OK, so it's not 100% official, but pretty darn close. I spent the last few hours cleaning and servicing my 1992 Buick Century, which has been sitting on my lawn since last spring except for the occasional drive to the garbage dump...By cleaning I mean getting rid of all the trash that had accumulated inside last winter that I was too lazy to clean out until now...

Anyway, after replacing a few problematic parts and giving it its yearly oil change it seems to run OK, considering it's got 190,000 miles...

So it's snowing out right now (wet, sloppy stuff) and the Maxima has bald summer tires (to be replaced in the spring), so I doubt it's going anywhere once the snow starts accumulating or it drops below freezing. I will be leaving for Thanksgiving for a week and a half (hitching a ride) on Friday and I'm sure there will be snow on the ground when I get back.

I sure will miss driving it (as I do every winter), especially since I acquired some (a lot) of new toys for it last weekend (thread w/ pics posted when I have time). Oh, well...I've got a snowmobile to get my speed fix in the winter, so I say...Let it snow!

 

see your avatar pic?
that's what you need for the snow, not some boring **** snowmobile

 

1) Snowmobiles are a hell of a lot of fun...try jumping a car like a sled...
2) Got $25 grand to lend me for an STi?

I bought the Buick last year for $150, so unless you want to sell me your Subaru for the same price, I'm stuck with teh Byooee.

Don't worry tho...the Maxima is getting a little brother in the spring...LS2 GTO

 

1. see your avatar
2. $25? sure. but any subie can be made into an STi

just pick up a cheapo subie, and sell the bruick.

 

would if I could find a cheap Subie, 404 error: beater Subie not found...

I will look for one when I go downstate for Thanksgiving.

Winter beater synopsis: bought 87 Tercel 4x4, sold it next season when I bought Cherokee 4.0L 5-speed, wrecked Jeep, bought 2 Buicks for $250 next season (last year), bush-bombed one and tried to kill the other over the course of the winter, looked for something better this year but nothing found (very surprising), Century still runs, so that's what I'm driving...any questions?

 

you haven't looked hard enough
I've had an assortment of winter beaters, I'm presuming this subie to be the second best for now.
my 86 GL10 was the best. True 4wd, turbo, fully loaded and was free.

 

Got any leads?

 

 

not right now, last one I bought

 

Alright, alright...Back to topic:

If anyone has anything relevant to say, perhaps about putting their Maxima into storage for the winter, or anything about storage techniques, let's hear it. Mine gets its fall wash, claybarring, and 2-stage rotobuff with Meguire's cleaner wax and NXT finishing wax. Most years I will throw the stock 15's back on over the winter so the summer tires don't develop flat spots, but this year I'm not going to worry about it since the tires are shot and getting replaced in the spring.

Haven't cleaned the interior yet, but I do that too...Then I cover it with its car cover and I see it again in late March or early April, although this year I will be discarding my 200K VG M/T and replacing it with a low-miles VE VLSD 5-speed, probably sometime around January. (Oops, just gave away one of my new items I speak of elsewhere.)

 

I garage my Maxima pretty much all winter. I just go out and start it up maybe once every two weeks and let it run for 15 minutes or so. I top off the fluid levels and check oil, etc.

I have studded snow tires for it, but I only like to use those when it is icy out. I can mount them myself, so I usually wait until the night before it actually snows if I need to drive it.

My winter beater is a 94 GMC Diesel 4x4, but I can't afford snow tires for it. Our other rig is a QX4, which also has a set of studded snow tires.

All of you bozos saying "you have a 4x4, you don't need snow tires" need to understand that I live on a steep hill. In fact, I am about 2 miles away from my work and I am probably 3000-400 feet higher in elevation. The entire town I live on is built on a hill. In Oregon, they do not use salt on the roads, so if it is very cold and snows, it just packs down to a nice ice skating rink.

 

you mean you just pull the tires and put the snow tires on the same rims when needed? or you have extra rims with the tires already on them? 'mount' makes me think the former..

 

Bro you do have to buy air freshner too though...both times I've been in your car there's a nasty musk

 

Don't like my cologne, eh?

 

I was gonna say that, but then I realized that:
a. you don't live in the flatlands called chicago
b. a 4x4 with lousy tires is WORSE than a RWD with good tires.

of course the skinnier the tire the better it is in the snow (there is the point of diminishing returns, so don't go mounting up 4 donuts on your cars people!)

of course for the last 4 years I've have VEs in the winter, this year being the first without

 

I have the tires already on a set of steelies. They came with the car when I bought it. I just swap wheels.

For my QX4, I found a set of alloy wheels on CL for $100 that had good tires. I sold the tires to a coworker for $60 (? maybe it was $40) and so they were almost free and I had studded tires mounted on those.

The local tire shop, Les Schwab, will swap them over for free and count it as a "rotation."

If you look at the pictures, in the background you can see how the town slopes downward. Because they don't use salt, in the second pic you can see how it just "packs down like an ice rink."

 

Wish they didnt use salt here, maybe more cars would look decent unless of course they crash instead

 

It's sunny and the roads are dry FTM...I'm leaving town in a few hours for Thanksgiving break and figure I'll give the Max one last run (on the road and thru the car wash) before I go...I can't wait to move south!

 

Come on down to TN..

 

I'd rather nevada...

 

Any reason why? If it's anything Carson City or North you'll get snow too

I lived in Reno for a while...

 

nah, I'd stay further south.

FYI:
Chicago : 41.95394
Reno : 39.68620
Vegas: 36.19125
Memphis: 35.39590
Nashville: 36.14604
(latitudes)