The Automotive Thread

[csb]

My Subaru now has a kayak roof rack. 

 

[Supe]

My Subaru now has a kayak roof rack. 

I assume you'll never be shaving your legs again?

 

[csb]

I assume you'll never be shaving your legs again?

I like that you assume I began. 

 

[Road Guy]

Speaking of Subarus, I actually saw a group of similar fairly hairy legged women that were actually so proud to own the Jeep renegade they scheduled a ride? I assume they took some mean mall crawls??? It was so awkward I had to stop and take a pic (from my loaner pos Jeep Cherokee )

Lots of handsome women on hand, with carabiners!

 

[Supe]

Well, the NASCAR engine has to sit about 1.5" higher than hoped for on account of the oil pan, which has created a bevy of issues ranging from transmission tunnel clearance to major exhaust issues.  Looking like I will have to fab new motor mounts, and new headers from scratch.  *sigh*  There goes my last two races of 2018!  I will also need a hood scoop the size of the Sears Tower.

And here's what a NASCAR V8 looks like roughly situated in a car that once housed an engine the size of a backpack (not sure why the board is rotating the pic?):

 

[Road Guy]

damn if you can pull that off I think I need you to come take a look at the emissions on my old jeep!  sucks about the rest of racing season..

Last weekend I did finally replace the motor and regulator for the rear window in my old Tahoe that had broken, glad I bought both pieces as one unit cause that would have been a PIA to replace just one of those parts.. should have probably ordered all 4  while I was doing it, but after staring at it for a bit to figure out how to remove the old one, it went back in pretty easy..

I know Advance Auto Parts places are iffy, but I have started using them to order parts versus ordering online, usually a tad cheaper since you don't have to pay for shipping with them- we have some grey hairs that work at the one near my house that at least act like they care, so Im going to go with it for a while ..

 

[csb]

Speaking of Subarus, I actually saw a group of similar fairly hairy legged women that were actually so proud to own the Jeep renegade they scheduled a ride? I assume they took some mean mall crawls??? It was so awkward I had to stop and take a pic (from my loaner pos Jeep Cherokee )

Lots of handsome women on hand, with carabiners!


 

My mom owns a Renegade and she thinks she's a BA, but mostly they seem to be driven by other women in her age group. 

 

[Supe]

I know Advance Auto Parts places are iffy, but I have started using them to order parts versus ordering online, usually a tad cheaper since you don't have to pay for shipping with them- we have some grey hairs that work at the one near my house that at least act like they care, so Im going to go with it for a while ..

Advance is CONSTANTLY having 15-20% off online ordering.  If you make a burner email and do the "signup", you can knock the 20% off and still use the pickup in-store option.  That's usually how I buy batteries from them.

 

[Road Guy]

I do use their coupon / reward system quite a bit - fairly helpful with 4 vehicles, two of them pushing 20 years

I didn't see any (new) renegades on the trip from Ouray to telluride last week & only saw one non jeep vehicle (this 4 runner) other than 4 wheelers and dirt bikes.. (but this is a meet up worthy pic!)

Also for anyone coming to CO for vacation I totally recommend this drive (Imogene Pass) you can rent a Polaris for around $300 a day -

I sat and laughed for a good bit watching the renegade folks prance around in the parking lot? I was like what time warp did I slip into??

 

[Road Guy]

so going on almost 90 days without my regular jeep..

today I get a call from the dealer that they can give me a used / rebuilt transmission early next week and get my ride back

......or I can continue to wait probably another month to get a new transmission - I learned through this ordeal that the people that built the original manual transmission for Chrysler went out of business and they are being made by Mercedes in Germany (part of that sounds good) but I am also told this is a new manufacturing line being built so even if I get a new tranny, I will literally be getting one of the first 20 or so off this new plant? I don't know what type of Quality Control issues they are going to have??

which poision do I choose? both come with a 12 month warranty - but I think either way I am selling the manual and getting rid of this..

 

[jeb6294]

Depending on how it’s done, sometimes I’d rather get rebuilt rather than new.  If it’s actually been torn down and rebuilt by someone, then I would tend to think that it’ll be better than a tranny that is 1-of-50 put together by some guys on a production line somewhere.

 

[Road Guy]

The other part of the equation is that they keep pushing the date of the new transmission out every month - now they are saying “late September” which I assume means October...

