That’s easy for me: my 1000 mile trip to pick up our new Acura in Boise, and bring it home, quickly (Full story here). It’s now got 12k miles on it, from several longer road trips, and it’s been a flawless performer. I don’t get much seat time, except when we go on outings or trips, but it’s always a pleasure.
Of course, that’s a direct experiential automotive experience; the CC Meet-Up in Auburn was a peak experience on a social level, as well as car-watching.
So what about you? What’s your most memorable automotive memory from 2014, good or bad?
Test-driving a 1985 Pontiac Grand Prix. More of that to come soon 🙂
Has someone finally heard my plea for 80s-Pontiac? 🙂
It’s also easy for me. Late February a friend and me rented a third generation Legacy Wagon in Iceland; our initial goal was to drive around the whole island by the Ring Road, but we finally decided to drive only along the south coast, spending more time at each place. The AWD was important for us, because our driving involved passing through some heavy snow and driving on a black sandy beach looking for a crashed DC-3. The car suited us very well and was comfortable for long drives. But as most 10+ year-old cars there were a few issues with it, such as the trunk hatch not opening easily. But everything was manageable. One of the highlights of the trip was looking for Northern Lights near the small town of Höfn.
Love the picture, did you find the DC-3?
Thank you! And yep, with the GPS coordinates it was easy to find. We left the main road (the Ring Road) near the town Vík and drove on volcanic sand for a few minutes and found the plane almost exactly at the marked point.
Amazing sky. Did the DC-3 land/crash safely? It rather looks that way.
That does seem to be the case.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2643794/Left-rot-The-eerie-wreckage-crashed-U-S-Navy-aircraft-abandoned-Icelandic-beach-40-years-ago.html
Yes, all the crew survived. I’ve heard the pilot thought the plane ran out of fuel and performed an emergency landing there. But it turned out he switched to the wrong fuel tank and there was still a lot of fuel; which was used by local farmers to run their tractors for a while after the crash. (can’t tell how much of that is true though)
There was an attempt to get the remains of the plane but it led to a Helicopter also crashing and killing some people. Then the Americans decided to abandon the plane there.
(and nice article Teddy, hadn’t read that one)
Lovely photos, are rental cars in Iceland usually that old?
Thanks Teddy! The cars are not always old, the famous rental companies like Hertz or Budget are also present and they renew their fleet every few years. But after an extensive research we ended up going for a smaller company (SADCars in our case) and getting a midsize station wagon with AWD cheaper then newer subcompacts from the other companies.
Up until the end of 2013 there was one company that rented very interesting cars for a nice price, such as a 93 Volvo 850 GLE Estate and a 94 Saab 900S. But unfortunately this company closed its doors.
There are new and old ones. Car rentals in Iceland are insanely expensive due to the very short summer season (about two months). It is not at all uncommon to pay well over $100 a day for the smallest economy car and that is WITH a reservation.
The major companies generally also restrict usage to paved surfaces only.
As a result there are a lot of small independents that use older, generally perfectly usable cars and still charge a lot but much less than the majors.
Do a search on Iceland Car Rental and see what you come up with. It is astounding. I searched for a long time earlier this year and ended up reserving a Chevy Cruze wagon for about $350 for 3 days from a small independent and was extremely happy with the good deal I got (in Icelandic terms, in the US I would expect to pay about $120 total for the same thing).
They met me at the airport at arrivals and upgraded me to what was essentially a stretched Chevy Captiva with a 3rd row (ours here only have 2 rows), 4wd, and a diesel engine, it was great. It had 50k km’s on it but was in flawless condition as if it was on a showroom for sale, in much better shape and much cleaner than the rentals I’ve been driving from Enterprise for the last few weeks here.
Best time was driving my 2001 Mustang Bullitt from Hamilton, Ontario to Carlisle Penn for the all Ford show–then a 10 hour drive to Nashville Tenn to visit relatives–after a couple of days it was back to Hamilton in one day.
Worst moment was watching said Bullitt driven away by its new owner–room had to be made for my 2015 Mustang and someone stepped up with the cash I wanted.
Love the Bullitt. A friend has one, and it’s perfect for what it was designed to be. Sorry you had to give yours up, but time marches on.
I love the 01 Bullitt too, the aesthetic tweaks unique to it addressed pretty much all of the previously the awkward new edge styling traits, and of course introduced the coolest wheel design of the last 20 years! Love the interiors and subtle performance tweaks in them too,
Congrats on the 2015, definitely a worthy replacement!
Mine was getting to ride in a Suburban for 8 or so miles across a low rail bridge – basically a causeway – along the bay just south of Manzanillo Mexico. The truck was equiped with a hi-rail system so it could travel on the train tracks. The Mexican government built the causeway, which has to be one of the largest rail projects in North America in many years, because they needed to remove a bridge across the mouth of the bay so LNG ships could safely enter to a new terminal. It was very cool.
It’s interesting that you bought your car in Boise. I’m also looking at a trip to Boise for a new car – there’s a Mazda dealer up there that sells the car I want for $4k under MSRP. Every other dealer wants a figure very close to MSRP.
I think I will take a 1.5 hour flight and a 12 hour drive back to Vegas to save $4k.
Bad: Got pulled over and ticketed for the first time in September, 80 in a 65 on northbound I94 in Racine WI. First time is always memorable.
Good: Same trip believe it or not. I was in the Cougar, I had just installed a mint set of black leather Supercoupe seats in it, weather was very nice, drove over 300 miles going through downtown Milwaukee, and picked up a 5 Speed transmission for a very good price(even with the ticket cost).
Nothing memorable: I got a ’14 FJ Cruiser, seeing that Toyota is ending production of FJ with no replacement; ’14 is the last year.
When I look at a FJ I just think how good Toyota can do it when they want to
THIS CAR CLIMBED MOUNT WACHUSETT: If they made that bumper sticker, I could truthfully slap it on my bumper.
