Geeto67

This is literally the most laughably out of touch thing I have ever read on CR. It's like retarded version of nationalism except it's against other Americans. My wife is from Austin, as in grew up there, went to high school and college there, and let me tell you - Austin has ALWAYS been the most liberal part of Texas (well since the 1950's at least). It's literally been called "the people's republic of Austin" by conservative nutjobs since the 1970's. If anything the place has gotten slightly more conservative since the 2003 and 2008 republican attempts at gerrymandering that created a republican voting majority in the suburbs outside. Seeing a bunch of ohioans bitch and moan about Austin, Tx becoming "liberal" because of "californians" is like watching a bunch of boomers complain that water is too wet. :dumb:

I like it, but I guess it isn't for everyone. Something about a 2JZ powered car that looks like an old 50's British diamler and a Studebaker had a sloppy one night stand in a pub bathroom tickles me, esp if you slap a big turbo on it, but eh at least you'll never see yourself at cars and coffee. The made almost 7,000 GTV 2.0L turbo coupes for the european and asian market (and 444 spyders), most of them in 1996. Most that I see on euro car sites hover between 7,500 and 12,000 euros - might be more in japan though due to low import volume. Alfa's factory turbo was a 2.0L that made 200hp, Calloway's twin turbo v6 was on the 80's generation v6 GTV and those are ver expensive animals - but we did get them in the US. I drove a new GTV turbo v6 in italy in 1997 when I lived there, it's not a "Fast" car but it's quick, high revving, and handles really well. It's like if honda actually made a turbo civic and it wasn't ugly - that's the 916 GTV6 Turbo. all the fan boi's brought them over to the states already I mention this because a) I love wagons, and b) I like e36 bmws. granted I would rather have an M car wagon but those are only in the e34 5 series body style and already big money. the e36 chassis is well balanced, but you are right it isn't all that fast, and Mtech means it has the m3 bodywork but none of the m3 power so...all looks, no books. There was an imported e36 diesel wagon that was rotted to the door handles that sold for something stupid like $3K last year because someone wanted to convert their m3 coupe to a wagon and needed the roof and interior bits, so there is a market for these cars but if isn't your scene, no big whoop.

Every car I suggested, except the mercedes, not only has a swap kits available, but has been old school Chevy V8 swapped since before the LS was a gleam in Mary Barra's eye. My Cousin used to own John Glenn's 1976 XJS that had an old school LS7 454 big block swapped in my GM-jag in florida in the late 1970's. You can buy LS swap engine and trans mounts for a C4 corvette over the counter at your Chevy dealer - they are in the GM performance parts catalog. I saw eight different LS swapped bmws last year on power tour. two were E34s. Sikky and CX racing both make swap kits for the 3 and 5 series cars depending on what E34 you have. Sikky and CX racing also make the swap kits for rX7s and have been for a long time. The only "weird one" is the Mercedes and that's because I haven't seen an LS1 kit for it yet. I did see at least 2 that were ford 5.0 swapped in the 90's. seriously, how could you hate this if you knew it was LS swapped:

Here are my suggestions: - C4 corvette. yeah the chassis is a little flexible, but there are bolt on fixes for that. The suspension is def there, the aftermarket is fantastic for these cars, and many people race them so there is a good knowledge base for everything from auto-x to endurance racing. They are stupid cheap, can take a pretty wide tire set, and 90's manual ones should have a 6 speed that will live behind that LS. - first gen RX7. There are swap kits, the car is tiny (short wheel base and light) but will swallow a v8 no problem, good aftermarket support. They look like a real life hot wheels car with flares and big meats. - XJS jaguar, ok this one is a little out of left field, but hear me out. The suspension on the old jags are fantastic (rear is an IRS version of the dana 44), and literally anything lighter than the 700+lb v12 that goes in it. This is more of a highway car than a roadrace car, but broadspeed raced the xjs in the 80's with much success. they look killer with flares and 10" wide panasports at all four corners. XJS's used chevy transmissions starting in the 70's and there are so many kits to put chevy's into jags, you could find a swapped one to start if you look, you can get the manual trans swap parts from england - there are already kits to put in T56s in these cars. - 1970's/80's Mercedes Diesel. I watched Lost highway the other night and now have dreams of that stack injected Merc that tears up mulholland. bonus points if you do it to a coupe. bonus points if you start with a manual trans 300CD 2 door coupe. AS far as I know nobody is racing these so no great aftermarket, but the diesel components are overbuilt. - e34 (1989-1996) BMW 5-series. Easily one of the best cars bmw ever made. Good aftermarket support. again a little heavy, but its a great car with lots of room. Bonus points if you swap a wagon. you could also consider a E28 previous gen 5 series as they are much lighter and the first M5 was a touring car legend, same with the 80's 6-series which is a related chassis.

