Retired traffic enforcement vehicle. This little buggy makes a great urban utility vehicle, grocery-getter or economical commuter. Registers as a motorcycle but no motorcycle endorsement or helmet are required to operate it. Insurance through Progressive cost me $80 for the year. These unique vehicles sell for over $30K new. Runs with and past regular traffic on regular roads. I have seen 30 mpg but better mileage should be possible in a less mountainous area. I have been using it as my daily driver and travel to offices in Wilkes Barre, Lehighton, East Stroudsburg, and Sparta, NJ. From here in Stroudsburg, I've taken pleasure rides to Hawks Nest in
Deer Park, NY, Sunrise Mountain in Branchville, NJ and
countless trips to Sussex and Warren Counties in NJ just for fun.
Recently, Contessa Nessa postulated that all of the 1995 and older Mitsubishi Galants were gone. Well, all signs seem to prove her point. But, as usual, the power of the REVolution hive mind has found a unicorn, this time in The People's Republic of Canuckistan. Check out this gem...
After years of being a hardcore Bridgestone Blizzak devotee, I decided to try something new on the Shadowagon this year. After much research, the Michelin X-Ice xi3 studless ice and snow tires were chosen. Here are the initial findings.
With minimum wage ranging nationwide between $7.25 and $10, a poor bloke or blokette who works for the man and gets paid so little seems hopeless to become a proud owner of a decent car, especially after only a couple of months' work. Maybe if he or she works for a couple of years and saves every penny, but they might as well just give up and buy a bus pass or a bicycle.
That must be true...or is it? Well, since you're a REVolutionary, you know that's a load of hogwash and that the world is full of car oysters.
Occasionally, I see a Mitsubishi Galant driving around. Usually, it's not in very good shape and looks like it's being driven until it can't be driven anymore, then discarded. While these were always on the cheaper end of the family sedan scale, I can't help but note that it's been a long time since I've seen a model year 1995 or older being driven on the street.The eighth generation in particular were pretty decent little cars and a step above many of the comparable vehicles.
Other than the rally racer fave VR-4 models, where did they all go? I can't even recall the last time I saw a X56 GSX...
Thanks for reminding us of this snappy little sedan, Nessa! We loved the 8th gen when they came out and when we sniffed around online to see if we could find one that was a 1995 or older, we could only find a select few, none of which were in very good condition. One was a 1989 for sale at a public auction and the other was a 1991 GS with a 4G63T swap. It seems that you've found yet another unicorn in the United States, with plenty sold but very few still existing and operational.
The greatest people and stuff movers known to humankind are minivans. End of sentence. If you're still with us on that topic, then you'll agree that there have been some stupendously great evolutionary changes in the breed.
First up is the actual establishment of the concept, put into production. Where exactly that started is up for debate and we'll leave that for another discussion or feel free to duke it out in the comments below.
After that, the next major milestone was the switch from RWD to FWD (and the inevitable AWD mutants), generating a far more car-like ride and handling.
Next came the dual sliding passenger doors that made the already wonderfully utilitarian genre even more so. Whether making those doors powered and remote is a related but detestably negative update, as makers never seemed to get the bugs worked out.
One of the greatest inventions was the completely disappearing third row seat, which removed the need to pull out and store those heavy thrones. Putting wheels on the bottom didn't cut it. Eventually, manufacturers split that third row and that was a wonderful thing.
Carmakers struggled with the issue of the heavy second row seats until Chrysler created "Stow N Go", the stupendously amazing engineering feat allowing them to fold and disappear completely into the floor (while also creating under-floor storage the likes consumers had never seen previously). Were the seats a little less comfortable? Some say yes, but we never thought so.
Competitors struggled and to this date have not superseded this amazing innovation. But here's one of the latest, from Hyundai/Kia, named "Slide-N-Stow". While very good, it still isn't quite up to the magic of the Chrysler solution. Good try, though. We need more thinking like this.
Don't miss part one and part two of our interview with Jon B, wherein he tells
us a little about himself, his Go-4 Interceptor and Subaru 360.
REVolution: Have you used your 3D printer to create any
parts for your cars? Do you think that, in the near future, more enthusiasts
will be doing exactly that?
JB: I used my 3D printer to create the patterns for my intake
manifold and air box for my Subaru 360. Prototyping and ultimately producing
these parts was the primary reason I bought the machine.
To be, or not to be.... (what) words, terms, or phrases that bug you in online car ads? Someone will suggest "patina" right away. The one that made me think of
this is the recent trend towards using a weird grammar structure:
"Brakes need replaced". When I first saw it, I just assumed it was a
non-english-first-language person, and it didn't bother me. However, I'm now seeing it so commonly that I worry that it might become an
acceptable evolution of the language. Oh, horrors! I just found this YouTube video; it's a frickin' epidemic, I tell ya!
Well, all you language obsessed gear heads, what say you? What gets your goat and what sort of fun examples can you find?
REVolution: Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you
from and what do you do for a living?
