Overall a good experience and it only cost $60 which included the full coverage insurance.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Rented a 2011 Nissan Versa and put 800 miles on it in a day
Would rent again. Averaged around 35mpg for the entire trip and that was using the a/c and traveling a guesstimated 75mph on average, 90% on the interstate. It had most of the perks including cruise control, thank goodness. It handled fairly well although it seemed to jerk around a bit with the slightest breeze. The rain didn't stop for the majority of the first leg (400 miles) but if I hydroplaned at all I did not notice and I didn't bother to slow down too much... :)
Overall a good experience and it only cost $60 which included the full coverage insurance.
Overall a good experience and it only cost $60 which included the full coverage insurance.
Wut up G?
Infiniti G20, 1990 model. Loved. This. Car. Another gift from the 'rents' also undeserved. Had it from Troy to Charlotte to Atlanta. Unfortunately, this car ended up being the recipient of my first DUI. Back in '02 a friend of mine from Charlotte moved to ATL and we went out drinking. I drove and dropped him off at his place then attempted to drive home. I failed into a ditch (sounds familiar?)
I'll update this post later but quitting here cause FUCK YOU.
Imagine more charcoal grey:
I'll update this post later but quitting here cause FUCK YOU.
Imagine more charcoal grey:
Camaro of some 80s variety
I wish I recalled more about this vehicle of mine. It was a (I wanna say) 1986 Camaro. It was the lame V6 version. It was after the low-rider and ended up with a cracked windshield due to Jon's forehead (and bent to hell front quarter panel) after I ran it into a ditch. I still semi-blame him. It was a dark dirt road on the way back from the firetower and my question of "Is it okay to be going 50(mph) here?" to him approximately 10secs prior to the wreck was answered by him with a (slurred) "Sure!"
Needless to say - it wasn't okay. Lesson learned.
This also facilitated the transmission to die. Damn my transmission luck!
(also the first(only) vehicle that I ever received a hand-job while driving! NO, not from Jon, from my girlfriend at the time)
Mine was black but:
Needless to say - it wasn't okay. Lesson learned.
This also facilitated the transmission to die. Damn my transmission luck!
(also the first(only) vehicle that I ever received a hand-job while driving! NO, not from Jon, from my girlfriend at the time)
Mine was black but:
Hmm, carz...
My first was a 1989 GMC S-15 (Equivalent to a Chevy S-10). It was a present from my parents on my 17th birthday during my junior year of high-school in 1995. My dad said he paid $900 for it. It was a former yard truck from one of many Rinker Materials Corporation concrete plants that my father managed. It was a car that wasn't my parent's Chevrolet Astro minivan that I was used to borrowing which was a good thing.
I really loved this truck and had it through 1998 when I gave it away in a trade after the transmission went out for the third time. But don't blame the manufacturer in this case - it was the owners fault. Sometime in 1996 I decided to go all low-rider with it. This led to it's eventual downfall.
First step in low-ridering an S15/S10 was to simply switch the springs on the back axle from the top of the axel to the bottom and throw in a block to lower it 2-4 inches making for a 6'ish inch drop on the back axel. I rode around for a few days like that. Even had folks yell at me to "Hit the draulics!" cause they thought I had switches. They were wrong.
Next step in the ghetto method of lowering a truck of this type is to "chop" the springs in the front portion of the suspension. This takes some care as removing these springs is mildly dangerous as they are springs that are "cocked" if you will. Fortunately, we managed this just fine at Shane's house, no injuries to report. Springs were removed, cut with a saw-zaw and re-loaded as-is. The un-known factor at this point is that this places the tires (wheels) at a severe angle which caused me to run though two sets of used low-profile tires before I realized the error of my ways. Imagine that these slashes are my tires and that's how the front tires sat: / -- \ so it wore down the tread in a matter of months on the interior of the tire.
The other thing that happened due to this ghetto method was that the stock shocks were blown cause they couldn't handle the increased load from the cut springs. So, suspension was basically non-existent.
Ordered some "real" springs designed for this purpose and figured i'd just remove the shocks completely. Hilarity ensues. Sure, new springs bring the tires back to being flat and not angled so they last longer but suspension moves to a whole new level of non-existent. W/out shocks you could stand at the front of the truck and put one hand on the hood and bounce it till the skid plate started hitting the ground. So, finally spent some of my hard-earned Publix money on some real shocks.
