We’re once again offering a very special Hooniverse Asks, one in which I’m not asking you a question, but where instead I’m asking you for questions. That’s right friends, the tables have turned.
Here’s how it works: you can ask any automotive question that’s been gnawing at your psyche like a rat on a raisin, and we’ll see if your fellow Hoons can come up with an answer. Of course, we don’t guarantee that it’ll be the right answer.
There is a depth of automotive knowledge present in here, just waiting to be unleashed. If you’ve got a question – is double clutching the same thing as dutch treating? – you can be assured that one of your fellow Hoons will have the answer. So since it’s Friday, and you’ve probably already checked out for the weekend even though you ‘re likely not even at work yet, let’s see if we can get another impromptu Q&A going and see where it goes.
Image source: AllThingsD
Hooniverse Asks: Open Forum, What Car-Related Questions do YOU Want to Ask?
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95 responses to “Hooniverse Asks: Open Forum, What Car-Related Questions do YOU Want to Ask?”
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Who put the bomp in the bomp bah bomp bah bomp?
Who put the ram in the rama lama ding dong?
Who put the bop in the bop shoo bop shoo bop?
Who put the dip in the dip da dip da dip?-
I don’t know, but I’d like to shake his hand.
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This might be a more fitting question for last call, but has anyone been watching the Barrett-Jackson auction? I’m a little slow on the uptake sometimes, but I finally figured out that it isn’t about the cars, it’s about who has the most coin – and wants to flaunt that fact. How else do you explain a somewhat run-of-the-mill SS396 Chevelle convertible selling for $70+ thousand? I thought the muscle car market was dying?
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As long as there are rich baby boomers in bowling shirts that are still ambulatory, there will be high bidders for muscle cars. When they die off, that’s when the market will shrink.
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Not something I normally watch, but it was on the restaurant’s TVs the other night while we were having dinner with friends. My conclusion was the same as yours: watching Barrett-Jackson on TV is to wealth what porn is to sex: watching people you’d probably hate in RL use theirs irresponsibly.
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I was more amazed by this 1980 Trans Am going for $110k
I don’t care if it’s original, has a turbo, or only has 750 miles, it’s still smog choked, with limited performance.
And I’ve only watched once or twice, when it’s late and I’m bored.
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Toyota used to totally dominate the market for commercial vans in Norway. When they announced that the Hiace will go out of production, there was a massive outcry and Toyota decided to crank out 1000 extra vehicles. All of them sold in an instant. Today, Toyota doesn’t offer anything comparable. They have the ProAce, a rebadged Peugeot, and handymen and companies around the country seem to opt for the Volkswagen Transporter now.
http://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/e9/e3/cf/e9e3cf471c274460699c570e5f3c9fc1.jpg
So… Do you know of more cases where a company had an iron fist of market dominance – and then just slipped? Trabant etc doesn’t count.-
It used to be that the Honda Civic was the gold standard for small cars in the American market. They were economical, entertaining, and beautifully put together. Only the Mazda Protege came close in combining all those elements. However, somewhere in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Honda began cheapening and de-contenting the Civic and the magic of the previous cars was lost. Only now has Honda been really scrambling to try to regain the Civic’s former glory, but the jury is still out on the current cars.
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I fell for the Honda reputation when I bought my 2002 Stream, essentially a 7 seater Civic. After three years, it is one of the more maintenance intensive cars I’ve owned, with almost constant troubles with the brakes particularly. It is very cheap and plasticky inside, with decidedly odd ergonomics and some mind-boggling cost savings (no heated seat back, but sitting area as the prime example).
Nonetheless, the driving pleasure I get out of it, and the neat versatility of the seats make me keep it. And my wife who slaps me every time I show her available 940 seven seaters and 264 TE’s. But that’s another story. -
Yep. Loved my Civic Wagon and the day I finally sold its poor rusted carcass it still had nice interior materials after thirteen years and 210,000 miles. If only the steel had held up.
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At one point Ford Police Interceptors owned the cop car market in the U.S. I do still see Fords (they’re mostly F150s and Explorers, not sedans) but it’s nothing like it used to be. I see Dodge Charger and Chevy patrol cars just as often nowadays.
