The Automobile Thread

Competes with the (larger) Ridgeline and the (smaller?) Santa Cruz from Hyundai. I'd like an actual Ute:

 

Getting a new Titan?

 

Something is draining the battery.

 

Battery & alternator both test fine. Car has full power just no crank. It’s done this intermittently for a couple years and been to the dealer a couple times but they could never duplicate the problem. Had to have it towed there yesterday.

 

New “JENIFED” ?

 

Yes sir!

 

Dude, my load carrying capacity is a bike or about 3 small bags of sand before I'm riding the bumpstops. That "bumper" would have me dragging frame!

When I was working at Ford Oz my standard lease car from them was an XR6 ute with an aluminum tray, dropped the sides and ran it as a flat deck. 4litre straight 6 with a 6spd manual box. Hilarious fun in the wet with no weight over the wheels, but pretty much drives like a car and can carry a load. Also enough room behind the seats for a weeks worth of shopping. Utterly brilliant vehicles.
They use to come out in some pretty interesting variations. My boss ran a FPV Tornado ute for awhile, the same engine base as the XR but turbo charged, 416hp / 417 ftlb. That thing would paint 11's on the road with ease. Tuners in Oz these days are running some pretty stout numbers on those engines (pushing over 1000hp in US dyno numbers)
The V8 versions at the end were running supercharged coyote engines. Holden equivalent had the LS series, including supercharged variants as well.

 

First car I owned was an Audi... while I lived in Germany. Have to admit I like this one better. Faster... and no exhaust

 

They check off so many boxes, can't figure out why we never had them after the El Camino and Ranchero were discontinued in the 70's. The new Maverick above is just a small truck, with the mandatory four doors and crappy bed. Hybrid drivetrain is awesome though! We were soooo close to getting a Pontiac badged Holden here in the States just prior to the '08 collapse.
The rest as they say, is history.

 

That's a fine looking ride, all stealthed out.

Was it time to trade the Tundra in?

 

Looks like you guessed the proper "T" I thought that was the Tesla T.

Congrats @UPSed!

 

By no means was it time to trade in the Tundra, but after talking to @buggravy a few days ago, we decided to trade it in. We got top dollar for it. Without getting into too many details, we are now debt free, (Titan excluded of course), and have some cash in our pockets. Almost enough for a new MTB.

 

Kinda like a modern day El Camino!

 

100% so!

 

Seems to be filling the "truck-shaped car" void left by....the Explorer Sport Trac maybe? It's plain to see on Ford's website that they're marketing it to a non-truck crowd. Possibly the kind of buyer that wants a 4dr car with a trunk that can be neither covered nor locked.

 

Ohhh, I forgot about that. Ford must have sold tens of them!

 

Congrats, Ed! Glad to hear it worked out the way you'd hoped. Enjoy!

 

Thanks, Matt. Surprisingly enough, we got the best offer for the Tundra from Nissan. We're glad though as the Titan is way more refined. We test drove a Limited Tundra that was listed for $10k more than the Titan! Other than leather seats, it really wasn't any different than our SR5. In the end, we're both ecstatic with our choice.

 

80mph on the way into work this morning. Not bad for a 5500 lb truck that puts out 400 horsepower!

 

Oh, Ed?! Were you exceeding the posted speed limit?!

 

I was in the slow lane impeding traffic!

 

Darn spell correct app!

 

That'll be me if they ever get the factory built and production ramped up... I'm only #3,473,269 in line.

 

Here is an update on the R8 by my work. Interesting color choice

 

Well, I'm at least glad to see that the bumper and rear valence are back on. A guy showed up at work today in a beautiful 1st gen spyder. V10, gated manual. It's his daily that he drives 10K a year in. Good on him for using it properly.

 

One doesn’t buy a machine like that to remain anonymous. There’s a guy who does a similar commute as me, but in an iridescent Lamborghini. I see him often. Mostly when I fly by in the carpool lane.

 

One of my customer's daily driver...

 

There's something about lambos parked outside of the garage in nice houses. Feels like the rich guy equivalent of the Mustang parked in the front yard.

 

Which do you think gets driven more, the Lamborghini or the Tesla?

I guess one makes up for the other, so it's a Carbon emissions wash.