JustinT

Hey guys! If you have 10 min to kill, continue to read.
I picked up my car today. I was scheduled to pick it up at 10:00 AM. When I get there, they ask me if I really wanted the winter tires...(I called in yesterday and talked with the service manager and told him to install a set of winter tires on the car)..."Yeah! I really do!". "Ohh! Then it's not ready! You'll have to come back later in the afternoon to pick it up." They call me at 3:00 PM to go and pick up my car. When I get there, my sales person tells me that one of the 17" Al rims has a pin hole and leaks, so they took the winter wheels off. They are gonna get the rim exchanged on Monday...Until then, all I can do is to drive on summer tires. Since the dealership is three blocks away, I say OK, I'll take the car home like that. On my way home, all good!. Roads wet, but no problems. I get more courage and drive around. Not bad! I get a little bit of taste of my new car. I call my gf and tell her I'm coming over to show off. As soon as I hang up it starts to snow really bad. I get in front of her house and I realize I'd better get my *** home ASAP. On my way home I would have had to go up Spadina Rd by Casa Loma! I realize I'm not going to make it up the hill! I turn around and decide to take Bathurst. While I drive around on Dupont, I realize that this car is a sled! Anything you try to control the car is not working. I mean the traction control was working, ABS was working, but it did not help at all!...I get to Bathurst St and I start driving North. Just before Davenport, when the grade became more accentuated, I come to my senses and pull over, put my four-ways and call CAA to send a flat bed to get me home! After about one hour, a regular tow truck shows up! Well, I'm not going to let him scratch my new car. I tell him to drive behind me and if I cannot make it, then we'll tow it. Guess what?! At St Clair, he runs into me from behind!!! I could not believe this! I pull over, look at my car, see some hairscratches marks on my bumper from his bumper. Nothing broken, nothing bent though! What am I gonna do in the middle of the road? I keep driving home, with the CAA truck behind me. I get home, he keeps apologizing for running into me, pulls a digital camera and takes a snapshot of my rear bumper. I'ts night, I can't really see, I get his tow truck # and then he leaves. I'll se in the morning if there is more than those scratches. If there are, I'll call CAA and tell them the whole story and then take it in to get it fixed! Also I'll get a set of winter tires on Monday for sure! What a night! Hope this is not a sign of things to come!...

BlueFrenzy

Oh we feel your pain! I use to live in Downtown Toronto and and know exactly how those roads are in the winter. In the summer, I use to barrel down the incline on Spadina on my rollerblades!

Don't tell me that the car is Silver. Rotten42 is just going to add you to his list of cursed silvers.

Aww man, you should have just waited for the dealer to get you the proper rims. But I guess hindsight is 20/20, eh?

BrilliantBlackEight

Hey Justin, it could have been worse, try and see it as a positive. If its any comfort I almost got into a nasty accident last night myself WITH winter tires on!

I was in a strip mall parking lot and it had been mild all night and then snowed quite heavily (almost 5 centimeters) and then got cold so the parking lot was litteraly a skating rink. SO i 'm doing about 20KM/h going down a little grade to pull off into the main road and the car just starts sliding like crazy, like a curling rock if you will.

So I have my foot down on the brake, the ABS is going nuts, and still nothing I'm sliding down the hill just as fast, I notice a Jeep Grand Cherokee turning left into the mall parking lot, and I'm going to T-bone it. I decide to pull the handbrake to try and get the car to turn, and all of a sudden the brake pedal almost goes to the floor, but the car starts to turn away from the Jeep.

Anyway long story short, if this can happen with dedicated winter tires, be thankful that nothing worse happened to you last night. I know it sucks that you got scuffed up, but it could have been much worse. :o

Take it easy.

BB8

Amur_

Is this the part where I proudly point out that I drove to Peterborough and back yesterday in my RX-7 on all-season radials that are in their 3rd year, including driving on the snow-covered streets of Aurora, and it was smooth sailing the whole way? :D


Sorry about your 8, Justin. It's disappointing that the car does so poorly in snow on stock rubber.

rotten42

good for you skippy...I'm sure they all feel better now!

Murray16

at keast CAA will cover any of the damages. They put A real bad ding in my Celica once when they were hooking it up for a tow. They covered it despite the driver swearing innocence. Oh well. Enjoy your new car.

RedX8

The first day I got my 8 back in December I couldn't wait to drive it. I drove to Hamilton to show it off to a friend and while we were having coffee it started to snow. I didn't think it was a big deal but when I tried to move the car in about 2-3 cm of snow it was super slick. The whole way back to Mississauga on the QEW was the most intense drive of my life! I was going 65km/h and changing lanes was like russian roulette! When I finally got off the highway at hurontario I thought I was going to bag the car on the exit ramp. The ABS was going nuts and I was barely going 20km/h!!!

When I finally got on hurontario I thought that I better try some rough acceleration tests to see how slow I'm going. It took me just over 30 seconds to go from 0-60 km/h! Soccer mom's in their mini vans were blowing by me!!!

After I got home I needed a serious drink to calm my nerves. I promptly got winter tires on steel 17s the next morning.

Anyone who says they can drive a stock 8 in the snow is a liar.

My sympathy goes out to you and your bad luck. Getting hit by the tow truck who is supposed to help you out is a riddiculous situation. I hope it works out for you.

Battousai

Glad you made it home safe without anything worse happening.

Yeah that was some crazy snow yesterday evening, was coming along Steeles to go up Jane around 6:30-6:45p, and it was perfectly clear up to Jane, then as I got to Hwy 7 bam! white out all the way home to Maple and it stayed like that for the next hour or so.

I don't drive an 8 yet, just my Protege, but got snow tires on it (Micheline Alpines) so didn't have any issues.

Amur_

Consider it a rotary family noogie. Now go spank your inner moppet.

MrJynx

When it snows and I have my 8 out I get scared. Literally, my legs start to shake and I freak out.. Everybody said it to me, so now it's my turn let this be a lesson. Don't F*ck with the snow with the stock tires on

But that's really shitty CAA hit you!! And for some reason it's always fine downtown toronto, but when i get to the airport area it's all messed up! Always!!


MrJynx

khtm

What colour is your 8?

Pete

I've had my fair share of bad luck this winter .... about 6000 dollars worth . Good luck with that justint

ÜberJumper

I'm glad my Canada has 20 degree weather and no snow.

Pete

BAN ÜberJumper !

JustinT

Hey guys! Thank you and appreciate your support and encouragements. An update to my saga: the car is fine, no damages at all! I was lucky in the end...Yesterday I drove on stock tires without any problems. Starting from today though, I am riding on Pirelli 240 on some really nice 17" AL rims that match perfectly with the color of the car.
I have another question for you: how did people react when they saw you driving the RX8? My coleagues said that with this purchase I jumped head first into midlife crissis! I guess they are only gelous they are not driving such a nice car...

rotten42

Being 40 with kids I got the MLC shots too.....I just told them if it was a real MLC I would have a young blonde with duel airbags in the front passenger seat.....I also tell them that I did the family thing and bought a 4 door. :D

BrilliantBlackEight

Hahahaha

LMAO @ "I just told them if it was a real MLC I would have a young blonde with duel airbags in the front passenger seat....."

I love it!

ÜberJumper

Well, I'm just having my mid life crisis early I guess. Cancer at 30 does that to you :-)