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Classic Quote:
"Clark: Burn some dust here. Eat my rubber.
Rusty Griswold: Dad, I think you mean burn rubber and eat my dust.
Clark: Whatever, Russ. Whatever."
Christmas Vacation
I was a guy- who has lived up east both Boston and NYC. Thought all season was the way to go- then they came out with All season sport tired I bought them and they were ok most of th time but a little suspect in snow and not great in heat. For 3 years had a guy chirping in my ear about dedicated shoes, now he is a rally car guy. When I bought the s4 I was lucky it had a Spair set of dedicated snows on stock 18's (non factory all seasons) and a set of 19 rims (Hartman which is an Audi copy rim,s5 in my example) with slick summer tires. Well boy have my thoughts about tires, tire pressure, dynamic setting, sports mode, launch control, limited slip, dsg
Yesterday I had a hearing @70 miles away and I drove the MS3- taking a more scenic and rural route. I can't say enough good things about the Michelin PSS I fitted a while back. Wet or dry, grip level are simply phenomenal.
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-2021 Sahara 4xe-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2015 X1 xDrive28i
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
I tried the summer winter set up once and didn't like the "rash" that developed on my expensive wheels. I would think, today, that the maximum set up would be as you suggest summer tires/summer wheels, winter tires/winter wheels. Having just purchased 8 new DWS 06 UHP A/S's plus paid for the mounting, balancing and all wheel alignment, I guess we're going to wait until next time, which will probably be either on the next car or 40K miles from now.
Were money no object, I would like to compare these DWS 06's to dedicated extreme performance summer only tires -- but, since money is an object, we're going to live with the current top UHP A/S's we could get.
Thus far, I do think these tires are the ones Audi should choose when the customer checks all-season tires on his/her S4. Probably will fall on deaf ears though. But god, the Grand Touring tires just seem like totally the wrong choice at least for an S car, and I would think for a regular A4 too, frankly.
Come to think of it, were I to feel the need for a summer and a winter tire, I would almost certainly use dedicated wheel/tire combinations rather than have the wheels be ever so slightly damaged every time I changed the tires.
Until my wonderful '05 TL, I had done quite nicely with FWD/All Seasons, snow-driving experience and a modicum of common sense and luck. The TL was just not as confidence inspiring once the snow got more than a couple of inches deep, so I bought a set of Dunlop snow sneakers on dedicated rims. Night and day.
My AWD XF with the stock Contis was a champ in this past winter's several Snowmageddons/Snowpocalypses. However, if I lived in the mountains of Maine, NH or Vermont, likely I'd go snow shoes without giving it a second thought.
My Jag XK with the stock summer Dunlops? 1/8" of snow in my driveway and I was going nowhere!!!
'21 Dark Blue/Black Audi A7 PHEV (mine); '22 White/Beige BMW X3 (hers); '20 Estoril Blue/Oyster BMW M240xi 'Vert (Ours, read: hers in 'vert weather; mine during Nor'easters...)
The regulators are looking now to made all emission testing realistic and using those values for certification process. The situations is reportedly so bad that, if implemented immediately, multiple models would have to be withdrawn from the market, which tells you how much skewed the setup was. Thankfully, United States government never bought into that diesel BS to the same degree. I also recall the difficulties with "clean diesel" implementation initiative (e.g. Navistar having to pay huge penalties on their engines because they couldn't make them compliant on time), I suspect part of that was that there was no forbearance on the testing.
I always maintained that Europeans bought diesels not by choice, but because they were made by artificial market setup. Also, American "resistance" to diesel was not as "irrational" as many people would try to make us believe. There is surely place for those engines - in agriculture, construction, heavy and midsize transportation, buses, perhaps on SUV-level. I think diesel Suburban, F-150, or even BMW X5 (or Honda Odyssey, if they made it) make perfect sense. If you have three kids and like taking long road trips, diesel would should advantages, My problem was with worshiping TDI Jettas and Passats. They may be fine, but I would still take a gasoline engine every day and twice on Sunday.
2018 430i Gran Coupe
2018 430i Gran Coupe
Meh.
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-2021 Sahara 4xe-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2015 X1 xDrive28i
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
dino001, are there issues/circumstances that argue against diesels? I thought, here in the US, that once the fuel was cleaner and with the advent of "ad-blue" that the only factor arguing against diesel being widely adopted was inertia.
The message that I have bought into is that diesels -- and this means the hardware and the fuel -- produce more torque and can often achieve some 1/3 better mileage than gasoline (around here premium and diesel are often close to each other in price.) In short, I have bought into the notion that diesels can actually be fuel sipping "hot rods." The SQ5 which is a terrific performer, is actually offered as a diesel in Germany, for instance.
When my S4's tank is full the "miles to empty" reading is 400. I assumed this would mean it would be at least 520 to empty if I had the diesel set up that is in the German market SQ5 in my S4. Based on the AudiUSA website (which, for example offers up a 3.0T A6 and a diesel A6) I assumed it would be a pretty simple calculation to estimate the asking price for an S4d (if one were to be made for the US market) and to then determine how many tankfuls until break even, etc.
That "perception" which I somehow seem to be reading in your post, may be part true, part myth. Please elaborate -- here's why: I have been against using "food" to make "gas" since some politician, I assume, started pressing for e85 fuel; conversely, it has always seemed that diesel engines in our cars could be a good bridge to a future where we actually can use less and less fossil fuel.
I read your post, however, and I wonder if I just drank some diesel flavored kool-aid some years ago.
Again, please elaborate on your point about Europeans being coerced and apparently tricked into adopting diesels whilst we 'mericans adopted, almost universally, gasoline.
