Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

nouseferaname90 said:
On the topic of accidents:

Someone failed big time...
aston-crash-44.jpg


http://www.autoblog.com/2009/01/15/how-i-not-i-to-deliver-an-aston-martin/
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that will buff right out...
 
GM_IV said:
Indeed, every single contract is unfortunately open ended(primarily because of body shops never giving a real date of when someone's car is ready) so nobody at Ecars has any clue when the car will surely return. It screws us over when it comes to reservations. Most branches have to run at a rate of 90% rented or more otherwise some other branches will take their cars so often there's very few cars left at a time except Friday evenings and Monday morning. If you put in a reservation, the branch is at least forced to find your vehicle.


Each branch gets rated on customer service and if that number reaches an unacceptable level determined by their group office they do get fired. Considering what happened to you, definitely complain since that will affect that particular branch's performance. Plus they're actually supposed to comp you if they screwed up like this.

If you want rates that don't change, the website actually discounts the regular rates while giving you full details of all charges along with the total. It also books your reservation with the rate set, just call to confirm that the branch has the reservation which they can check in mere seconds.
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NecroJoe said:
It happens to me just about every time I rent a car...they don't have the one I reserved, and they offer me an "upgrade" to a car I don't want. The only company that hasn't done that to be was Hertz, but I've only used them once...

Enterprise, dollar, avis, Rent4Less and budget have all done it to me.

With Enterprise, i was renting a van because I needed to move some cargo, and they "upgraded" me for free to a larger U-Haul moving truck type thing. Trouble is, I was going to be driving hundreds of miles so gas was an issue, and I was renting a van because IT WOULD FIT INTO THE ENTRANCE of the place I was going. The Truck would have been 7 1/2" too wide to even fit through the gate. I ended up waiting at their office for nearly 3 hours while they got one from another location.

I needed the cheapest car I could get from Rent4Less to drive to work, some back and forth, all highway. Couple hundred miles over 3 days. I reserved a "Ford Focus 3-door or similar" with a manual, air and CD. When I get there they tell me they have "upgraded" me a Corolla sedan, with an auto, no air, and a tape player. When I asked about upgrades from the Corolla to another car, I was able to get a Mustang convertible for $1.40. So it didn't end all bad.
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I returned the Mitsupieceofdonkeyballs-hi Galant today and YEARNED for the "Were you satisfied with your experience" question. I told them "Chhha.... No." then went on to explain the whole process. The "Management Trainee" (what a title... :rolleyes:) taking care of me went on to say he'd give me one free day comped and asked when I'd be renting again. I responded: "Not likely any time soon. God willing, for only the next time my car is in an accident. And after this experience, I wouldn't wait on seat's edge for that" and walked out. Yeah I can be a dick sometimes, but I wanted to let my discontent known.

I think I may call Enterprise HQ tomorrow and complain, or at least let my grievance known to higher-up than a "management trainee".

DTMracer said:
Rear wheel drive and manual GTR: http://www.autoblog.com/2009/01/15/2009-tokyo-auto-salon-blitz-brings-rwd-manual-equipped-gt-r/

I wish that "manual" was standard.
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I like the PepBoyz, Y0! steering wheel. It's like they put it there KNOWING it was a joke. And if they fitted a different trans to this GT-R, what was all that crap Clarkson was talking about with "only one trans will work per engine. They're custom made!". You telling me TG lied?.... NEVAR!
 
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Anyone know if theres a website out there that hosts engine sound mp3s? I want to get some V8 rumbles on my phone for ringtones.

Edit: found a site
http://www.car-tones.com/ringtones

and on second thought, I think I'm gonna keep the TopGear opening theme as my ringone
 
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No Boss said:
I like the PepBoyz, Y0! steering wheel. It's like they put it there KNOWING it was a joke. And if they fitted a different trans to this GT-R, what was all that crap Clarkson was talking about with "only one trans will work per engine. They're custom made!". You telling me TG lied?.... NEVAR!
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They said each transmission is made with the engine it is going to be connected to, supposedly meaning each one is unique. I'd like to see a Best Motoring test of this GT-R against the production model.
 
So I hate automatic gearboxes. I was driving my F150 today, and I could not get the thing to drop into 4th at any speed under 50mph. Normally, I can cruise at 1200rpm at 42mph, but the stupid thing WOULD NOT SHIFT. :wall:
 
Isn't the whole reason the car can (supposedly) outrun the GT2 is because of it's brilliant AWD system?
 