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But did they give it up or lose out to the competition?
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I’d argue that they gave it up. The Crown Victoria owned it and when it was replaced by the Taurus and Explorer police packages it opened the door for others.
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Gave it up. Cops loved Crown Vics, the vast majority of police cars were Fords, and there are still babied Crown Vics on the local police force that they seem to be trying to hold onto as long as possible – there’s a silver unmarked one that is, without exception, cleaner than every other car on the force, including the newer models parked in front of the station.
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Ford Police Interceptors dominated mainly on price points rather than all out superior performance. (I am not slamming the platform as it is exceedingly reliable and replacement parts are plentiful and inexpensive). Chevy’s last gasp prior to their new platforms was the mid 90’s Impala.
It was a venerable cash cow for Ford as there were no significant players and the Panther platform’s tooling was long paid for. But many departments were facing pressure for safer, more efficient, and purpose built cruisers. The aging Panther platform would be cost prohibitive for Ford to bring into 21st century safety and efficiency goals. Chrysler and GM had dedicated full size RWD platforms (Charger and Impala from GM’s Holden arm) that could fill this niche and Ford’s Taurus and Explorer (in FWD and AWD) could also serve the same purpose (plus in bad weather states, the AWD is an added bonus for departments)-
Totally agree, just like I’m sure the Toyota van was simply becoming no longer viable as a product. Just making a parallel.
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Absolutely true. There were rumours Toyota might start to develop a new work van; but they certainly didn’t do so in time.
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Toyota already makes many vans from large to small for other markets mainly asia. USA is subject to the “chicken tax” against cargo vans from any country but originated in political issue w Germany.
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Yes, you’re right – I find it strange that they did not choose to develop a LHD version of the Probox instead of offering the rebadging ProAce. One size up, when it comes to the Hiace, they have the Alphard – I don’t know if it works as a commercial van, too?
http://toyota.jp/pages/contents/alphard/003_p_001/image/top/carlineup_alphard_top_01a_1_pc.png
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And not just initial purchase price. They were cheap to operate. The ubiquity made repair and service very cost, and just as important, time efficient. This was especially important in the taxi business where time is money.
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No the Panther did not win because of price it was more expensive than a Charger with the Hemi.
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New York City taxicabs too. The same was true of the Town Cow for black car livery service.
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Ford still owns the police market. The Utility Interceptor is the best selling police car by a significant margin. The Sedan Interceptor also does pretty well coming in 1st place in police sedans ahead of the Charger and Caprice. Here is a perfect reason that so many depts stopped buying Chargers after just a few of them. http://www.publicsurplus.com/sms/all,wa/auction/view?auc=1530559 Bad transmission at 70K miles and the cost of a rebuilt transmission exceeds the value of the car, not including installation. I’m not sure what the problem with the Caprice is but in 2015 sales dropped significantly to about 1/2 of their peak which was never that high to begin with. Less than 2000 examples were sold in all of 2015.
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Sjalabais, Do you know of any fine museums in your area ? A while back I found a Leuku in Kentucky and according to a forum feedback it is the most ornate type ever seen. It is a vintage Laiti made (either Jooseepi or Hans Laiti) in the Sami region along the Teno River of Northern Finland/Norway. It needs to be in a museum there.
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Beautiful! Scandinavians are very proud of their knifes, but I know little about them. This looks fairly standard to me, but how old do you think it is?
I’m about a half hour from Bergen, which has a big university and museum. If you’re looking for help, I’m sure there’s someone very willing to share insight:
http://www.uib.no/universitetsmuseet-
Thanks for the info & will send them an email. I posted this on Britsh Blades forum and they went apestink over it. Here is the thread. Made around WWII era. http://www.britishblades.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-176661.html
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Amazing level of detail…Tana river makes more sense to me, as that is the Norwegian name. It is interesting though that the experts are able to pinpoint its age quite well, as knifes like that are still being made – in schools, among other things.
