What do you drive?

[kombolcha]

Got it a couple months ago. 2014 A4 Premium Plus 6speed. Before anyone tries to crucify me I didn't park it in the handicap... 

 

 

[The Evil Overlord]

Got it a couple months ago. 2014 A4 Premium Plus 6speed. Before anyone tries to crucify me I didn't park it in the handicap... 

 

 

No but you overpaid for that VW Passat :p

[kombolcha]

No but you overpaid for that VW Passat :p

 

hater :p it doesn't even compare. 

[Rudy]

Latest action shot of mine...

 

 

 

I still can't believe the camera snapped for 7km/h over :/   Australia is brutal with speeding. I went down there in April and rented a car, I was wondering why everyone was driving 10km/h under the speed limit. That is I figured it out when I was going out to a restaurant one night and got pulled over for going 70 in a 60, when the officer told me why I got pulled over I had to ask him to repeat because I thought the speed limit was 50 or something for a second. The guy was nice enough and didn't want to deal with my international driver's licence so he let me go with a warning (then I researched what was "acceptable" to go over in Australia...only to learn it's pretty much zero tolerance). 

 

Long story short I had a great trip but driving in Australia is no fun at all 

[TechJunkie81]

My ride is a 1998 Nissan Altima.  Does the job.

 

The car i'd love to have is a 1970 Dodge Hemi Challenger.

[Nashy]

I still can't believe the camera snapped for 7km/h over :/   Australia is brutal with speeding. I went down there in April and rented a car, I was wondering why everyone was driving 10km/h under the speed limit. That is I figured it out when I was going out to a restaurant one night and got pulled over for going 70 in a 60, when the officer told me why I got pulled over I had to ask him to repeat because I thought the speed limit was 50 or something for a second. The guy was nice enough and didn't want to deal with my international driver's licence so he let me go with a warning (then I researched what was "acceptable" to go over in Australia...only to learn it's pretty much zero tolerance). 

 

Long story short I had a great trip but driving in Australia is no fun at all 

 

 

I'm in QLD, where we, forever, have had the highest tolerances in the country.  They never advertise what they are, but a cop friend of mine told me they were originally 10% of the limit, and are now 5% of the limit. 

[Order_66]

Im sorry.

 

Don't be a hater.

[devHead]

I have a 2007 Toyota Matrix!  It looks exactly like this:

[Gio Takahashi]

2007 Mitsubishi Eclipse , as of January 2014

 

 

 

 

This is the last car I've had: 1998 BMW z3, I already miss this car. >_>

 

[KingCracker]

[+JHBrown Subscriber¹]

Was in my G37 today & was trying to get a Mustang to mess around - basically I hate Mustangs and will take any opportunity I can to pick on one. Then all of a sudden an M3 comes out from behind us and passes us both. I had my foot on the floor - hauling at a pretty good clip and that thing drove right by ! I then let off the gas and drove normal - remembered I dont have a fast car and shouldn't be acting like I do. :/

I'm guessing you are messing around with V6 Mustangs? At the flywheel you are only at 328hp, and when that reaches the ground, you might be at 275hp. I've actually had a G37 owner try to race me in my Shelby. LOL, what was he thinking. Looked to be in his mid twenties. Unless you are nicely modded, the 2011-2014 5.0's will eat you for breakfast. Then again, most serous Mustang owners I know aren't stock either. I've read through this thread and noticed you hate Mustangs. You referred to them as trailer trash Ferraris? Funny, I live in a "White Collar" neighborhood and many of these Professionals have a Mustang in their garage. I'm not sure where your hate comes from but the G37 ain't that special bud. ;-)

[Gary2MBz]

I wanna say I have a black on black 2014 Mercedes C250 sedan (C180 CGI to the rest of the world) but out of the 3 weeks of ownership, I haven't been able to give it a proper wash. I only have Day 1 pictures which excludes the 15% Rear + 30% front window tints, new slim license plate frames shipped from Keenan Motors MBz in Pennsylvania (OEM frames at that), and carbon fiber wheel caps replacing the vintage star caps. The wheels are not the same as the picture below but my car is the facelifted version of the below w204 (orange side markers and black mirrors; sadly I couldn't find the Lighting Package as I originally wanted :( )

 

Essentially my car looks like this from the side (not my car):

 

 

I will post some pictures after a nice car wash this Thursday (I got a good guy who does amazing work and he comes every other Thursday to my workplace for others' cars.)