This was my most memorable moment of the year behind the wheel. On a Saturday in July, Goulds’ Mini & Microcar Classic attendees climbed to the summit of Mt. Wachusett (2006 feet) during a 150 mile loop through East-Central Massachusetts that included idling though some postcard worthy New England towns, descending en masse (80 people) on a cheerfully staffed restaurant for lunch, and causing a ruckus at a stop for ice cream.
Brought to the meet from NY in the back of my ’93 Econoline E-350 Ambulance, my ’65 Cinquecento climbed the mountain beautifully, without a hiccup despite carrying over 500 lbs of humanity. My passenger,17-year old Zach (assigned to my car in the Goulds’ “Asses ‘n’ Seats Program”) was 300 lbs of that total. He is working on a 1961 Beetle, and loves to talk about it… ad infinitum. The pic was taken at the summit in Princeton, MA, north of Worcester, which boasts a panoramic view stretching as far as New Hampshire.
I can brag about the comfort of the 10′, 1200 lb. Fiat, as Zach managed to nod off during the return trip.
I have vivid memories of climbing some steep alpine roads in my aunt’s Steyr-Puch 650 (essentially a re-engined Fiat 500) in 1969. One really appreciates just what it takes to move a pile of steel and some passengers up a long climb: horsepower. And one could hear each of those very clearly.
Fortunately, my car has a 695cc Abarth Clone engine which probably makes close to 40 hp. It gets really hot, and fuel can be seen bubbling in the filter, though performance seems unaffected. You can see the bonnet is open to cool things down a bit.
Doubling the horsepower is always a good thing on the hills. 🙂
I also drove to Boise from Vancouver, Wa (in September), and decided to use the ’04 Titan’s cruise control set at 65 MPH. I was pleased with the quiet, smooth ride for a truck and was happy it got a solid 20 MPG which I think is OK for a full size 300+ HP truck. I have owned it for 10 years and it was it’s first real road trip, it just turned over 14k miles. The reason I was going (a wedding) and how it went is better left unexplained. Left home around 6:00 in the morning Saturday, was back at home around 8:00 Sunday night. I thought I had a charging problem as the headlamps seemed to be quite dim driving back. When we pulled into the driveway I realized it was because I was so punchy I forgot to take off my sunglasses!
Wow, that is really low mileage for a 10 year old vehicle.
I only use it for road trips and hauling stuff when my rentals or yardwork requires a truck, or at least once every couple of weeks so it gets fresh gas at least once every couple of months. It even still has it’s original 10 year old battery! ( I have jumpers so when the day finally comes…) The 86 Jetta is my daily driver with over 300k miles that I have owned since ’91. My other truck was a 70 C10 that had 60K miles on it when I got it. I had that truck from 1976 to 2006 only got 90k additional miles put on it in 30 years, although the first four years it was a daily driver. When gas hit a whopping $1.00 a gallon I got a VW for a daily driver and used it when I needed a truck. The VW was more comfortable on road trips that that truck, it was a total strippo, but it was a great truck. I’ll wear out long before the Titan does, it’s parked under cover and still looks brand new.
Road trip last May…Vancouver, BC to Seattle…Wenatchee…Coulee Dam…Spokane…Sandpoint…Cranbrook, BC…Golden…Lake Louise, Alta…and back via Golden…Revelstoke…Salmon Arm…Kamloops to Vancouver.
Great weather and 59 mpg (imp) in our 13 VW Golf TDI 6mt!
We didn’t have major automotive adventures this year, and that’s just fine. Our 2009 Camry Hybrid simply goes. Yes, there were tires to replace due to mysterious sidewall injuries (inner sidewalls!); several of us at our church had this happen repeatedly to our cars. It seems to have ended. There was the unexpected expense of replacing the water pump, to the tune of nearly $500, but nothing else has gone wrong. The car just goes. It took us from Tucson to San Diego and back, effortlessly. It took us from Tucson to Prescott, Arizona several times this year (about 220 miles each way), effortlessly. It’s comfortable, reasonably quiet, and decently roomy, and it handles nicely, even if it’s not particularly inspiring. Sometimes one just needs a car that does all these things and gets out of the way.
What do you get for gas mileage? How many miles are on it?
Bought our 1981 BL Mini in Hamilton, then drove it back to Auckland in torrential rain. The driver’s side wiper blade fell off after 30 seconds so visibility wasn’t great, but she never missed a beat. And it was such a wonderfully familiar expereience, just like bombing along in the 850 I learned to drive in…
I was in an old Bedford bus near Taupo that lost it’s entire driver’s side wiper arm once – pouring with rain, driver’s side wiper going left-right-left-right-left-riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight-paddock…
I too got a TSX wagon in March, been a nice car with just over 10,000 miles. Mostly commuting but a few day trips too.
Would have to say the growing range of experiences with my recently acquired Caravan SE from putting on chains, accidentally breaking a wheel assembly bolt (cross threaded it), changing my own oil for the first time, and obsessively cleaning it by hand. Turns out Butane Blue Pearlcoat does not look as good straight out of a car wash as did my Poppy Red Voyager.
Car companies generally do not go nuts on badging these days, but an artsy badge that reads “NW Protection Package or Northwest Protection Package” on your Acura, Paul, could be cool. Nice that you got out of paying sales tax and I really hope that in 2015 not only will I have more money, but time to explore Oregon.
Changing the water pump on my 2003 Mercedes ML320 in the driveway, successfully. Thank god for you tube instructional videos, that was not an easy job!
Driving across the John Roebling bridge from KY to OH (hey, I’m a civil engineer square) on my way from SC to the Old Car Festival at The Henry Ford last September. It was the morning rush hour so I exited off I-75 and drove through Covington and across the river into Cinncinatti before rejoining I-75.
I almost flew on this trip as I can get a pretty affordable direct flight from GSP to DTW, but this little detour is a good example of the added value of a road trip over flying. I also stopped at a Skyline Chili – it was unique. God only know what a Texan would make of it.
A picture from Wikipedia.
Lovely bridge. I had a Roebling adventure, too in 2014. Motorcycling the Delaware Water Gap with a friend, we stumbled upon Roebling’s first bridge, originially designed as an aqueduct to carry a canal over the river for coal transport. It was built in 1847, and is the oldest wire suspension bridge in the U.S. You can see the cables embedded in its sides.
