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| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 66 responses total. |
gull
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response 31 of 66:
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Jun 22 14:58 UTC 2004 |
Re resp:9: Keep in mind that a Civic is an unusually low car. Most
cars, including my 240, have a couple inches more ground clearance than
a Civic.
Re resp:12: "Mainly the problem I've had with a 2WD truck is getting
started at icy intersections (especially those on hills). It really
doesn't take much to get stuck with 2WD if you aren't careful."
A limited-slip differential helps quite a bit. So does adding weight to
the rear. If you don't have a limited-slip diff, sometimes applying the
parking brake slightly when trying to get started on a slick surface
will help.
Re resp:20: Most current 2-door hatchbacks aren't rated for towing,
unfortunately. My Civic's manual just said towing was "not recommended."
Re resp:29: I don't think Toyota currently sells diesels in the U.S. VW
does, but they don't make a truck. All the other diesels you're likely
to find will be V-8s or bigger. The company I work for has a Chevy 2500
diesel pickup truck. It gets about 25 mpg, which is far better than the
same truck would get with a gas engine, but still not impressive. There
is the Dodge Sprinter (aka. Freightliner Sprinter, aka. Mercedes
Sprinter), which is available with a 5-cyl. inline diesel, but that's a
full-sized van.
Basically, diesels were briefly popular here during the two major oil
shortages. After that, they fell out of favor. GM produced some really
terrible V-8 diesel cars in the 70s that were unreliable, smokey, and
hard to start, and that pretty much turned people off on the whole idea.
Then there were the early diesel VW Rabbits that were underpowered and
kept blowing head gaskets. Basically, your typical American's opinion
of diesel engines is not very high.
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ball
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response 32 of 66:
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Jun 27 23:28 UTC 2004 |
Re #30: "good" for a petrol/gasoline truck perhaps, which is
one of the reasons that I want a Diesel!
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keesan
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response 33 of 66:
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Jun 28 02:56 UTC 2004 |
Diesel fumes are particular bad for innocent bystanders who have asthma, as
well as smelling terrible. The soot is what bothers people with asthma.
Minimizing driving would work better than getting something diesel.
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kentn
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response 34 of 66:
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Jun 29 13:28 UTC 2004 |
Re 31: I did say I put 600# of sand in the rear. That helps a lot.
Limit slip differentials are nice but not if they don't come with your
used vehicle. Even with the extra weight, which helped a lot, it was
possible to get stuck if the hill was steep and icy. If you're not
careful, it's really easy to get stuck.
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ball
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response 35 of 66:
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Jun 30 06:48 UTC 2004 |
Re #33: As a person with Asthma, I think it's nice that
you're considerate of that. All the talk about soot &
smells may be appropriate to large, poorly maintained old
engines, but it doesn't sound like any of the modern small
Diesels that I have experienced.
I would love to minimise my driving. My last job had me
based in an office literally just across the street from
where I live. I could walk to the recycling centre with
the office recyclables, to the post office to collect mail
and to the bank to deposit my paycheque. There were times
when I actually had to remember to drive my car just to
'stretch its legs'. Unfortunately those paycheques that I
mentioned dried up, forcing me to take a job at a factory
twenty miles away. I wish that I could afford the luxury
of minimising my driving.
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keesan
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response 36 of 66:
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Jun 30 14:58 UTC 2004 |
Does anyone else in the town where you live work at this same factory?
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ball
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response 37 of 66:
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Jun 30 16:10 UTC 2004 |
Re #36: No, especially not on my shift (16:00 - 24:30)
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keesan
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response 38 of 66:
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Jul 1 02:50 UTC 2004 |
Maybe you can go into business for yourself locally? Yardwork? That sounds
awful, having to travel 40 miles a day to work that shift.
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ball
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response 39 of 66:
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Jul 1 06:33 UTC 2004 |
Re #38: It is fairly awful, and speaks of the difficult
position that I find myself in. I lack the financial
resources to go into business for myself, although it's an
option that is frequently suggested to me. I can only hope
that things will improve once I have an Associate Degree
to go with my existing British vocational qualifications.
A new Ballmobile would take me to work, to earn money to
pay car payments, other bills, tuition fees, buy textbooks
etc. It would also take me to college (at least 20 miles
in the opposite direction) for those classes that I must
take face-to-face. I certainly couldn't afford to run one
of the hideous gas-guzzling trucks I saw at the dealer
-ships. :-/
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keesan
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response 40 of 66:
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Jul 1 15:54 UTC 2004 |
Do you realize you said the new car would take you to work to earn money to
pay for the new car? A used car would be a lot cheaper, since many people
think used is worth less because of status issues. Jim got his textbook used,
half price, online (eBay?). I presume your wife got a good job in the town
where you cannot find work. You don't need much of a financial investment
to do yardwork or child care, and even if they don't pay as much it would
avoid the long commute.