Jon B: My name is Jon and I moved to Northeast PA from
Morris County, NJ a little over 8 years ago. I have a lovely wife and a
brilliant 6 year old son. I am currently the Director of Information
Technologies for a communications construction contractor firm, but in my spare
time I'm what many would consider a Maker or a Tinkerer. I have a small
machine shop in my garage equipped with a lathe, Bridgeport Mill and other
rapid prototyping equipment, i.e. metal casting furnace, a small kiln I use to
burn out patterns, 3D printer and a laser cutter. I also dabble in programming and
love to tinker with small, inexpensive microprocessors.
Contessa Nessa queries; “I recently read a statement that
Subaru outsells Mazda two to one. Is that true?”
Great question! Let’s look at the facts. In 2015, Mazda sold
319,184 vehicles in the United States. In that same period of time, Subaru sold
582,675. So yeah, pretty close…ish. Not quite two to one, but all of that’s
kind of surprising if your main exposure to Mazda is through their marketing
(good gawd, somebody needs to fire whoever is that fantastically irritating
narrator in the commercials), which gives no indication that they’re currently one
of the tiniest Japanese car makers.
A similar statistic along the same vein involves a
comparison between Nissan’s luxury division Infiniti, which sold 133,498, while
Mini only sold 58,514. Maybe it’s just the geographical area that we’re in, but
we see Minis at every turn, at least as many as we see Infiniti-badged cars and
SUVs. But the numbers don’t lie; the Japanese luxo-brand does indeed outsell
the BMW-owned Mini two to one.
Our pal Bobinott has a challenge for you; name as many rear-engined front-wheel-drive cars (OEM from a major manufacturer, more than a dozen produced) that you can.. He'll fire off the first volley with the 1933 Dymaxion. What, all done already?
Today's stupid fact of the day; the 2016 Honda Fit has a maximum cargo capacity of 52.7 cubic feet while the 2001 Chrysler PT Cruiser has 64.2 with all of the seats removed. Stick that in your craw, Magic Seat! Just as a comparison, the Buick Encore CUV has a maximum of 48.4.
Elio Motors is still working to put its three-wheeled, "84-mpg," two-seat car into production, which is proving to be quite a task.
The company turned to a "crowdfunding" project last year to help raise the $230 million needed to start production at its ex-General Motors plant in Shreveport, Louisiana.
The slow pace of fundraising had led Elio to miss its original 2015 deadline for the start of production. It won't build its first cars until much later this year, at the very earliest--if it's ever able to launch production.
But now the company may face a new regulatory hurdle as well.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently introduced a proposal to change its regulations related to three-wheeled vehicles.
This would alter the regulatory definition of motorcycle to exclude three-wheeled vehicles "that are configured like passenger cars." Read more >>
Rumors are circulating that VW will buy back all of the TDIs, so these posts might be moot. But until then, our example now has a KBB value of $17,573, a loss of another $587 since December, 2015. Our comparison Accord has finally suffered a loss of $503. For the Jetta, that brings our grand total loss to $1,657 in approximately three months and a total of $503 for the Accord.
We're not really all that interested in limousines, but we are fascinated when the basis for those stretch jobs are unexpected and seemingly a bit random; here's another one of those.
"2006 Lexus Gs 430 8 Passenger Pink and Pearl White Limousine for $21500. We have upgraded our fleet to a larger limousine. This car runs well and all the electronics work! It's a great starter car or addition to a fleet. It only has 66K miles on it. Please email or text for info.Upgraded LED headlights, CD, radio, DVD players."
Here are the 20 least reliable cars and trucks for 2015, as determined by Consumer Reports. As usual, CR does a rather mystifying job of defining a list like this, in that a sharp-eyed reader will wonder why a vehicle that's a functional twin (corporate or otherwise) of the vehicles listed below is not called out. For example, the Chevrolet Colorado is brought to task, but not the GMC Canyon...? That makes little to no sense.
Oh well, here you go. We've reorganized their list by corporate entity and included the main complaints.
This stretched Chevy wagon customized by Stageway, who also did the same thing to Suburbans, Impalas, Cadillacs, among others and still exist, was still in very rough condition when we viewed it in the flesh. Still, it was impressive and easy to imagine it in its' glory days. The AACA Museum has a wonderful write-up on the history of this unique vehicle that we highly recommend reading.
Following in the footsteps of Toyota's Lexus, Honda's Acura and Nissan's Infiniti, Hyundai/Kia is creating a luxury brand initially utilizing models that they currently produce. Guess which ones and guess what the name of the new brand will be? Yeah, it wasn't much of a stretch was it...Genesis.
So there you have it. Hopefully it won't tank, like Mazda's Amati and Mercedes' Mayback. We shall see.
Luc Donckerwolke, the new head of Hyundai Motor Design
Center and Prestige Design Division, scares us a little.
We've had a few cars where the electrical systems were wonky, especially the fuses. We'd keep a box of replacements in the glove box and just swap one out when things went weird. So, you'll understand why we get such a kick out of this picture.
We know that you know that we know that you know that there's a whole sub-sub-sub-culture around these motorized three-wheeler kiddie-style bikes. Here's one that knocked us out. Enjoy and Happy New Year!