Looked something like this(random image from Google Images "1989 gmc s15 lowrider":
NEON! Specifically from: Low Glow Neon whom at the time hooked me up since I a) had a friend that worked there and b) put their logo on the back window of my truck's cab. Started with 4 green tubes in the wheel-wells and one in the grill along with 4 purple tubes around the base 4 sides of the truck. Since i'd chosen to have my truck sit a bit lower than needed I was able to (literally) knock reflectors off the road which consumed the front most purple tube via collision. S'all good, ran without that front purple and it was cool.
What doomed this truck was the actual lowering of it. The stock GMC S-15 sat slightly higher in the back than in the front to allow for weight to be added to the bed. When I lowered the truck it became evenly lowered on both front and rear. You would need to understand the specifics of a GM transmission on this type of vehicle to understand what screwed me in this but basically: The drive shaft for the rear-wheel drive car connected to the transmission via a slideable portion at it's base (and/or front) that could adjust based on the weight placed in the bed. When I lowered it to even it placed said drive shaft directly against the seal in the back of the transmission which after anywhere from a few weeks to a few months would wear said seal (cause it spins at high speeds) out and all the transmission fluid would then run out. That's kinda bad.
It wasn't until the THIRD time I was having the transmission replaced that THIS mechanic explained to me what was happening. Honestly, had first mechanic in Orlando told me why it happened I might have never ended up in Troy, AL.
Go figure.
I really loved this truck and had it through 1998 when I gave it away in a trade after the transmission went out for the third time. But don't blame the manufacturer in this case - it was the owners fault. Sometime in 1996 I decided to go all low-rider with it. This led to it's eventual downfall.
First step in low-ridering an S15/S10 was to simply switch the springs on the back axle from the top of the axel to the bottom and throw in a block to lower it 2-4 inches making for a 6'ish inch drop on the back axel. I rode around for a few days like that. Even had folks yell at me to "Hit the draulics!" cause they thought I had switches. They were wrong.
Next step in the ghetto method of lowering a truck of this type is to "chop" the springs in the front portion of the suspension. This takes some care as removing these springs is mildly dangerous as they are springs that are "cocked" if you will. Fortunately, we managed this just fine at Shane's house, no injuries to report. Springs were removed, cut with a saw-zaw and re-loaded as-is. The un-known factor at this point is that this places the tires (wheels) at a severe angle which caused me to run though two sets of used low-profile tires before I realized the error of my ways. Imagine that these slashes are my tires and that's how the front tires sat: / -- \ so it wore down the tread in a matter of months on the interior of the tire.
The other thing that happened due to this ghetto method was that the stock shocks were blown cause they couldn't handle the increased load from the cut springs. So, suspension was basically non-existent.
Ordered some "real" springs designed for this purpose and figured i'd just remove the shocks completely. Hilarity ensues. Sure, new springs bring the tires back to being flat and not angled so they last longer but suspension moves to a whole new level of non-existent. W/out shocks you could stand at the front of the truck and put one hand on the hood and bounce it till the skid plate started hitting the ground. So, finally spent some of my hard-earned Publix money on some real shocks.
Looked something like this(random image from Google Images "1989 gmc s15 lowrider":
NEON! Specifically from: Low Glow Neon whom at the time hooked me up since I a) had a friend that worked there and b) put their logo on the back window of my truck's cab. Started with 4 green tubes in the wheel-wells and one in the grill along with 4 purple tubes around the base 4 sides of the truck. Since i'd chosen to have my truck sit a bit lower than needed I was able to (literally) knock reflectors off the road which consumed the front most purple tube via collision. S'all good, ran without that front purple and it was cool.
What doomed this truck was the actual lowering of it. The stock GMC S-15 sat slightly higher in the back than in the front to allow for weight to be added to the bed. When I lowered the truck it became evenly lowered on both front and rear. You would need to understand the specifics of a GM transmission on this type of vehicle to understand what screwed me in this but basically: The drive shaft for the rear-wheel drive car connected to the transmission via a slideable portion at it's base (and/or front) that could adjust based on the weight placed in the bed. When I lowered it to even it placed said drive shaft directly against the seal in the back of the transmission which after anywhere from a few weeks to a few months would wear said seal (cause it spins at high speeds) out and all the transmission fluid would then run out. That's kinda bad.
It wasn't until the THIRD time I was having the transmission replaced that THIS mechanic explained to me what was happening. Honestly, had first mechanic in Orlando told me why it happened I might have never ended up in Troy, AL.
Go figure.
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