Cars & Bikes, Driving & Riding

Postby **NTP66** » Sun Dec 25, 2022 4:10 pm

Sport is the new-ish base model for Honda iirc.

It is, yep. They need a higher tiered sports model, IMO - something below the Type-R.

Postby **Shyster** » Sun Dec 25, 2022 8:11 pm

Just got back from Columbus, OH. My brother was driving on this trip. Holy crap, the roads right around Columbus were absolutely terrible yesterday. We figured that driving more than 24 hours after the snow/ice would be enough time for road crews to work, and I-79 and then I-70 were both clean and clear until we were maybe about 15 miles away from Columbus, which is where the roads turned to sheets of ice. The only explanation that we could come up with that the Columbus area must have run out of (or didn't order) the low-temperature salt necessary to melt ice when it's this cold. The secondary roads were mostly packed snow over ice, with few roads cleared. I never thought any other city would make PennDOT and Pittsburgh's road crews look so good, but Columbus really dropped the ball on this storm.

Postby **faftorial** » Sun Dec 25, 2022 8:57 pm

Ohio, round on both sides and stupid in the middle.

Postby **Ad@m** » Mon Dec 26, 2022 11:20 am

WTF is a "Lucid"? I passed one on Bigelow with the dealer paper plate still on it. Looks like a 90s rendering of an EV concept
EV manufacturer. Don't think I've ever seen one on the road.

Of all places, I just saw one for the first time in Bedford.

https://www.caranddriver.com/lucid-motors/air

Postby **NTP66** » Mon Dec 26, 2022 11:29 am

What is it with EVs and excruciatingly hideous wheels?

Postby **dodint** » Mon Dec 26, 2022 11:32 am

They have to let you know they're special, from the future. Where they don't have taste, apparently.

Postby **MR25** » Mon Dec 26, 2022 11:34 am

Like I said, looks like one of those "2000s" concept cars you would've seen at auto shows in like... 1998

Postby **Willie Kool** » Mon Dec 26, 2022 6:09 pm

What is it with EVs and excruciatingly hideous wheels?

Aerodynamics...

Postby **faftorial** » Mon Dec 26, 2022 6:34 pm

This E-Tron has VW GTI stye wheels they've used in recent years:

Postby **NTP66** » Mon Dec 26, 2022 7:02 pm

What is it with EVs and excruciatingly hideous wheels?
Aerodynamics...

You know as well as I do that they can come up with something that looks much better while also retaining better than average aerodynamics.

Postby **Willie Kool** » Mon Dec 26, 2022 7:53 pm

What is it with EVs and excruciatingly hideous wheels?
Aerodynamics...
You know as well as I do that they can come up with something that looks much better while also retaining better than average aerodynamics.

The Dream Edition wheels are better:

Even better, Sapphire wheels with removable carbon aero covers:

Postby **NTP66** » Mon Dec 26, 2022 7:55 pm

The first two wheels are better, but anyone putting those covers on should be flung directly into the sun.

Postby **faftorial** » Mon Dec 26, 2022 10:23 pm

Wheel covers have their place on (is that White Sands?) sandy roads.

Although they can look good otherwise.

Postby **Shyster** » Tue Dec 27, 2022 12:58 am

I continue to loathe directional wheels. I hate all of those, on both the Lucid and the Audi. Blech.

Postby **DigitalGypsy66** » Sat Dec 31, 2022 8:23 pm

I spoke with owner Mike Pavel on the phone after he'd returned home from the ill-fated road trip. He explained to me that the Ram 3500 had hauled the Eagle Cap 1165 since new, carrying it 25,000 miles across the Rocky Mountains, Pacific Northwest, and then, Baja. It had always performed great up until the incident, with the diesel engine pulling strong despite carrying such a hefty slide-in.

"I did a lot of research before buying the truck and the camper, and both the Ram dealer and the camper company where we bought it said it was the perfect truck," Pavel explained. "They said it should handle the load no problem. I knew the payload capacity on the truck was about 7,800 pounds and the camper dry weight was close to 5,000 pounds, but fully loaded, probably about 6,500 pounds."

If you Google the max payload capacity for a 2020 Ram 3500, you'll see a figure close to what Pavel quoted there: 7,680 pounds. However, that's only the case for a regular-cab, long-bed model with two-wheel drive and the 6.4-liter Hemi V8. The truck in question here is a crew-cab with four-wheel drive and the 6.7-liter Cummins diesel, meaning its payload capacity is significantly lower. It's impossible to know the exact rating of Pavel's truck without having all the details regarding the trim and options, but Ram's spec sheet shows the payload capacity for a 4x4 diesel dually as maxing out at 5,850 pounds.

