[elkotronics]

Oh, man, a subject near and dear to my heart. Ever since I turned 16 I have driven around here and there. Cars can be expensive, though, both to buy and to insure and maintain. Fortunately, one can still buy a used car that they can afford to own.

Even a 2017 Nissan Sentra SR Turbo 6-speed.

[ElleTea]

I'm the opposite. If I never had to drive again I'd be okay with that. I wish I had a work from home job so I could stay out of the car most of the time, only driving my car occasionally to keep it in good working order.

[EA]

Originally Posted by elkotronics

Oh, man, a subject near and dear to my heart. Ever since I turned 16 I have driven around here and there. Cars can be expensive, though, both to buy and to insure and maintain. Fortunately, one can still buy a used car that they can afford to own.

Even a 2017 Nissan Sentra SR Turbo 6-speed.

You can get a first gen audi tt quattro manual for 1500 bucks. They look a little funky but they are a blast to drive and take fairly well to mods. You can do 400hp pretty easy.
If I get my ebay sales up I'll probably get a second gen tt rs which comes factory with 400hp and can be taken up to 600 with bolt ons.

[airics]

Originally Posted by EA

I'm not a peasant so I won't ride the stupid train.
I don't live in the 1800s so I have no need to ride a train.
I don't want to go by someone else' schedule so I won't use public transportation at all.

I don't know why you're obsessed with trains so badly.

Trains are good for exactly 1 thing. Transporting large amounts of cargo at once.


I spent 4 days there including 2 week days. I drove from i15 to Torrance. I drove to Redondo and Hermoso beaches twice. I drove All around Palos Verdes twice. I drove out through Long beach. I drove all around Torrance to get parts and food and such.
I didn't even hit traffic til I was leaving. There was a slight hold up where 405 hits the 605 and then there was a wreck on the 210 that slowed things down a bit but I was still moving.
I will say that it does take a little longer to cover a distance there than it does here.
Harbor freight is 3.8 miles from where I was staying.
Harbor freight is 3.8 miles from my house here.
It took 15 minutes to get there in LA and 5 minutes here. Not because of traffic but because everything is a side street and there's a bajillion red lights.
However, I never once sat through multiple light cycles like I do here.

Last time I drove around Hollywood, Burbank, down to long Beach and then just through random areas. I hit a smidge of traffic but nothing worse than here. Not now anyway.
Granted I didn't drive through downtown at rush hour so that might be really bad. But my point is there's absolutely no reason to ride a stupid train.
Why on earth would I go park my car somewhere, walk to a train, figure out which trains I need to switch to, wait around for trains to show up, just to be dropped off NOT at my destination so that I have to walk to where I actually want to be AND pay for it to happen? I can't even explain to you how stupid this is. Occam's razor...

I agree with you on this EA. I think the train idea is ridiculous

[elkotronics]

EA - do you trust German automotive engineering, though? I've heard nightmares about expensive mechanical breakdowns and even expensive maintenance costs with any and all flavors of German automobiles. I prefer Asian rigs. Cars, though. Not SUV's or ugly pick-em-up trucks.

[EA]

Originally Posted by elkotronics

EA - do you trust German automotive engineering, though? I've heard nightmares about expensive mechanical breakdowns and even expensive maintenance costs with any and all flavors of German automobiles. I prefer Asian rigs. Cars, too. Not SUV's or ugly pick-me-up trucks.

Could not pay me enough to take a Mercedes.
Bmw 2.0 turbos are reliable. Everything else will give you various expensive problems.

Audi can be expensive but they seem to be the best of the german stuff.
They share a lot of vw parts. The 1st gen TT is 1500 bucks. Even if stuff starts breaking it would be a while before I spent more than I would on a comparable car.

I drove an a4 wagon manual around and it felt so good.

Bmw just don't suit me at all and they have a lot of issues. Oil leaks, vanos etc.

Mercedes are just nightmares.

[elkotronics]

Appreciate your automotive views on German cars. One reason I'm interested is there's a SLC dealer called Strong VW that's selling new manual Jetta's for around $13,750, that have lifetime mechanical Warranties. Plus, anytime your glass gets chipped or dinged up with those glass stars, they'll fix it for no cost. Dents in your new car? Take it to Strong VW. Only if you bought your new VW there. They'll fix dents, glass and covered Warranty parts under a Warranty that doesn't cost any extra.

Oh, they come with lifetime car washes at no cost, too. I just balk at the thought of buying a German-engineered automotive product. The Japanese and Korean rigs are more reliable and generally cheaper to buy. Especially the South Korean Hyundai-Kia's. I don't need ta trade in and probably should just hang on to our 2011 Kia Soul 5-speed stick with 113,055 miles on it, running like a champ.

[EA]

I wouldn't take a jetta. I HATE jettas. They're awful.

The Passat manual is nice. You can make decent power with them.

[airics]

Originally Posted by elkotronics

Appreciate your automotive views on German cars. One reason I'm interested is there's a SLC dealer called Strong VW that's selling new manual Jetta's for around $13,750, that have lifetime mechanical Warranties. Plus, anytime your glass gets chipped or dinged up with those glass stars, they'll fix it for no cost. Dents in your new car? Take it to Strong VW. Only if you bought your new VW there. They'll fix dents, glass and covered Warranty parts under a Warranty that doesn't cost any extra.

Oh, they come with lifetime car washes at no cost, too. I just balk at the thought of buying a German-engineered automotive product. The Japanese and Korean rigs are more reliable and generally cheaper to buy. Especially the South Korean Hyundai-Kia's. I don't need ta trade in and probably should just hang on to our 2011 Kia Soul 5-speed stick with 113,055 miles on it, running like a champ.

you didn't read the fine print... you have to trade in a vehicle that qualifies (that gets you $1k off the price), you have to finance through vw finance (that gets you $2k off the price)... AND you have to be a returning VW customer owner to get the additional rebate which brings it under $14k... so you are looking at 17,500 plus dealer fees if you don't meet the 3 pieces of criteria.

[bledsoe3]

Originally Posted by LandscapeAritst

Last time I complained when we had lots of rain for days, the locals acted like I said something horrible. "We need the water, the lake is too drained." I tried to explain to them that only snow from the mountains will help with the drought and rain doesn't help that much.

Does anyone know off the top of their how the snow pack is?