Whether I get a new tranny or this rebuilt one it has the same warranty -

I’m leaning towards taking the bird in the hand because selling it is my main option -

I read that something like less than 3% of cars in the US have a manual transmission. Probably time to get out of that business since it will likely not be supported very much in the future

 

[P-E]

Can't believe that only 3% here have manual transmission.   I have one of the few.  I prefer it over my wife's automatic. 

 

[Road Guy]

It was in US news / works report - but I re read it and it’s 3% of vehicles sold today have a manual..

Sounds like manuals don’t help meet the Obummer mandated 39 MPG criteria - so guess I can literally say “thanks Obama” for it taking 3 months to get my vehicle back!

 

[P-E]

I thought standards always gave you a couple mpg better.  Is 39 the fleet average mandate?

 

[Dexman PE PMP]

Manual transmissions have been fading dramatically for the last 20 years.

Several contributors to the decline: driver convenience being the biggest reason simply because most drivers hate riding the clutch in rush hour traffic and prefer to keep their hands free so they can use their phone.

The tech for auto transmissions is also significantly better than it used to be. So much so that most weekend racers prefer autos because they shift faster. Even Indy/F1 cars use paddle shifters now.

The market for manual transmissions is horribly small. Dealerships can't sell them and they sit on the lots for months. Younger drivers don't know how to use them and older drivers prefer the convenience of an auto.

Only people who want a manual are typically nostalgic gearheads.

Ironically enough, Chevy had to modify the V8 engines in the automatic Camaros because they couldn't meet the same (read: better) fuel mileage of the manuals. If you want a real LS3 engine, you needed the manual trans because the autos got a L99 that would shut off 4 cylinders under light loads to improve mileage.

 

[Road Guy]

I got the call that the tranny is at the stealership... so hopefully next week will be back rolling.. I would like to get at least one "doors off" ride before summer is over

I'm sort of in a pickle on what to do, I have this thing paid off and really enjoy driving it. Even if I get $20+ Grand for it I wont be able to replace it for that.. CarMax offered me around $22 the day before all this shit happened, so figure maybe $25K on the open market - but that's such a PIA..

I still think I got F'd at the dealer since the tranny worked when I dropped it off - Dude told me they "broke stuff" trying to diagnose it - of course that didn't help get me anywhere with those rat bastards at Chrysler -

I went and test drove a Tacoma and like it but its just "not a jeep" - also got hooked on some real 4 wheeling this summer and Tacoma's don't have a solid front axle and wont go where I would like to go - but I guess I can always pony up and just rent a jeep (but what's the fun in that)

Also have to help get two other kids rides in the next 2 years so don't really want a $600 payment for a new Tacoma....

resale stats for 2018 are good and bad.. (good for what I want to sell but bad for what I want to buy)

 

[jeb6294]

Sounds like you need to get something that's fun to drive around town and more economical and a dedicated offroad vehicle...if you're really thinking of doing offroading.  YJ's (square headlights) can be gotten pretty cheap, they still had the I-6 and they're usually pretty easy to beef up for some offroading.  Take it from someone who used to do it, it's not as much fun when you have to take it easy so you don't have to worry about breaking your ride to work.

 

[Supe]

Why not just buy a cheap offroader on the side (4 runner, etc.) and not have worry about f*cking something nice up on the trails?

 

[Road Guy]

well that's kind of the point of owning a jeep is you don't have to have a separate vehicle - & 4 runners are good SUV's but they wont go where I want to go (Google black bear pass)   well they can probably make it but not as easy.....

Most of the trails here don't have  the underbrush/ tree cover like in the SE - concerns for scrapes is low & I wont do much true rock crawling where you might roll..

I ended up having to sell the TJ I bought for the daughter, too many issues and I think it needed a new engine, but just to show you how crazy the jeep market in CO is, I bought it for $3K, and ended up selling it to a shop for parts for $3500 (they mainly wanted the frame & the A/C unit) - I had traded it to a guy for an XJ (the "square Cherokee") but he couldn't get it to pass emissions either so I convinced him to trade back so I could sleep at night..

but still looking for a TJ or YJ for the kid that I wouldn't worry about scratching up but a decent one is going to be at least $8 grand and that's one with probably nearly 200K miles on them, almost better to get an older JK at this point..