In some good news for Toyota, they won the (nowhere near) Dakar rally, and have therefore won an internationally acclaimed motorsports event against credible opponents in the first time in rather a while. They beat some of last year's Peugeots, Robbie Gordon in a highly modified side by side and about 30 'Minis'.
Also Toby Price won on the bikes despite having broken his wrist a month ago and it being nowhere near healed, and not winning any stages. So that's kinda rad, though it would have been nice to see someone other than KTM win.
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Donovan PuppyfuckerA dagger in the dark isworth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered Userregular
Decided to not make the Miata turbo since to do it right with a high quality turbo, the right engine management, tuning, etc etc would end up being more than the car is worth. So, I am going to sell off my turbo stuff and go header back exhaust, intake, and adjustable cam gears to squeeze as much out of the 1.8 NA as I can.
Maybe once it eventually goes kaboom I'll rebuild it for choochoo.
So we get stiff once in a while. So we have a little fun. What’s wrong with that? This is a free country, isn’t it? I can take my panda any place I want to. And if I wanna buy it a drink, that’s my business.
I had a little laugh to myself today because I found out that Dodge is now offering a widebody package on the R/T Scat Pack and SRT-8 Challengers for 2019, and back when the Hellcat Widebody came out I remember commenting on Jalopnik's review, opining that since the widebody package really helped the Hellcat around a track maybe they should just make it an option across the whole line to give it a better sporting position against its more svelte rivals. Guess Dodge agreed!
1) Buy Mercedes-Benz 400E because they're real cheap
2) Swap in the more aggressive rear end gears from a 500E, maybe brakes and headers if ambitious
3) ????
4) Hoon into Radwood
OK so I finally am in a position where I need a car, and Subaru is on the menu for a compact vehicle that can handle the fire roads I need access to for field biology work. all other things being equal besides the following, here are the three best manual Subarus of each make I could find immediately near me:
none of the cars have any rust, and appear to have had the mandated regular maintenance
Part of me is thinking the Forester is the lowest price for the most overly practical car, another part of me wants the newer amenities and zippy handling of the still relatively practical Impreza, and another part of me wants that incredibly clean Outback because it's the best of the three in sheer quality. The Impreza is the only one at a dealer lot, the other two are private.
I could probably expand my search out from immediately in my area, too, but let's compare those three first eh
Well, being the owner of an '08 Liberty (Legacy), I can recommend the Outback if you can swing the higher price. I guess the main thing is to get a good inspection etc done on whichever one you want, but yea. Any of them turbo'd? :P
Going with N/A for this round of searches. Turboing a Subaru is a one-way path to me blowing all my money on buying an '08 spec.B and becoming a classier version of one of Those Subaru Guys
OK so I finally am in a position where I need a car, and Subaru is on the menu for a compact vehicle that can handle the fire roads I need access to for field biology work. all other things being equal besides the following, here are the three best manual Subarus of each make I could find immediately near me:
none of the cars have any rust, and appear to have had the mandated regular maintenance
Part of me is thinking the Forester is the lowest price for the most overly practical car, another part of me wants the newer amenities and zippy handling of the still relatively practical Impreza, and another part of me wants that incredibly clean Outback because it's the best of the three in sheer quality. The Impreza is the only one at a dealer lot, the other two are private.
I could probably expand my search out from immediately in my area, too, but let's compare those three first eh
You know I love a good Scooby, but have you considered a small 4x4 offroader like a Suzuki Samurai?
OK so I finally am in a position where I need a car, and Subaru is on the menu for a compact vehicle that can handle the fire roads I need access to for field biology work. all other things being equal besides the following, here are the three best manual Subarus of each make I could find immediately near me:
none of the cars have any rust, and appear to have had the mandated regular maintenance
Part of me is thinking the Forester is the lowest price for the most overly practical car, another part of me wants the newer amenities and zippy handling of the still relatively practical Impreza, and another part of me wants that incredibly clean Outback because it's the best of the three in sheer quality. The Impreza is the only one at a dealer lot, the other two are private.
