Cars, guitars and bars.
Recently the discussions have turned to personal bashing of the author of the article. This becomes very un-excellent and very un-Oppo. Debate on the article topic and your own hot take on the hot takes is fine but discussions that swerve towards personal attacks toward the author will be locked or deleted.
Stay excellent, Oppo!
After owning her ‘07 Wrangler since new, it was time to retire the JKU. “The Jeep”, as we called her, handled 10 years of hockey gear, 14 years of back roading, defacto pickup truck duties and typical moms taxi services.
Goodbye ol friend…
So we replaced it with another Wrangler. I couldn’t convince my wife to seriously look at another vehicle. We looked at a 110, Bronco, 4Runner but only half heartedly. She really wanted another Wrangler…so we REALLY got another Wrangler.
It’s a ‘21 Rubicon 4xe. Questionable colour choice aside (it’s growing on me) , this thing is pretty nifty.
It’s got the turbo 4-cyl plus the plug-in electric assist which is pretty mind blowing. The torque is incredible for someone who hasn’t owned an electric vehicle before.
The tech is all there as well. I’ll post much more as I get to know this thing more.
It’s quite the upgrade from the old one. We have the tow package being installed as well as running boards because we want to completely ruin its off road ability. A sun runner and roof racks for the boards will be on order as well.
Oh, she wants to remove the Rubicon decals and the black anti-glare decal from the hood. I don’t mind them but she’s adamant so WCYD? Pretty stoked either way.
I have a vivid recollection of my Baba, which is what I called my Great grandmother. She was a Ukrainian immigrant that, based on popular family lore, escaped post-WWI USSR with her Russian love and future husband by hiding under an oxcart. They embarked Spain for Canada and never looked back.
My recollection comes from her 86th year. How do i know that? I distinctly remember asking her, as a naive kid, "How old are you Baba?" She picked up the can of Pacific milk that was on the kitchen table and pointed at the price tag. It was .86 cents. That's when my Grandma taught me that it was rude to ever ask a woman her age. I was a bit confused at the time, because after all, it was my Baba, not a woman...but I would understand over time.
I was visiting my Grandparents farm, and my Baba had recently given up her independent living a few towns away to come and live with my Grandparents. It was a modest shiplap farm house and my Grandpa enclosed the rear veranda as a little bedroom/sitting area for her. She was happy as long as she got to watch the noon News and weekly Stampede Wrestling.
One day, my Baba came in from out working in the garden. My Grandparents had a large vegetable garden that Baba spent much of the nice weather days in, pulling weeds and sprinkling various Larters chemical concoctions (this was before organic growing ideas were mainstream). She sat down at the kitchen table, and you could tell she was uncomfortable.
"Lydia, get me some hand-cream" she pointed to the bathroom off the kitchen.
Her hands were swollen and very red.
"What were you doing, mom?" my Grandma inquired.
"Just out weeding the garden" She said nonchalantly.
Grandma thought she might have had an allergic reaction to a plant or one of the garden chemicals. What we didn't realize at the time is that she spent the morning pulling up a huge patch of stinging nettle that was adjacent to the garden...with her bare hands.
When my Grandma pressed her about it, whether it hurt at the time and why she would do such a thing, she replied, " Well, it just had to get done so i did it."
Whenever I need a dose of stoicism in my life, I think back to my Baba and use my recollection of her as an allegory when I have to 'just get this shit done'.
I think and hope that the Russian invaders are running into many Ukrainians like my Baba.
Custom artwork by the one and only @RallyDarkstrike. I can’t begin to tell you how blown away I am. Thank you so much!
It took me 1/2 hour to try to get a good shot of it because of the reflection of the glass…maybe @RallyDarkstrike could post a jpg of it? But here it is:
My Roadster on the left and my 4Xe on the right…down to the finest detail!
You cant see it in the pic, but the title says “A classic debate” and it’s signed:
[Name Redacted]
RallyDarkstrike
Oppositelock
Secret Senna 2022
I’m so stoked! The thoughtfulness blows my mind. I can’t wait to hang it!!
I do not like
Please take it off now
You are undermining my dignity
Signed, Stella
@WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAthenGTInowA4
Excessive load has been eliminated. I feel much better.