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The folks in that knife forum are good. They had it pinpointed tootsweet and it appears to be important to this family of craftsmen in that area that refined this overall design. As said, If all of this is correct, It really needs to go back home to a museum.
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Thank you for doing the right thing; trying to get it into a museum. Most people would go: “Wow, that’s beautiful, I’ve got to keep that”, then they stick it in the attic and forget about it. Until it gets thrown away decades later…
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You are welcome Vair, I have collected weapons, worked in several gunshops on the side, during and after being an engineer. Truly gunsmithing is the TOP of the foodchain, you need be a mechanic, metallurgist, carpenter, chemist, artist, and know engineering quite well. And dealing with folks and items from all over – you see the jewels and the ” firsts”. I tripped over one with that knife photo above.
( besides it cut me when I tried to use it, Jeepster’s farmboy hands are too big for the handle ). Hopefully we can post a photo of this in a museum in Lapland soon.
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In Canada, Chrysler’s minivans have been some of the best selling vehicles in Canada as long as they’ve existed, largely on the strength of them being practical and cheap (you can get a Grand Caravan for barely more money than a compact car). As of 2015, the Caravan was the only minivan to break into the Top 30 (let alone the Top 10) – I pretty much guarantee that with Chrysler’s plans to build just the Pacifica as a replacement that they’re going to abandon the budget market. Which, makes sense, as it’s hyper-low-margin, but it’s a bit of a fixture.
Yes Dodge gave up the van market in 1981 after dominating for 10 years.
They are similarly loved here by certain sections of Irish society, to the extent that I’ve heard folks regularly being made unsolicited offers on them. It’s an unfortunate side effect of the yen/euro exchange rate, but I doubt the ProAce will have the same following.
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I’m not sure how deserving the Hiace is of its reputation, but I’m rather sure the ProAce will not stand out from the crowd in any way. Particularly because…it is the crowd, a rebadging nightmare. There’s Peugeot, Citroën and Toyota, and probably a (Dodge) Ram version, too? No doubt a host of Chinese copies do already exist or will do in the near future.
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It’ll probably be a similar situation to the Nissan Primastar (a joint venture with Renault and Opel) which denies us the JDM Urvan. Sorta mediocre, does nothing really well, just bought because someone got a decent fleet deal. It doesn’t even have the H-Van style quirkyness of the 1st gen Renault Trafic to redeem it. Plus being FWD, you won’t be able to diff it (do donuts) like the Urvan/Hiace. A highly prized attribute for a large part of the Hiace fanbase.
I can’t say if the Hiace rep is deserved or not, as I’ve no direct experience, but my father did have have it’s little brother the Liteace for a while, which he traded an 850cc Daihatsu Hijet in for (terrible mistake in my opinion, that Hijet was awesome). I can truly say, I have never driven a vehicle as scarily crude in its ride and handling as the liteace, it is like someone got a horse drawn cart, and added an engine, and possibly didn’t even disconnect the horse. Anyway, if the Hiace is any way like that, it may explain its appeal to certain more …eh.. rustic.. sections of our poplulation.-
Agreed, the Hiace appeals to the Panther/940/W123 population – crude, simple, reliable. I’ve had a mid-90s Hiace at work a couple of years ago, cleaning cabins and being a head-waiter in the high mountains. The Hiace would drift on ice just by looking at it. Going uphill without a massive pile of heavy bedsheets in the back, or someone almost hanging out back, was close to impossible. Perfect low-speed drift vehicle.
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When is the right time to sell a beater? Our daily mule is rusting, the next MoT in over a year will be challenging. It would require welding/prime coating, which would cost about it’s worth in the market right now.
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Sell before the next MoT.
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Sell it soon. Right now it has value to the purchaser without immediate investment, and the problem of passing MoT is somewhere in the vague future, at least for some large percentage of beater buyers. However, as we all know, the closer problems get, the bigger they appear, so the value of your car will decline sharply in relationship to passing MoT.