To be fair I "CR read it" which means I saw WWCRD and the $ and basically stopped reading and said what I would do with the money given the circumstance. To be faaaaaiiiir....there are few cars that do that. maybe an B7 RS4 audi with a stick would, an ATS-V, or an AMG Merc, but that's about it. I mean I think the Chevy SS might also fit, but as you said, anything that starts as a caprice isn't classy no matter how much leather and magnetic ride you through at it. I feel like this has Porsche 911 all over it. Maybe not a Turbo, maybe something like a 997 or 991 targa in a striking and rare color. Aston Martin V8 vantage would also fall into this category as well as an XKR jaguar.

my suggestion (cheap sleeper DD fun): - 6.0L police caprice - 6MT trans swap out of 5th/6th gen camaro - carpet and seats out of a wrecked G8 - stupid cam, turbo, anything to get you to 600rwhp. I figure you can do all of that for around $15K if you are resourceful. The hardest part would be finding a 6.0L caprice for less than $9K that doesn't smell like a wet dog shit into a burning dumpster in the back seat. If you can find a "detective trim" caprice, all you need to do is put in the carpet, and if the wife can't drive stick, won't even need to manual swap it (although that would make it really fun). Look like a downspec malibu, but beat up on errythang. FWIW, I feel like the v8 R8 manual is the exotic you can drive every day. When I used to work in Manhattan, there was a guy in an R8 manual that used to arrive about the same time as me every day. He was a super douche canoe in the sense that he asked the garage attendants if they could drive stick every single time, but he daily drove that R8 from CT to 51st street and 1st ave every single day without issue. I even asked him about it once and he said it was the best car he ever owned. I don't trust audi DSGs after a friend of mine had a ton of problems with his S4, and I take the approach with audi's that the less the computer does for you the better off you are.

My suggestions: - Audi RS2 (just became legal so the prices are rising) - BMW e36 Mtech 325is WAGON (people in the west don't even know these exist - dirt cheap but bimmerphiles would go nuts on BAT) - 1994-2000 Subaru WRX STi 2 door coupe (see this go for less than $25K - they haven't had the bump like skylines) - Any 1970's Toyota Corona or crown 2 door fastback (japanese American style muscle cars - we got them here in small numbers, few left) - EK9 civic type R (this one...may cost you. The ultimate JDM fanboi machine) - 1997 Alfa GTV v6 turbo (we didn't get these at all, brilliant car with niche following, pretty cheap overseas) - any toyota with a 2JZ engine that isn't a supra or a lexus (An origin would be awesome but you might have to wait 4 years) <---2JZ no shit

I have a bunch of cobra models in various sizes you are welcome to borrow. I have to look for it, but I attended the Shelby Series I launch in the late 90's and CS himself gave me a hat with the series 1 eye logo. It was signed, but I think my mom washed it and the signature came off. If I can find it you are welcome to it, but I am going to want it back.

pm sent.

I think you are expecting too much of Tim. no, they just won't turn them over to the US, ya know, those people who they are in an armed conflict with. They are going to turn them over to the French or Canadians, and they have invited a Boeing Representative - just not the US government. https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/iran-plane-crash-investigation

not a single one of those "confirms" anything - it's all "likely" and "pentagon believes" and "evidence suggests". Granted it's a lot more to go on than we had yesterday, but it's not confirmed by any stretch. Still say y'all should maybe wait to see what more comes out before saying it's "confirmed" and treating it like fact.

can you share the link to where it was confirmed? so far from what I am reading it's just a theory based only on the US investigation and not anything proven.

That's not "fact" that's just you speculating. Fact is that the Aircraft lost radar contact at 8,000 feet shortly after takeoff and crashed. logical conclusion is that a catastrophic event (which covers everything from rapid mechanical failure to terrorism) occurred as that is usually what happens based on the fact pattern. Pure speculation is: "Iran accidentally shot down a civilian aircraft", sure it's one of the possible scenarios but not the only one and not one the known evidence currently supports. It adds a responsible party, a method, and all sorts of false information to slant the story. Maybe it's true, maybe it isn't but that can't be determined right now.