The 4Xe that we picked up yesterday had 1% battery when we drove it off the lot. The sales guy apologized, saying it just got out of PDI and the charging station was blocked in by other vehicles. Even at 1%, the battery still performed it’s off-the-line duties while the turbo 4 kicked in around 10kmh. It still performed the idle stop and AC didn’t seem affected.
At 8pm, we hooked up the charger for the first time. The 4Xe comes standard with a Class I charger that plugs into a standard 120v plug and approx. 15’ of cable from the transformer to the connector.
The spec says 14 hours for a full charge cycle with the Class 1 charger.
There’s a bank of 5 LED lights on the dash. When you start charging a dead battery, one LED starts flashing until it shines steady then the second one starts flashing and so on until the fourth one is flashing. The 5th LED is for the Class 2 charging indicator if I remember correctly but I may be wrong there.
So at 8:30am the next day, all LED’s were off, indicating a full charge.
The specs say that you get 40 km on a full battery if you run it on battery only. We had some running around town and we probably put around 40km. The gas engine maybe ran for 2 minutes the whole time…mainly whilst giving her the beans.
So all in all, we’re very happy. I’m not sure how the economics play out…the gasoline engine averages 12L/100km so if we were to drive on gas, we would have used 4.8L of fuel today which would have costed us $1.70x4.8=$8.16 in gas.
We pay something around $.05 per kW/Hr. So do the math….no really you do the math because electrical engineering is voodoo and it sucks and it’s dumb.
OK…I’ll do it…
The 4Xe battery is a 17kW/Hr battery, so the cost to charge it should be around $.05x17= $.85 unless I’m doing electrical math wrong which is highly likely because it’s dumb.
So that’s our experience so far in the short time we’ve had it.
Oh hai
I called the local dealer yesterday and miracle of miracles they took a used Vstrom 650 on trade this week. It was still going through PDI and getting new rubber so they haven’t even advertised it yet. I jumped on it like a fat me on a salty snack!
Here’s what it looked like when I arrived…
It’s a lightly moded 2016 Vstrom 650 with ~22k kms. It has OEM panniers and top case, lowering pegs and crash bars. It also has a Givi adjustable windscreen.
These bikes aren’t known to be lookers, especially the pre’17 models, but I think it looks fine. (I actually wish it had the single headlight because I would have changed to Vstrom badge to read “Vortigaunt” as they kinda look like them).
I put ~10 kms on, on the ride home, and it feels so comfortable and confident. The seat height is not an issue at all, so thanks to all the Oppos who said it wouldn’t be an issue…you were right. Thanks for steering me in the right direction.
I’m not big into naming vehicles, but a nickname might come about in the future,,,who knows.
I’ll have to pick up some Oppo and UppU stickers for the bags 
It was a beautiful late-autumn day in Metro Van, purfect for some Roadster noises! Also cow-fart smells.
All I see in the next one is my shadow sad trombone @Photography fail!
@CarsOfFortLangley
I'm fully booked that weekend.
If the dates change let me know!
@CB said in Welp, looks like I lost this round of Rental Roulette:
@ClassicDatsunDebate Hopefully the firing range is for fun and not for work!
My coworkers seem fairly well adjusted....but im keeping my eyes on a few.
@A-Former-User said in Welp, looks like I lost this round of Rental Roulette:
@ClassicDatsunDebate said in Welp, looks like I lost this round of Rental Roulette:
Lighter steering feel than a Corolla
- You're on snow.
- What gen? Cuz mine's perfect.
I'm thinking those late 90's gold ones.
@Krusty-Walnut I'm not sure yet. It was a 10 minute drive from the airport to the hotel.
@CB said in Welp, looks like I lost this round of Rental Roulette:
@ClassicDatsunDebate I hate the Buick Encore. I've gotten it twice with the last gen. I hate it.
Where have your travels taken you?
I'm in Calgary. We have a winter driving course on Wednesday and other stuff during the week. I think were hitting the firing range as well.
@Krusty-Walnut said in Welp, looks like I lost this round of Rental Roulette:
@ClassicDatsunDebate It must be better than a Jeep Compass...right?
I dont know....the Compass would probably have U-Connect.
Lighter steering feel than a Corolla.
Business travel is so glamorous.
We've got some fun events on the agenda this week though.
@JeepOfTheseus
I'll be posting my own Rental Car later today. I'll be using it on a winter driving course....which, apparently, is fine with insurance for some reason.
@WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAthenGTInowA4
Congrats! Thats awesome.
