waterrockets 

Best bike race vehicle I've owned was a VW Bus. Five people and five bikes inside, no problem. 30mpg. You have to be patient when loaded in the mountains, but it has a lot of pep when empty. As an owner of many Jeeps, I drove that bus through some stuff in Moab that a 2WD probably shouldn't have been able to do. Good rig. It was about as reliable as your unemployed alcoholic uncle/cousin/whoever.

topflightpro

I did price out the Toyota minivan I kind of wanted online one day. It was $53k. I had no clue they could be so expensive.

And I just priced out the MB Sprinter. For what I would want, $50k.

Ygduf

honda element is what I bought in 2009. Will keep it forever. 27mpg, can do one bike indoors and a sleeper, 2 bikes with wheels on and 2 people and gear, or put a hitch rack and do 1in, 2 out 3 people. 4-slot hitch rack, etc.. lots of options.

shovelhd

For Chappy, it's always all about the numbers. Real world experience really has nothing to do with, ya know, the real world.

rideaz

After driving practical cars for years (including a minivan for a short time), I got a Jeep Wrangler 4 door with a Kuat 4 bike rack. Love this car except for the gas mileage but our other cars get 30+mpg. I don't leave the bike rack on all the time because with one of the rear seats folded down, my bike fits In perfect standing upright. Wish I'd bought the jeep years ago.

furiousferret

(Jeep Wave)

misterwaterfall

Thanks for that. It's not a factory install, and the junction box didn't appear to be heat wrapped. There's a small opening in the frame right below the BB that I am hoping I can use to access the correct port on the junction box. Hoping this goes smoothly as I am planning on racing both days this weekend and would rather not race my aluminum cross bike

echappist

well, i guess it depends on how reasonable you think accelerating from 0-50 is. Have to do that quite a bit when driving in NJ when merging onto the highways from shopping plazas
wth?
my experience tells me that i like revving things in 3rd gear when merging on said NJ highways. and i know for a fact that my dad's 3.5L V6 has a bit more zip compared to my 3.0L V6. That said, we are both driving Camrys, so it'd not like they are sporty...

ridethecliche

I kinda want one of those subaru/scion FRS/BRZ car doohickeys.

waterrockets 

<=== '42 Willy's CJ-2A, 1969 CJ-5, 1984 CJ-7 (the '69 CJ-5 was freaking awesome, and powerful enough to pull a short wheelie)

caloso

Audi wagon and Honda Odyssey. We will drive both into the ground.

shovelhd

Remember that the 7970 internal junction box is not like an E-Tube junction box. Nothing plugs into it. It has four "tails" on it which are wires with jacks. One for the front junction, one for each derailleur, and one for the battery. The respective cables plug into the jacks, and the heat shrink goes over this connection. There is no heat shrink over the junction box itself. If it was installed correctly you should be able to fish it out of the downtube with an old spoke.

ridethecliche

Yo WR,

check it!

Watch as swarms of micro-robots run around making stuff | DVICE

waterrockets 

Hmm. That is cool, but I think they're over-selling a bit. Those are more like magnetically actuated attachments for a fixed assembly machine, than "robots."

You have to start somewhere though, if you plan to destroy the universe with replicators.

hack

Toyota Camry, ~125k miles and as strong as ever. The downer is the rear seats don't fold down and the interior is lighter leather. I don't use a roof or trunk rack, but have a moving blanket in the backseat that keeps things tidy when I jam my bike in there for racing. Keeps the gas mileage and security up as well. Probably not an ideal bike car, but it gets the job done.

waterrockets 

The deed to our home is on its way in the mail. 15-year goal completed in 12 years. <whew>

Now to redouble the efforts on the college savings ~15 years left on that goal too, and about the same amount of money O_o

topflightpro

Congratulations?

grolby

Cars I've owned/driven extensively in the last five years: a 103 hp Toyota Yaris (with automatic, even!), a 255 hp Nissan Maxima SE manual, and currently a 107 hp Honda Fit 5 speed automatic. The Maxima was so much faster from 0-60 than the other two, it was insane, but it was more intoxicating than actually useful. Even in the econo slush boxes*, I pretty much never need all of the acceleration those cars have to give. And they don't have a lot. No offense or anything, but better acceleration for merging into traffic just isn't a safety feature. We've got entrance ramps in Massachusetts so short there are frickin stop signs on them instead of yield signs. You still don't need a 3.5 L V6 to get onto the highway.

The Maxima was fun to go fast in, and I do enjoy a fun, fast car, but it was a dog in most other respects and when it comes to cars I really have other priorities that have to come first. I fulfill my urges for speed by riding bicycles.


*It's a little unfair to call the Fit's automatic transmission a slush box, it's actually remarkably good. The Yaris transmission, on the other hand, is a classically terrible economy car four-speed pile of mush. Still perfectly adequate to merge into traffic, though.

Herbie53

Accelerations at lower speeds and merging is what I feel that diesel Jetta is good at. It's pretty much done by 75 or 80, but merging, accelerating from lights and toll booths, it does better than just fine.

8ish seconds 0-60... IMO it's even better at the sort of rolling accelerations needed for merging and what not.

merlinextraligh

3.8 liter flat six is much nicer.

The CVT transmission just killed the Maxima. Can you get one without it?

grolby

No argument there. I could never own a Porsche, but I do adore them. Gorgeous cars, and I love the sound they make. Though I vastly prefer the sound of the air-cooled ones to the water-cooled ones.

I don't know if you can these days (quick check on cars.com indicates no, you can't), but I had a 2003 Maxima SE with a 6-speed manual. And of course it felt awesome at the gas pedal, I really miss the immediacy you get from the throttle in a manual, but in basically every other respect that was a really terrible manual transmission. The stick shift was super notchy, had really looooong throws, and the clutch pedal felt like it was attached to a thousand-pound weight, and came in practically all at once and all at the top of its travel. Ugh. Like I said, that car was fun to drive on country roads, and so fast, but around town and in city traffic it was almost intolerable.

Given the terrible mileage that car got and still gets, which was another thing I hated about it, driving the manual version is about the only reason I can think of to justify it. As bad as that manual was. With a CVT, the Maxima makes no sense at all.

jsutkeepspining

I like my R.

Gramercy

There was a 991 carerra 4s with a roof rack at the dealership today when I walked in as I was getting my car inspected. It was depressing that it cost a lot less than my wife's student loans, which means I'll be poor until my mid 40's.. Would make a perfect car to carry around the bike and skis.

Homebrew01

on the house. 5 more years here.

My daughter's not going to college any time soon, so not sure our 529 college fund is such a good idea now. They have their pros and cons anyway.

waterrockets 

True.

I guess the "nice" thing on the college stuff vs. a mortgage is that we get the gains, not the bank, so even though the sticker price is similar to the house, the out of pocket will be much less.