Drove Tam's Subaru Forester* to and from the doc yesterday and I have to say, it's a pretty nice $2.5K-ish used car -- the interior was well-treated and has held up well and it's fun to drive, with a real, genuine manual transmission that has a slightly truck-like feel. Power-wise, it's a step up from The Hottest Needle Of Inquiry, my '03 Hyundai Accent, and feels a little more sure-footed.
I'd like to have one myself but assiduous search has yet to turn one up with the requisite manual gearbox. Automatic transmissions just bug me; I started out with an ancient-at-the-time "three on the tree" Ford and have done most of my driving in cars that lacked the "advantage" of a laggy, sluggish slushomatic. ...Back to hunting for that maybe-someday Model A pickup truck....
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* RX: "Tamara, you haven't named your car yet!"
Tam: "I don't name cars. The Zed Drei doesn't have a name, either. The 'Subie' and the 'Zed Drei.'"
RX: (Gives her an amused look) "So that's their names."
Tam: (Returns amused look with 6% value-added Feigned Irk)
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
8 comments:
MAYBE WHEN YOU GET A NAME DESIGNATED
YOU OUGHT TO TAKE A PAGE FROM A JAPANESE SHIP LAUNCHING ITS QUITE AN IMPRESSIVE CEREMONY WITH A SHINTO PRIEST WITH AN ALTER BURNING JOSS STIX LIBATIONS OF SAKE AND INVOKING
THE VARIOUS DEITIES AND TOPPING IT OFF A GIANT CHRYSANTHEMUM LIKE PINATA HANGING OFF THE BOWS OPENING AS THE VESSEL SLIDES DOWN THE WAYS SHOWERING THE CROWD WITH CONFETTI TO THE THUNDEROUS ROARS OF BANZAI!
ARIGATO !
Yep. I stumbled into a really amazing bro-deal on my '93 Legacy. Runs pretty well 90% of the time (it's got an intermittent sensor issue that makes it kinda stumbly the other 10%) recent clutch job, manual transmission, salvage title, but only $500.
I had to pretty much immediately put $500 worth of suspension parts into it, (ok, I only had to put about $100 in, but if you're going to do the whole messy job, might as well just do it all at once, right?) but hey, that's still a pretty amazing deal.
The shifter is amazingly floppy, though. Known bug in my model, the shifter bushings wear out badly. In gear, I can move the gearshift side to side about 4 inches at the top. Makes the two-three shift something of a Zen exercise. I'll fix it eventually, it's about $10 in parts and 6 hours in labor, I just don't have that particular round tuit chit yet.
It used to be manual trans all the way for me. Till my left knee finally gave out and pushin' that clutch for 600 miles back and forth to DC on a fairly regular basis got really old and painful.
Sally names her cars; her current Dodge Caravan, in light blue, is of course "Vanderella", while her previous Dodge Caravan, in white, was "Vanna White". I don't do such things; it was (going back to about 1991) "The Escort", "The truck" (maybe "The Ranger"), "The Intrepid", and is now "The Escape" (although sometimes when I'm in a humorous mood I'll call it "The Excape").
What kind of Ford? My 1970 Ford Falcon had a straight six with 3 on the tree. Great little car. It served me well in High School and my first 2 years in the Marines.
As much as I like and prefer manual transmissions, when I developed gout in my left foot I was extremely grateful that the Saturn is an automatic. Cutting my foot off and using the fresh, bloody stump to work the clutch would have sucked, but it probably would have hurt less than trying to do it with the raw nerve ending that was my foot.
It's really depressing how hard it is to find good cars with manual tranny's. Cars that used to have them as options are now using the stupid, auto-tranny flaps behind the steering wheel.
I gots me a little 4 banger from Korea that I drive the crap out of. Does 0-60 in about an hour...but I love racing it around curves, shifting up and down with dah stick...
Automatic transmissions drive me crazy. I prefer a stick any day.
Had an old GMC that was cherry and first gear was 'Granny".
Sucker would climb a tree I think.
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