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17754. jayackroyd - 12/8/2005 8:28:32 PM There's an awful lot of 4 wheel drive here now. I think Suburu's entire line is 4 wheel drive.
Car nuts, like Mickey Kaus on Slate, prefer rear drive.
Myself, I hate automatic transmissions. I never feel like I'm really in control of a car when I can't downshift.
The car I was using that had the ABS was an automatic, but my sister's winter car is manual, and I really felt safer in it. 17755. thoughtful - 12/8/2005 8:30:21 PM The sportier cars tend to be rear wheel drive as well...one of the reasons why i never got a miata, cute as it is. A friend of mine has one, but she lives in FL so it makes sense for her.
 17756. jayackroyd - 12/8/2005 8:34:57 PM I'd always wanted a miata. I like small, peppy cars. My sister has one--it's her summer car. When I've ridden with her, I've always been just a little bit terrified. It's like riding on a roller skate, especially with the top down.
Like thoughtful, she doesn't it consider it safe to drive in a New England winter. So when she moved back from Seattle to Maine, she got the Subaru for the winter. 17757. judithathome - 12/8/2005 9:31:33 PM know of nothing more terrifying than the unexpected and complete loss of control when you hit ice at, say, 30 mph on a twisty country road
I can think of something more terrifying. I had a brand new Cougar XR7 or something like that and was tooling along one winter's day at a sensible spped and went across an bridge/overpass thing and suddenly found myself twirling in slow motion and sliding off the road, ending up facing on-coming traffic. My car was white with white leather interior and I was wearing a big white cable knit sweater with a huge collar and had on black round glasses...the man who was facing me as I came to a stop jumped out of his car and ran to help me...he said all he could see were the glasses with huge frigntened brown eyes staring out at him like a terrified barn owl. 17758. wonkers2 - 12/8/2005 11:08:45 PM Rear wheel drive cars are like hogs on ice. I was in DC when the big snowfall hit in the late '90s and was able to get around in my Detroit front wheel drive car, but the BMWs of which there are plenty in DC were stuck in snow banks all over town. And in the north you may as well put your Corvette or Firebird away for the winter. They are virtually unusable. 17759. wonkers2 - 12/8/2005 11:09:30 PM Anybody else remember the good old days when you put snow tires on in the winter and/or carried tire chains in your trunk? 17760. wonkers2 - 12/8/2005 11:15:06 PM A plug for Detroit: General Motors' Oldsmobile Division introduced the first automatic transmission in 1946 and the first front wheel drive car, the Toronado, in the 1966. Olds also developed the high compression Rocket V-8 engine, the first hard-top convertible, recessed windshield wipers and several other innovations. Let's hear it for DETROIT cars!!! 17761. Ms. No - 12/8/2005 11:22:16 PM Jay,
That whole album looks cool. I couldn't hear the samples so I'll check out artistdirect and see if they've got them there. 17762. thoughtful - 12/8/2005 11:26:13 PM I still suffer PTSD from being a passenger in the car when hubby was driving. We were coming home from NYC and he was in the far left lane tooling down the very crowded major deegan when the brake lights ahead came on. He slowed some but thinking they were just slowing didn't brake hard enough. When he realized they had stopped he hit our brakes hard and the car spun 90 to the right and there we are in the middle lane sliding sideways...he on the leading side, me on the traffic side looking at a greyhound bus bearing down on us. Finally our car came to a stop and thank god it was just where there was an extra lane opening up for an exit ramp. He gunned the engine spinning the car back into the middle lane but in the process forced the guy in the right hand lane to swerve into the exit ramp temporarily to avoid hitting us which yielded a horn blowing. Off we went down the road, everyone in one piece.
However I kept anticipating that horrible sound of crunching metal which never came. I kept anticipating getting wiped out by the greyhound bus, which never happened. In fact the fact that the bus driver was so high up and could see what was happening and helped slow the traffic behind us probably saved us.
