Minor rant thread. Post your rants o' the day here!

In reply to Stefan :

We’re in Vegas this week too.  Heading back in the morning.

I thought only Chevys ran on blood. Apparently Ford did a hell of a job on the first gen Focus because the Radio Flyer flat shredded my hands today. I will never own/work on a transverse front wheel drive car on purpose ever again.

Appleseed said:

I thought only Chevys ran on blood. Apparently Ford did a hell of a job on the first gen Focus because the Radio Flyer flat shredded my hands today. I will never own/work on a transverse front wheel drive car on purpose ever again.

That CVH POS drivetrain was never meant for transverse use, so it’s a terrible thing to work on compare to the later BP powered cars.

Appleseed said:

I thought only Chevys ran on blood. Apparently Ford did a hell of a job on the first gen Focus because the Radio Flyer flat shredded my hands today. I will never own/work on a transverse front wheel drive car on purpose ever again.

My sister's ex-boyfriend had a Focus and we hated that thing. I remember the time that the alternator died and written in the manual for the procedure to remove the alternator was "Carefully bend the ground stud on the shock tower for clearance to remove the alternator. Be careful not to break the stud" That was the point where we went "berkeley this car."

The first-gen Focus is the poster boy of pre-recession American car crapitude, the model that was famously available with 4 doors but not enough room for an adult human foot in the rear footwells.

GameboyRMH said:

The first-gen Focus is the poster boy of pre-recession American car crapitude, the model that was famously available with 4 doors but not enough room for an adult human foot in the rear footwells.

But it's a European car.

I think the only American small car made since the 70s was the Neon.  And the Saturn.

Rant:  The only hoses anybody carries is Dayco. Dayco does not make mooded hoses that actually fit.

At least I got a chuckle about the appropriate typo.

Knurled. said:

GameboyRMH said:

The first-gen Focus is the poster boy of pre-recession American car crapitude, the model that was famously available with 4 doors but not enough room for an adult human foot in the rear footwells.

But it's a European car.

 

I think the only American small car made since the 70s was the Neon.  And the Saturn.

Did we forget GMs other E36 M3boxes? Saturn is definitely the best American small car though.

GameboyRMH said:

The first-gen Focus is the poster boy of pre-recession American car crapitude, the model that was famously available with 4 doors but not enough room for an adult human foot in the rear footwells.

Try living with size 13 feet.

The last car I was in with enough room for my boats was a Crown Vic. Front or rear.

One of the reasons my DD is a full size pickup.

Ugh ... since when do you set your forklift engine idle speed at about 80 percent throttle?!

In reply to SaltyDog :

Only vehicle I've had problems with foot room with my size 13s was an E350 van. Smallest car to date is an SL1 Saturn. 

In reply to Daylan C :

But I'm old and don't bend very well.  Getting in and out of the vehicles is my biggest challenge.

I remember a customer who had a then new-ish 4 speed Chevette.

There wasn't enough room for my feet and the three pedals. When I tried to push the gas, I would hit the brakes, too. When I tried to push the clutch, I hit the brakes or the kick panel.

I had to turn my feet sideways to be able to drive the thing! 

SaltyDog said:

GameboyRMH said:

The first-gen Focus is the poster boy of pre-recession American car crapitude, the model that was famously available with 4 doors but not enough room for an adult human foot in the rear footwells.

Try living with size 13 feet.

The last car I was in with enough room for my boats was a Crown Vic. Front or rear.

One of the reasons my DD is a full size pickup.

Mine are 12s and they don't cause me any problems, maybe that's the biggest feet you can have before you run into trouble? I have a cousin who wears size 17s or something silly like that and needs to get shoes custom-made.

Daylan C said:

In reply to SaltyDog :

Only vehicle I've had problems with foot room with my size 13s was an E350 van. Smallest car to date is an SL1 Saturn. 

I wear size 13s and commute with work boots on in a Miata. 

In reply to NickD :

So we might have a problem with a Countach but we're probably ok in most things that aren't old and Italian.

In reply to Daylan C :

Being unable to work the pedals is the least of our problem if we're driving something old and Italian

In reply to NickD :

That's a solid point.

Daylan C said:

Knurled. said:

GameboyRMH said:

The first-gen Focus is the poster boy of pre-recession American car crapitude, the model that was famously available with 4 doors but not enough room for an adult human foot in the rear footwells.

But it's a European car.

 

I think the only American small car made since the 70s was the Neon.  And the Saturn.

Did we forget GMs other E36 M3boxes? Saturn is definitely the best American small car though.

Cavaliers are loosely based on Opels (the Daewoo-built Pontiac LeMans is a Korean built Opel Kadett, you can see where the Cavslier got its engineering from).  The N-bodies were loosely based on Cavaliers, for that matter.

And then there's the Chevette, which could have been rad.

In reply to Knurled. :

The Chevette *was* rad in Europe. We didn't get any of the cool chevette antics though.

In reply to GameboyRMH :

SWMBO owns 2 Focus wagons, her sister has one and her dad has a few sedans and hatches and the back seats in all of them are a no go for me. 

Daylan C said:

In reply to Knurled. :

The Chevette *was* rad in Europe. We didn't get any of the cool chevette antics though.

No.  No way, no how.  They were a horrifying crap box here, and one with more horsepower would have been even worse.

Rough day at work.  Then the toilet tank cracked and flooded the garage.

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

I never said they were good. I meant they look good in pictures as rally cars.

Someone thought it was a good idea to put a heavy (15lbs) small box, a bag of grass seeds and an expensive book into the same box with no packing materials. With an entirely predictable outcome.