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I waited too long with my Nissan Primera, and got a pitiful amount of money out of it. Sell now, but be honest. You’re talking about the Focus? Replace it with the Sapporo? I figured the Mitsubishi is located in the same damn village I went to a couple of years back to buy a Peugeot 504. Sold by a church foreman aged 80, I completely trusted his words – “no rust” included. After 15 hours on the bus, and one hour on the ferry, I could see the holes in the rocker already standing on the boat, him waiting for me at the pier. One of my most ridiculously wasted weekends ever.
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Surely in the case of a true beater, the answer is until the cost of repair outweighs the replacement vehicle. My definition of a true beater is a car purchased cheap enough, that if you get a years motoring out of it, doesn’t really owe you anything. You move on when it gets to be too much hassle, or you just don’t fancy hoovering the interior.
In a world of mandatory back up cameras and tire pressure sensors, why can’t auto manufacturers wire the headlights to come on if you turn on the windshield wipers?
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They can. They don’t because that feature costs money, that feature doesn’t sell cars, and the government hasn’t made them do it.
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Pragmatism.
Do you need your headlights on to wash a bug from your windscreen? To the letter of the law, the answer is in many places, yes. Practically speaking, however, it doesn’t make sense to flash your lights at oncoming traffic because a june bug hit your windshield.
You’d definitely want a delay on the turning off, as well, lest you continually flash your lights during a drizzle.
The only practical implementation would involve myriad sensors to determine if the wipers are on due to rain, or if the car in front of you just ran through a puddle.
The simpler solution is to make all headlights on all the time (off with the ignition). Most cars have a position on the headlight switch for just this already.-
They would only come on if the switch was turned to on. Would not come on if just the sprayer was used. Any new cat has intermittent wipers, no light flashing in drizzle.
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You clearly have had better experience with intermittent wipers than I have. There is seldom a time when there is an intermittent setting that precisely matches my windshield clearing needs. I usually turn my wipers on and off multiple times when driving in a drizzle.
Legally speaking, that would require my headlights to be on, so I keep them on for the duration. If they were to turn off with the headlight switch, I’d be flashing my lights an awful lot. If there were a delay of say, 30 seconds to turn off, it could mitigate some of that, but then there’d be that one time when I need to turn my wipers on 31 seconds after I just turned them off.
Engine on – Lights on. Let’s take all discretion away from drivers and enforcement.-
That’s really simple. Upvote. Except I like to switch my lights to ‘parking’ when I am parking at the end of my dead end street, so the headlights don’t sweep across my neighbors as I Austin Powers myself into a space.
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Better option. Loop back relay. Once on, headlights stay on until the car is turned off. You can drive with your headlights off, but once you turn them on, they stay on for the remainder of your trip.
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My 11 yo. Honda has speed-variable intermittent wipers. Ain’t that trickled down yet?
My 35 yo. Merc’s intermittent speed don’t work, neither does the sprayer. Among many, many other things.
What was the question?
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My car, as do many, has automatic headlights where the switch stays “on” all the time.
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Ford has been doing it for over a decade on some of their cars and there are not a myriad of sensors, just a wire between the wiper switch and lighting control module. The lighting control module has logic to delay turning them on if you just do a quick clean but because it is directly controlled by the wiper switch they don’t activate the lights.
I have never seen a car that has a position on the switch to make the lights come on when ever the car is on. There are cars with autolamps which will turn them on when it is dark and there are cars with daytime running lights that will light some form of forward illumination only when the car is on and in gear and that i not defeat-able.
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Good question. One of my pet peeves is people driving in the rain with no headlights on. I don’t know how many states where it’s the law, but a few years ago we went to visit friends in Alabama. We took I-20 most of the way, and in Mississippi, there were signs posted in the median that said something like, “TURN LIGHTS ON WHEN RAINING – IT’S THE LAW”.
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Found this on the AAA site (for US and Canada):
http://drivinglaws.aaa.com/tag/headlight-use/
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Judging from my past 2010 & current 2015 Challenger, late model Mopars have this feature when the headlight switch is in auto mode.