I could probably expand my search out from immediately in my area, too, but let's compare those three first eh
You know I love a good Scooby, but have you considered a small 4x4 offroader like a Suzuki Samurai?
I have, but I like the handling and economy of a car chassis and the roads we're using are serviced reasonably well to the point it wasn't asking too much of even the GL hatch (which had better ground clearance than average, but pretty short suspension!)
If I went that route I'd just get a Toyota or Nissan ute and call it a day
So there was an absolute belter of a Bathurst 12 hr race yesterday. There'll be some disappointment from non-Porsche fans that Campbell wasn't penalised for the.. insistent pass on Mostert, but it was generally good racing all 'round. Having over 4 hours without a safety car in a 12 race at that track was super unusual.
I'm the only one who thinks the supra looks horrendous I guess? Toyota glue sniffing styling with bmw mechanism reliability. Not that I would ever spend that money on a car, but ick.
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Donovan PuppyfuckerA dagger in the dark isworth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered Userregular
I'm the only one who thinks the supra looks horrendous I guess? Toyota glue sniffing styling with bmw mechanism reliability. Not that I would ever spend that money on a car, but ick.
No, there's plenty of people who aren't fans of the styling. I guy I know who put down a deposit on one last year when and cancelled his order and got his deposit back when it was made final that there will be no manual gearbox option available, but has also disclosed that the pre-release leaked shots of the prototype's styling were about as far as he was willing to go, and the actual released styling is just too ugly for him.
Luckily enough he'll be fine with the two Mk4 Supras he already owns, the bastard.
does $660 USD for labor at 5.5 hrs seem reasonable for replacing the timing chain etc on a 2007 Mazda 3? that's the initial quote from my usual place, and it seems okay given how --from what i can tell-- they're gonna have to get elbow-deep and really know what they're doing to get it right.
more importantly, for a car we've had for most of its 125k miles, is it worth sinking at least $1200? it had something go wonky with the transmission in the first year we had it, fixed under warranty, but otherwise, it's been a fairly reliable car. vexingly, we're getting a code that indicates we also need a new TCM, so that's another 120 for labor plus whatever the dealer quotes for it, with a warning estimate of $700 (they don't install customer parts.) in sum, 1700 to 2000 bucks. the guy made it sound like it's worth thinking about just getting a newer car ($4000 is app. current trade-in), but i'm seeing lots of people easily getting double our mileage, sometimes three times as much! ...and then there are others who just go "Timing chain? lol gtfo."
the beau was wanting to hold out until electrics got enough range for us to travel ~475mi in a day, as that would get us to our families for the holidays. this is his daily driver, so he is feeling some turmoil.
depending on how much the dealer quotes the garage for the TCM, i might grab it off Amazon for $450 and brave it, since it doesn't look too bad.
Timing chains can be a bear to access, I don't know specifics about that car but 5.5 hours seems reasonable? It's certainly not something you want to get wrong. Whether it's worth doing is something else - how well is the rest of the car holding up? The cash you put into it is basically an investment in retaining the car for another [period of time] until you do that trade in, so it comes down to what else might break in that time. How's the bodywork holding up? The gearbox feel ok? Is it generally a car that you otherwise feel is doing you well?
Yeah, if the car is in good shape then you could easily get a few more years out of it by doing this. Also I'm not sure how it is in the US, but here if you went to trade it in and they realize the timing chain needs doing you're probably not going to get that $4k trade in value.
