This is pretty.

"The Crazy Kanuck; RIP Oppositelock" (jukesjukesjukes)
08/07/2017 at 16:17 • Filed to: None

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

DISCUSSION (9)

WilliamsSW > The Crazy Kanuck; RIP Oppositelock
08/07/2017 at 16:20

Love that blue - and 3 pedals, too!

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > The Crazy Kanuck; RIP Oppositelock
08/07/2017 at 16:22

But if you get a GC, you get liftbacky!

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > The Crazy Kanuck; RIP Oppositelock
08/07/2017 at 16:46

The diesel version is a monster, a coworker has one and it has no problems pinning your head back into the seat.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > The Crazy Kanuck; RIP Oppositelock
08/07/2017 at 16:53

Why, oh why, are so many vehicles AWD these days? I can understand FWD vehicles needing to put down the power a little better, but on perfectly good RWD cars it seems like a waste in a good portion of the country.

Here in STL I see tons of xDrive, 4matic and Cadillac AWD vehicles and it seems pointless for 10+ months out of the year. Extra weight, extra things to fail/break and lower fuel economy year ‘round for a little extra traction on the rare occasion that the weather turns crappy. And don’t tell me it’s for performance, because 99% of these vehicles have never been pushed beyond 4/10ths, unless, of course, someone is trying to pass them, and then it’s only in a straight line and only long enough to let the plebes know who they’re dealing with. Really,. with traction and stability controls you’ll be just fine. I moved here from SoCal and at first was concerned about driving in the snow, but I quickly learned that it’s nothing to fear and now kind of look forward to it. Ice, on the other hand, still scares the crap out of me, and I doubt AWD is going to help much there.

I guess it’s like the people that trade in smaller cars for hulking SUVs the moment their first offspring pops out of the womb. But what the hell do I know, as I’m currently single and DD a friggin’ minivan. Oh, won’t somebody think of the children...

404 - User No Longer Available > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
08/07/2017 at 17:19

But you can’t get 3 pedals. Or at least easily. They’re one MY unicorns.

404 - User No Longer Available > The Crazy Kanuck; RIP Oppositelock
08/07/2017 at 17:20

I have a feeling with you posting BMWs lately, you’ll end up with an X6 or X4 to keep up with the theme.

Textured Soy Protein > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
08/07/2017 at 17:52

My fleet of all wheel drive vehicles looks down its nose and scoffs in your general direction.

Kinja'd!!!

Seriously though, from April through October, rwd would be preferable. But even with snow tires, driving a high-powered rwd open differential car like a non-M BMW in Wisconsin winter is not desirable to me at all. A “mild” winter here is one where we only get 50 inches of snow. It can easily top 70 inches.

My 335xi has about 365 whp. It’s also lowered. But with snow tires I can confidently drive it in the winter, as long as the snow doesn’t get too deep. Then I stay home. I’m not an idiot. So for me, going for awd allows me to have a stupid fun car that I can still drive in winter. I used to have a 135is and even on dry pavement, with that open diff it could get squirrely. I had a Grand Cherokee to go with it. This 335xi was my way of consolidating both of those cars.

My wife didn’t want to deal with snow wheels & tires for her Impreza even though I told her I’d swap them for her. So I put BFG Comp-2 all seasons on it because they give extra dry/wet grip and also have surprisingly high winter test ratings for a UHP all-season tire.

Most of the luxury cars around here are commodity awd base engine models, with potentially but not always acceptable all-season tires on them. We get a decent number of people who drive on snow tires but it’s still very much a minority of the overall number of cars on the road. Usually driving some kind of enthusiast-oriented vehicle.

Back when I had a Miata which was rwd with an LSD and no traction/stability control, I drove it in the winter on snow tires, and it was actually halfway decently capable, but it definitely stepped the back end out often. It was just controllable in how it slid. And that was with 140 hp in a little tin can Miata. A big powerful car with 300+ is another story.

And unlike my 335xi that has sporty performance winter Michelin Pilot Alpins on it, to get the Miata to work in the snow required full-on studless winter tires whose dry/wet handling characteristics most closely resembled glazed donuts. They were at least cake donuts though, not the Krispy Kreme donuts that disintegrate when you eat them. Instead, the Pilot Alpins do a halfway decent impression of a performance all-season tire.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Textured Soy Protein
08/07/2017 at 18:15

Wisconsin? Yes, you can actually use AWD there and are fully justified in buying it. If I lived there I would definitely want it if it was available. When I was considering relocating to Chicago I didn’t want to bring the E34 unless I had a place to store it for the winter because I didn’t want to drive it in those kinds of winters without traction and stability control, even with snow tires, having no experience in serious snow having lived the first 45 years of my life in SoCal. But here in St Louis the winters are generally rather mild as compared to those experienced by our more northerly neighbors, like yourself, and thus AWD just seems superfluous here.

I’m reminded of a story from back in the ‘80s from Colorado, where tow truck drivers would refer to the first snowfall of the season as “Audi Duty time” (a play on ‘Howdy Doody time’) since quattro drivers would think that their car’s AWD systems made them immune to the laws of physics and would go sliding right off the side of the road...

The Crazy Kanuck; RIP Oppositelock > 404 - User No Longer Available
08/08/2017 at 11:23

I would not mind x6 50i, It be cheap way to get 400hp.