To this day, though i can't stand riding in a car with someone else driving on the highway where they get even slightly too close to the car in front...makes my skin crawl! 17763. jayackroyd - 12/9/2005 12:14:28 AM Yes, No, I thought so too. They've got an olde English thing going that might work really well for Christmas music. 17764. wonkers2 - 12/9/2005 12:48:02 AM Driving too close and falling asleep at the wheel are two of the biggest causes of bad accidents. 17765. Ms. No - 12/9/2005 12:56:01 AM In the Sepulveda pass on the 405 a six lane freeway comes up from the valley floor, peaks over the Hollywood/Santa Monica mountains and then heads down the other side into West LA. The problem comes from the fact that very often the traffic backs up badly on the downward side of the hill and you can't see it until you come over the top....when it's too late to brake from your 70mph speed and avoid hitting people.
I got stopped, dead stopped, in the fast lane heading over the top of the pass for who knows what reason. The carpool lane beside us was empty and the other lanes of traffic were moving swiftly. The stop was pretty sudden and there I am at the end of the line a sitting duck as I watch a giant SUV getting bigger and bigger in my rearview mirror.
There's nowhere for me to go. Nothing to do except sit there and wait to get hit. This guy is flying and there's no way he'll be able to stop in time. At the last second he swerved into the empty carpool lane and missed me whereupon all the cars behind him had to do the same thing because they couldn't see me around him. I sat through that same little deathwatch four times in rapid succession before the information had moved back into the traffic far enough for people to avoid us.
And then my lane started moving again. 17766. judithathome - 12/9/2005 1:07:46 AM Did you have your emergency flashers on? I flip them on anytime I come upon a weird holdup in traffic. 17767. The Summer Woman - 12/9/2005 3:31:46 AM "There's a rodablock up ahead. I thought you said this road was open."
"It is open."
"Well, there's a humvee and a bunch of national Guardsmen."
"We'll just tell them that we've got permission."
"Permission for what?"
"Just keep driving, they're not even paying any attention to us."
...
"Looks like this road was paved pretty recently. That's a shame."
"Are your sure this road is open? There aren't any shoulders left and the asphalt keeps falling away into the flood waters."
"Yes, I'm sure. The directions say it's open and the Guard didn't stop us."
"Yeah, well, you might as well drive down the middle on the double yellow lines. Now that there's less than one lane left."
"Isn't it amazing how the water comes just up to, but not over the road?"
"What the hell are you talking about? You think just because this fragment of road you're driving on is dry and the rest of the road is in the bay that the water comes 'just up to' the road but technically not over it. Jesus."
"Look at the barge over there and the shrimp boats. Wonder how they're going to get those back in the water..."
"They seem to be the only things not in the water."
"What are all those pilings? The pelicans sure do like them."
"Um...that's where buildings used to be?"
"It says here that we turn left after the bridge."
"Give me that map, and watch the road for Pete's sake..."
"It isn't as if there's any other traffic to worry about."
What's that up ahead? That thing sort of sticking up out of the water?"
"It's called a bridge. And it's not there anymore."
"Could we trade places? I'm not very good at three-point turns."
17768. alistairconnor - 12/9/2005 12:56:08 PM Wonk : Detroit... the first front wheel drive car, the Toronado, in the 1966.
Et mon cul, c'est du poulet!
Ever seen one of these?
The Citroën "Traction Avant"... (that's French for "front wheel drive") Produced from 1934 to 1957.
My brother used to have one in the 70s... sometimes lent it to me. Handled surprisingly well on gravel roads. 17769. Magoseph - 12/9/2005 2:25:23 PM Hello, Summer--It's so nice to see you! So, you too have one these husbands...
Ali, the "Traction Avant" was a nightmarish sight for me when I was a teenager--everywhere I looked, there it was with my dad in it, so I thought. 17770. alistairconnor - 12/9/2005 2:34:32 PM My dear. How very Marguerite Duras. Did he have a Vietnamese valet tied to the front fender? 17771. alistairconnor - 12/9/2005 2:38:18 PM My dear. How very Marguerite Duras. Did he have a Vietnamese valet tied to the front fender?
I'm thinking that in the film "Diva", the Taiwanese bad guys drove around in a Traction too. 17772. thoughtful - 12/9/2005 2:52:18 PM Ahem. May I point out the Alvis with front wheel drive.
1928-1930 17773. Magoseph - 12/9/2005 2:55:18 PM Ali, I had two older sisters, one became a nun, the other had to marry a first cousin--I escaped to this country.
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