The Mall Crawler

"HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles" (hondasfordsvolvo)
12/19/2018 at 09:50 • Filed to: None

I was in Barks dale, or something Minnesota last weekend ( kinda tune out when I’m not driving) We went shopping at a big mall with several outlet store. It’s 2 weeks to Christmas and a Saturday so things were busy. Parking spots were sparse to say the least. Before we found on we say 6-8 spots that were taken up by snow banks. And I finally got the appeal of owning a Wrangler in the city.

We were in my BIL’s Golf Sportwagon TDI , an fine car, but we couldn’t park in those spots. If we’d had a Wrangler with M/Ts and a big metal front bumper we could have found a spot in 1/5 the time. No more roaming through the parking lot hoping for a spot. Just drive to the nearest snow bank and park in/on it.

Also my wife’s uncle who were visiting has a freaking ramp for a driveway so their Outback make way more sense than a regular Legacy wagon. Any normal car would have a hard time getting from the road to their garage without hanging up, and scraping , especially if you have a hitch.

DISCUSSION (25)

Just Jeepin' > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles
12/19/2018 at 10:04

It is quite liberating in a Wrangler. You don’t have to worry about damaging your body on curbs, you can park pretty much anywhere you’re inclined (and at least with the traditional SWB you have a great turning radius), you don’t have to shovel your driveway...

JustAnotherG6 > Just Jeepin'
12/19/2018 at 10:12

FTFY:

It is quite liberating in a Wrangler beater. You don’t have to worry about damaging your body on curbs, you can park pretty much anywhere you’re inclined (and at least with the traditional SWB reverse gear and 20 pt turn you have a great turning radius), you don’t have to shovel your driveway...unless you are expecting guests anytime during the winter.

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > Just Jeepin'
12/19/2018 at 10:13

That is a great feeling. Now if only why were priced according to what they are.

A BASE model JL is nearly 29k. if you want air conditioning its over 30.

shop-teacher > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles
12/19/2018 at 10:14

2-door Wranglers are fantastic city cars. I got it instantly when I drove the one a former coworker of mine owned , who lived in the city. Minuscule turning radius, no worries about curbs, good visibility. If I were to lose my mind and move into the city, I’d buy a Wrangler ... and an extended warranty.

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > Just Jeepin'
12/19/2018 at 10:15

you don’t have to shovel your driveway

As nice as that sounds I would rather not have my driveway double as an ice rink

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > shop-teacher
12/19/2018 at 10:24

If i were forced to live in the city I’d buy the nicest Mk1 Cabriolet I could find.

JustAnotherG6 > shop-teacher
12/19/2018 at 10:27

No further explanation needed:

If I were to lose my mind and move into the city, I’d buy a Wrangler

TheRealBicycleBuck > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles
12/19/2018 at 10:28

When I was a kid, we had an unimproved driveway that was 200 ft into the woods along the side of a hill, then a 90 degree turn to another 150 ft run up the hill. When it rained, the bottom portion turned into a mud bog and the turn up the hill was a muddy ascent. My mom’s instructions to get up the driveway were to start at the far end of the cul-de-sac, get as much speed as possible and carry it as far up the driveway as we could. If it all went well, I’d slip and slide over the lower portion, fishtail around the turn, then keep just enough momentum to make it to the top of the hill.

I often wished for four-wheel drive.

Just Jeepin' > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s
12/19/2018 at 10:32

Mine is gravel (in theory, more dirt these days) and it isn’t usually a problem.

Just Jeepin' > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles
12/19/2018 at 10:34

When there’s no competition, you get that kind of pricing.

shop-teacher > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles
12/19/2018 at 10:36

So you can watch it be destroyed? And the top sliced?

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > TheRealBicycleBuck
12/19/2018 at 10:37

IDK that sounds kinda fun. lol

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > shop-teacher
12/19/2018 at 10:37

oh yeah people are ass holes.

WilliamsSW > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles
12/19/2018 at 10:38

You do NOT want to street park a convertible in the city. Shop-teacher is right - the top WILL be sliced.

Ask me how I know...

WilliamsSW > shop-teacher
12/19/2018 at 10:39

Been there, done that. People are assholes.

Textured Soy Protein > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles
12/19/2018 at 11:16

Here in the DC burbs, there are very few full-size pickups, and even fewer bro’d out ones. I’d say 90% of the bro’d out vehicles are Wranglers.

We don’t quite have the super steep driveways that are so common in the upper midwest. That was one of the things I hated about driving around Madison when I lived there. I scraped the shit out of the underside of many front bumpers of low-ass cars over the years.

That’s not to say there are no steep driveways, and we still have plenty of potholes. But there’s way less of the pervasively tar-stripped roads that are full of cracks, and way less concrete roads with the loud- as- fuck tire hum and ka-thunk ka-thunk of expansion joints. I don’t miss any of that shit.

shop-teacher > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles
12/19/2018 at 11:23

Yup.

shop-teacher > WilliamsSW
12/19/2018 at 11:23

Yeah, they really are.

WilliamsSW > shop-teacher
12/19/2018 at 11:32

In 8 years in Wicker Park, I had:

- Pathfinder broken into - they got about $8 in loose change, and it cost me $200 to replace the glass

- BMW broken into - $250 for glass, they got *nothing* (I learned from the 1st incident)

- Pathfinder keyed across one entire side of the car - the asshole who did that did AN ENTIRE BLOCK OF CARS, I kid you not

- Big rock thrown onto hood of BMW, leaving a big dent in the middle

- BMW top sliced, just for shits and giggles apparently, they didn’t go into the car

- Spare tire stolen from under the Pathfinder, with the carrier damaged to the point where it would have taken a lot of $ to fix it so it could carry a tire

- Two bikes (~$1000 or so each) stolen

And that’s just the intentional asshole stuff- doesn’t include the accidental asshole stuff, like the 2x the Pathfinder was bumped on the *side*, or the former school bus that someone parallel parked into the front of the Pathfinder, damaging it, or all the other parking damage...

shop-teacher > WilliamsSW
12/19/2018 at 11:34

Reason #867 why I never wanted to live in the city.

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > Just Jeepin'
12/19/2018 at 11:42

Yea, that’s probably not as much of an issue as it is with a paved driveway

WilliamsSW > shop-teacher
12/19/2018 at 11:55

The trick is to own a car you don’t care about. That was the Pathfinder for me. The BMW was mostly garaged, but was on the street sometimes in the summer ( garage was a PITA to get in and out of - 2. 5 car garage with 3 cars in it, off a tight alley with a telephone pole across the alley)

arl > TheRealBicycleBuck
12/19/2018 at 12:18

Mom’s - the original hooners. Wait. That sounds bad.

Mom’s - the original opponats. OK, that’s better.

shop-teacher > WilliamsSW
12/19/2018 at 13:57

Well, there are many many other reasons that city life ain’t for me.

TheRealBicycleBuck > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles
12/19/2018 at 14:38

It was fun... as long as you made it. I had more than my fair share of trudging up a muddy driveway and rescuing my truck from a mudhole. The worst was when it slid off the packed driveway into the soft stuff on the sides.