Motors What do you drive? - The Photo Gallery

At least he was not hurt...

Salty snow? We don't have snow....

 

I say you guys swap cars. He owes you a new Audi

 

Yup, all the councils put salt / grit down to stop anything freezing on the roads. Can't say it works all the time, but some prevention is better than none.

 

I'd love that. 1.8TFSI Black Edition with a flappy paddle.

 

But doesn't the salt rust stuff?

 

bad luck there Krikkit, at least your both alright.


I was just here to post this........

I've got one of these.



same colour, different alloys, but more or less the same, 4 months old.
My last car packed in and I got £2000 as a scrapper under the Govt scheme.

Nice little car, about as exciting as a tin of bakedbeans.
Not my 1st choice, but I got a great deal on it, and it was by far the best car in my price range.
And the spec is pretty decent. ABS, all round disks, ipod dock. All "NICE" stuff ( do you want to go out with a "nice" girl?!?)

I was out in it today.
it turned from bland to great in 20 seconds.

Ice, snow,hail, drives just great in all of them.
accelerates and brakes like there isn't a problem.
Really pleased with the little blighter

 

The theory behind salting snowy roads in winter is this: Snow falls, cars drive over the snow compacting it and making it slippery. The snow plough comes along and moves as much surface snow as possible with the blade, and spreads rocksalt behind it. The rocksalt will only break up the remainder of the compacted "icy" snow if traffic drives over it, otherwise it just sits there. I know this because my father both maintained and drove gritting lorries and snow ploughs for years for our local road maintenance authority, the DOE (Department Of the Environment).

In short, yes. So much so that the roads service in the south of Ireland actually uses sand rather than rocksalt to add traction to the roads and try to break up compacted snow and ice. The rocksalt will affect paintwork, chassis integrity and bodywork over time. In the same way as I've always been taught to wash a speedboat down with fresh water after bringing it in off the sea, I always try to rinse my car down after long journeys on salty/slushy roads.

 

Ever look through the classifieds for classic cars, and see "California car!" or "Southern car!" in big letters? In the Northeast, we get road salt, so cars around here tend to rust out much faster than ones in warmer places.

My car is in pretty decent condition. The exhaust system is fully covered in surface rust after 13 years, and the bottom of the unibody is this kinda rough gunky black-brown texture.

I saw a guy from florida with the same model car, same year. His exhaust system was completely shiny and new. All of his bolts were silver. The underside of the unibody was the same color as the upper side He could take apart the bottom of the car with a screwdriver, whereas I would need a can of PB Blaster and an impact wrench. They salt the roads in NJ, but they don't in florida.

 

How do you/your dad find the flappy gear box? I am considering getting a black (or an older S3) but not sure about the flappy gear box as the dealer did not have any in when we looked. Is parking a pain with no clutch control?

 

Pretty much every car ends up the same as yours after 13 years driving on the roads in this country. I should point out that in Northern Ireland the roads service do use rocksalt, and a heck of a lot of it, too. I'd never have a car in this country for 13 years, unless it was a classic that was worth keeping for that long. I tend to change every 3-4 years, or after the warranty period on my new vehicle has ran up, or every 150-200 thousand miles. Basically whichever comes first. My current car came with a 3 year warranty and they say they'll let me extend that a further 24 months for a fairly reasonable amount when it's up next year.

 

Cars are cheap over there?

 

yeah, that is one thing that the people who bash american cars nver realize... long term reliability.

I would say the average age of the cars I see every day is 10 years old. While some of the higher-income people will swap out a car every 3 years or so, the majority will buy one and keep it for a decade.

Many people my age (early 20s) drive cars from the mid 90s.

It's not an uncommon sight to see a 40 year old car that's still being driven around town. A guy I know has a '66 LeMans that he bought used in the early 80s and has been daily driving since then... thing has got to have a million miles on it by now. Obviously, he takes good care of it and has replaced plenty of parts over the decades.

In the US, people just tend to keep their cars for longer, so rust and road salt are more concerning. There's only so much rust that could be accumulated by a normally driven car in 3-4 years, and it's not enough to cause a major breakdown. When you're going car shopping for a 20 year old car, that's when it becomes important to check rust carefully.

 

Seat Ibiza.

 

Define cheap

I wouldn't say cars are cheap, no... However when you use on a vehicle for work purposes like I do then it's important to ensure that you have something that's reliable. As well as that, I tend to move with the times as far as cars go. A new car every few years maintains a good image for both myself and my company, and that's something that I take seriously. New cars have new features and technologies onboard and that all contributes to a better vehicle. If I could afford to buy a new, bigger and sportier car in the new year then I would, but for now my car is practical, economical and still just over 2 years old. It's running well so far, and anytime there are minor problems with it having a father who is a mechanic comes in handy, but I'd say I will still end up changing it within 2 years.

I'm in my early twenties too and like you said, most people my age over here drive cars that are from the late 90's or early 00's merely because they are cheaper to buy. I guess I just like new cars better, especially as far as a daily drive vehicle goes. I've taken a leaf from my fathers book when it comes to changing cars more often than most other people. At the very outside I would drive my current car for maybe another 3 years and then change, but only if the manufacturer waranty is still active during that period. It is a Renault after all A couple of people I know who own businesses get cars on a contract basis from dealerships, which means that they take the vehicle and pay for it over a period of months, usually 24. Every two years they change the company cars and the vehicles end up costing them much less than retail price. When it comes time to change, they give the car back to the dealer who sells it on and they get a brand new car with a very reduced price tag which is payable over another period of months. One particular couple that I know who own a company have been doing this for the 14 or 15 years that they have been in business. When I graduate and go into business full time, I'd like to do that as well.

 

It's a fantastic box tbh - it's the great middle-point between manual and automatic. Parking is easy - it works just like an automatic in that sense, the car is really easy to control at low speed, moving along under its own torque most of the time.

Then when you get out on the road it can either do incredibly smooth auto changes (being double clutch is really is near-seamless power transfer) or stick it into manual mode and change yourself when you feel like (although on the non-S3 it'll change up if you redline it, you might find the S3's software will let you bounce off the limiter).

I'd try and find an Audi dealer with a DSG car to test it on, any of them will ably demonstrate how good (imo) it is, and you'll know if you don't like it.

 

I accidentally... My whole car, on Christmas Eve

Already mentioned this a few other places;

What's ruining your life right now?

What's under your tree?

So you've heard pretty much everything about how it happened, here's the pix or it didn't happen part.

From this:



To this:




In less than 5 seconds

I'm very lucky to be alive this Christmas and thankful for it too.

 

Bloody hell Uni bit of a bump there and not the best of days for it to happen either. Glad to hear you got away lightly though. Hope your christmas day was better then yesterday

 

It doesn't look too good. Just glad you are still amongst us. Rental car for a bit while you shop around?

 

Bit of a bump indeed Gareth :/

John, I have Gap VRI (Vehicle Replacement Gap Insurance) so I'll hopefully have a new vehicle within a couple of weeks of making the claim (been on the phone with the insurance company today). Until then, it's going to be public transport and lifts off the family to get me around. Rentals are way too expensive over here to make it worth while. Both my Dad and brother have cars so I should be fine.

 

Glad you're ok Unicorn - the car did a good job in terms of keeping you in one piece! It does sort of look from the picture as though it was trying to eat the tree - you were feeding it correctly?

Have to say I've been loving the Audi Quattro system in this weather, pulling out from junctions into normal sized gaps from icey roads has been fantastic...

RwD