Crazyjeeper said:
So I hate automatic gearboxes. I was driving my F150 today, and I could not get the thing to drop into 4th at any speed under 50mph. Normally, I can cruise at 1200rpm at 42mph, but the stupid thing WOULD NOT SHIFT. :wall:
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It's a thermal thing. It has to warm up before it can shift into OD, because the cold fluid wouldn't flow properly (and therefore wouldn't lubricate as well). Some automatic transmissions have reduced lubricant flow in OD, so that's why.

I have the same thing in the Nissan except what it won't do when cold is lock the torque converter.
 
Spectre said:
It's a thermal thing. It has to warm up before it can shift into OD, because the cold fluid wouldn't flow properly (and therefore wouldn't lubricate as well). Some automatic transmissions have reduced lubricant flow in OD, so that's why.

I have the same thing in the Nissan except what it won't do when cold is lock the torque converter.
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Yeah, I thought it might be a thermal thing, since it was pretty cold out, and once it warmed up it would shift, but if I had a manual, I could move the lever into OD and get 14.1mpg instead of 12.5 :lol:
 
No Boss said:
I am by far one of the utmost subscribers to the maxim "Don't drive a car that belongs to someone else like an asshole".
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I wouldn't drive a friend or a family member's car in anything other than a 'the best Christian driving I can do' manner, but rental companies have to be the exception. Honest, if you ever want to learn handbrake turns or explore rev-limits...
 
teeb said:
I wouldn't drive a friend or a family member's car in anything other than a 'the best Christian driving I can do' manner, but rental companies have to be the exception. Honest, if you ever want to learn handbrake turns or explore rev-limits...
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To quote Jeff Foxworthy "Hell yes I want the insurance, that cars gonna see more air time than a skateboard at the X-games"
and
"My mother will not drive 55 miles an hour, put her in rental car and she's doing donuts in the grocery store parking lot"

http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=69566&title=jeff-foxworthy-rental-cars
 
I might be going to an ice-racing trackday on the 24th with an automatic Volvo 940 estate with a 2.3, 100kw engine. Any tips on how I should go about driving there? The goal is to learn as much as possible WITHOUT damaging/crahing the car in any way.
 
Somebody around here is driving his Elise year-round. Brave, or merely foolish?
 
Posmo said:
Automatic gearbox :(
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Your Volvo doesn't have a 2nd lock? Even my shitty Bluebird which hasn't seen a winter in it's life will take off and stay in 2nd when you put it in "2".

Oh, and cheap cars suck. Me and my friend have been thinking about buying a cheap car to use as a track weapon. He saw this '82 Celica in the paper for $650 bucks. I told him it wouldn't be promising, but I thought it'd be good to go to teach him a lesson. We already knew from the ad that there were already problems with the electrics and the rear hatch wouldn't open, but it was worse than that. A massive rust hole on the rear hatch, scratches and dings all round the thing, a woeful interior. It wasn't registered apparently - I doubt you could ever register something that crappy...

I think he learned his lesson! The best thing is, he drove there as well. Beautiful
 
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Labcoatguy said:
Somebody around here is driving his Elise year-round. Brave, or merely foolish?
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Brave. Cojones of steel.

On a different note, here's what I was thinking about the other day:
Audi had the wonderful 2.7TT V6 motor in the b5 S4. From a modifying point of view the engine was a gem. A chip would get you from 250hp to a little over 300hp (and the car is lighter than the b6 so it could keep up); k04 (RS4) turbos would get you 400+ at all four wheels and do so pretty reliably. The b6 S4 got the 4.2L V8 and oh boy... Not much you could do to that engine after exhaust/intake, although some people managed to fit superchargers to them but we won't go there (very expensive, not very reliabile).
BMW, on the other hand, had motors that were not very power-friendly, so to speak. E46, in particular, was not an easy car to extract a lot of power from. The M3 was out for years before tuners finally managed to lower the compression enough for the car to accept a supercharger. Also an extremely expensive proposition. Then the E90/E92 335i came out with the twin-turbo I-6. With that motor, just a chip will put you very close to the 300awhp mark, and with downpipes you'll be seeing ~350... to the wheels.
So, is it just me or does it seem like Audi is going backwards in terms of engines and BMW forward? This is strictly from a modifying/tuning point of view; I readily admit that the E46 M3 and the B6 S4 have awesome engines out of the box.
 
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