This was your primary mistake. Even if you pay off the balance on the credit card, NEVER close the account. Why? closing out the account destroys your credit utilization and can wipe out the debt history so it appears as if you have never had credit. Ok, so maybe never, but almost never - it is just a huge setback. too late to do anything about it now, but learn for next time. You are going to need to re-establish your credit utilization, which means at least one credit card. Try contacting one of your old credit card companies, preferably the one with the oldest history or one tied to a large financial institution or your existing bank. If you can do it in person at a bank branch even better. Make the case that you have along history with them and you made the mistake of closing the account when you didn't mean to and that you would like to see if they can give you a favorable rate. It may not be as good as you had it, but it won't be an off the street rate either. you can also look at a credit builder loan. These work almost like a forced savings account - you take out a loan, the lender put the money you borrowed in an account that you can't touch. You make payments to the bank, and when the loan is "paid off" the lender releases the sum to you. You are probably going to have to go to a credit union for one of these but they tend to run in the 12% interest rate range and some even offer to refund 50% of the interest if all your payments are made on time. If you want to finance a car, see if someone in your family has better credit than you currently and have them co-sign the car. This will bring the interest rate down significantly.

yeah pretty sure we ruined Iran decades ago: https://www.npr.org/2019/02/07/692259096/new-npr-podcast-examines-the-animosity-between-the-u-s-and-iran

Craig, When I get the thing started you should come down and hear it run. I figure t should run within the next 2 weeks.

A couple of years ago, I got hit in my jeep. It had a very nice discontinued aluminum tube bumper on it that was very expensive in the 1990's and discontinued. The driver that hit me had progressive. They were willing to pay for a replacement bumper if I could provide them documentation on the cost of the bumper. It took a while but I found an old jeep catalog that had one in it with the price listed. They gave me the list price of the bumper and I bought a different bumper that was about the same money and the body shop installed it. They didn't argue with me, they didn't hassle me, and they were patient. I had the car looked at by their adjuster at a bodyshop I trusted and they fought for me so I didn't have to deal with some asshole trying to lowball the damage. I told them no aftermarket parts to replace OEM and the bumper I would work out with them. Point is I've had a really good experience making a claim with progressive where the other guy was at fault. So much so that I actually considered switching ins companies from geico but they couldn't match my bundled rate. Here is my advice: - Find a body shop you trust. Kevin Clifford seems to the board go to, I also like auto body specialists on 5th ave. Tell them you want OEM replacement parts and exact mfg replacement on any aftermarket parts. Let the adjuster look at the car at their location. Let the body shop fight it out with them, they do it all day long and they know exactly what to say. A really good shop will have their own estimate to use against the adjuster's lowball one. - get all your documentation together for any aftermarket parts. If you have a receipt, great! if you don't get out the catalog you ordered it from or look it up online and print it out. give the body shop a copy so they have something for when the adjuster comes. - These things don't have to be a fight, but having knowledge in hand can prevent one and also help you win if they are going to be stubborn. Stick to your guns: no aftermarket parts to replace OEM and same mfg for any aftermarket being replaced. The insurance company will try to bullshit you about how they can't or they have the right to use aftermarket, but that's only with their driver - you are the person their driver hit and they have to make you whole and cheeping out on parts isn't going to make you whole <--remind them of this fact anytime they bring it up. best of luck and if you start having problems, ask them here and even if we can't help it will be entertaining.

a brand new base boxster is still a $60K proposition with options bringing it right around to $75K. the only boxsters as cheap as you describe are the 9-10 year old cars that are going to need something. I don't think even the oldest 981's (2012) are touching below $30K yet. That said I really don't understand the porka market, but that said, a $25K premium on a sports car that already left it's entry level price behind 2 generations ago doesn't seem that unreasonable.

I guess I read this differently: As in the car could have been launched earlier but continued into the 2010's as long as it was a continuation. Plus I didn't list them as "the worst" car, just cars that were worse than the ELR from a mechanical standpoint. I don't know, I've talked to two different dart owners that had bad experiences with oil consumption and other issues. maybe time will tell that the dart is a good car, just haven't seen it. I do know there are people who love them so there must be some redeeming quality. agreed, and yet I find some redemption for the renegade which is based on the same platform. Maybe it has to do with the fun factor that the renegade brings to the table and the fact that it's 1000% better looking. It does frustrate me that there isn't a dealer that can seem to get a trailhawk renegade for under $30K despite the msrp being $25K. I see the renegade trailhawk as a successor to the old 4 cyl bare bones wrangler - cheap, capable, simple transport but only if the dealers can stop being dealers and thinking that top line models require $5K+ in options. There are a lot of missed the mark cars out there now that are great. and some not so much.

