"Carl's Lounge" (Off-Topic Discussion, Traditional Knife "Tales & Vignettes")

LOL!! BMWs (Bayerische Motorenwerke) are great cars, for sure, as well Audi (which is made in Ingolstadt, Bavaria) but they are on a price range I can hardly afford.

Well, I bought a Ford Focus Caravan. It´s in a great shape for a four year old car and the price is affordable but not cheap at all. Just worth the bucks, I think.

About BMW´s : Believe me, they are a pain in the a&% in winter due to their backwheeldriving. And winters are hard and long here. I have to go to work each day by car - a frontwheel driven car is much better here.

Being honest, I was looking for nothing fancy - it has to be a working horse, and I think Ford or Opel are great for that.
 
Happy driving Andi :thumbup:

307481.jpg
 
Congrats, Andi! I think you'll like it; I have a similar vehicle (also a Ford Focus, but older than yours and with the smaller trunk instead of the caravan shape), and it's been very reliable. Fun to drive, too! :) :thumbup:
 
Like Andi, I too drive a Ford (Galaxy minivan). I suspect both of ours were manufactured in Germany. It's actually our second Ford since moving over here from Florida in 2003. Last one was a German-made Ford Mondeo wagon. Can you tell there are kids in our household!? :-)

-- Mark
 
Mark: I also think, that the Fords which are sold here in Europe are built in Rüsselsheim. Nevertheless an american brand ;)
About kids: Not yet, but in February 2014 our first child will be born :D I´m propably the happiest man walking on earth!!
 
This must be the Patron Saint of all shelter/rescue/ dogs and all other down and trodden animals regardless of their type or breed - cats, rabbits, you name it. He certainly looks alert and watchful. The hat floors me. I just could not stop laughing for a couple of minutes after I saw it.

y4nm.jpg


Not my picture but posted with permission of the original poster.
 
Modoc ED said:
This must be the Patron Saint of all shelter/rescue/ dogs and all other down and trodden animals regardless of their type or breed - cats, rabbits, you name it. He certainly looks alert and watchful. The hat floors me. I just could not stop laughing for a couple of minutes after I saw it.

y4nm.jpg


Not my picture but posted with permission of the original poster.
Click to expand...

"I hate wabbits..."
 
Humppa said:
About BMW´s : Believe me, they are a pain in the a&% in winter due to their backwheeldriving.
Click to expand...

Had our first snow of the winter here in denver a little while back. Nothing much to worry about. In the 5 or so miles on my commute two work I saw 3 BMWs crashed and one traveling at about three mph. This was all observed from my Subaru Forester.
 
MrVandercar said:
Had our first snow of the winter here in denver a little while back. Nothing much to worry about. In the 5 or so miles on my commute two work I saw 3 BMWs crashed and one traveling at about three mph. This was all observed from my Subaru Forester.
Click to expand...

Just as an interesting note: when I did my Police winter driving course, the instructor advocated rear wheel drives as far safer if you know how to handle them than front wheel drives. We all laughed at him, then had a go with both cars on ice.
Sure enough the rear wheel drive skidded very easily and threw us about like a Japanese drift contest, but when we spun into a skid the weight of the engine at the front of the car spun it like a pivot and you simply turned it in a circle where it was. Oversteer. Just doing donuts on ice. We never left the road surface by more than a foot or two.
Not surprisingly the front wheel drive would maintain grip a little longer, but always resulted in the skid (when it happened) flying outwards with the understeer dragging the car off the road.

Viz - a Beamer is less likely to chuck you off the road if you skid than a front wheel drive will.

The other thing that really surprised me was that any two wheel drive with winter tyres fitted outperformed the four wheel drive vehicles with regular tyres by a massive margin. Don't think because you have a 4x4 it can handle anything, I have had to deal with many a Range Rover owner with egg on their faces while I drive up in a liveried Vauxhall Astra.

:) I will add though, I have only ever owned front wheel drive cars and have yet (touch wood) to have a crash due to weather conditions. And by the way I'm jealous if your Subaru; the forester is a superb piece of engineering, that low boxer engine makes for astonishing handling.

Paul
 
pmew said:
Just as an interesting note: when I did my Police winter driving course, the instructor advocated rear wheel drives as far safer if you know how to handle them than front wheel drives. We all laughed at him, then had a go with both cars on ice.
Sure enough the rear wheel drive skidded very easily and threw us about like a Japanese drift contest, but when we spun into a skid the weight of the engine at the front of the car spun it like a pivot and you simply turned it in a circle where it was. Oversteer. Just doing donuts on ice. We never left the road surface by more than a foot or two.
Not surprisingly the front wheel drive would maintain grip a little longer, but always resulted in the skid (when it happened) flying outwards with the understeer dragging the car off the road.

Viz - a Beamer is less likely to chuck you off the road if you skid than a front wheel drive will.

The other thing that really surprised me was that any two wheel drive with winter tyres fitted outperformed the four wheel drive vehicles with regular tyres by a massive margin. Don't think because you have a 4x4 it can handle anything, I have had to deal with many a Range Rover owner with egg on their faces while I drive up in a liveried Vauxhall Astra.

:) I will add though, I have only ever owned front wheel drive cars and have yet (touch wood) to have a crash due to weather conditions. And by the way I'm jealous if your Subaru; the forester is a superb piece of engineering, that low boxer engine makes for astonishing handling.

Paul
Click to expand...

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

I don't know why people can't use their heads for something other than a hat rack. Take that same rear wheel drive BMW, or any other regualr car, and go by Lowes or HOme Depot, and for the outragous sum of 12 ro 14 dollars, buy four fifty pound bags of sand. Put the 200 hundred pounds of sand, 250 is even better, and see what happens in the snow and ice. The car will perform 100% better, and if you do get stuck, you have bags of sand to cut open and sprinkle on the ice and get going again. This works with any two wheel rear wheel drive car. It will far outperform a front engine front wheel drive car. I watched my old man do this with his old pontiac, I did it with an old Ford Falcon to a two wheel drive Toyota pickup.

I have a strong dislike of the nonsense of all the cars these days being the front wheel drive. I hate it. The only reason it became popular is that it makes a cheap way to build a car. You don't need a frame. Front wheel drive is very unforgiving at high speed maneuvers, and once you reach a point where tire adhesion is reached a limit, it goes into a very sudden and uncontrolled spin. This is why all these kids are getting killed in Honda civics and other small cars driving like they are staring in The Fast and Furious. Most times with a convention drive train, a car will start to skid, and if you just let up on the gas, the rear end goes back where it's suposed to be. With a front wheel drive, when it finally starts to spin, if you don't know the emergency brake trick and hold the button down, you're screwed, blued and tattooed.

Front wheel drive is a sham put over on us by the car manufactures. It's the old cut costs and give the consumer less idea. Boosts profit margins the easy way.

Carl.
 
What is this "ice" material of which you speak?
 
jon-slider is in your dream!

I've already set an emergency appointment with my Therapist... :)

I don't remember anything about it at all, but when I woke up i just remember jon-slider had somehow been in it!!!??? Help! lol

And of course the obligatory knife content... My #61 Half-Congress in elephant ivory

 
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