my childhood was a 1995 Eagle Talon TSi and he had a gray market 1985 BMW 735i that sat in the driveway in Virginia.

My taste in cars evolved as I grew up and my interests waxed and waned, I got back into cars when I was 12, there was a brief period where I stopped caring but that was a lapse in my childhood.

[East Fredonia]

I can't delete this post for some reason. Oh well.

[Petrolheadia]

One of the best ways to learn about history is to learn from those who have experienced it. And as I assume we all have working memories, why don't we teach each other some history of cars?

I'll try to provide some of my memories of growing up in Puławy, Poland, in the 00s.
-snip-

Also, I forgot to mention that horsecarts were still in rare use up until the late 00s.

Only then horses became salami, not power, and those people switched to late 80s/90s vans or 70s/80s tractors.

[Cannot think of a name]

50s and 60s and 70s muscle cars were cheap when I was in high school in the 80s. First gen Mustangs were easily available. There were two kids in my high school with '64 convertible Impalas, one red and one blue. A kid in my senior year got an IROC Camaro and that seemed pretty pimp. The drummer in the jazz band drove a hot rodded Falcon. Trombone player had a Nova. I bought a junkyard Porsche 914 off the side of the road right out of high school in a completely bad idea.

Minipickup low riders were the big custom trend, the transfer kid from the 'ghetto' school had a really well done S10 with the bed completely filled with bass speakers. One of my exes step brother had a shaved Ranger. Hand me down luxury cars weren't uncommon either, buddy of mine had an older Audi. Another had a fox body Mustang with a four banger that you had to put a tic tac box in the carb to get it started. Right out of high school I use to play in a make shift starship simulator this dude had set up in a storage unit. Our crew was two 914s, two Mustangs (the Fox body and my brother's European Mustang so it wasn't called a Mustang), and another friend who drove a first gen BMW 320. Around 1990 you could get a 320 or 325 for $3000, or a Saab 900 Turbo, or a Maserati Biturbo for $5000. Most of these cars never actually increased in value. My ex almost got a Saab 900 Turbo, I liked the test drive. She bough a Buick Century instead. Blaaaaand. But then, so was she. Dude at the movie theater had a 2002. Ferrari 308s got to around $20,000. Lotus Espirit S1s were $15,000. Kind of still are, slowly going up now. As the 90s dragged on, cheap Fox body Mustangs ruled the day among people with no money. Body kitting VWs was a thing.

My dad yo yoed between big and small, cool and boring. Triumph TR-3 to a Renault to a Barracuda to a Granada to a Porsche 912/356 (one was stolen) to an S10 to a BMW 735i...no, wait, there was an Audi in there somewhere...to a Jimmy. We also had a C10 pickup for some reason at some point. Also a gutless S15 that was bought under the pretext of me needing a car, but instead I inherreted my great aunt's bright yellow 1977 Malibu Classic. Mom had a Rabbit, I can't remember what was before that. Then a custom van, then a Cadillac something. Deville or Seville. Got it to peel out once just by dropping the pedal.

[Cannot think of a name]

New Supra is official.
It's bulgy.


The fake F1 nose bugs me for some reason.