Poetic license

[greatbear]

People driving past La Casa must wonder if we either have 1) lots of people living in the house, or 2) are constantly throwing parties. Sadly, the seven vehicles (three trucks and four cars) belong to just the two of us. Add in the 30 foot trailer and parking at Mayhem Acres sometimes takes some planning. I also have to remember lots of license plate numbers. This is not so bad, but for some odd reason I always seem to have a mental block remembering the plate number of my Dodge Stratus. The rest? No problem. The Strat, as I call it, is my usual daily driver. Though it's 14 years old, it's never had any serious problems, is pretty economical if I keep my foot out of it, and the parts for it are cheaper than average. Jeff and I used it as our ride of choice when we would travel, since it's something he can easily drive (no stick shift like the MINI Cooper,, or as long as a bus like the Silverado, for example). Since Jeff recently bought a new car (a 2015 Subaru Forester 2.5i Premium), some of the wear and tear on the Stratus has been relieved. It's a nice, roomy and economical ride with some cool gadgetry like the Eyesight collision avoidance system that also acts as an adaptive cruise control and will even give you a gentle reminder if you are sitting at a light, it turns green and you don't immediately start moving. It senses the road around it with a pair of cameras on either side of the rear view mirror, can alert you if you veer from between the lines, there's an animal or object in the road ahead and even stop the car at speeds below 20mph and you might be distracted and a car stops ahead of you. There's also the (required for 2015 models) rear-view camera and lots of other cool tech to get the geek on. This is Jeff's first brand-new car after all these years, and, so far, he's loving it. The subject came up a while back about what to call the car, if anything. I keep calling mine The Strat, Jeff started calling it the Subie, then I started calling it the Cubaru. For kicks, I went to see if CUBARU was taken as a vanity plate, and it wasn't. And surprising, given how many people around play guitar, neither was STRAT. My original plates were fading and the rear plate had a hole in it and was buckled from being rear-ended many years ago. So...



I am far too lapsed to be considered a guitarist these days, maybe I should bone up on my playing to do my two-meaning plate justice. My finger joints and my damaged shoulder make that difficult. Practice might not make perfect, but at least I could fake it. Jeff, however, needs no practice in being a cub. :)

Comments

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

I have no complaints about the handling of this one, it tracks well and doesn't wander, and not too long ago it drove just fine through traffic circles and lots of stops and turns with the left hand tie rod completely disconnected. A car isn't supposed to do that.

Turns out Chrysler had problems with several models equipped with so-called "lubed for life" suspension components. Appears the supplier wasn't always generous with the grease. In my case, the left side was dry as a bone, yet never squeaked, rattled or wandered. It was a sunned stop heading into a parking spot with the wheels turned hard left that popped it apart. I narrowly missed hitting someone who drove around me as I was parking. When I fixed the car, and replaced both side tie rod ends, the right side was fine. Neither side had any means to periodically fill with grease. The replacements do. I also got replacement lower control arms (the ball joints are integral) just in case. My back self destructed before I could install those additional parts, and to this day they are still sitting in boxes in the garage, along with the timing belt, tensioner, idlers and water pump, which are about seven years past due for replacement.

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

Mom's car wasn't loose for wear as it had low miles, but as far as sharp handling, it wasn't, though I would have suspected by 2005, Chrysler had softened up the handling/ride to some extent.

While not bad in the overall scheme of things but when you drive something like a Mini or a Mazda P5, cars like the Strat will feel loosy goosy in comparison.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

By adding low profile tires compared to the 60-series stockers, and replacing the original shocks, those simple mods transformed the car. Not on par with the MINI, of course, but competitive to a present-day sport sedan. Stratuses (Strati?) are blessed with what is most likely the best suspension suspension design of ChryCo cars of the era, using high-mount double wishbones and coilover shocks in the front, and a multilink with coilover rear setup. The geometry is excellent, but sadly, the ride is tuned soft. A set of KYB shocked tightened the ride nicely without making it harsh. I had plans a while ago to replace the rear swaybar with a stiffer one to tune out some of the designed-in understeer, but that hasn't materialized (a bar is available from Addco). My original choice for low profile tires (Bridgestone Potenza RE960, 215/45-17) made for much improved handling, but those tires were very stiff. The sidewalls were very similar to runflats. Last year I put Continental Extreme Contact DWS one size up at 225/45-17 with softer sidewalls and it was like a dream by comparison. The car is surprisingly tossable through all the roundabouts and curves around here and it's comfortable enough to drive all day.

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

I had suspected you didn't leave the car well enough alone when it came to ride and handling. :-)

I have those same Conti's on the Mazda and love them, they were what was rec'd for my car by Discount Tire.