I had a look at this one about 15 years ago when I was working for a time in Callicoon NY. I drove by it twice a day going to and from my hotel room which was way down in Matamoras, PA.
This just sparked an automotive memory. One very cold and beautiful snowy morning I left my hotel in Matamoras and was making my way very slowly in the heavy snow to Callicoon when the local NPR station played the 1981 Glen Gould recording of the Aria from Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier. I was driving my company issued 1995 Ford Taurus (with a whorehouse red interior and snow tires) and the combination of the heavy snow, pre-dawn sky, and the most sublime recording in existence just overwhelmed me. It was just one of those perfect moments in life.
Personally, other than getting a new (to me) car, the aging fleet of Hyundais and the Isuzu 4×4 at my TV station have provided the most memorable moments.
A whacked out reported was fired after a suspicious accident and bizarre head injury in the Isuzu. Its only damage was a popped tire, a small dent and a cracked-off piece of side view mirror. Then the same Isuzu threw its transmission in a rural part of our viewing area.
Then the 2001 Elantra was cutting off intermittently and the repair shop couldn’t find a problem. The joke was never funny – it tried to sputter out on an off ramp while I was driving. A few weeks ago the engine seized while someone was turning into traffic.
I went on temporary assignment in south GA for 6 months and drove my 1969 Dodge Charger there and back (500 miles each way) and it was my only form of transportation while I was there. No problems whatsoever, I love that car.
Nice.
A true ’69 Charger Curbside Classic. You haven’t done a write-up on it yet, have you? 🙂
No BOC, I sure havent. I love the car so much and drive it so often that I forget its a rare classic most of the time 😉
Good: Driving the 911 to the Auburn meet.
Bad: Totalling the Outback.
I guess there are a couple of days left to top either… 🙂
How did I guess it would be those two?
I second Jim Klein: driving my ’79 Seville to the Auburn meet-up (and cruising around Auburn with an elite group of CCers–including Mr Niedermeyer) gets the gold. Silver medal would be my March r/t trek from Detroit to San Francisco. Stops included Tucumcari, NM and the incomparable Carhenge in Alliance, Nebraska. Bronze: picking up my newest toy in Indianapolis: a 2008 Pontiac Solstice GXP, just last month.
Saddest moment: realizing it’s time to part with my beloved ’97 Miata. I’m still clinging to it for a few more weeks, though. At least until 2015.
Overall, it’s been a great motoring year.
I would have to say that there were two good things about my 2014: My younger daughter moved out (again!) (we’ve replaced the revolving door on the front of the house), and Auburn Meet-Up.
To make a long story short, 2012 & 2013 were bad years in a personal manner, I lost several people important to me in a very short amount of time. I was thankful that 2014 had far less turmoil than years previous.
It was great to meet everyone at Auburn; I hope we can meet-up again in 2015!
Flying to Portland, Me. and driving a rental buick (good experience) through the maritime provinces. Cape Breton/Cabot Trail all the way to meat cove. Very beautiful. Took that trip almost 50 years ago and still beautiful. A year ago I was able to take the wife and she loved it. Actually that was 2013 but it was our last vacation. Need to do something similar on the west coast I think.
I did that drive with my parents and brother at almost the same time (mid-1960’s?). Capstick and Meat Cove were probably the highlight of the trip. I assume the road is paved now 🙂
The Cabot Trail is all paved but the road to meat cove includes some that is not. Wife called me a wuss for not going to the bitter end but I could see large rocks and pot holes ahead. Afaik there was no rental office nearby and I couldn’t think of a good story when I had to have it towed. Got to the last mile and stopped. IIRC most of the road is paved but the part that sticks is that part that is not.
I forgot to include the one that actually was 2014. Not long after we returned thanks to a comedy of errors I let go of my little truck (91 S10) and wound up getting something I had wanted for a long time. A four wheel drive.
Probably not exciting to most but all this year I have been driving a 95 4Runner that seems to be basically indestructible. A V6 with a MT. The speedometer let go at almost 202k so it sure is not new but everything actually works. I’m used to new cars for mama and whatever for me. This is a step up.
My son (15 years old) and I have been engaged in the resurrection of a thoroughly clapped out (but not rusty) 1968 Mustang coupe. I will be his first car, and we hope to have it ready for his driver license test in September (once his is 16).
Together we have stripped much of the body, repaired/primed what we could, and farmed out body work beyond our ability. We then brought the car back for complete mechanical renewal before the paint—I certainly didn’t want an errant engine hoist chain to scratch virgin new paint!
The mechanical work has included: renewal of the brake system, new front coil springs, installation of Borgeson power steering system and other steering components, drivetrain removal, detail, updates, and reinstallation, and countless other little things that are necessary to put a nearly 50 year old car safely back on the road.
If you have a child approaching driving age, I heartily recommend engaging in a project to acquire and rehab an old car. My son and I have grown much closer as a result of this fun project.
Looks like a great project. My sons did not inherit my (limited) mechanical interest/skills. They broke stuff; I fixed it. 🙂
R Henry: what a fantastic thing to do! 🙂
No question – most memorable for me was the experience of being passed by perhaps 200 000 cars, motorcycles, busses, pickup trucks, transport trucks, logging trucks, brussels sprouts trucks, and motorhomes on a 6 week bicycle trip down the west coast from Vancouver to the Mexican border this fall.
None of them hit me! Most were considerate, a few were scary, and a surprising number of them (mostly pickups in the Pacific NW) needed mufflers.
I bet that was memorable. Congratulations!
Wow, that sounds great! I am no cyclist beyond being able to keep it upright but the idea of something like that has always appealed. A good saddle, better shorts, and large tube of chafing cream would be my 3 essentials…what is that, about 40 miles a day?
We averaged about 55 miles a day as far as San Francisco, plus 2 rest days along the way, but my friend was pushing the pace. He had to get back to Vancouver, and after that I probably did about 45 a day on my own (plus a few rest days) for the rest of the trip. Southern California is a great place to take it a little more slowly.