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Mandatory DRL’s in Scandinavia should guarantee that everyone’s lights are always on. But grey imports and a hole in regulation saying that rear lights need not be on at all times, which has recently been exploited by manufacturers, irritate me wildly. You have my vote for permanent illumination – doesn’t hurt anyone.
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On a related note, why the heck don’t taillights come on with automatic gauge backlighting? If it’s dim enough to need lighting for the gauges, you need taillights for visibility. Most of the time when I see a car cruising along with lights off on a dark and rainy day, I can see the gauges lit up like a Christmas tree. Plus, DRLs are just bright enough to shine on the road a bit and make it seem like your headlights are on. Cars should either have automatic headlights including the taillights, OR gauges that do not light up until the headlights are turned on.
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This is a big problem when you are in a well lit area like a gas station or parking lot.
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They do Ford has had it on some of their cars as far back as our 2001 Grand Marquis and it is on my 2003 Marauder as well.
There is a delay so the headlights don’t come on/go off until the wipers have been on/off for something like 15-20 seconds. So no flashing the lights because you wanted to wash the windshield or because they are on intermittent. That feature is programmed out on the P71s though.
Our 2010 Fusion also has lights with wipers. So yeah it is a thing and good mfgs do it on at leas some of their cars because it doesn’t cost them but a few pennies for a couple of feet of wire between the wiper switch and the lighting control module.
Why does the Hooniverse forum for selling items have very very few posts? I have a set of very rare ( 15×6 !!) Foresight Ventures Dragmags made for just a few years in the late 1960’s. They will not fit a jeep…
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The Hooniverse Forum in general never found the traction to reach critical mass (yes, I know I’m mixing metaphors there). I check in every couple of weeks, but most of the time there’s nothing new.
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The forum is now mostly me lamenting about my shitty car falling apart.
Hopefully I can start a new thread sooner rather than later about another Swedish Car Hell™ project to entertain you lads.-
Ooooh…hinting at something?
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Depends on if I can sell my 245 and 9-5 post-haste. 😉
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Those are cool. Maybe try eBay?
Should I chip my MK VI VW GTI? I’m not interested in slammed/cold air intake/fartcan/VWVortex stickers. It just seems like something VW do themselves anyway to separate that engine from its sisters that are glued into Audi cars and make more powers.
Are there really warranty implications with VAG if they find a Stage 1 or 2 chip during work that should be covered by warranty?
If you swapped an Alfa Romeo Twin Cam into a postal jeep, would you name it the “Alfa Mail”?
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and painted the back silver ?
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kong says:
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“silverback Alfa Mail ” should soon be my new Kinks coverband name
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Hard to say, but the import tax on a German car might be called an “Audi Duty” (say it out loud).
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If you don’t pay the duty and it gets impounded, it would be doing “Audi Duty Time.”
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Ya’ll are too clever. Jeepster not writer, Jeepster draw, Ungawa.
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Mr Matta says hit the showers.
http://image.cleveland.com/home/cleve-media/width620/img/osu_impact/photo/14502894-mmmain.jpg -
That was funny!
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I’ve got your Alfa mail right here! http://www.omniauto.it/awpImages/articoli/evidenza/lalfa_romeo_giulietta_in_un_francobollo_11706.jpg
What really got you in to cars? Racing? Wrenching with pals? A certain sub-culture? We all got here on different roads.
I can’t really answer that very well, I’ve just always liked them. As a kid I observed them and noted the models and tail light arrangements the way some kids memorize dinosaurs and baseball stats. I always wanted to know how they worked (how everything worked) and was lucky enough to be taken on as a volunteer at a car museum as a 16 year old. That was a dive in to the deep end. On Thursday nights we would restore the collection cars, which dated between c.1895 and c.1930. On weekends various car clubs came to show on the lawn. It was like having a living car encyclopedia come to your door every week.
