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?
