Misc Thread VI: Return of the Threadi

[AHTOXA]

We had bad icing here about a month ago. It was rough but nowhere near the 'state of emergency' like it was in ATL. The commutes here weren't 7 hours long and no one slept in grocery stores.

The icing here didn't melt for 3.5 days.

[vedran]

Yeah, we had a few inches of show over ice, what, a month ago. Most folks stayed home for 2 days. We had some issues with commuting, but nowhere near as bad as in ATL.

So glad I decided to work from home the past two days. One of my co-workers was stuck in his car for over 17 hours! Insane. The city was completely unprepared, such an embarrassment.

[AHTOXA]

There's no much a city can do to prepare, really, not in the south.

Biggest issue was people's lack of preparedness, which was compounded by everyone trying to get on the road at the same time.


Those highway images of ATL seems familiar. Oh yeah, that's right. TWD's highway shot was outside of Atlanta.

[SonicHKS]

The problem with Atlanta is its a clusterfark even on a good day. Traffic here only works at all because of a staggered release from schools/jobs. Even then it barely works. Add in some ice/snow and you end up with a disaster of epic proportions. This storm was the worst I've seen here and I've lived here all my life. There were people still stuck on the interstates, "commuting home" for something like 30+ hours straight. There were even kids stuck on schoolbuses out in traffic.

Thing is, a normal commute with heavy traffic makes me nervous because I know in the back of my mind that it can get as bad as it did in this storm. It can get to a point where you have to abandon the car and walk. So, I called out of work and stayed at home. Figured that there was no point to going in if it'd be impossible to get back. Most I did was drive to the grocery store.

That all said, people here are idiots. This wasn't that bad of a storm. In fact, it was good, because it was ALL SNOW. There was no ice. If there were ice it was caused by traffic, not from it falling from the sky. Basically, the storm hit and it was 20*F all day with the light dry snow you see in places like Colorado, not the slushy icy snow we usually get down here. I drove in it....and it was like driving around up north or at a ski resort. Roads covered with thick snow. Very fun and somewhat easy to drive on if you know what you're doing.

I drove to the grocery store in my Sonic no problems at all. No gas launches = no wheelspin on takeoff. Nice easy delicate power delivery, careful of momentum, speed, stopping distances, etc. Knowing what hills/turns you can and can't take. I went up slopes that people were having trouble with in AWD SUVs and 4x4 p/u trucks. Because for so many people, especially around here, driving is just mashing pedals. Mash the brake, or mash the gas, nothing inbetween, no coasting, engine-braking, etc. They would freak out and stop halfway up a hill, then try to get going again. Or try to get going by mashing the gas. Believing more power would get them up the hill faster or better. When I drove it, it looked like I was just driving normally, just going up snow-covered hills and getting into parking lots/etc with ease. My biggest problem with it, and why I didn't drive more, was other drivers. NO ONE else knew what they were doing at all. If you try to drive normally on snow, you'll be farked. Everyone would just freak out and line up at traffic lights, when a light would turn green they didn't even have even the most basic skills required just to get the car moving! And lights turning red....even worse. People would always slide into the intersection. Me....facepalm every time. I ended up going home because it took 1/2 hour to go 1/2 mile and I was more worried about other drivers hitting me or something.

For me....it was FUN. Doing "rolling burnouts" spooling the turbo at like 30 mph. Locking up the brakes and sliding just for fun. Popping the e-brake. Driving like a WRC driver. Very fun . To me snow driving is some of the most fun you can have in a car. Especially with the conditions we had, where the roads had nothing but snow like up north.

Edit: what irks me is why they didn't cancel school. Growing up here, they would cancel for like 1/4" of snow....there were even times where school was cancelled before snow even hit the ground and it ended up only being a dusting. With this, it was a guaranteed 1/4-1/2", and setting up to hit just before evening rush hour. We've had weeks of teens/20's at night too, so it was guaranteed to stick to the roads. And.....asinine administrators decided to treat it like any other day. So we had kids camping out in schools, stranded on busses, etc. One of the biggest problems was that the busses got stuck everywhere and contributed to the traffic clusterfark. You know, the paranoid cancellation of school back when I was a kid was designed to AVOID this.