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Mum had a yellow MK III Cortina that went everywhere at 100mph, which I enjoyed as a little kid; uncle had an Escort RS1600 with a straight pipe on it that he and my dad rallied; grandpa drove an original Landie that we used to ride around in the back of; grandma had a succession of weird/awesome little European cars like a DKW F102 and then a DAF44 (in her 70s she was still driving a manual Renault Clio that went everywhere at 100mph); dad’s friend had a MK I E-Type Jaguar. Dad was also friends with an active F1 driver in the 70’s, so I got to see Hunt vs Lauda at Brand’s Hatch, and some other races at Silverstone. Lots of enthusiasts in my family – it was contagious.
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My mom taught me colors using the cars in the local GM dealer’s storage lot while pushing me in the carriage, at the ripe age of two. It kinda stuck.
I didn’t actually get wrenching until my van started breaking and I was too poor to pay the mechanic to fix it. That’s turned into a recurring theme…
Oh, and I especially blame my girlfriend for buying her SAAB. Swedish Car Hell™ would probably not exist had she bought the Subaru she originally intended to. -
Although I was born in the US in the early 60s my first ride home from the hospital was in my parents’ DKW. I wouldn’t have known this except it was recorded in my baby book. It was all downhill from there.
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Since my first word was “Auto” (“car” in…you know) I can’t really think that far back and offer a valid explanation. What I love now is both the freedom they offer, and the beauty that lies in well-executed thoughts and designs. Simple, really.
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It was a combination of the influence of my brother and my Dad. My brother, 14 years older than me, always had fast, flashy cars – usually in red. I still remember him and his bride driving off on their honeymoon in his dark red ’62 Ford Galaxie convertible (dark red with a white top). My eight year old brain wasn’t sure what it was that was so special about that car, but it seemed like the most desirable object in the world – maybe in the galaxy!
Dad, on the other hand, was a very practical man. His daily drivers were chosen for their economy and alleged reliability. Usually he got it right with something like his Falcon sedan or the Chevy II wagon. Then there was the Renault Dauphine. He did all his own maintenance and repair work, and I learned a lot watching and helping him.
I couldn’t wait to get my license and a car. As I approached driving age, Dad was toodling around in an old Nash Metropolitan. I thought it was a cool car so, at the age of 15 years and some months, I plunked down the princely sum of $130 for a 1959 example of the same car with electrical problems, non-original seats that didn’t fit, no exhaust system past the headers, and a genuine Earl Scheib paint job in Resale Red. I spent much of the rest of my 15th year working on that car to get it street legal again with some reliability. On my 16th birthday I took my driving test in Mom’s ’69 Malibu, but when I got home, I took my first solo drive in my Nash. I was hooked.-
Did you drive the Metropolitan ti high school/college? I can only imagine the comments you’d get! Cute cars, and you’d definitely stand out among the giant beasts in the parking lot.
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The guy who moved in down the street with an Austin Healey and then gave me all his C&D and R&T back issues.
Why are headlight-based DRLs on cars permitted and considered as a safety enhancement, when in reality they mostly work as a system that allows clueless people to drive at night with no rear marker lights, and severely dilute the value of the mandate for motorcycle headlights to always be illuminated?
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Ha! Just said above that I don’t get how rear lights are excluded in DRL legislation. Pointless!
Is the transmission in the Ford Transit Connect any good? Are any FWD transmissions considered truly good these days?
Note that by “good” I just mean “bulletproof” or “dependable,” I couldn’t care less how many speeds it has.
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These can handle gobs of power ( with a bit of work )
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I would accept a minivan with the powertrain from this. Too bad BIG GUBMINT don’t let me!
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Depends on how you define minivan. This shared the powertrain.
http://toyotamotorhome.org/forums/uploads/post-5603-0-22063300-1344721703.jpg-
I was waiting for some one to post the EM50 next !!
Why don’t you tell me your joke ? … -
It…is…alive!
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I know a bunch of NY taxi companies had problems with the transmissions on the first batch of 2009 units. Other than that, they’ve held up pretty well.
And how is the Transit Connect in general? Are they boring to drive? Or slow-car-fast kind of fun? Reliable?
I’m considering one used as potential replacement for the (manual transmission) PT Cruiser dog hauler/daily driver when the time comes. Other options would be Prius V (likely very boring) or C-Max (both get better mileage, but are vastly more expensive).
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