Thanks.
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-2021 Sahara 4xe-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2015 X1 xDrive28i
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
European Commission is trying to rectify the emission situation by tightening the standards to resemble American, but the issue is of course transition time. I believe once new enforcement is in place and costs of engines go up, the proportions of diesel engines in small cars will revert to values similar to those prior the whole craze, which is more than in the US, but much less than today. The move is already happening, primarily due to equalized diesel fuel prices (that used to be much cheaper), observed increased maintenance cost and lower durability (majority of Europeans, even in the West buy cars for eight-ten years, not three or five), but tightening the standard will likely accelerate it.
Americans never caught that bug, partially due to unrelenting of the US government on nitrogen oxide emission requirements. From what I understand it was also California that was even more "anti-diesel" than the feds. When you had fifth of the market excluded, there was little incentive for the manufacturers to even pursue the technology. After 20 years of apparently failed European experiment, it appears this was one of the few times, US/California governments did something right, even if not knowing why.
2018 430i Gran Coupe
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2015 Subaru Outback 3.6R / 2014 MINI Countryman S ALL4
2018 430i Gran Coupe
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
2018 430i Gran Coupe
2, 4, 6 - coupes
3, 5, 7 - sedans
X1, X3, X4, X5, X6 - SUV/CUV/SAV (whatever)
(except for the 4 GC and the 6 GC - the former is the hatch, the latter is a sedan. Oh, and the 3GT and the 5GT - those are hatches, too)
Yeah, I think BMW may have lost the plot.
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2015 Subaru Outback 3.6R / 2014 MINI Countryman S ALL4
Condensed Version: I liked it. A lot.
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-2021 Sahara 4xe-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2015 X1 xDrive28i
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-2021 Sahara 4xe-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2015 X1 xDrive28i
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
Of course, I know you favor the manual over DSG even if it means sacrificing two tenths to 60 MPH.
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-2021 Sahara 4xe-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2015 X1 xDrive28i
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-2021 Sahara 4xe-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2015 X1 xDrive28i
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
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2015 Subaru Outback 3.6R / 2014 MINI Countryman S ALL4
Lot of folks with more money than sense, it seems.
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2015 Subaru Outback 3.6R / 2014 MINI Countryman S ALL4
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-2021 Sahara 4xe-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2015 X1 xDrive28i
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
My wife and I purchased cars with manual transmissions up until 2005 when -- the cars that we wanted -- basically stopped being offered with manuals.
I did, mostly, enjoy my first 6-speed auto (a Tiptronic), but always wondered what the same car would be like with a manual. No way to tell, as a practical matter, anymore.
Then, I test drove the 2014 S4 with a manual and the 7-speed DSG (dual clutch "automatic manual") -- I found the DSG to provide all of the good things (except the actual depressing of the pedal) of a manual, but after a back to back demo drive (of both transmissions in otherwise identical S4's) I decided the DSG actually felt quicker, and it certainly could be a hell of a lot smoother. Moreover, I use the type of car washes where you give your car to "the guy" to drive through the tunnel, etc -- and I smelled a burning clutch and heard grinding gears one time too many, so I talked myself into the DSG.
Now at some 30,000+ miles later, I find the DSG to be the best transmission experience I have ever had, relegating my love of manuals to be my sentimental favorite, but not for the performance, I used to believe could only be achieved by rowing your own.
I am fortunate to also have another Audi an SQ5 with an 8-speed Tiptronic. Oddly, despite the torque converter, this iteration of the 8-speed is also better even than an S4's manual (there is no way to back to back test the SQ5 manual vs Tip since Audi only offers the SQ5 with the 8-speed.) But the 8-speed still has a hint, a vague suggestion really of being "almost instantaneous" making it sort of like the Coke Zero of Cola -- it's not Diet Coke, but it's not quite the real thing either.
The march forward of auto trans technology is, I would assume, largely responsible for the death and dearth of manual offerings. And, even though the DSG easily justifies its existence, I wonder if all 8-speeds are as good as the tuned version in the SQ5. I would, therefore, imagine there are other reasons for the paucity of stick shifts -- the only one I can think of is convenience, unless the real reason is "we've" been marketed to, so convincingly, and been convinced that we've lost the manual dexterity to undertake shifting, and that we don't really need it.
I'm going to stick with convenience as the killer of the manual.
But, I would be keenly interested in knowing the percentages if such source for that data is available.
Thanks.
http://www.autonews.com/article/20150727/OEM02/150729892/hondas-accavitti-leaves-top-post-at-acura
Ikeda, among other things, led the styling team for the successful 2004 Acura TL. He has been with Honda since 1989.
When they break (and they do), then it's time to find out if the technicians at the dealership even know how to spell transmission. Most of them are told to remove and replace the whole assembly. If it's under warranty, then it's "only" a couple of visits to the d'ship and some amount of time in a loaner. If it's not. . .
Mark is a well-known proponent of never driving anything out of warranty. I've driven most of my vehicles way, way beyond the warranty coverage. We differ.
I like manuals. For simplicity and maintainability reasons, I seek out vehicles with them. My drive to and from work every day, and the trip up to the cabin and back, make use of (at most) 20% of the capability of the vehicle I drive. I just need the vehicle to need minimal attention. Back when I drove among Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary & Regina through the Canadian Rockies in the middle of the night, having a vehicle that demonstrated excellent handling was important. Now it is not; the latest and greatest technology is for those who love bells and whistles. Actual driving rarely enters the discussion The Fraser Canyon at 2 am was a wonderful thing.
Many pretend, as they go around on-ramps. I'm not interested, but recognize that many are. YMMV .