My essentials were a good saddle, absolute minimum weight, and nightly beer & Fritos 🙂
The arrival of my friend’s new Audi A4 almost three months after our special order. The wait was worth it to get this great interior with the options she wanted. The beige/brown/dark wood interior looks great in a dark blue car. Nothing like a new car to spice up the year.
I total up our annual miles each year and my wife usually tops 20K (rural living + a couple trips each year to visit family in the SE). I usually hit around 15-16K back and forth to work + a trip or two for work.
Haven’t run the numbers yet, but I expect to top my wife this year as I made numerous trips to my Dad’s (usually 16 hours on the road one way) due to his ongoing dementia – trying to make sure we have everything in place before his memory is too far gone to do it.
Add to that several 6-hour trips (one way) to help my son and his wife work on their place in south IL, plus two trips south for funerals (almost-105 year old grandmother and an uncle just last week).
We’ll finish out the year (and start the new) with a trip to Mississippi for a niece’s wedding on New Year’s Eve – my seventh trip to the Deep South for the year.
Car-wise, I ditched my ’13 Beetle TDi convertible for the ’15 Honda Fit (~7,000 miles and loving it so far); finally sold off the rustbucket ’95 F-150 4WD; made two separate trips to rescue my son when their ’98 Dodge GC broke down (first time was a 6 hour round trip with the F-250 diesel and a trailer, late at night, second was when they got stuck in a bad snowstorm 5 miles from the house); and helped the same son find a used replacement GC (’08 model) when theirs finally died at 278,000 miles).
I got very little done on my two VW Beetle resto projects, but have made a lot of progress getting the machine shed cleaned up and ready to pour a new concrete floor next early summer – so there will be plenty of room to spread out and get knocking on the Bugs then.
EDIT – I just did a quick calculation, and it looks like I’ll top 30,000 miles on the road this year, which is a personal best. Not one I really hope to ever top, either! My hat’s off to folks who do that and more on a regular basis.
Best/Worst drive: A week ago driving my 1986 Volvo 760 turbo pegged the boost gauge several times enjoying the acceleration and passing ability of the “turbobrick” for several miles when I heard a very loud pop. Immediately the fun ended but I was lucky to limp home. This is not the first time I have blown turbo hoses.
An upgrade to silicone reinforced hoses with better clamps solved those problems for me on my Audis.
Having a “check engine” light that ended up leading to $740-odd of repairs to the evaporative recovery system. Ouch.
I took the bike on a short (350-mile round trip) camping excursion. This was my first ever motorcycle camping trip, something I have had on my “to do” list for a long time. Now that I have a bike capable of doing these types of trips, I hope to make it an annual event.
Nice! EX500? good choice. I hope you’ve read my motorcycle trip post so you know how not to do it…
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/born-to-be-wild-at-least-once-our-cross-canadian-motorcycle-trip/
Yes, it’s a 2000 EX that I bought in May. It is a great bike; fast but not stupid fast, and makes a great commuter. Outfitted with the bags it swallowed up all my gear with (a little) room to spare.
I absolutely read your motorcycle post, and learned from it!
My most memorable experience, should be my four most memorable car experiences. Here they are, in no real order:
-Attending the CC pilgrimage, *ahem* meetup in Auburn (Great)
-Getting my Segment 1 Learners Permit (Great, as waiting at the Secretary of State for 4 hours rocks! Not really)
-Officially starting the Mr. Edward Mann first car hunt. (Great)
-Getting pulled over in shotgun, with a friend of my Scoutmaster’s taking me back from a BSA/Order of the Arrow event. (Interesting, cool, as it was my first time being pulled over in recent memory, and bad because of that exact same reason)
I am looking forward to reading all about the Mr. Edward Mann first car hunt! Congratulations!
Test drive as many cars as you can then please let us know all about it. 🙂
Congrats on the learners permit Mr. Edward Mann; the moment for every car gal or guy when their life really begins!
Learners permit? Whats that? When I turned 15 I was allowed to learn to drive supervised no permits required I just had to wait 3 weeks until school holidays to return from boarding school to take my driving test, passed with flying colours first attempt in a Morris Minor (including doing hand signals flashing indicators were not fully legal in early 70s NZ.
Here is the paraphrased law in Michigan, USA: Learners permit means that you have to drive for 50 total hours with a parent or guardian in the car, and pass a few tests, before you can get a liscense at 16. This license has restrictions allowing for only 1 passenger in the car, excluding family, and that one cannot drive between 10:00 PM (2200 hrs) and dawn. At age 17, one can get an unrestricted license after yet another test. After that, one need only renew tags every year.
In other words, it is that first time come one can *legally* drive a motor vehicle, so long as a parent or guardian is in the car.
Congratulations!
Not a great year for me vehicle-wise. I didn’t work much on the VW, I didn’t get the hard bags on the Kawi Concours, not even once.
A couple of highlights: Driving to Auburn IN and thinking “this is a long way from home to be in a 13 year old Focus”
Getting a ride in a Dodge Viper, which affirmed my belief that it’s more fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow, just before it blew a power steering hose and barfed fluid all over itself and the street.
I bought a LaForza off of eBay. I’d thought they were cool as a kid, had set up a saved search a while back, and when one popped up 30 minutes away from me I figured if I was ever going to own one, this would be my one chance.
I’m not sure what was more memorable – discovering a few blocks away from picking it up that much of the electrics, including the lights, didn’t work, or the 2+ hours I spent at AAA to get plates on the thing.
There’s one in Eugene, white too.
1995: I attended an Amnesty International in Ljubljana, Slovenia with 2 more colleagues from Puerto Rico. We heard it was a good idea to go to the Slovene coast at night due to their great clubs.
Me and my colleagues rented a Daewoo Racer (Pontiac Lemans/Opel Kadett) and for sure misunderstood the directions we got from our Slovene friends because after 2 hours on the road, we ended up next to the Croatian border. Anyway, we decided to cross it and spend some time in Zagreb. I’ll never forget that trip…and the fact we came back to Ljubljana in one piece, considering we went to a country at war with what was left of Yugoslavia in August 1995.
