Post your Car

[Rusty Venture]

I'm a lazy ass American who drives an automatic.

[0x15e]

So I just put mine in the shop. The verdict is that the turbo is leaking oil, the wastegate actuator failed, which caused boost spikes, which caused fuel cutting, and two broken exhaust manifold bolts. Uggghhhhh ...

You know, most people with sporty cars work on them to improve performance. I'd just like mine to actually work at all.

[Iron Lizard]

No your a Gummi Bear!

[Rusty Venture]

Regardless of my status...

I like my car to be automatic.


I'm surprised Zebbe never said a word about my Swedish.

[mick_aka]

I find in the UK Automatics are usually purchased by the disabled or over 70's.

I'm guessing our friends across the pond have rather weak right wrists (for whatever reason) thus explaining the popularity of auto boxes

Oh and semi-auto boxes were used in Citroen cars up until the late 80's (called c-matic), they are also still in use in busses and other heavy vehicles.

[David J.]

I had a 1996 Ford Taurus GL, which was more or less the base model (dunno what was different in the "G" model) before I went in the military... It had low, low miles, but the car was in dire shape from the previous owner (an elderly guy). I have photos around... The road salt was eating away at the car when it had to be sold. I sold it to a friend who needed something to drive him to his new job, since his truck uses up gas like its nothing.

Nothing special, but I loved it, because it was something you could drive the hell out of, and it'd live for abuse. A couple of months before I sold it, I had to put a new sway bar in it, and that damn car handled like a fucking champ.

I hope to find another beater when I get back home. It'll be a while until I buy a new car, haha.

[Iron Lizard]

I find in the UK Automatics are usually purchased by the disabled or over 70's.

I'm guessing our friends across the pond have rather weak right wrists (for whatever reason) thus explaining the popularity of auto boxes

Oh and semi-auto boxes were used in Citroen cars up until the late 80's (called c-matic), they are also still in use in busses and other heavy vehicles.

Well on a serious note a large percentage of people who bought them were missing limbs after WWII. Of course after that I have no idea why they are so popular after that. Most cars here at the time were 3 on tree which is bit annoying to drive instead of floor mounted shifters. That also may have had something to do with it. The only cars that came floor mounted manual shifters in the 40's and 50's in the U.S. were imports. It took awhile for U.S. car makers to adopt them and by then I think the Automatics had taken over.

0x15e whaqt kind of car do you have? Your lucky they caught the leak it could have killed the turbo. The dead wastegate could have killed the motor if the boost went to high. I did that in my Volvo. It spit the rod through the side of the block.Though teh car moved likea bat out of hell. Turbos are to damn finicky for me. I have killed a few on my Volvo. Im sticking with big simple motors theese days.

[Tanegashima]

My Lincoln LS has an automatic transmission, but one can shift down to second up through fifth "manually" by sliding the shifter over to a "+ & -" track and pushing on it, probably the most useless feature ever...the way the computer assisted shifting works, it pretty much never lets you do what you want (for instance I want to stay in 2nd but if I rev too high it automatically upshifts...annoying as hell)

[0x15e]

0x15e whaqt kind of car do you have? Your lucky they caught the leak it could have killed the turbo. The dead wastegate could have killed the motor if the boost went to high. I did that in my Volvo. It spit the rod through the side of the block.Though teh car moved likea bat out of hell. Turbos are to damn finicky for me. I have killed a few on my Volvo. Im sticking with big simple motors theese days.

It's a 2003.5 Mazdaspeed Protege (original post). Yeah, it was definitely overboosting, it was nice and fast until it started hitting fuel cut. The guy at the shop said it was spiking to 10psi (stock is 6). Ironically enough, the way my extended warranty is, if I actually added a boost gauge to try to prevent this kind of thing, it would void the warranty. How stupid is that?

Hopefully, I'll get a new turbo out of this.

[Iron Lizard]

Its amazing how stupid warrantys can be. Well when it expires run out and buy a boost gauge and controller and have some fun. Then you can run the boost to fuel cut. I love my GReady on my Volvo,though I had to figure out how to defeat the boost cut off but on that car but it is simple on pre 90 turbo Volvos.

[Elusive]

Had a word with the mechanic who's fixing up my bike: it's touch-and-go at present whether replacing the machine's piston rings & camshaft will make much of a difference. Turns out that my GX125 was actually produced under license by some Chinese company, so it's not a 'genuine' Suzuki - hence, part numbers don't match up with Suzuki's, and the engine's definitely not a standard build so an engine swap is out of the question. It should be ready for tomorrow or the day after, though, so fingers crossed.

If all is lost, there's always the scrapyard for a quick sale, and I've been offered cash for the sooter I'm riding in the meantime (coincidentally enough, a similar Chinese import) so I can always start from the beginning with a cheap car or something.

[evildragon]

Well well well.. Cleaned and waxed my car yesterday.. Today come out, and theres this big nasty bird shit all over the hood..

DAMNIT!!

[Mr Smith]

I never learned to drive and am foreced to use hateful public transport where some dick is always playing music and I have to resist the urge to feed them their iPod/mobile phone.

[Iron Lizard]

My wife doesn't drive either. She from Sweden where she can get away with it. Hell, if I lived there I would only drive for fun. Here in the U.S. many cities are built around cars and the public transportation sucks. On top of that here in Tucson where it can reach 110f/43c no one wants to wait 45 minutes for a bus in some cases. I drive here around alot seeing as she never had the need to get a license.

[mick_aka]

I never learned to drive and am foreced to use hateful public transport where some dick is always playing music and I have to resist the urge to feed them their iPod/mobile phone.

I could deal with walkmans etc. but the current craze of listening to shit music aloud using your mobile phone's speaker makes me want to cut people's throats.