Brady

Black LGT Sedan pulling into Firestone parking lot on Jackson in St. Paul at 4:00 pm today. Missed you by about a minute as I had just left after getting tires for my friend's car and my buddy manages the store. Anyone?

Adding a review for the Bridgestone Potenza G 009 since it might be useful to the 2.5i folks. #1) Bridgestone Potenza G 009, 215/60/16 (for a 2002 Altima), All Season tire, Paid $79 a tire with free mounting and balancing. Brand new ... so updates to come. #2) Minneapolis, MN #3) These will be used on a daily driver/commuter #4) Tires will see 70-80% HWY miles. Currently drives about 30,000 miles a year. Expected to handle Rain well and do well in some snow. #5) Previous tire was Continental ContiTouringContact IIRC. Previous size was 205/65/16. Wanted to give her a little more contact patch and diameter was VERY similar. #6) I have no personal experience yet. Girl called to thank me because they were GREAT compared to the old tires. Just got them today, but more to follow. Update: I got a deal on these through a buddy for a lady friend, and then about a month later hooked up a co-worker with the same deal. Both love the G-009 tires. The woman has thanked me a few times and commented that they're the best tires she's ever had (and she's not into cars). My coworker also has commented that they've been great in the snow and in the wet. I amazingly still haven't driven the girl's car, so STILL no first hand account of the tire.

I keep forgetting to update this thread with one more reason I love my steering wheel controls ... It's winter ... So now that I'm wearing gloves in the car again, this is MUCH easier to use to control the volume.

I know ... I'm saying I get that sound in my car now (current temp at lunch: 17*) and I used to get the same sound in my RS when it was still colder (below 0*) while in turns. Same sound, same weather conditions, only difference was I needed a turn in the RS to make the diff "work" I know which sound you're talking about ... been getting it the last couple days with this weather, and I'm saying I got the same sound under similar but slightly different conditions in my RS.

My guess is also rear diff. I used to occasionally happen in my '02 RS under hard acceleration while turning in very cold weather. Sounds identical in my LGT as it did in the RS. I think it also goes away after the car warms up, so I'm guessing just the diff not reacting as well while the fluids are all still a little cold.

I'm going to reiterate this sentiment ... there's too much discussion going on in this thread. This thread won't be as useful if there are a bunch of "static" posts. Please try to update old posts instead of making new posts for updates. Just hoping to make this as useful as possible.

Bunch of sightings lately: Red Outack XT going from 394 west-bound to Hwy 100 Southbound on Monday (10/30) night around 10:30 pm or so. ABP Sedan heading west-bound on Hwy 7 in front of Knowlwood on Halloween at about 9:00 pm. Silver Outback 3.0R Sedan in the parking lot in front of what used be Mervyn's of Southdale last night (11/4) at about 8:00 pm. And I met the driver of the white sedan in my parking garage. He just moved here, and he's checked out the site a few times, said he bought stuff here too, but says he has not yet joined.

#1) Bridgestone Blizzak LM-25 215/45/17 on stock wheels - Winter tires - price paid ... well, I got the buddy deal. $580 out the door with mounting, balancing, and road hazard protection. 34,900 miles at time of mounting. 41,800 miles when swapped out for summer tires (RE050A PP in 225/45/17 - see post #87 3/31/07) 53,200 miles when mounted on Rota Tarmac I rims for winter #2) Minneapolis, MN #3) Standard city driving, Commuting, Some aggressive leisure driving. #4) Probably 50/50 highway/city driving #5) Formerly running stock RE92s (and updated after running RE050A PP for a summer) #6) This is an early review as I just got these 2 days ago and put about 100 miles on them. The weather has been in the 40's and 50's so the tires aren't in their element yet. The RE92s were getting really loud at 35,000 miles, so the improvement in road noise was immediately welcome. As for handling - braking, cornering, ride comfort, etc ... The biggest thing I notice is the softer sidewall than the RE92. Under harder cornering, the car seems to wobble a little bit with more understeer upon initiating a turn and a slight tendency toward oversteer when easing out of the turn. Braking seems to be similar to the worn RE92's. Maybe a little less grip, but hard to judge and it's still a close call. I'm looking forward to trying these tires in colder weather and wetter conditions where they should begin to shine. I'll update this review as those opportunities come. Ok, I'm up to 1,200 miles on these shoes and my opinions have changed a bit. These tires are awesome so far. They're better than the RE92s for sure, and the issues I was running into at first with what I felt was a softer sidewall I think turned out to be more from the unusually warm (50's) weather I was experiencing. In cooler conditions (20's, 30's and 40's) these tires don't seem so mushy. Also, turn in seems to be just fine ... it took a couple days is all to made adjustments from the old rubber. If anything, turn in has been improved and it takes less input from the wheel to point the car where I want it. Funny how we adapt and don't realize just how much we change our driving style over time to accomodate for things like that. Currently, my only complaint is that while the tires are very competent, they don't give much in the way of feedback, so while they seem to hold very well in the wet, they don't necessarily inspire confidence. On the other hand, it could be that I haven't pushed them yet, but I'll worry about that later. Update: now at about 2500 miles. Drove in light snow yesterday and tried to get a feel for the limits of the tires in light snow yesterday. In the open parking lot ... I couldn't shake the car loose. I'm looking at about a half inch of wet snow and I just couldn't get them to break away. Plenty more miles in the dry too and they stick very well. Cornering is solid and I still haven't pushed them to the limit at all, but regardless, the limit is a bit higher than I'm comfortable finding. Very good in the rain. While cornering seems solid, I still have some small questions on braking performance. I made a "panick" stop the other day, and they didn't seem to bite that well, but it's only one example so far and can't say the tires have performed poorly in any other instance. It could have just as easily been that the ABS didn't react as well to that situation. 6,000 mile Update: Still love the Blizzak. My new complaint on these tires is that they stick so well on wet, snow, slush, etc. that when I actually encounter real Ice, it freaks me out that they aren't sticking anymore. These tires have been awesome through the winter and the couple real snows we received in Minneapolis. Tires are plenty quiet, ride nicely, handle very well (still don't feel comfortable finding their limit. It has eluded me for the last 5 months. I'm starting to think that with the warmer temperatures lately, it's time to start looking into my summer rubber. I still think I'm going to go with the RE050A PP (in 225/45/17 guise). Just need to figure out where I'm going to store the winter rubber. I hope dad is feeling generous with garage space. 7,000 mile update: Just installed these on 11/9/07 again for a new winter, now from a cold Minnesota winter to a new Colorado winter where these will see plenty of duty driving up to the mountains for skiing on the weekends. They sure do feel mushy compared to the RE050A PP's, but ride is compliant, noise is minimal, and handling is adequate for dry. I need to take them back to be rebalanced, but otherwise, I'm looking forward to a new season.