Best time was the meet up in Auburn. Most of my museum trips are during the work week and I am frequently the only visitor in the place. Especially nice to go with a group for a change.
Bought Fritz the VeeDub last January. 7,000 on the clock now, Auburn, South Bend, Shipshewana, about 10 trips to the Gilmore, and trouble free, so far.
Fortunately, my one car garage helps me resist the temptation to drag some piece of South Bend or Kenosha finery home, so Fritz sleeps alone.
My neighbor had one just like that, also in black. With a 2.0 liter TDI and DSG. He drives a lot, mainly for his profession; about 40,000 km a year.
Since last spring he has a new one, the latest model Golf wagon, with the more square lines. And again: black, 2.0 TDI, DSG.
My neighbor had one just like that, also in black.
VW doesn’t give us much color choice here: black, white, two shades of silver and grey, with a tiny number produced in blue, red or tan. I would have bought a blue one, if anyone of the half dozen dealers in the Detroit area had one, but the only colors anyone had in stock were black, white, grey and silver. I’m OK with black. The Civic I had for 15 years was black. But it would have been nice to have a change.
Since last spring he has a new one, the latest model Golf wagon, with the more square lines.
I like the styling of the new one a lot, but I prefer a gas engine, and I don’t want to be a beta tester for the new 1.8T. There is a lot of innovation in the new engine, and, as it took them 4 years to get the old 5 cylinder to stop eating timing chains, I’d rather have the old, debugged, generation
My neighbor also used his Golf to haul his family (4 persons), luggage and a camper trailer to southern France. He’s a welder, all his equipment goes in the back of the wagon and he drives to the jobs throughout the country. Sometimes he comes home and his Golf looks like it has been in the Dakar rally raid, all mud from bumper to bumper. I must say he’s a loyal VW man.
I just checked the pricelist in a recent car magazine, the Golf is available with the following engines here:
Gasoline: 1.2 TSI, 1.4 TSI and 2.0 TSI.
Diesel: 1.6 TDI and 2.0 TDI.
All coming in a whole range of power-ratings. The standard 2.0 TDI for example is a 150 hp engine, yet in the GTD it delivers 184 hp.
Twelve colors available (the wagon) according to the Dutch VW website.
The 1.8 liter turbo engine has been around for quite some time now in several VAG products, like the Audi A3 and A4.
The 1.8 liter turbo engine has been around for quite some time
The 1.8T we are getting in the Golf and Jetta now is a new design. Very innovative. Exhaust manifold is built into the head. Two coolant pumps, one engine driven, one electric. Some sort of equization valve between the two coolant circuits, if I understand their blurbs correctly. Ultra thin block walls.
Here’s an article on the changes in the gen 3 EA888
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2013/08/20130829-ea888.html
I loved the 1st gen Passat (Dasher in US), but it has taken 40 years for VW to get reliability to a point where I was willing to buy one, and then only the Jetta wagon (Golf wagon everywhere else), which has been in production for years and is pretty well debugged. I figure VW is on probation until the car is at least 8 years old.
Interesting, that’s the first time I read about this new 1.8 engine.
Thanks to today’s Passat CC I remembered the Passat B5 my former boss drove. A black one (what else ?) with 1.8T on the trunk lid. IIRC 150 hp, quite adequate for a D-segment sedan. Certainly in the late nineties.
@Mr Edward Mann: +1 on being in OA and active. Have you got that Eagle yet? Take it from an old Eagle/Scoutmaster/Eagle parent: finish your Eagle before you get your license!
Eagle Court of Honor was done in June 2014. Board of Review by February 2014.
Am currently Brotherhood Honor in OA.
Congrats on the Eagle award. It really can help open doors and build relationships throughout your life!
Also best of luck on the car hunt!
Traded my 11 year old 2003 Honda Civic Hybrid on a 2012 Honda CR-Z Hybrid.
Really fun little car with 3 drive modes, Sport, Normal & Econ. Excellent 6-speed manual transmission too.
So nice to have a car with everything working.
It’s a tossup between two:
The Auburn meet-up.
A new face in my driveway. I was sorry to see the last of my ’74 Dart, but am pretty happy with it’s replacement, a ’95 Olds 98.
One of these is a compact, and the other is full size? 😉
My folk’s had a 70 Dart from 88/89 to around 2000 so the Dart/Valiant were considered compacts when they were new.
A couple of things. I was traveling back from Montreal, through Gananoque and went through the Haliburton region to get home to North Bay. Somewhere on Highway 35, a nice, twisty, hilly, fun road, I come over a hill and there are two deer there. Doe and fawn. I stop no problem. The fawn gallivants around a bit, the doe kicks her hinds at me. Then they get off the road. Lovely.
Later that trip, I get to Dorset and discover that the gas stations there aren’t open after 6PM on a Thursday. I made it to Dwight, filled up, and she waited around until I relieved myself of the Timmies in me and closed shop.
Another trip, I picked up a hitchhiker around Huntsville. He started talking. I think partly just to keep himself awake. He had had a bad motorcycle accident and was hospitalized for five weeks. The OPP mailed all his ID/wallet back to his home address for safekeeping. So here he was in Ontario, him a resident of BC, and he had to get home. So, he was going to go see his sister in Montreal who could front him the cash to get there. The way he talked, the way his story was consistent over a couple of hours, I believe him. I dropped him off at a truck stop, and gave him twenty bucks so he could get something to eat and drink. I do hope things went well for him. Maybe he was making it up, but if he was, he was good. I don’t feel used.
I had a lot of bad luck with my daily driven pickup truck (1994 RAM2500 Cummins diesel) this year.
Almost exactly a year ago, there was an ice storm here. A branch fell out of the tree overhanging our driveway onto my pickup truck, causing some golf-ball sized dents in the hood and roof, and cracking the windshield. I went through insurance to have it repaired. I’d had a comprehensive claim handled by them before and it wasn’t a big deal.
