not geting an SVX!!!!!!

[zamorush]

hmmm.......I am 21, SVX was my second car, and I absolutely loved it. Do i regret buying it and spending so much money? Sometimes I do. But hey whatever you do is done for the best. If I wouldn’t buy SVX, I would miss so many interesting things, and miss meeting so many different people, talking about comments alone.......


Anyway, going back, I would still get an SVX, may be looked twice on buying one online....... yes I did not get as good of a deal as I though I would.......

For high school student SVX is a pimp car, for college student it is a way of getting around in style. Now, I am going to University.... something that waists lots of gas and your money? I still love it though, and I don’t think there is a right or wrong time of buying one. On the other hand there is a right and wrong SVX to buy….

[NomadTW]

don't get me wrong.. i love my svx and do not regret buying it, or repairing it, anything, but i might have if i had it instead of the obs. door dings in the impreza are ok, worked at a grocery store for my first job and the obs got a lot of them. that got me to learn how to roll out a dent in a body panel, and now there's only one that i couldn't get completely out. (35mph shopping cart in wind storm)

i'm missing at the very least the first half of X-fest tomarrow to re-fix the car, and i'm ok witht hat

[IggDawg]

I've had the car for about a week, and I absolutely love it. more than any other car I've owned. I never get this way about a car. at least not to this sort of magnitude.

BUT - I would NEVER have even thought about touching this car if I didn't feel confident that I could do any repair work in my garage. I placed a bid on this car right after replacing the input shaft bearing in another car. anyone who;s done repair work on a tranny knows how "intimate" of a job that is. Basically I can repair or replace anything on this car with absolute confidence. I can't fathom owning this car and depending on a mechanic to fix it.

I would not reccommend this as a first car. everyone's first car should be something to learn repair work on. At least that's how I see it. that's how I did it, and I've saved over 20,000 in maintainence/repair costs across all the cars Prity and I have owned.

that's my story. SVX should definitely be a car you earn.

[UberRoo]

Originally posted by lee
Couldn't agree more. My first car was a beater and beat it I did. Used to go to closed deparment store parking lots and run mini-AutoX type events except there was no cones or timing or well anything but me driving mostly like an idiot to see what the car could do, max braking, spin outs, whatever. If it broke, oh well, it was only $50. And if a friend spilled a beverage on the floor I didn't have to freak out, etc.

Those are some really great memories...memories I wouldn't give up for anything short of having had a new Ferrari as a first car.

Oh man, memories indeed. I remember figure-eight racing in an icy parking lot for almost three continuous hours with a Honda, a Golf, and a full-size Bronco. We got so good that we pivoted our cars using the light poles to help us rotate. (Yes, our bumpers touched the poles.) The FWDs smoked the Bronco five laps to four.

I remember mock rear-ending friends at busy intersections, then trading cars like a Chinese fire drill.

I remember getting into locked gravel pits by driving reeeeally fast over giant ditches where one side was slightly higher than the other.

I know that my old Honda hits about 40mph in reverse, and that it's almost impossible to steer at that speed.

I know that a Subaru GL wagon will float for about two minutes.

I know that if your engine burns four quarts of oil per week, it will take three weeks before your spark plugs foul enough that the engine won't run.

Snow piles aren't much softer than dirt piles.

Wrapping a rope around a half-shaft does work as a winch.

If you corner hard-right in a Subaru with an EA82 engine for very long, it will suck lots of oil into the intake and create an awesome smoke-screen.

With a little effort, a Subaru GL wagon can drive over an old rusty Beetle, and same said Beetle will tumble end over end for many miles when towed behind a Subaru before a quarter-inch steel cable will cut entirely through the roof.

When driving over chairs, be warned that the legs can puncture your oil pan.

Driving backwards at high speed through mud holes can snag your exhaust pipe. Glass packs will puncture your floor pan. The power windows wiring harness is located on the floorpan under the driver's seat in a Subaru GL wagon. The green wire with a blue stripe is the one that rolls up the driver's window.

With enough speed, you can get over just about any obstacle.

It's difficult to cook eggs on a warm exhaust.

If you drop candy down heater vents, just add water. The candy will soften, become sticky, and stop rattling around.

It's virtually impossible to warp solid rotors.

When driving over large objects in a car with a manual transmission, take your hand off the shifter, as whatever you're driving over might bump the bottom of the shift lever, which can really hurt if you are hanging onto it.

It's possible to load a Jet-Ski onto the roof of a CRX. Also, a CRX handles poorly with three hundred pounds on the roof.

Paintballs will stain your car's paint if not washed off promptly.

Don't sit on the window glass if you have hard metal objects in your back pockets.

Many cars will slide slightly under guardrails. Sliding under a guardrail will not damage your bumper. Sliding under a guardrail will damage your headlights, hood, and fender.

If you don't want to tie lumber to your roof, sometimes you can tie it under your car.

It's possible to grow plants at the base of your windshield.

Long-term reliability tests show that air filters are not important if your car is a P.O.S..

Driving with steel wheels put on outside-in, results in very poor handling and massive torque-steer.

In a FWD car, if you can't drive up an icy hill forwards, you might be able to in reverse.

It's fun driving with your doors removed.

Regular milk can smell pretty bad when spilled in a car. Chocolate milk usually has very little odor for some reason.