Switch Friend Code: SW-3944-9431-0318
PSN / Xbox / NNID: Fodder185
it's still mostly original parts. the original owner was actually the dealership, as it was one of their courtesy cars for a year or less, so it was well cared for.
body's fine, some minor jostling when we've gotten too friendly with a curb, but still intact. it's an automatic, so any gear issues currently are on the TCM and timing chain, most likely. we did have a dealer replace the engine mounts a couple years ago, and had some other engine work from them i can't recall atm. we're occasional speed demons, but mostly put little strain on it, commuting 10-20 miles weekdays, with aforementioned yearly trip back home. hardly worth mentioning headlamps, but we've done it twice, i think?
so, yeah, it's seemed to be pretty solid. my only misgiving is that it seems likely that future problems will only get more expensive, but putting $2000 (a decent chunk in itself, and a decent amount towards a new vehicle) towards maintaining the status quo for a bit longer seems reasonable, esp. given Mazda 3 owners seem to regularly get more than 125k miles out of them in our area of the country.
i guess i just wanted some reassurance that i'm not just lighting the cash on fire if we opt to get these issues fixed, given the guy at the garage's gentle but unoptimistic take on it. (not that anyone can predict the future, but y'know. decision paralysis.)
e: yeah, not to be blase, (and this isn't a response to you, McFodder, you just reminded me) but i'm not even really concerned about the trade-in value? i'd rather wring as much use out of the car as we can, then if we can get something for it, that's gravy.
...i guess i really did just want to have my gut reaction affirmed :biggrin:
It doesn't hurt to ask the dealership if they can see anything else that will need attention in the near future - for example there might be somewhere oil is weeping at the moment that's not worth fixing now, but could be another expense down the track, or something else that isn't uncommon to happen at that sort of age or miles.
Switch Friend Code: SW-3944-9431-0318
PSN / Xbox / NNID: Fodder185
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Donovan PuppyfuckerA dagger in the dark isworth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered Userregular
The Gates kit to change the timing belt on our car is $1300. And I'd need to also buy a special tool to lock the cams which was another three hundred or so dollars. So we just got a workshop to do it for $1900, with a two year warranty on parts and labour. No chance of me fucking it up, and if the parts were faulty it's a billion times easier to just take the car back to the workshop than try and make a warranty claim with Gates by myself.
it's still mostly original parts. the original owner was actually the dealership, as it was one of their courtesy cars for a year or less, so it was well cared for.
body's fine, some minor jostling when we've gotten too friendly with a curb, but still intact. it's an automatic, so any gear issues currently are on the TCM and timing chain, most likely. we did have a dealer replace the engine mounts a couple years ago, and had some other engine work from them i can't recall atm. we're occasional speed demons, but mostly put little strain on it, commuting 10-20 miles weekdays, with aforementioned yearly trip back home. hardly worth mentioning headlamps, but we've done it twice, i think?
so, yeah, it's seemed to be pretty solid. my only misgiving is that it seems likely that future problems will only get more expensive, but putting $2000 (a decent chunk in itself, and a decent amount towards a new vehicle) towards maintaining the status quo for a bit longer seems reasonable, esp. given Mazda 3 owners seem to regularly get more than 125k miles out of them in our area of the country.
i guess i just wanted some reassurance that i'm not just lighting the cash on fire if we opt to get these issues fixed, given the guy at the garage's gentle but unoptimistic take on it. (not that anyone can predict the future, but y'know. decision paralysis.)
e: yeah, not to be blase, (and this isn't a response to you, McFodder, you just reminded me) but i'm not even really concerned about the trade-in value? i'd rather wring as much use out of the car as we can, then if we can get something for it, that's gravy.
...i guess i really did just want to have my gut reaction affirmed :biggrin:
So look at it this way, I'm assuming it's paid off yes? If so, what are the repair costs per year spread out monthly for non standard maintenance (oil changes and tires don't count, as every car needs those periodically). So lets say you spend 2000 this year, that only breaks down to $166 per month, which is far lower than a new cars monthly payment, even with trade in. If you've had it paid off for a few years without any major repairs then the per month gets even lower spread out over more time. Take for example my Crown Vic, Between the cost of the car and work done I've spent about 5k, spread out over 5 years only breaks down to about $83 a month, which ain't too damn bad for a car.