[Squint]

I drove to the grocery store in my Sonic no problems at all. No gas launches = no wheelspin on takeoff. Nice easy delicate power delivery, careful of momentum, speed, stopping distances, etc. Knowing what hills/turns you can and can't take. I went up slopes that people were having trouble with in AWD SUVs and 4x4 p/u trucks. Because for so many people, especially around here, driving is just mashing pedals. Mash the brake, or mash the gas, nothing inbetween, no coasting, engine-braking, etc. They would freak out and stop halfway up a hill, then try to get going again. Or try to get going by mashing the gas. Believing more power would get them up the hill faster or better. When I drove it, it looked like I was just driving normally, just going up snow-covered hills and getting into parking lots/etc with ease. My biggest problem with it, and why I didn't drive more, was other drivers. NO ONE else knew what they were doing at all. If you try to drive normally on snow, you'll be farked. Everyone would just freak out and line up at traffic lights, when a light would turn green they didn't even have even the most basic skills required just to get the car moving! And lights turning red....even worse. People would always slide into the intersection. Me....facepalm every time. I ended up going home because it took 1/2 hour to go 1/2 mile and I was more worried about other drivers hitting me or something.

Who the hell are you and what have you done wi...

For me....it was FUN. Doing "rolling burnouts" spooling the turbo at like 30 mph. Locking up the brakes and sliding just for fun. Popping the e-brake. Driving like a WRC driver. Very fun . To me snow driving is some of the most fun you can have in a car.

Oh, okay, all is normal, carry on.

[Tups]

I've been doing intentional lift-off oversteering in the roundabouts on my way to work for the past couple of weeks. Sometimes I wish I had a RWD car.

I wish the block heater in my car worked. The fuel consumption is up by about one liter per 100 km, probably due to cold starts.

[theholycow]

I've been doing intentional lift-off oversteering in the roundabouts on my way to work for the past couple of weeks. Sometimes I wish I had a RWD car.

I wish the block heater in my car worked. The fuel consumption is up by about one liter per 100 km, probably due to cold starts.

RWD FTW.

I wish I had a block heater (and, if so equipped, that it would work right).

[ColJessip]

Anyone here have experience with a geo/chevy prizm.

They seem like the cheapest beater.

I'm also looking at retired p71's

[tankinbeans]

Anyone here have experience with a geo/chevy prizm.

They seem like the cheapest beater.

I'm also looking at retired p71's

Reskinned Toyota Corolla. They seem pretty bullet proof, but tend to use oil as they age. I guess that's to be expected though. My friend has one and he's a bonehead when it comes to regular maintenance checks and it's still running strong.

[potownrob]

Anyone here have experience with a geo/chevy prizm.

They seem like the cheapest beater.

I'm also looking at retired p71's

very reliable but they tend to use/lose oil like no one's business, they tend to be stripped down even compared to a corolla dx/ce, and they are very small inside so if you're tall or big, i'd look elsewhere. a civic would be better if you're big or tall (better ergonomics). p71 sounds good to me...

[tankinbeans]

My friend's seems to haul his ~460# around easily enough, but nobody rides in that car because he's trashed it. None of us really allow him in our cars.

He also reports getting 28ish mpg during decent weather.

[Squint]

Anyone here have experience with a geo/chevy prizm.

They seem like the cheapest beater.

I'm also looking at retired p71's

One of my good friends still has a Geo Prism. His fiance drives it now as she literally has a 5 minutes commute, but it is still chugging along. His has been fairly dependable without many issues. Paul would like it outside of the transmission - it's all manual locks/windows/etc (but with auto transmission unfortunately)...

[Rope-Pusher]

Lest this turn south, I shan't go into any more about gubmint spending. Big ball of worms that is likely to self-ignite.

Fickset ("Worm Burning Bright In the Forest In the Night" by Dr. Seuss)

[Rope-Pusher]

Toyota tells N.A. dealers to stop selling 8 models for possible fire risk

DETROIT -- Toyota Motor Corp. told North American dealers today to stop selling several models equipped with seat heaters made since August 2012 after being alerted by South Korean safety officials that material in the part did not meet fire retardation standards also used in the United States.
http://www.autonews.com/article/2014013 ... 9274467E4R

If only it had been Subaru rather than Toyota:


'Butt burning bright in the Forester pull over to the right"

[Tups]

Saw a pretty nice AE111 Toyota Levin for sale in my hometown with 4A-GE "blacktop" engine. Too bad it costs about 8,900 euros and is not even registered so there would be taxes and conversion costs as it was RHD imported from Japan...

Still, 121 kW from a 1.6-liter n/a engine... :>