my guess would just be color balancing. It appears the pic was taken by the light of the dome light, which is an incandescent bulb and would yield a yellow cast, but if the camera adjusts the color for white balancing (or if Phoenix did it) then the shift would be blue in nature and and the white gauges would look blue. Or ... it could just be that our eyes adjust for a slightly blue cast anyway and we see the guages as white.

HELLO NEIGHBOR! Ok, this was crazy ... Spotted ... SWP LGT Sedan Fully Debadged in my Parking Garage. Thinking it must be a new addition, because it's the first time I've seen it and there's no way I could have missed it before. Minnetonka Blvd & Joppa Lane Anyone know who this is? Seems to my memory that SWP is the only color we haven't seen at the meets.

Did I see Bobbobbins leaving Chili's in Bloomington/Edina on Saturday night (10/15)? Black OBXT with darker tint.

Carmel on San Carlos and 5th. I was in the silver S2000 and waved ... you looked confused. GRP Outback XT Wagon. This was on Saturday the 7th at about 9:30 am.

Saw a Black LGT Sedan on I35 northbound near Northfield @ about 8:00 am on Monday morning (9/11). I was in a company car, so you wouldn't have seen me. Anyone?

Don't say anything about the wheel. There's a good chance they won't know the difference anyway. Do the controls work properly? Horn? Did you try putting the old wheel back for comparison?

I give ... I need to buy vampire taps! Re-did the wiring about 2 weeks ago and had a miss on the volume on the way to work again today. I think it's just that I used 18 ga. wire. Always wished I had the 16, which would probably hold better, but the 18 just keeps working out! Oh well - at least I'm really good at it now!

Don't they close at 6:00 on Sunday? What were you doing there at 8:30?

Black LGT Sedan in Minnetonka Best Buy parking lot today about 2:40 pm. Guy in a red shirt driving. Didn't seem to notice me.

I love that dealership, I just hate the Sales Manager! Best Service department in the cities though, in my opinion. The Service Manager (Jeff) is Top Notch, and their Subaru Master Tech Bob is a great guy. Can't say enough good things about them.

ABP Sedan on Bush Lake Road last night at about 5:20. I thought I saw a wave! Wasn't Pillboy, but don't know who it would have been.

And here I was hoping to have my grille done before the next meet. I'll just have to bring the work in progress.

I live in western burbs - Woodbury. Tomorrow (Sat. 7/15). 3:00 pm. No more complaining. Sounds like Rich, Kimmi, Twisted and MR. T are in so far. Looking forward to seeing anyone else who shows.

You mean the last meet than didn't happen! This weekend will be hot, but the last meet was COLD! 50 degrees in June. Maybe we should do it late at night to avoid the heat, and then we could line up for some hot late night street racing action. Even better - we can race down 1st Ave. in Minneapolis when everyone is running from bar to bar! Ok, BW3 during the day is good too.

I don't care, give me a time and place and I'll be there if I don't have a date (yes, i have another prospect in the works). If I can't make it, I'll call Mark or Rich if they're going.

So is there a meet this weekend or what?

I still say easy solution to that one. Just wire them in below the dash.