Odds are you won't have to do any other serious work on it as long as you keep up with the regular maintenance, and A new timing belt is just standard procedure for a car at around 125k miles. I would expect to see at least 250k miles out of a Mazda. Keep it clean, keep it well serviced and it should treat you right.
I would also recommend, if you plan to keep a car a long time, is learning how to do some basic wrenching. Get an OBDII reader so when the car throws codes you can diagnose them and come in to a mechanic prepared or you can save yourself hundreds of dollars in shop fees if it isn't something too difficult and you can do it yourself. There are probably dozens of youtube videos for basic work on Mazdas out there.
i went to go replace the battery in my miata and the negative terminal lead simply sheared off from the battery cable. The positive lead is also heavily frayed and looks very unsafe in present condition
while the positive cable has plenty of slack and would be easy to replace, the negative cable for some reason has absolutely no slack in it, and is sheathed up with all the other battery wiring, which I would have to cut into to have any prayer of putting on a new terminal
replacing the entire cable would also be a pain in the ass since the battery is in the trunk, it runs front to back... ugh. no time to deal with this
yeah, we're gonna have the shop do the timing chain etc. and the transmission flush since we need it anyway, and it could be part of what's throwing the code.
i'm tempted to do the TCM (if it even is the TCM; code P0753, 'Shift solenoid fault, solenoid A.' it is a known issue with these, so the TCM is a matter of time if it's not the current cause), partly because the video i watched seems pretty straightforward for car maintenance, partly because the seemingly OEM from a dealership part on amazon is only 450, partly because the estimate the shop just sent calls to 'sublet' for programming, and from what i can tell from the amazon comments, the 450 TCM should be plug and play.... so (not counting my time and any new socket sizes i might need) literally half the cost of garage install.
Labor 120.00
Transmission Control Module 654.89
Sublet Work Requested - Programming (name redacted) 125.00
but i don't want to overreach on my skills when the boy would like his car back, so getting it done ASAP is most likely.
i went to go replace the battery in my miata and the negative terminal lead simply sheared off from the battery cable. The positive lead is also heavily frayed and looks very unsafe in present condition
while the positive cable has plenty of slack and would be easy to replace, the negative cable for some reason has absolutely no slack in it, and is sheathed up with all the other battery wiring, which I would have to cut into to have any prayer of putting on a new terminal
replacing the entire cable would also be a pain in the ass since the battery is in the trunk, it runs front to back... ugh. no time to deal with this
I would think the negative cable should be very short, it shouldn't run all the way to the engine bay. I bet it splits away from the harness near the rear firewall and bolts to the body.
IF so, just buy a new cable with new ends, bolt it up and wire tie it to the existing harness to keep it neat.
The new supra does appeal to me on a certain level, however the lack of manual transmission means no. just no.
Also if I bought one I would totally get "ZUPR4" as a custom licence plate
I'm really curious to see what the sales numbers look like for them to decide they don't need a manual supra. I don't know who would want a car like a supra but think "I gotta have this in automatic"
The new supra does appeal to me on a certain level, however the lack of manual transmission means no. just no.
Also if I bought one I would totally get "ZUPR4" as a custom licence plate
I'm really curious to see what the sales numbers look like for them to decide they don't need a manual supra. I don't know who would want a car like a supra but think "I gotta have this in automatic"
Mercedes (including AMG) and Ferrari do not sell any manual cars anymore.
It's just a matter of sales now, how many people really want to buy a manual transmission anymore? Manual transmissions used to offer a fair number of benefits over slushy automatics of the '70s, '80s, and '90s but now they're substantively less efficient and slower than automatics. The only thing left is "driving engagement" and that's always going to be a subjective thing.
The new supra does appeal to me on a certain level, however the lack of manual transmission means no. just no.
Also if I bought one I would totally get "ZUPR4" as a custom licence plate
I'm really curious to see what the sales numbers look like for them to decide they don't need a manual supra. I don't know who would want a car like a supra but think "I gotta have this in automatic"
Mercedes (including AMG) and Ferrari do not sell any manual cars anymore.