Well this time they tried to say that my truck was only worth $1500 and they wanted to write it off. I fought with them and had the decision overturned. In the meantime, my truck sat in the back lot of the body shop for almost a month and I was driving a rental 2014 Yukon at the insurance company’s expense.
When I got it back, the repaired sections stood out very plainly. I’ve used the same bodyshop for several jobs in the past, but this time they messed-up the paint formula by adding way too much metalfleck, and in bright sunlight the dark blue paint turned silver! I took it back and complained. The owner took one look and said they’d messed up and would repaint it again. They set me up in a Kia Rio rental for about a week.
With my truck finally all fixed, I thought I’d treat it to a new grille to replace the beat-up factory grille, so I ordered one online. When I installed it, I noted that the painters had loosened the nuts off the old grille but didn’t remove it entirely, they just masked over it. (They also didn’t retighten the grille afterwards.) My replacement grille didn’t quite cover the thick paint edge from the two paintjobs, which promptly started chipping. If I’d taken the truck to the carwash, the paint would’ve blown right off the front edge of the hood. Back to the bodyshop it went to have the hood repainted again! I removed the grille myself before dropping it off this time.
The third time at the shop, my truck developed a mysterious no-start condition while in their care. They called me at work and I had a coworker drive me over (no rental was provided this time) so I could diagnose the problem. Somehow the fuel filter had come loose. I think it was just a coincidence and not malicious, as I smelled a whiff of diesel fuel come in the HVAC the day before I dropped it off and thought that was odd.
This year the water pump and starter both failed as well. Not a big deal there, I replaced both myself, and also the thermostat and rad hoses as a preventative measure.
On a more positive note, this year I attended some car shows I’ve never been to before, including the one at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum where I got to park my convertible next to a couple of their planes for a photo op, and to Amanda’s Cruise which isn’t a car show but an hour-long cruise through the countryside.
http://www.amandascruise.ca/
One of the stops on Amanda’s Cruise, waiting to cross an old covered bridge.
My yearly Las Vegas trip was 6 days and 1,700 miles in total. On the way home, I avoided the interstates as much as possible for a more scenic drive home. Here’s one of the pix I took on the trip home:
I’m jealous. Of the scenery and the car!
Thank you Yanns.
On the same trip, I also stopped at Amboy, CA on Route 66:
Most memorable automotive experience? Finding and buying my dream Sierra 17 years after I first (and last) saw it! Yes I’m blowing my own trumpet here, but it was the experience of a lifetime!
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/my-curbside-classic/my-unintentional-coal-ii-1989-ford-sierra-2-9i-ghia-4×4-tales-of-sierras-past-and-how-a-17-year-dream-came-true/
I have a good one, and a bad one:
Good-Driving my friend’s blown 857RWHP Challenger at a speed I don’t want to say here. A lot of fun, and a little scary too.
Bad-Turning onto my street last winter on a dry, sunny morning, and before I had time to slow down the feeling of doom when I saw the street had flooded somehow, and was like glass. 245/45/20 tires don’t work very well on ice. I hit the neighbor’s kid’s junky Pontiac 6000 even though I thought I had managed to miss it when my left rear tire hit the snow dam left by the plow trucks a couple of days before. $1500+ to fix it..
Memorable for the wrong reason – getting hit by a long distance coach that didn’t worry himself enough to stop (the Police sorted that out) and another French speeding ticket from a hidden camera…….
And another year (10 and counting) of running a Ford and not having unscheduled garage visits.
Oh, and contributing to CC!
You’re going to love this:
We were in Florida for a long lay-on-the-beach weekend in late September, and our rental car we picked up at the Tampa airport was a bright red Toyota Camry SE!
Well, being the cruiser I am, I was surprised and pleased with the car, so much better than the white Avenger we had the last time. At least it was my style being red and at least LOOKING a bit sporty!
Would I buy one? Good question… if I had to replace my Impala, my first choice would be a Malibu – I’ve driven one, and except for the stop/start feature, it was fine.
For me it was the brief drive I had on a Fiesta ST and a XR6T.
The little thing made me smile since I got in. The big turbo 6 is just a beast. I’d love to try a F6-310.
Two trips to the Northwoods region of Wisconsin. The first in May (the lakes were still a bit icy) and the second in early November. SWMBO is working on her Master’s in Public Health and spent much of the summer getting practicum hours working with tribal health programs based out of the Lac du Flambeau reservation near Minocqua, WI.
We went up in May for her to attend an orientation session. On the way up we scratched off one of my bucket list items, a visit to the tiny burg of Gleason, WI, where in 1975 my all time favorite bad movie was made – The Giant Spider Invasion starring Alan “The Skipper” Hale Jr. Sadly, the remains of the VW Beetle that had been covered in black fake fur and had eight legs attached for the climactic and terrifying final scenes had been stolen and sold for scrap the previous fall. Due to work obligations I had to cut the May trip short and fly home out of the tiny but very nice airport in Rhinelander, WI.
The November trip was purely for fun. We rented a lakefront condo near Eagle River for a week and then moved on to Minocqua for two more days. November is the off season in the Northwoods, as it’s after all the lake property owners from Chicago and Milwaukee have gone home for the winter, but before the snowmobilers and ice fishing enthusiasts show up. Very nice accommodations can be had for cheap and you pretty much have everything to yourself.
Through it all was Vermontasaurus Rex, our ’05 Forester which performed flawlessly through several trips back and forth from here in the Illinois burbs of STL up to the Northwoods. During her time there over the summer she also made trips to tribal health conferences in the Twin Cities and in Traverse City, MI. All told around 15K miles between May 1st and mid November.
Here’s yours truly with Vt. Rex somewhere on the grounds of the University of Wisconsin’s Kemp Natural Resources Station near Woodruff, WI….
I, too, purchased a TSX Sportwagon this year – mine is a 2011 with now just over 34k miles. I made the short drive from Maine to Massachusetts to make the purchase, and while my buying experience was the polar opposite of yours, Paul, I love the car. It replaced a 2000 Silverado 4×4, so it shines in almost every comparison, and gas stations are so much more enjoyable now.
