Piston Slap: Is The 2WD 'Burb Ready for The Snow?

Jay writes:

Professor Mehta,

I have some friends that are moving to Colorado from native South Florida. They’ve never lived in a 4 season climate let alone driven in snow. They own outright a 2007 2WD Suburban (80k miles) L33/LS1 FTW. The other car is an Acura TL he drives for work.

Since I’m the resident car guy, they’ve asked for advice. Should they trade the Suburban and get her a CPO X5 (her dream car)? Or buy an MDX, RX350 AWD?

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Piston Slap: It Ain't Easy Being on the Front Left!

Matt writes:

Hello,

I own an 06′ Hyundai Elantra GLS hatchback and tire wear on the front left tire has been much worse than the other three, despite rotating the tires. The outside of the front left tire is worn down so that it is smooth and now I can see a secondary layer of rubber being exposed. At first I thought maybe there was something wrong with the alignment but I took it to three places, one wanted to charge me a $90 “diagnostic” fee so I walked and the other two couldn’t find anything wrong. One place mentioned that since I had directional tires I couldn’t really get a proper rotation and thats probably what’s causing the wear.

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Trackday Diaries: the Long Night, Street Habits on the Track.

If you want to spend fifty days a year on-track, or even twenty, every dollar must be watched. A decent hotel can run eighty bucks or so, including tax, near most East Coast venues. Two hotel nights an event, ten events a year, will run you sixteen hundred bucks minimum. A few years ago I came up with a way to save at least eight hundred of those dollars: drive to the East Coast the night before. Playing a bit of “pickup ball”, to be coarse, can save the other eight hundred. It’s also possible to sleep in bathtubs for free if you have generous friends at the event, so pack a pillow and thick blanket along with your torque wrench and HANS device.

Sunday night passes into Monday morning and I am on the road at 12:30AM to cover the 371 miles to Summit Point’s Main Course. There’s less traffic at night anyway, making it easier to read Wikipedia whenever I have 3G signal. I’ll pick a topic and wander through. From 2AM to 5AM or so I’m reading about the late Michael Bloomfield and the story of the “Super Session” record with Al Kooper and Stephen Stills. A few reviews, a variety of technical diatribes about the ’58-’60 Gibson Les Paul. The maple top is glued to the mahogany body, which stresses the maple under most conditions of heat and humidity, causing the guitar to resonate a bit more. Fascinating stuff. Yes, I read and drive. You’re not allowed to do it in press cars, but I hold the title for the Boxster and therefore if I want to spend the whole trip playing a Martin Backpacker on my lap I’ll damn well do it. If you want me to devote my full attention to the road, raise the speed limit to 195 and give me a plastic trophy for arriving at my destination before everyone else.

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  • Tim You can't buy Fisker for $27 million. All that buys is the shares, which are basically worthless at this point. To buy the company you have to ante up the $1.3 billion owed to its creditors, otherwise they'll just take it away from you in a few weeks.For all we know the house may also be leveraged to the hilt. That seems to be how this guy rolls.Still, if I had to choose, I'd choose the house. I hate EVs.
  • Wjtinfwb Coveted one of these back in '76-'77. I was a new driver, Dad had traded Mom's Cougar XR-7 convertible for a new Volare' wagon, the worst possible car for a 16 year old. I was saving money, sold a motorcycles and was about $1500 short of the list price of the new, Black on Black '77 Celica GT Liftback on the showroom floor at Zinn Toyota. Dad, had a friend who owned Reinhart VW in Miami. OK, a '77 Scirocco would be an acceptable alternative. But the Scirocco was similarly out of reach. Instead, they made us a (admittedly good) deal on a '77 Rabbit 2dr., $3400 with A/C, mandatory in S. Florida. I was excited about driving anything other than the Volare and jumped on the Rabbit deal. Of course the Rabbit, while a fun car to drive when running, was an unreliable POS and my dad's buddy the dealer was zero help. Still pine for the Toyota and if I had the excess cash available would jump on this one as nice examples are getting hard to find.
  • InCogKneeToe Wow, memories. My Parents have a Cabin on a Lake, I have a Plow Truck and Friends, access to Lumps (old tired autos). What happens? Ice Racing!. The only rules were 4 cylinder, RWD only. Many Chevettes were destroyed, My Minty 1975 Acadian Hatch Auto with 62,000kms, did also. Rad, Rad Housing etc. My answer, a 1974 Corolla Hatch 4 speed, the rest of the Vettes took offence and Trashed the Yota. It was so much quicker. So rebuttal, a 1975 Celica GT Notch, 2.2L 20R, 5 Speed. Needed a New Pressure ate but once that was in, I could Lap the Vettes, and they couldn't catch me to Tag me.
  • 28-Cars-Later I'm not sure when it was shot, but I noticed most shots featuring a Ford are pushing the BEV models which haven't sold well and financially kicked the wind out of them. Is it possible they still don't get it in Dearborn, despite statements made about hybrids etc.?
  • ToolGuy I watched the video. Not sure those are real people.