The manual gearbox is dying.
While true, at least in Ferraris case, they are all dual clutch. Porsche at least is putting one in some of theirs still.
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Also Toby Price won on the bikes despite having broken his wrist a month ago and it being nowhere near healed, and not winning any stages. So that's kinda rad, though it would have been nice to see someone other than KTM win.
Not in Australia! A guy I know who put down a deposit on a Supra last year went and undeposited that deposit when the car was confirmed auto-only.
Maybe once it eventually goes kaboom I'll rebuild it for choochoo.
1) Buy Mercedes-Benz 400E because they're real cheap
2) Swap in the more aggressive rear end gears from a 500E, maybe brakes and headers if ambitious
3) ????
4) Hoon into Radwood
'06 Forester, 170k mi, $3000
'10 Impreza Outback Sport, 165k mi, $4400
'08 Outback, 112k mi, $5800
none of the cars have any rust, and appear to have had the mandated regular maintenance
Part of me is thinking the Forester is the lowest price for the most overly practical car, another part of me wants the newer amenities and zippy handling of the still relatively practical Impreza, and another part of me wants that incredibly clean Outback because it's the best of the three in sheer quality. The Impreza is the only one at a dealer lot, the other two are private.
I could probably expand my search out from immediately in my area, too, but let's compare those three first eh
You know I love a good Scooby, but have you considered a small 4x4 offroader like a Suzuki Samurai?
I have, but I like the handling and economy of a car chassis and the roads we're using are serviced reasonably well to the point it wasn't asking too much of even the GL hatch (which had better ground clearance than average, but pretty short suspension!)
If I went that route I'd just get a Toyota or Nissan ute and call it a day
No, there's plenty of people who aren't fans of the styling. I guy I know who put down a deposit on one last year when and cancelled his order and got his deposit back when it was made final that there will be no manual gearbox option available, but has also disclosed that the pre-release leaked shots of the prototype's styling were about as far as he was willing to go, and the actual released styling is just too ugly for him.
Luckily enough he'll be fine with the two Mk4 Supras he already owns, the bastard.
does $660 USD for labor at 5.5 hrs seem reasonable for replacing the timing chain etc on a 2007 Mazda 3? that's the initial quote from my usual place, and it seems okay given how --from what i can tell-- they're gonna have to get elbow-deep and really know what they're doing to get it right.
more importantly, for a car we've had for most of its 125k miles, is it worth sinking at least $1200? it had something go wonky with the transmission in the first year we had it, fixed under warranty, but otherwise, it's been a fairly reliable car. vexingly, we're getting a code that indicates we also need a new TCM, so that's another 120 for labor plus whatever the dealer quotes for it, with a warning estimate of $700 (they don't install customer parts.) in sum, 1700 to 2000 bucks. the guy made it sound like it's worth thinking about just getting a newer car ($4000 is app. current trade-in), but i'm seeing lots of people easily getting double our mileage, sometimes three times as much! ...and then there are others who just go "Timing chain? lol gtfo."
the beau was wanting to hold out until electrics got enough range for us to travel ~475mi in a day, as that would get us to our families for the holidays. this is his daily driver, so he is feeling some turmoil.
depending on how much the dealer quotes the garage for the TCM, i might grab it off Amazon for $450 and brave it, since it doesn't look too bad.
PSN / Xbox / NNID: Fodder185
body's fine, some minor jostling when we've gotten too friendly with a curb, but still intact. it's an automatic, so any gear issues currently are on the TCM and timing chain, most likely. we did have a dealer replace the engine mounts a couple years ago, and had some other engine work from them i can't recall atm. we're occasional speed demons, but mostly put little strain on it, commuting 10-20 miles weekdays, with aforementioned yearly trip back home. hardly worth mentioning headlamps, but we've done it twice, i think?
so, yeah, it's seemed to be pretty solid. my only misgiving is that it seems likely that future problems will only get more expensive, but putting $2000 (a decent chunk in itself, and a decent amount towards a new vehicle) towards maintaining the status quo for a bit longer seems reasonable, esp. given Mazda 3 owners seem to regularly get more than 125k miles out of them in our area of the country.
