New England B.S. Thread

Morning all. A couple of inches of sleet down here early overnight and then had the change over to ice and lots of it. 29F and raining.

 

I believe it's in the back.

 

We only got a few inches and it’s raining now. I’m going to wait and do th snow clearing after it’s done raining, otherwise, everything will just be a sheet of ice. Hoping that later, it will just be a sheet of ice on the snow and it’ll be easier to clean up.

 

I have a feeling my snowblower isn't going to even move this stuff...

 

Sure won't with an attitude like that!!!


Good luck!

 

Looks like we only have an inch or two here, but it's been raining/sleeting on top of it.

 

And this is why I went out at 3:30

 

I got it at 6:45 and took me like 45 mins. About to go back out to push the slush off so it doesn't freeze

 

It blew around so it's tough to tell for sure, but I measure around 10-11 inches here. It wasn't tough to move with the snowblower. Went through it quickly with that, then cleaned it up and pushed the sides of the driveway back with my little lawn tractor plow.

 

Good morning New England. Been at it since 5:00 am with this pig. Stay safe if your out and about.

 

Same here. Forecast said sleet at 8am, so I was out at 7 shoveling the driveway and roof. Fortunately no sleet so far.

 

@jethro you're a snowmobile guy right?


Why are snowmobilers such pussys? I NEVER see them out here unless it's 25-30+ degrees and sunny. There is 1 1/2 feet of fresh pow, previously groomed trails as a base and it's Sunday. NOT A SINGLE TRACK. I'm on the main line for the club, and random snowmobiles too. It's pathetic, every year they hide in their houses all weekend cause its "too cold" or the snow isn't perfect.

For a bunch of guys who bitch constantly they can't ride anywhere, or there is never enough snow...They really don't seem into doing anything than buying them.


Okay, rant over, sorry if anyone got offended while they are sitting inside reading forums instead of using their snowmobiles in the fresh snow.

 

sounds like the same crap with some guys I hunt with

 

I'm guilty of it with some things. It's fun to talk about things, it's fun to think about it, and buy stuff to prep.

But sometimes the thing actually isn't as fun as you want it to be....

 

me to ……..…….
I got all sorts of crap to do on truck but too cold to wrench ……..

 

The sleet just melts and refreezes immediately. One of my wipers bent and got stuck in place.

 

I went to the auto show yesterday and checked pretty much everything I could out. Here's a few of my thoughts :

Honda Passport / Ridgeline / Pilot

My wife and I aren't in love with her Grand Cherokee. It's plenty nice, but being it's a Jeep, we anticipate running into issues eventually. We've had a coolant smell now for what feels like forever that I need to bring it in for once we have some free time. With the new Passport coming out, I thought it would be nice to check out. Immediately I ran into a huge issue. The dead pedal in the pedal box is HUGE and is very, very high relative to the pedals. To sit in it, I had to have my knee bent at a weird angle. The emergency brake was even higher and the would be no way to use it without kicking the dash. I'm sure I could remove / reconfigure the dead pedal, but it was a huge red flag. Since the Pilot and Ridgeline are on the same platform they have the same issue. I'm not a huge guy by any stretch, so I can see this affecting many people. Lastly, the armrest was not in the console, but in the seat. It reminded me of a 1990's minivan with captain's chairs. Huge dislike.

Chevy Colorado ZR2

I was interested to jump into this since it's a close competitor to the Tacoma, obviously. One thing that blew my mind was their "sliders' they have on the ZR2. They do not function as steps as they sit too close to the body. They also do not bolt to the frame, but to the body, so they're useless as sliders. I loved the bed bar because I'm me, and the spare tire in the bed was pretty rad, although without a cover I'd be worried about the tire drying out excessively in the sun. The interior was typical GM so it felt downmarket compared to the Tacoma. I don't know how the materials would wear relative to the easily scratched plastics of the Tacoma, but that's my initial impression. From strictly curb appeal, I do think it's a good looking truck in person.

Ford Ranger

I wasn't in it for any length of time but it felt immediately like an F150 on the inside. It feels VERY wide, which is surprising. I think they want to promote a big truck feel to appeal to those who are considering full size. The only issue I see with that is that the price is so similar to the F150, if not cheaper for the bigger truck. I see a lot of people cross-shopping if they're already in the Ford dealer and going F150. That being said, if they'd release a Ranger Raptor here, it would be a mighty tempting vehicle, and might even force Toyota to make the Pro what it should have been from the get go. Again, I wasn't wild about the interior materials, but they were a notch better than the GM ones, for sure and might wear better than the Toyota.