You flirt with disaster when you have a camper that weighs 4,900 pounds empty, plus weeks worth of gear inside. It's important to keep in mind that payload doesn't strictly refer to bed capacity, either; it also includes weight inside the cabin like passengers, boxes, and so on. Each axle has its own listed maximum as well—a lot of this camper's weight hangs off the rear of the truck—so it's crucial to visit somewhere like a CAT scale that breaks down the load weight comprehensively. Pavel told me he hasn't taken the truck and camper combo across any scales to verify the total weight.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/broken-ra ... -big-truck

Postby **mac5155** » Sun Jan 01, 2023 9:03 am

What the hell is that camper made of that it weighs 5,000 lbs empty? My 34 foot long camper weighs 7,000 lbs. This thing is like 1/3 the size of mine.

Postby **iamjs** » Mon Jan 09, 2023 1:10 pm

I test drove a car this past weekend and told the dealer if they extend the warranty on it, I would sign today. It's not that it doesn't have any warranty, but I don't feel comfortable with 25k over two years. I've been going back and forth all morning and he won't budge. Even if they extended it by a year, it would be a three year, 37k warranty since all of their warranty packages seem to be in 12k increments. Since I cycle through vehicles about every three years, I think that would be fair.

Kinda pissed because he won't budge at all, but I'm also stubborn enough that I'm not gonna cave and take whatever is left of the original warranty.

Postby **dodint** » Tue Jan 10, 2023 3:29 pm

I rented a "VW Jetta" today and was given a Jeep Compass. I love cars and have owned and driven all kinds in the last 25 years or so. I absolutely loath the existence of the compact SUV. They make compromises across the board in all facets and fail to deliver any benefit. I feel like I'm sitting on it, not in it.

Hmph.

Postby **NTP66** » Tue Jan 10, 2023 3:34 pm

My sister had a Compass years ago, and I swear I could touch both inside door handles at the same time.

Postby **DigitalGypsy66** » Thu Jan 12, 2023 8:57 am

@dodint I know you aren't a new model BMW enjoyer, but perhaps you could explain this: I saw an X7 with M5 badging. Wouldn't there be an X7 with M7 badging? Or is that M5 a lower cost option?

Postby **Shyster** » Thu Jan 12, 2023 9:11 am

I think you saw an "M50i" badge? I believe that means the car has a certain V8 engine package. That engine is available on the X5, X6, and X7.

BMW in recent years has confusingly added "M" to various model designations. Those cars are generally sportier than the standard versions, but they are not the same as the full-on "M" models. Like the X5 M50i is a sportier version of the X5 with the bigger V8 engine, but it's not the X5 M.

Postby **DigitalGypsy66** » Thu Jan 12, 2023 9:26 am

That sounds like what I saw. It didn't have the full M body mods etc., now that I think of it. In typical BMW driver fashion, I only caught a couple of glimpses of it as it passed me +20 mph over the speed limit.

Postby **dodint** » Thu Jan 12, 2023 9:29 am

You might have seen a BMW X7 M60i. Like Shyster said, they're getting really loose with the ///M brand. We joke that it stands for ///Marketing now. The 'true' M cars have the M as part of the model name. M1/1M/M3/M4/M5/M6. The M package cars have the M as part of the trim, like the X7 M60i. Of course that breaks down with the older SAVs like the X5M, I don't think BMW even really believes those are true M cars.

It's funny. I bought an X5 with the V8 and sport package yesterday, but it's not an X5M.

BMW started to get really dumb with naming conventions about 15 to 20 years ago. Up to that point, it was the most logical in the business, I own a BMW 330Ci. So a BMW with a 330cc motor (sorta), coupe, fuel injected.

The car I bought yesterday is a BMW X5 4.8i. So, a crossover AWD 5-series aligned 4.8 liter fuel injected SAV. Getting murkier.

Today that offering is a BMW X5 xDrive40i. Meh.

Postby **NTP66** » Fri Jan 13, 2023 8:54 am

Saw a brand new Acura Type-S in the color combo I want out in the wild this morning, and now I really **** want one again.

Postby **robbiestoupe** » Fri Jan 13, 2023 9:15 am

Saw a brand new Acura Type-S in the color combo I want out in the wild this morning, and now I really **** want one again.

Source of the post Unless you're NTP66, then upsell him on the shiny things.