[T3X4S]

I'm guessing you are messing around with V6 Mustangs? At the flywheel you are only at 328hp, and when that reaches the ground, you might be at 275hp. I've actually had a G37 owner try to race me in my Shelby. LOL, what was he thinking. Looked to be in his mid twenties. Unless you are nicely modded, the 2011-2014 5.0's will eat you for breakfast. Then again, most serous Mustang owners I know aren't stock either. I've read through this thread and noticed you hate Mustangs. You referred to them as trailer trash Ferraris? Funny, I live in a "White Collar" neighborhood and many of these Professionals have a Mustang in their garage. I'm not sure where your hate comes from but the G37 ain't that special bud. ;-)

 

JH - I realize you are biased in this, so I understand if you completely disagree with me.  I am not the one who came up with the Trailer Park Ferrari term, but I think it is damned funny & fitting. 

(not talking about the GT500)

The newer 5.0 mustangs are very fast indeed.  Even the V6 w/ 300 hp is impressive in its own right.  But these are straight-line, white knuckle toys for under $30K.  Cars for people who cant get anything nice/better.  I understand my car is not fast, and yes I love to race Mustangs - its the people behind the wheel I cant stand.

To that end, I do have respect for the new ones as they are very powerful - ugly...cheap...but powerful.

As for the "white-collar neighborhood" , I grew up in a doc & jock and now live in a small house in a nice area (something a little more down to earth) .  The only mustangs are owned by teenagers, or early 20somethings - thats it - in fact isnt that the GT target demographic ? Growing up (when I lived @ my parents') there were absolutely ZERO mustangs - well maybe the workers, or the kids who work @ the golf course

I know the G37 isnt special - and I think most G37 owners would say the same.  That is the real issue here though. 

I would go out on a limb and say most of mustang owners think they have something special - the classic big fish in a small bowl syndrome. 

I have mentioned before I have no delusions that the G37 is anything but a little sport sedan.  The other car I drive is something else entirely -

Im sorry you dont like the comment.  my hatred for the Mustang is because of the people who drive them (not all) and because they are a poor example for a sports car -  I dont know what you mean by "serious mustang owners" - not sure if you mean these characters are the pinnacle of classless -something like the King of multiple trailer parks ?

 

[+JHBrown Subscriber¹]

JH - I realize you are biased in this, so I understand if you completely disagree with me. I am not the one who came up with the Trailer Park Ferrari term, but I think it is damned funny & fitting.

(not talking about the GT500)

The newer 5.0 mustangs are very fast indeed. Even the V6 w/ 300 hp is impressive in its own right. But these are straight-line, white knuckle toys for under $30K. Cars for people who cant get anything nice/better.

Yikes! My daily driver is Mercedes Benz E350. My wife drives a Land Rover LR4. We can't get anything better? My neighbor 3 houses down is an Attorney who has a 2012 5.0 and a Challenger SRT8 in his garage with a BMW 335 as his daily driver out front. I don't understand where your stereotyping of Mustang owners comes from. Must be where you're located? Also, I'm not sure where your thinking of Mustangs are only for straight line racing comes from. The new Boss 302's handled just as well and in some cases better than the BMW M3 in many road tests. The 5.0's not that far behind. Furthermore, I see just as many men in their 40's and 50's driving Mustangs and Camaro's as guys in their twenties. I'm confused as your comments seem more opinionated than factual.

Edit: Just so you understand, I think the G37's are sexy along with the new Q's. In addition, I would never lump people in a stereotypical group based on what car they drive. My deceased grandfather retired as a millionaire through hard work and sound investments as an Engineer and drove around in a 17 year old "beater" until he passed. Different strokes for different folks.

[cork1958]

Good quality, OLD American made s**t, now that it's summer! :)

 

1966 Plymouth Satellite. No rust, no bondo, perfectly straight. 107,000 actual miles.

 

California car that has never seen a snow flake in it's life and been in Michigan for the last 17 years.

 

All original except wheels and carb/intake (changed to 4bbl car/intake) and disc brake conversion kit on front brakes.

[+JHBrown Subscriber¹]

Good quality, OLD American made s**t, now that it's summer! :)

She's a beauty! Love it.

[Wannes]

Got it a couple months ago. 2014 A4 Premium Plus 6speed. Before anyone tries to crucify me I didn't park it in the handicap... 

 

 

 

You chose a manual in the States? Am I getting ancient or is that still something unique?

[Soldiers33]

what ever my work gives me. Currently a Vauxhall Astra Tourer :( Miss my 2011 Renault Megane.

[tsupersonic]

You chose a manual in the States? Am I getting ancient or is that still something unique?

It's becoming more and more unique. Manual gearboxes are limited to certain performance cars, and lower end cars. Automatic gearboxes these days are extremely fast, and efficient, but there is something to be said when you are driving a manual. It's also a highly debated topic.

[123456789A]

Latest action shot of mine...

 

 

 

Why is there a little life preserver on the front of the car?

[Nashy]

Why is there a little life preserver on the front of the car?

 

It's there to identify which vehicle the camera was detecting at speed.  From what I understand, it's use to identify the correct car when there are many cars in the photo.

