Brutal Winter Car

[mfcentex]

I live in Austin just like you and haven’t stopped driving my car at all. What exactly are you scared of? It’s a car. Not a porcelain show piece.

I lived in Illinois for 20 years with road salt. The last car I had in Illinois was about 10 years old with body panel rust. Any vehicle over 10 years old seemed to have rust. It seems that brine is even worse than road salt.

 

[mfcentex]

Amazon sells a road salt test kit.

Ha! I have one for my pool. I'll put it on the road .

 

[dribs15]

The way to tell if it's ok to drive your car is to look in your pants. If you find your manhood, it is ok to drive your car.*


*May not apply to those with automatics.

 

[Throat Yogurt]

View attachment 28875

 

[hawk02]

All of you complaining about road salt obviously haven’t lived on the coast. The salt in the air is far worse than any road salt. You can avoid road salt by parking your car until the salt is washed off the road. No way to avoid salt air unless you store your car in some hermetically sealed container.

I have spent the last five winters living 300 yards from the Atlantic Ocean. It is a must to rinse or wash your vehicle every 7 - 10 days if you want it to last. The life of an air conditioning compressor is about 6-7 years. They basically dissolve from the salt air.

 

[coffee_time]

I lived in Illinois for 20 years with road salt. The last car I had in Illinois was about 10 years old with body panel rust. Any vehicle over 10 years old seemed to have rust. It seems that brine is even worse than road salt.

Yeah and I lived in CT/RI/NY/NJ for 25 years... not a single one of my cars rusted out.

Drive your car. Rinse it off if you want after you're done if you're concerned with salt/brine.

 

[Finally-a-V]

Depending on what they're using, brine is worse (but cheaper) than salt. Many DOT's are learning now that their bridges are rotting faster due to brine. Many have now changed the make up of brine to more "organic" mixtures to stop the wear.

 

[1Evil55]

I lived in Illinois for 20 years with road salt. The last car I had in Illinois was about 10 years old with body panel rust. Any vehicle over 10 years old seemed to have rust. It seems that brine is even worse than road salt.

My 2018 Jeep was repainted in 2021, in Chitcago. Part of that was due to shit quality of Stellanis. I do believe the road salt contributed the speed at which the paint turned to bubbles.

I gauge the salt on the road with rainfalls in the spring time. Need at least 3 good dumps of rain to wash the salt off the street.

 

[5VBW Nick]

You don't wanna drive your new $130k car on roads like this, covered with sand and salt.

 

[mfcentex]

My 2018 Jeep was repainted in 2021, in Chitcago. Part of that was due to shit quality of Stellanis. I do believe the road salt contributed the speed at which the paint turned to bubbles.

I gauge the salt on the road with rainfalls in the spring time. Need at least 3 good dumps of rain to wash the salt off the street.

Good info and good comparison for me. I have a 2013 Ram and the paint has no issues. It sees very limited winter weather (one week in the mountains a year).

 

[Deneed4spd]

So I was chatting with my wife about how it suck’s driving my ridgeline truck in winter because it has no soul. Most of the time Im fine but there are days with winter being so long in MN and BW just parked for 5 months it gets tough. She said well when our son turns 16 in 2 yrs get a decent fun car also for winter. So I started thinking, a car that does decent in winter (willing to put snow tires since I put them on my truck and wife’s suv) can turn off my brain on slow days of driving due to ice and snow, decent reliable, but when I want to go, it goes and handles. Still have to haul around my younger daughter so need 4 seats.

My thought went to:
- Civic Type R with snow tires (my worry is 2025 is last yr. Rumor is it will be killed this year) and many folks said interior rattles like crazy. Will put in type s mod.
- Acura Type S with snow tires (pretty much the type R) but dang it’s $55K
- BMW 240ix - can get one at the price of $55K but it’s not a manual. Still AWD and B58 is pretty sweet engine. Back is a bit cramped
- GR Corolla - heard it’s rough to ride in and gets a bit old with harshness
Any other ideas. Would prefer to stay under 60k.
- Ioniq 5N - yes it’s electric but awd and man it’s fast. Maybe the fake shifting in 2 yrs will be even better.

 

[5VBW Nick]

2018 Focus RS is my suggestion. They are a blast, especially with a tune (~420hp, 450tq at the flywheel)

 

[Deneed4spd]

2018 Focus RS is my suggestion. They are a blast, especially with a tune (~420hp, 450tq at the flywheel)

View attachment 29412

Don’t these usually have a pretty rough ride?

 

[bloominguez]

So I was chatting with my wife about how it suck’s driving my ridgeline truck in winter because it has no soul. Most of the time Im fine but there are days with winter being so long in MN and BW just parked for 5 months it gets tough. She said well when our son turns 16 in 2 yrs get a decent fun car also for winter. So I started thinking, a car that does decent in winter (willing to put snow tires since I put them on my truck and wife’s suv) can turn off my brain on slow days of driving due to ice and snow, decent reliable, but when I want to go, it goes and handles. Still have to haul around my younger daughter so need 4 seats.

My thought went to:
- Civic Type R with snow tires (my worry is 2025 is last yr. Rumor is it will be killed this year) and many folks said interior rattles like crazy. Will put in type s mod.
- Acura Type S with snow tires (pretty much the type R) but dang it’s $55K
- BMW 240ix - can get one at the price of $55K but it’s not a manual. Still AWD and B58 is pretty sweet engine. Back is a bit cramped
- GR Corolla - heard it’s rough to ride in and gets a bit old with harshness
Any other ideas. Would prefer to stay under 60k.
- Ioniq 5N - yes it’s electric but awd and man it’s fast. Maybe the fake shifting in 2 yrs will be even better.

I don't find the GR Corolla "rough to ride in" at all. Drive one, see for yourself.

 

[5VBW Nick]

Don’t these usually have a pretty rough ride?

After 2017 they had updated struts/shocks that were much better. If you put it in Sport suspension it is bouncy. There is an $1,100 suspension controller that can be purchased and installed in 5 minutes that apparently makes it ride/handle amazingly well. My 2017 rides better than my wife's Tesla Model Y.

 

[Throat Yogurt]

A few ideas:
Bronco manual
WRX
Audi B6 S4 manual
Find an older X3, X5, or Cayenne with a manual (rare, but they do exist)
Man up and get snow tires for the BW

 

[1Evil55]

My vote is for a no/low option BW4 with a winter tire.

 

[Throat Yogurt]

My vote is for a no/low option BW4 with a winter tire.

Now this is the best idea yet. A beater Blackwing!

 

[Ergoc5]

Used to have a Mk7 Golf R which was my daily..I sold it for my 5 BW and have snows on for the winter.

 

[ngoni]

My vote is for a no/low option BW4 with a winter tire.

This is the way.