It's possible to drive along side a concrete jersey-barrier and steer towards it so that your tires drive up the side and on top of it. Most carbureted engines won't run when tipped over very far. Do not let your wheels fall off the far side.



Ask me how I know these things. Was it fun learning them? Oh, heavens yes! All these cars were beaters. Some were mine, some belonged to friends, sometimes I was driving, sometimes I was along for the ride, but the cars were always total junk, and it was always fun.

I will say one thing in defense of buying a nice car: If it's nice enough, you will be motivated to take better care of it. ...granted, you will miss out on all the fun that's to be had with a beater, and the odds are that something bad will happen to a nice car despite good intentions, but there is more inclination to preserve something nice.

[dcarrb]

Originally posted by UberRoo
If you corner hard-right in a Subaru with an EA82 engine for very long, it will suck lots of oil into the intake and create an awesome smoke-screen.

If the EA82 was the 1.8 L engine used in '86 GL AWD wagons, and the car has over 200,000 on the odometer, hard-or-sweeping left-hand turns produce the same results...


dcb

[wynndi]

UberRoo.....that was sheer poetry.

Add shopping cart smash-up derbies, "What happens if you throw it in reverse while going 50 forward" and "Of course i can jump that" and you have my formative driving years well chronicled!

You made my day!

[immortal_suby]

Originally posted by dcarrb


If the EA82 was the 1.8 L engine used in '86 GL AWD wagons, and the car has over 200,000 on the odometer, hard-or-sweeping left-hand turns produce the same results...


dcb

I used to love this in the little red wagon - great on entrance ramps to highways.

I cured it by fitting chrome valve cover breathers and capping the lines.

[UberRoo]

I love the cloverleaf on/off ramp smoke screen. I call it the "Spy Hunter" feature.

Shopping carts... ...tempting... Unfortunately, shopping carts are really expensive and I don't hold a grudge against the manager at K-Mart for telling me to leave because I wasn't "keeping all four wheels on the ground." There's a difference between mischief, and malicious mischief. One's a criminal offense, the other is what young people get into.

It's challenging to weld holes in the oil pan while the oil is still dripping.

Turning the ignition key off and on rapidly to cause backfires will eventually destroy your muffler.

If you burn enough oil, there's no reason to change it as it will always be fresh.

If an engine burns one quart of oil per week, and the cheap oil is only 99 cents a quart, you can go for years for less than the cost of a minor engine rebuild.

Fold-back mirrors are important when practicing formation driving.

You need to tilt a Subaru beyond 45 degrees to drain enough water out of it that there will be no standing puddles on the floor. The large size Hi-Lift jack is not tall enough to accomplish that. At 45 degrees, it's quite easy to tilt the car by hand. Much past 50 degrees, it'll start to tip over.

Unless you have a limited slip differential, you won't go very far when tipped up and driving on two wheels.

Two ratchet-straps will work in place of a panhard bar and are actually much stiffer.

When using a rock as a hammer to straighten a bent rim, granite works best. Two rocks will re-crimp 4-gauge ring terminals.

If your engine is overheating, check for gravel in your electric radiator fan shroud.

Driving through tall grass will quickly plug up your radiator fins. A comb does not work very well to clean them. A wire brush works much better, but must be used gently.

Do not back up when driving over small alder trees, as they work like barbs and will dig into the back of your radiator.

A Honda Accord can pull a Toyota 4x4 out of a mud hole provided you have a long enough tow rope that the Honda can be on asphalt.

The front bumper on an 85 CRX is entirely plastic except for the piece of metal the license plate screws into. It's quite strong anyway.

If a diesel engine burns enough oil, it can be impossible to shut off.

The best way to save money on a wheel alignment is by straddling a ditch with your car, lying in the ditch, and measuring the distance between the front and rear of tires with a tape measure.



This stuff just keeps coming to me.

[Ron Mummert]

A '57 Buick 3 speed manual tranny will get 70 mph out of first gear.
A '56 VW bug will haul eleven people with the sunroof open.
A '66 Fiat 850 will not entirely fit under the front end of a Mercedes truck.
A '70 Olds can be 6 quarts low on tranny fluid & still survive.
A '72 Opel can be driven 30 miles without brakes.
An '82 VW Scirocco only needs two gears. Third & fourth.

Ron.

[zavikan]

All from experience in a 89 Ford Tempo AWD.


Studded Snow tires leave really cool scratch marks if your car is pushed and the park brake is on.

If you leave AWD on (With Tempo), and take tight corners slowly on dry pavement, you can hear a neat skidding sound.

If you Leave said AWD on while going faster on dry pavement, you can hear a neat shotgun like boom, That was your rear end exploding. a neat clack will replace the afore mentioned skidding sound.

The trunk lid mercedez benz emblem can replace the ford emblem on the front, and look stock. 3M foam tape will make it stick for at least 3 months.

You can fit a drumset, a keyboard + amp, 2 guitars and a saxophone in the car, and still be able to drive. Don't attempt to use the mirrors or the shifter. Do not attempt to look out any window except driverside and windshield.

When you pick at the rust spots, it will make them rust faster.

Don't clean the underside of the car after you have gone field hopping. ALOT of grass will get stuck under there. Looks cool, and smells cool later.

If you jump on your bumper, you can break it off.

If you put your wipers up and shut off the car, its really comfortable lying on the hood. If hood dents inward, open hood and pop dent back out.