I went with amazon specials for my BMW that were projector halogen with LED turn signals. Why? Even as part of normal service I was changing signal light bulbs far more often than headlight bulbs and on that car they are much harder to change. LED's are basically set it and forget it. For headlight...light I feel like there are too many options out there that throw poor light. LED doesn't generate more light, it just draws less power and require less service and that's the advantage. LED lights that provide a real improvement in light being shown cost real money, and I am cheap, whereas it's hard to get a bad halogen in projector light.

The two biggest problems with the ELR were: 1) the price 2) That it applied old GM (and frankly old american car mfg thinking) that you can make anything "luxury" by throwing enough wood, leather, and chrome at something. The car itself wasn't that bad, and when dealers were blowing them out for $37K, people who bought them got a hell of a bargain. Mechanically it was a 2 door volt, and honestly anybody who wanted a 4 door elr just needed to buy a fully optioned volt, i've ridden in both and the only difference interior wise were the Cadillac logos and the v shaped buttons. The other part, well that was the hard lesson GM had to learn from tesla - technology is the new luxury and slapping old luxury on top of tech you have available on a car at 1/3 the price point isn't going to fly anymore. Not that GM was the only one doing this (5 series electric I am looking at you) but the ELR is probably the worst example of this. Still, I don't think it earns worst car status because as depreciated used cars they are an absolute bargain ($15-20K) and are a car people should totally own. They aren't a performance car but a plug in hybrid that can save you $200 a month in fuel costs for less than a leaf and has the plushness of a $75K car is worth it. It's a great car, just not what the market wanted which doesn't necessarily make it a bad car. Also it can't be "the worst" car when things like the dodge avenger, caliber, sebring, dart, Jeep compass, Chevy Spark, Fiat 500L existed. For worst car I am going to put the 6th gen Mitsubishi Mirage solidly in the running. By some metrics I should love this car - it's shockingly cheap ($13K) and it comes in a host of really cool colors, and it comes in a manual. and yet, there isn't a car that I find more soul sucking than this little shit box. It rides like a Conestoga wagon, it makes 78 (Seventy Freaking eight!!!! double digit) hp, and is notorious for being unreliable. I've bought $500 used motorcycles that made more HP, were more reliable, and rode better. With the prices of cars ever creeping up, we need more good cheap cars to keep people on wheels in lower income brackets and good cheap new cars make good very cheap used cars. Plus this is one area where grassroots tuner culture and motorsports traditionally took hold with cars like the miata, civic, and fiesta. seriously for $2K more you can get a new fiesta and access to fiesta aftermarket and for $6K more you get an ST performance model. Heck even the chevy spark has some aftermarket support and it's the freaking chevy spark - not exactly a high bar to clear. Fuck you Mitsubishi for not only forgetting you made legends like the Eclipse and the lancer evo, but for forcing this on the american public while you go through your shitty identity crisis.

You know you are old when... ... the title of your post reads "worst NYE ever" and the conversation is about what is on TV instead of how you injured yourself/lost a boatload of money/contracted an STD/had a real adventure at a new years eve party. not that I did any of those thing either (although I did injure myself at a kids NYE skating party) but I know I am an old dad now and I ain't complaining. I made bacon wrapped scallops, ate cocktail shrimp, drank a bottle of and didn't expect much out of any NYE TV show. The best performance was Amanda Shires and Jason Isbell on CNN at like 12:30 where they did a cover of "the highwaymen" that looked like they were busking on a street corner.

Huge Thanks to craig71188 for cutting me a spacer in his home shop. The piece is top notch and helped me get moving on my own project again. I'll post some pics when I get a chance.

Can we talk about this for a second? I drove RWD cars most of my life in northern climates, cars without traction control, stability control, abs, or any driver assistance aids of any kind - and yeah there were days it did suck. that said, any rwd car made after 2004 has at the very least abs and traction control, and anything 2012 or newer has stability control standard. So is RWD in the winter really an issue anymore? I feel like this is old thinking and its a non-starter. Any "overpowered" car is going to be a handful in the weather, but that goes for FWD, AWD, and RWD. the 2010 SN197 mustang has stability control standard - go find a nice used GT that is unmodified. This is the last year of the 4.6 so it tends to be cheaper than the 2011 and up with they coyote, and it is a more manageable 315hp (still a lot for a kid though). always remember to check insurance cost though as I can't imagine a mustang GT is cheap to insure for anybody under 25. if RWD is solidly off the table - then go look at a mk5 or newer GTI and call it a day. the MK5 has some service issues that can be a pain, so look for a mk 6 (2008-2012). It will be stick, fun, safe, and exactly the kind of car a young enthusiast needs. you should be able to find a good clean 2010 for between $6-10K depending on miles.

JP and greg are spot on about everything.