i guess i just wanted some reassurance that i'm not just lighting the cash on fire if we opt to get these issues fixed, given the guy at the garage's gentle but unoptimistic take on it. (not that anyone can predict the future, but y'know. decision paralysis.)
e: yeah, not to be blase, (and this isn't a response to you, McFodder, you just reminded me) but i'm not even really concerned about the trade-in value? i'd rather wring as much use out of the car as we can, then if we can get something for it, that's gravy.
...i guess i really did just want to have my gut reaction affirmed :biggrin:
PSN / Xbox / NNID: Fodder185
Also if I bought one I would totally get "ZUPR4" as a custom licence plate
So look at it this way, I'm assuming it's paid off yes? If so, what are the repair costs per year spread out monthly for non standard maintenance (oil changes and tires don't count, as every car needs those periodically). So lets say you spend 2000 this year, that only breaks down to $166 per month, which is far lower than a new cars monthly payment, even with trade in. If you've had it paid off for a few years without any major repairs then the per month gets even lower spread out over more time. Take for example my Crown Vic, Between the cost of the car and work done I've spent about 5k, spread out over 5 years only breaks down to about $83 a month, which ain't too damn bad for a car.
Odds are you won't have to do any other serious work on it as long as you keep up with the regular maintenance, and A new timing belt is just standard procedure for a car at around 125k miles. I would expect to see at least 250k miles out of a Mazda. Keep it clean, keep it well serviced and it should treat you right.
I would also recommend, if you plan to keep a car a long time, is learning how to do some basic wrenching. Get an OBDII reader so when the car throws codes you can diagnose them and come in to a mechanic prepared or you can save yourself hundreds of dollars in shop fees if it isn't something too difficult and you can do it yourself. There are probably dozens of youtube videos for basic work on Mazdas out there.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
while the positive cable has plenty of slack and would be easy to replace, the negative cable for some reason has absolutely no slack in it, and is sheathed up with all the other battery wiring, which I would have to cut into to have any prayer of putting on a new terminal
replacing the entire cable would also be a pain in the ass since the battery is in the trunk, it runs front to back... ugh. no time to deal with this
i'm tempted to do the TCM (if it even is the TCM; code P0753, 'Shift solenoid fault, solenoid A.' it is a known issue with these, so the TCM is a matter of time if it's not the current cause), partly because the video i watched seems pretty straightforward for car maintenance, partly because the seemingly OEM from a dealership part on amazon is only 450, partly because the estimate the shop just sent calls to 'sublet' for programming, and from what i can tell from the amazon comments, the 450 TCM should be plug and play.... so (not counting my time and any new socket sizes i might need) literally half the cost of garage install.
Labor 120.00
Transmission Control Module 654.89
Sublet Work Requested - Programming (name redacted) 125.00
but i don't want to overreach on my skills when the boy would like his car back, so getting it done ASAP is most likely.
I would think the negative cable should be very short, it shouldn't run all the way to the engine bay. I bet it splits away from the harness near the rear firewall and bolts to the body.
IF so, just buy a new cable with new ends, bolt it up and wire tie it to the existing harness to keep it neat.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
PSN / Xbox / NNID: Fodder185
I'm really curious to see what the sales numbers look like for them to decide they don't need a manual supra. I don't know who would want a car like a supra but think "I gotta have this in automatic"
PSN / Xbox / NNID: Fodder185
Both.
It has a torque converter, it's not a DSG.. afaik.
Mercedes (including AMG) and Ferrari do not sell any manual cars anymore.
The manual gearbox is dying.
So.. some bad news.. the DB11 and new Vantage have no manual option as far as I know.
You can however get the new Corolla with an H pattern, so.. eh? eh?
While true, at least in Ferraris case, they are all dual clutch. Porsche at least is putting one in some of theirs still.