Partially due to the fact that there were less than 10,000 produced from 2011-2014, and also partially due to the fact that there are no Acura dealers in Maine (?!), I have only seen three other TSX Sportwagons on the road here since purchasing mine in August.
There’s just a few here, even though we have a dealer. Enjoy!
I was actually hoping for one with the Tech package (mine is without), purely because of the award-winning ELS stereo – I wouldn’t use the power liftgate or the nav even if I had them. But honestly, the standard audio system is enough of a quantum leap over what I had in the Silverado that I don’t mind too much.
The best was the first time I was able to go through the gears of my new Focus ST full tilt. For someone that had never had more than 150 horsepower before, it was incredible.
Most memorable experience was a bad one.
A week before Thanksgiving, I’m rolling home from work on my beloved (owned since new, 117k on the clock) 1995 Triumph Trident; when I hit a deer doing 60mph about a half mile from home.
I got a bit battered and sore, but nothing was broken, considering I’d be launched over the handlebars, rolled 3-4 times down the road, and ended up in the ditch on the left side – with the bike landing in the same ditch about three feet behind me. The bike was totaled. Given the long history with her, that motorcycle is irreplacable.
Happy to hear you’re OK, or at least walking wounded.
Sorry to hear about your bike. Lucky you were relatively uninjured.
Gutted to hear that Syke, sounds like you’re lucky to still be here with us. May your 2015 be less painful…
Glad you are OK. Sorry about your bike.
Sorry you totaled the bike, but better that than yourself. You lucked out injury wise, glad to hear that.
My most memorable automotive experience for 2014 was my move from North Little Rock, Arkansas to Vancouver, Washington. 2250 miles in three days. No tickets, no warranty claims, just mile after mile spinning under my tires and filling myself and the gas tank two times each day. The stretch north between Ogden, Utah and where I-84 meets I-86 saw 80-85 mph on my speedometer and I was being passed routinely. That part was where I achieved the worst mileage on my trip (30 mpg) 🙂
I found a pic from the trip. Look at the MPG and the speed 🙂 That was steady state mpg, too.
I have two. Both good.
First, after a year and seven months worth of work and waiting and throwing money at it, the complete and total re-do of my late sweetie’s precious ’88 Toyota Pickup, “Li’l Truck” was “finished” and I got to bring it home on what would have been her 63rd birthday.
Pics of that day:
http://www.charcardz.com/liltruck/homeagain.html
The whole story starts here:
http://www.charcardz.com/liltruck/liltruck.html
It was wonderful to finally have it done, and to have it turn out as beautifully as it did.
Second was an impromptu road trip in my beloved 2008 Forester (“Roslyn”) across the western half of the US and back in late August/early Sept. My best bud and his family (in Alameda,CA) had to go on an 11-day “family duty” vacation to visit his father, who’s suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s.
They would be gone for 11 days, and needed someone to ‘house-sit’, and I was needing to get out of the relentless Texas heat, so I drove from Austin, TX to Alameda, CA and house-sat for them. The trip out was was great, Roslyn drove solid as a rock the whole way.
When my friends returned, my buddy and I loaded up Roslyn and together we drove to Long Beach to see another friend for a night, and then back to Austin the next day in 22 hours (!). That return trip was much fun. I had an Alpine stereo/amp installed while I was out there in Alameda, so the tunes sounded MUCH better on the way back! Can’t say enough about what a joy the Forester was to drive. Rock-solid and dependable the whole way.
Ever since Paul posted the story of buying the Acura wagon, my eye catches them on the road, any time they’e in my line of sight, 😉
Getting my learners! First step to becoming the gear head I want to be
Congrats Irv man! Your life is now really beginning!
My automotive highlight of the year was definitely joining more than 1900 other Miata owners — from as far away as Newfoundland — at Laguna Seca in September, to celebrate the MX-5’s 25th anniversary and be the first to see the new “ND” version.
Lowlight? ’89 LTD Crown Victoria heater core failure. More than six hours of labor on the horizon to dig out and replace this crummy $50 part, or so I’ve read, and meantime the poor car sits idle …
Win some, lose some.
Couldn’t you at least bypass the heater core so the car is drivable until you get to fixing it?
Sure … and I live in coastal California, so heater use is a very rare occurrence. But, I have too many cars, and the blue beauty will have to go when I can get around to it and bear to part with it, so I’m mulling over the best thing to do. She’s in great shape otherwise and not quite at 80K …
I was able to take my MX-5 onto the banking at Brooklands earlier this year – that was special
My ’03 Crown Vic Sport needed overnight servicing, so I ended up driving off in a new Taurus. The VanillaFamily have a new T&C so am not entirely out of the loop regarding new vehicles, but I was a bit disoriented by the new Taurus.
First off, I got out of the dealership after sunset. So I had to figure out how to drive this new car by its own numerous and plentiful LED lighting pods, screens, knobs and features. I discovered that this new car lacked any tactile feedback since everything seems to had been replaced by a smooth touch screen not designed for gorilla fingers wearing winter gloves.
While the ride was decidedly excellent, and the Taurus roomy enough for my 6’3″ frame, the overall sensation experienced as I flew down the expressway was that of an old man caught in a space pod. The interior was lit from dozens of LED lights which seemed to have been placed by an interior decorator intending to impress me, not enlighten me. I come from an era when lights in a car were for truly functional and important reasons, so encountering a car which uses lights in a manner to entertain and assuage some kind of useless emotion was aggravating.
The dashboard told me lots of things I just didn’t care to know. It was a flood of trivia coming from the music station the satellite radio was picking up, informing me that a musical artist with a completely unforgettable name was playing music that was completely forgettable. Pressing the various touch screen spots on the digital displays would change the screen’s appearances with menus, but there wasn’t a single tactile indicator that I pressed anything. This kind of sensatory numbness forced my eyes from the road repeatedly. Additionally, each brightly colored display threw new rainbows of hues across the interior of the Taurus, making me feel like a Mario Brother trapped in an IPod.
Yeah – the entire experience was a bit unnerving and it was the first time I felt like I needed to consider spending more time in new vehicles so that I could figure out how the hell to get down a road in one of them.
