what other car do you drive?

[jopickens]

[webeleafowners]

Two EV's

Number one.



Number Two.

[cwerdna]

06 Prius

But, it mostly sits. I believe it's moved under 5K miles since I've had a Leaf, which I first got near end of July 2013.

[LeftieBiker]

My housemate's Prius PHEV is my backup car. I drove it a few times this Winter, but in general I rarely use it. Between no electric heat or heated steering wheel, and the slow, loud, wallowing driving experience, I just don't enjoy it. Ironically it was a Prius II that got me interested in the Leaf.

[jjeff]

My housemate's Prius PHEV is my backup car. I drove it a few times this Winter, but in general I rarely use it. Between no electric heat or heated steering wheel, and the slow, loud, wallowing driving experience, I just don't enjoy it. Ironically it was a Prius II that got me interested in the Leaf.

Once you get use to the Leaf, the Prius just seems LOUD! Whenever I drive my Wifes '07 Prius I shudder every time I have to step somewhat hard on the gas as the CVT really revs up the motor. Can't beat it for long distance trips though, pretty much a rock solid 50MPG, even when doing mostly 70MPH. As it's approaching 10 years old and were thinking of replacing it, the Prime is high on our list. It would work perfect for her 16 mile RT commute running in EV and also our 800+ mile trips we take. Sure I'd like a bit more EV range, a 16kw battery would have been nice, and given us the full tax credit, but it would make her minimum requirements and hopefully be as trouble free as her current Prius.
Oh besides my daily driver '13S I also have a '12SL which is mainly used by my daughter for in-town driving, and lastly I suppose I could mention my '86 Bertone(Fiat X-19) which is garaged. It hasn't been road driven in 15?? years and currently seems to have some break issues as well as a fuel pump issue, but at one time is was my daily driver, even drove around the US with it in the late 80s between jobs. Started in MN, headed East and crossed over into Canada at Niagara falls. Made it as far East as Quebec City, came back to the US in Northern Maine. Drove through cities like Boston, NY, Phily, Baltimore, Washington and Jacksonville FL before heading West through the South. Poked over into Mex. at Juarez where I had an awful time, got lost, no AC in the Fiat and couldn't have the top off due to bandits and beggars. Finally found my way back to TX, headed West to San Diego, headed north to LA, then a detour to LV, then back to LA. Next N. along hwy 1 as much as I could to SF. Again N. along hwy 1(some of my most beautiful fun driving) to Seattle. Crossed over into Canada again, to Beautiful BC in Vancouver. Then East though CA's heartland including Calgary and finally dropping back down to the US and my home state in International Falls. Whew! what a trip, averaged 36mpg even at times doing close to 100 in the barren desert southwest, mainly to test my cars capabilities. Much of the trip was done doing 80mph(when no one else was around) and my Fiat's 1.5L 4 cyl engine inches from my head(car is mid engine) running at 4-5k RPM oh to be young again

[LeftieBiker]

A thread on "what is sitting in your garage?" would also be interesting. My first car is there, a moldering 1967 Volvo 122S. Originally automatic, but converted to standard by my Father. I used to street race the car, even with the automatic...

[jjeff]

A thread on "what is sitting in your garage?" would also be interesting. My first car is there, a moldering 1967 Volvo 122S. Originally automatic, but converted to standard by my Father. I used to street race the car, even with the automatic...

One of my early cars was a '66 122S 4 door automatic with the dual side draft weber carbs, B18 4 cyl engine I think. I drove it for several years and other than being a bitch to start in cold weather(the carbs had no choke per say, rather it just gave a more rich mixture of gas when it was cold) it was a great car. I removed the seats and totally covered the floor with fiberglass matting as it was quite rusty and ended up replacing the seats with a pair of leather seats from a junk yard Peugeot 505STI, which made the 122 my first car with heated leather seats I always said after I fixed it, it would probably float In the winter I'd run a magnetic heater stuck to bottom of the oil pan, a pulsating engine coolant heater and a 1500w blow dryer in series with the 12v battery(along with a diode) which gave my a nice toast cabin like my Leaf and a fully charged battery, I even had a 120v blanket heater for the battery. Dangerous for sure but it never failed to start, even parked outside in the -20F temps we had years back. Not like our "climate change" winters of late......
Had several Volvos after that, a 145 and 245. All my Volvos were purchased near their end of life with well over 100k miles, but they just kept going. The B18 engine was one of the best for long life, ranks right up there with the slant 6 used by Chrysler, of which I had several in my youth. Most had the cool push button automatic, people used to give me hard time saying I might forget and try to change the radio station only to shift the car into another gear
Don't get me started on my collection of old air-cooled VWs, mostly camper or vans but also one bug that refused to quit!
Lots of old Fiats too, although the nicest was my X-19 which was purchased new in '86 for change under 10k.

[LeftieBiker]

One of my early cars was a '66 122S 4 door automatic with the dual side draft weber carbs, B18 4 cyl engine I think.

If the engine was stock, they were SU carbs, although Webers were the Hot upgrade, after improving exhaust flow. My Father had a full-race, 200+HP PV544 drag car with Webers. My car seemed to have much more top end than expected, and I later learned it was because, in order to make up for the terrible off the line acceleration, Volvo gave at least some of the automatics the "C" rated cam from the P1800S. So the cars were slow off the line, but would happily accelerate to 105-110MPH, enough to lose the shaky-at-speed American cars I usually ran against.

[jjeff]

One of my early cars was a '66 122S 4 door automatic with the dual side draft weber carbs, B18 4 cyl engine I think.

If the engine was stock, they were SU carbs, although Webers were the Hot upgrade, after improving exhaust flow. My Father had a full-race, 200+HP PV544 drag car with Webers. My car seemed to have much more top end than expected, and I later learned it was because, in order to make up for the terrible off the line acceleration, Volvo gave at least some of the automatics the "C" rated cam from the P1800S. So the cars were slow off the line, but would happily accelerate to 105-110MPH, enough to lose the shaky-at-speed American cars I usually ran against.

You know you might be right, I think my Fiats may have had the Webers....mine wasn't anything fancy. I always wanted a P1800S(like the Saint had) but had to settle for a Sabb Sonnet, which was one of the few cars with a V4. Fiberglass body and VERY low to the ground, drove like a go-cart on steroids
What I do remember about my Volvo cars were those damn side draft carbs which were a BITCH to start in our cold MN winters

[LeftieBiker]

I remember having some trouble starting mine in frigid temps, but in normal Winter weather the choke slide worked ok. Of course, I always kept a can of starting fluid handy, and we had a battery charger. My Father also had a few P1800S cars, and I even briefly owned a rusty '70 P1800E with fuel injection and a whopping 130HP. Hey, it seemed fast at the time!