Toyota RAV4

Because of the Jeep thing I figured I'd check out the RAV as a potential replacement. I HATED it, sorry Jason. With the sunroof my head was nearly touching the ceiling in the passenger seat, and I don't believe the one I sat in (which was a Limited) had a power passenger seat for height adjustment. I'm not particularly tall and have a relatively short torso, so I can see that being a problem for people unless they are also short. The step out height was deceptively high. I found you almost fall out of it, which is surprising since it doesn't have a ton of ground clearance. The automatic shifter is set much more biased to the passenger side than you'd think, and with long arms it's not a huge problem, but could be annoying to those who have short arms. In the Limited model I guess the rear view mirror was actually a screen rather than a mirror, but it was tiny. Lastly when you adjusted the HVAC fan speed knob the entire dash piece would move in and out. They seriously cheaped out on the quality inside the car and it absolutely shows. For me with a quick glance I felt like it looked just like a Jeep Cherokee. That's not necessarily a bad thing as I never cared for the 3/4 view of the previous model, but I wasn't impressed at all with it. I wanted to like it since I thought the aesthetics outside was much improved over the earlier models.

Honda CR-V

A worthy counterpoint to the RAV4. Spacious interior, great ergonomics, an easy buy over the RAV / Passport.

Mazda CX-5

Reminded me a ton of our previous CX-5, which I found myself missing more and more. I don't like the "tablet on a dash" look, but otherwise the design and interior materials were quite nice. With the 250 HP turbo motor, it would probably be an entertaining drive.

Mazda CX-9

Depending on what generations are around when we decide to replace the Jeep, I could easily see it being a CX-9. I did the driving event with one and it was peppy and everything felt to place pretty naturally. I fit in the way, way back with my friend in the back seat and we could survive a drive without much issue. It wouldn't be the most comfortable trip, but it was bigger than my old AccessCab, so that's pretty good for a non-minivan.

Acura NSX

It was really neat, but I realize the whole supercar driving position isn't that much different than my C5, which was a bit surprising. The rear visibility was junk and what kept throwing me was the width of the vehicle as well as the lowness of the roof line in my field of vision because again, I'm not a tall guy.

KIA Stinger / Genesis G70

I'm lumping these together simply because they are on a similar platform. Again, the new car regulations strike again. It feels super wide when you sit in the car, but all the width is in the door jambs as it's not particularly spacious on the inside. When I had my seat adjusted where I wanted it, fitting real humans in the back seat would be challenging. Also, the B pillar is in the completely wrong location. When you get out, you need to contort yourself around the B-pillar rather than just slip past it, so you find yourself plotting your exit.

Honda Civic Si / CTR

Best seats I sat in at the show. Very logical interior, I want one.

Ford Mustang

Much, much better than I expected. Very comfortable, decent visibility and the material quality inside was better than I had expected. I want one of these too.

So that's a quick rundown. I sat in a ton of cars, so I can offer my unwarranted opinion on anything else if anyone is interested.

 

I actually didn't get a chance to sit in the Passport, but I admit the Pilot is nice. Another guy about my size sat in it and also complained about the dead pedal. I didn't mind it. The Passport looked to be about the same size as the Pilot. As far as 3rd row seating, Honda does it much better than Toyota. The floor in the 3rd row equipped models was 6" higher, and almost no room behind the seats when they're up.

I did have a bit a headroom issue with one vehicle and the sunroof, also because the seat height wasn't adjustable. Might have been the Rav4, but I don't have that issue with my girl's Rav4.

Toyota's lineup is weird. I sat in the GX470, and it really didn't feel anymore modern or luxurious than my 4Runner. The RX350 on the other hand, was way nicer than the GX470. It was the same with the Avalon. The Camry felt much nicer and more updated than the Avalon.

The Sequoia Sport was nice, but that generation is 11 years old now.

My girl also wanted to check out the RDX. it's nice, my only complaint is there's no shifter, only buttons for P, R, N, D, etc.. I wanted to play with the giant sunroof, but they were all disabled at the show.

The new Chevy trucks are ugly.

I did see the new Ranger. Seems a bit expensive for a midsize truck.

The Nissan's felt cheap. Especially the frontier. All of the radio controls and steering buttons remind me of an 90's boombox.

 

From the B pillar forward the Passport, Pilot and Ridgeline are identical. The Passport is basically the Pilot without the 3rd row.

The fact the Blazer is back on a generic crossover makes me sad. I look at most of the non-truck / performance car lineup of GM and think to myself, this is the Walmart parking lot in 2032 (yes, I'm being judgy).

I didn't bother checking out Nissan. The fact the Frontier has been unchanged for 14 years is pathetic. My Mom had a 2012 Rogue and even then it felt dated. It was a nice new car for her, but in hindsight it was really lacking.