OT: Talking Cars Tuesday - your questions!
Based on our advice thread from last week we've got lots of knowledgeable car folks on the board here. Do you have car-related questions? These could be things from "What's a car" to "We're having another kid and thinking of a bigger vehicle, anyone on the board drive X/Y/ or Z?" or things like "What kind of mileage do drivers of X get in the real world?" or "Do i need to use premium?"
I can't promise you'll get good answers, I can't promise the answers will be funny, but maybe we'll get a few of both?
Mine's a 2015 with 28K miles. No problems so far (except the drivers window 1-touch doesn't always work right). I had a 2010 CC that I put 107K miles on in 4.5 years, all it needed were tires, wipers and bulbs.
YMMV.
We're in the market for a second car to be used by the family and our 16 year old son. We already have a GTI for fun driving. We need something that's 4WD, decent gas mileage, good space in the rear for cargo (probably a crossover), and reasonably priced. We currently have a BMW X3 (2013) so we'll likely be trading down. I don't love the idea of my son driving a BMW around town -- seems a little flashy. Plus the warranty runs out next year and I don't want to pay BMW service prices.
So far, I like the Subaru Crosstrek. My son likes the Ford Escape (with all sorts of sporty accoutrements), and my husband has his eye on the Volkswagen Golf All Track, which comes out in the fall.
Any thoughts?
Also, ignore the Crosstrek. Save some money now (and at the pump) and just get an Impreza over that. It's the same damn car, except the Crosstrek costs more and has 2" of black plastic around the wheels to make it look butch.
Crosstrek: 
Impreza:
Same with the All Track - 2" of black plastic!
That said... look at the Golf Wagon for sure, the escape is a good vehicle, and as I mentioned above the Mazda CX-5 should be on your list for sure.
4WD (or AWD) for snow. I insist on having at least one car with it.
You'll be happier. is the GTI not good enough in the snow for you? When we got the Superbowl Sunday Storm a few years ago I dug out of my street parking spot on Tuesday, drove to work, and didn't use a shovel the rest of the winter. Our street didn't get plowed until Thursday (Thanks Rahm!)
We used to have a Jetta TDI wagon before the GTI and it was frightening in the snow. Slipped around like a wet seal. So just assumed the GTI would be similar. Thanks for the tip on winter tires.
I advocate for winter tires for those who want better snow traction, but I'm still on the factory all-seasons, nad have been through the winter.
OK, how about a DIY question. I want to do a really good wax job on my Mustang, really the works, starting from the bottom up with a clay bar. The car is ten years old now and needs it badly. But right now, the paint job has these tiny rusty pinholes in it. Mostly on forward-facing parts of the car - small road debris, probably. What's the best way to deal with these pinholes? I don't want to just paint over rust, but rust removal techniques you find online are more for entire rusty panels.
Definitely pinholes. I don't want to do anything, except a basic wash, without taking care of them first.
i have traded my jetta tdi for some equipment and with the kids getting bigger and the newer passats getting legit high 40's-50 mpg. 2 questions:
1. how do i maintain the turbo on that TDI? i've seen some reports that they can go bad.
2. one hold up is that we make bio-diesel on the farm and the newer TDI's are allegedly only good for B20 or so. how bad could it be if i go B100, or maybe even B75? my reading says that the new engines will make my bio-diesel into varnish.
answer to 1.
Don't do neutral drops at WOT. But seriously just change the oil every 5k miles (I know 5k is about 50% too often but it certainly can't hurt and turbos like oil). Do the scheduled maintainence at a dealer, and drive it like you care about it. If your turbo decides to grenade it's likely a manufacturing flaw and there's nothing you could've done to prevent it. However likelyhood of that happening is in the fractions of a percent before 150k miles and in the low signle digits after 150k miles.
answer to 2. don't put anything into the car that the car wasn't made to handle. Putting an unregulated fuel into it is a great way to screw up the engine, even if you made B20. Fill it up with stuff that's controlled with 6 sigma processes because that's what it was designed to accept.
i will say in my defense re: biodiesel that i've been making it for close to a decade and i have yet to have a problem, and that covers 2 trucks, 2 cars, and a tractor during that time. fyi, mileage is better with bio too.