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ball
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response 41 of 66:
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Jul 1 17:15 UTC 2004 |
Re #40: Yes, that's why I wrote it ;-) I certainly plan to
buy a used vehicle, a brand new one would be prohibitely
expensive. Even a used reliable vehicle represents a
significant financial burden.
Yard work would not bring in a sustainable income. There
are other obstacles, but the most obvious one is that I
can't expect to compete with the teenage kids who can
afford to work for pocket money. Child care a similarly
unrealistic option. My wife works in another town, North
of us (although not so far North as my college). She has
the distinct advantage of a Master's Degree.
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keesan
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response 42 of 66:
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Jul 2 03:37 UTC 2004 |
So why don't you move North to either the town where she works or the town
where you want to attend classes? Then one of you won't need a car.
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ball
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response 43 of 66:
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Jul 2 06:21 UTC 2004 |
This response has been erased.
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ball
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response 44 of 66:
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Jul 2 16:31 UTC 2004 |
Re #42: Besides, if we lived in either of those places I
would have to drive even further to get to work.
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keesan
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response 45 of 66:
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Jul 3 23:51 UTC 2004 |
I hope you eventually find a place to live that is the same as the place where
you both work. Maybe a degree will help get a closer job.
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ball
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response 46 of 66:
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Jul 4 00:31 UTC 2004 |
Re #45: So long as the degree helps me get a better job,
that has to be my main priority at present. I agree that
it would be nice not to have to drive to work though.
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ball
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response 47 of 66:
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Jul 7 19:45 UTC 2004 |
I'm looking at the Toyota Matrix. It's not a truck, it's an
estate car/station wagon. Its stated fuel economy reflects
that. It has room in the back for modest loads, and ground
clearance looks better than that of my Civic. It lacks a
Diesel engine, but apparently many of them are stick shift
and some even have six forward gears.
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slynne
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response 48 of 66:
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Jul 7 21:06 UTC 2004 |
Isnt the Toyota Matrix the same car as the Pontiac Vibe?
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ball
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response 49 of 66:
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Jul 8 06:48 UTC 2004 |
Re #48: "The twins are a General Motors-Toyota co-production
using Toyota drivetrains. Vibes are built in the NUMI
plant in California that also manufactures most Corollas
sold in the U.S, while all Matrixes are assembled in
Canada at Toyota s award-winning Cambridge plant."
http://autonet.ca/DriverSource/Stories.cfm?StoryID=5151
It sounds as though the important parts come from Toyota, so
I'll try not to let the Pontiac connection put me off.
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n8nxf
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response 50 of 66:
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Jul 29 15:28 UTC 2004 |
I had a Chevy Toyota Corolla Nova back in the 80's. We liked it a lot and
had it for 15 years putting 150K on it. I would think it's the same deal with
the Vib.
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ball
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response 51 of 66:
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Jul 30 16:55 UTC 2004 |
Re #50: did it make a good ground plane? ;-)
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n8nxf
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response 52 of 66:
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Feb 6 03:59 UTC 2005 |
It wasn't plastic so, yes it did.
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ball
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response 53 of 66:
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Aug 29 18:10 UTC 2005 |
My napkin math was wrong, but not 'out of the ball park'
wrong. According to the metric conversions at...
http://www.sciencemadesimple.net
...40 MPG is about 5.88 l/100 km.
We bought the Matrix. Not Diesel :-( Stick shift :-) No
accelleration :-( Reasonable fuel economy :-) Gas costs
half as much here as in Britain, but I'm still feeling the
effect of the rise in gasoline prices.
- Andy Ball
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ball
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response 54 of 66:
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Jan 9 05:04 UTC 2006 |
It finally happened at Christmas: there came a day when the
Matrix was officially too small. We were going out of town
for a couple of days to visit family and couldn't squeeze
everything that we needed in there.
Before we added a child seat that prevented us from folding
down the rear seats, I was able to use the Matrix to bring
home a small chest freezer in a 1m wide carton. I was
somewhat surprised that it fit. Now I'm starting to see why
suburban families might buy SUVs, mini-vans or other such
monstrosities.
I wouldn't object to a long-wheelbase Land Rover Defender
(biodiesel, naturally ;-) but that's more for use as a
platform for experiments in radio, electronics and perhaps
astronomy. I get the impression that those aren't legal over
here anyway, so perhaps I should buy an old Geo Metro, strip
everything out of that, stiffen the suspension and start
welding and bolting things to it. >:-)
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rcurl
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response 55 of 66:
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Jan 9 06:21 UTC 2006 |
I drive non-SUV wagons. For carrying equipment for four people for car
camping I built a box with doors that can be carried on top, with four
compartments on one side for individual gear and compartments on the other
side for tent, cooking gear, etc. There is no reason to have a vehicle
that can carry all that when most of the time all that is not being
carried. I've thought that such containers should be standard accessories
one could buy with a car, but they aren't.
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