[Gary2MBz]

I need to wash this thing! Shes getting really dirty ;)

 

 

 

 

The Lighting Package was a MUST but they only came on the C350's in my area! Sucks really but hey, its still a Mercedes Benz and a first car which I got out the door for $34,600! Considering it has the Multimedia Package, SiriusXM, KEYLESS-GO, wood-burl trim, and Navi (didn't care for this, prefer Sport Plus Package instead), this is at MSRP $41k and invoice $38.5k. I'm rocking out on this lease @ $340 a month for 27 months and 10k miles annually! 21, clean record (knock on wood!) and $120 a month on insurance all inclusive! The residual is $27.5k.

 

The mods I've done:

- Performance-wise: Secondary Cat Delete, Resonator delete, and muffler delete. The Primary Catalytic Converter is leading out via a straight pipe to the stock tip (needed a custom mini Y-pipe to get it to bond, the muffler had a VERY short link to the tip for the dual-exit.) The stock look doesn't create unnecessary attention, still keeps the classiness, and I have yet to find someone who dares rev at a red light hahaa! Plus installing quad-tips and all that jazz on an i4 is kinda silly unless we are talking CLA45 AMG i4.

 

- Aesthetics: Carbon-Fiber wheel caps with the Mercedes star. Front windows 30% tint, rear and windshield 15% and no cop troubles even in the dark. This is a very bright California day @ 18:00 and the sun really got through the windows otherwise it looks like an eased-limo tint. Finally, the slimline license plate frames which are Mercedes OEM. The dealer's frame was some cheap plastic and the front had a totally exposed frame, not clean cut for me..

 

I'm not looking to post videos of the exhaust (not yet at least). I got 575 miles on it, give me til 1200 to break in the engine then we see what happens. :shiftyninja:

[Gerowen]

It's becoming more and more unique. Manual gearboxes are limited to certain performance cars, and lower end cars. Automatic gearboxes these days are extremely fast, and efficient, but there is something to be said when you are driving a manual. It's also a highly debated topic.

 

I'm not an expert, but I've been told that manual transmissions are more resistant to heat damage and need less maintenance.  I know I drove a little 5 speed manual Chevrolet Cavalier 6,000 miles over the course of a week and a half to visit family and never realized until I got back home that I had done all of that driving with barely a drop of oil in the transmission because the pan gasket was rotted out and I hadn't bothered to check it before leaving.  Transmission never had any problems though, drove it for a couple years after that until it got rear ended and totaled.

[The Evil Overlord]

I'm not an expert, but I've been told that manual transmissions are more resistant to heat damage and need less maintenance.  I know I drove a little 5 speed manual Chevrolet Cavalier 6,000 miles over the course of a week and a half to visit family and never realized until I got back home that I had done all of that driving with barely a drop of oil in the transmission because the pan gasket was rotted out and I hadn't bothered to check it before leaving.  Transmission never had any problems though, drove it for a couple years after that until it got rear ended and totaled.

Outside of a clutch plate replacement (when worn out) oil is about the only other thing to worry about in older manuals :)

The newer hydraulic clutch manuals can be a PITA (I had to tow a family home one day <out of the goodness of my heart> the hydraulic hose burst, leaving them up the creek without a paddle, turns out they only lived a couple of miles from me so I didn't mind too much)

[Gerowen]

Outside of a clutch plate replacement (when worn out) oil is about the only other thing to worry about in older manuals :)

The newer hydraulic clutch manuals can be a PITA (I had to tow a family home one day <out of the goodness of my heart> the hydraulic hose burst, leaving them up the creek without a paddle, turns out they only lived a couple of miles from me so I didn't mind too much)

I just replaced the hydraulic clutch system in my pickup truck a week or two ago (1999 Dodge Dakota).  Pressure plate, throw-out bearing, and clutch pad were all good, but the master and/or slave cylinder started leaking internally so although it didn't lose fluid, it wouldn't completely disengage the clutch when the pedal was depressed so sometimes it was impossible to get it into gear without shutting the engine off.  $160 and an hour later I had the part installed myself.  Not a complicated repair, but I just bought the pre-filled pre-bled kit with both cylinders and a fluid reservoir and just replaced the whole thing so I wouldn't have to worry about trying to figure out which cylinder went bad, bleeding the whole system, etc.  Good thing is that the factory cylinders were plastic, but the replacements are cast aluminum with more rigid hydraulic hoses (Feel like they have a metal liner inside the rubber).

The master cylinder was the hardest part because I had to unbolt the vacuum chamber for my brakes, which required a few extensions and swivel sockets to get to the bolts, and slide it forward a few inches so I could wiggle the master cylinder into where it needed to be, then re-bolt it all back in place.

 

Having owned both a manual and an automatic, personally, I prefer a manual.