Thankfully, the new 2015 T&C remembered the human power of touch and the human need to focus while traveling above 70 miles per hour.
I feel like I should probably get off your lawn.
First off, I got out of the dealership after sunset. So I had to figure out how to drive this new car by its own numerous and plentiful LED lighting pods, screens, knobs and features.
heh, I know that feeling.
I went car shopping last January, on a day with the closest to decent weather last winter: 20 degrees F and solid heavy overcast. The dealer really wanted that car off the lot because they wanted to close the deal that day, rather than have me come back the next afternoon….so rush home to get the title to the Ford, log into the insurance company web site to print off a certificate of insurance then back to the dealer.
By the time I got out of there, it was 7PM, well and truly dark, and I was dealing with Wolfsburg’s idea of how controls should be placed and work, instead of Dearborn’s, and it was snowing, a lot. Roads completely snow covered and the new and strange car wearing notoriously greasy OEM Bridgestones.
Not only did I make it home in one piece, taking local streets, but those Bridgestones never lost grip, or else the VW traction control and ABS were so excellent and subtle I never noticed their operation, as opposed to the banging of the Ford’s traction control.
I bought my first car (I’m only 19 and with my money) a 1989 Caprice Classic LS B
Sedan, coupé, or wagon? Please show pics of the caprice.
As a 15 year old starting his first car search, how fun is the first car search, on a scale of 1 to 10?
Classy pick! All your friends will want to ride with you, though. Make sure to hit them up for gas money.
Well I guess my best motoring achievement of the year has been a full powertrain transplant into my ancient Hillman, I was designed and built before the advent of motoways and when NZs speed limit was 55mph with very few places where that could be attained, Ive stayed within the Rootes parts bin and have installed a 66 SuperMinx 1600 engine and full syncromesh gearbox and most recently a 73 Hunter(Arrow) diffhead 3:89 ratio in place of the 4.55:1 original, Instead of straining to get to our 100kmh speed limit it now cruises easily at that speed and will accelerate to overtake up to 120kmh, it will go faster though as yet I havent bothered, So now I have a classic capable of easy open road travel at last.
Highlight? Unexpectedly finding an ’88 Volvo 780 Bertone coupe for sale (I just happened to see it in a parking lot) and buying it a couple of days later.
Lowlight? The fact that I can’t seem to get anything done on said Volvo. Still doesn’t have a radio, still needs the center support bearing replaced, still needs…oh a number of things before I’ll trust it on more than short trips. But it’s nice when I can drive it at least…
Driving the R8 and RS5 at the Sonoma Race Way with my Dad.
+
@Mr Edward Mann
The search is about a 7 it can be nerve wracking you get good lookers with engine problems and good engines with rusting out bodies. But its still exicting.
And the car is a sedan
Looks nice! Really great shape. Basically, the factory already pimped your ride with all the gingerbread available at the time. Gingerbread meaning brightwork or additional trim pieces.
Attended the 20th annual Joe Lucas not-a-rally in the Mendocino Nat’l Forest in Northern California with my 1960 Series II Land Rover.
http://www.expeditionlandrover.info/mendoXX/mendoXX.html
It was epic.
Highlight was assuredly the long awaited test drive of a ’76 Coupe DeVille, the Holy Broughaman Gunboat. I thought I would love taking the bridge of that beast. And I did. Actively looking for a Sedan, still considering a 460 Continental in the alternative, awaiting test drive of same.
Low point, taking a friend’s car out to Long Island and realizing that the smooth rides of the ’93 Fleetwood and ’77 Electra have shielded me from the absolute travesty our infrastructure is becoming in the Northeast. The roads are truly in lamentable condition.
Doing a factory order for the first time ever: 2014 BMW 335i manual, M Sport, few other options, and two months later getting a call from the dealer telling me it’s here and could have been sold five times so come and get it.
There weren’t any 335 sticks in the entire southeast US—I’m in Atlanta—hence the factory order. They had a 328i stick but forget it; if I’m dropping that kind of cash I want an inline six, the last one AFAIK available in any car.
My most memorable drive of the year is when I flew out to Pa to get my old ’93 subaru back from my sister. She drove it for about 4 years and was about to trade it in for a pittance. Instead, I flew out there and drove it all the way back to StL in one 15-hour stint! Took a few nap-breaks on the road but enjoyed every minute of it. The picture was taken sometime around 2:30 in the morning somewhere in western Pa.
This year we’ve taken multiple family trips in “suby.” Most memorable is taking the kids to a drive in and having them fall asleep in the hatch area.
2014 was a great year and here’s to hoping 2015 is even better!
My wife and I had been discussing taking a trip out to see Mt. Rushmore which I had visited during a solo cross country motorcycle trip back in 1980. My brother decides to relocate to Laramie Wyoming from the SF bayarea where we both live. My wife also has a friend in Sandpoint Idaho who was putting on an antique flea market which my wife really wanted to attend. My wife had never been to Yellowstone park so that was factored into the mix. Our trip covered approx. 4,500 miles and 13 days. We stayed in Klamath Falls Or,Depoe Bay Or, Sandpoint Id,Gillette Montana, Rapid City S.Dakota, Laramie Wy, Midway Utah, and finally Reno Nevada. Because my wife wanted to loadup on stuff in Idaho the 96 Mustang GT stayed home and my 07 F150 XL long bed did the trip. This is a low level V6 truck that had a/c but no cruise control. Still it is quiet, smooth riding and handles surprisinly well. Last year returning from a trip to LasVegas it seized up the a/c compressor and had to be towed the last 200 miles home. Though it had been repaired it had shaken my confidence in it when it occurred at approx. 75k. Well no guts no glory. Cruising at a steady 65 mph. the overall fuel mileage was a little over 20 mpg. Did you know that the speed limit is 80 mph. in some parts of Wyoming? The most impressive part of the drive was state route 2 in Idaho to Missoula Montana. The most incredible sight was the Crazy Horse monument located about 30 miles from Mt. Rushmore (which we also visited and loved). Still, check out the story of the Crazy Horse monument which won’t be finished for another 50 years.