What car? These threads are so rare here

Oh I grew up in Connecticut and can drive perfectly fine in white out conditions if required. Been through 3 winter and off-road driving schools so I can find traction in anything. The key is tires-I prefer good snow tires on all 4 wheels. The problem is i don't WANT snow tires. Louisville seems to be just on the edge of the snow belt-bad enough to MAYBE require snow tires but only a few times a year. My problem lies in having to drive north with no time to swap on my snows if I'm heading into inclement weather. My grandmother just turned 98, and my parent's generation aren't getting any younger. I expect to start getting calls within the next few years to head home for funerals more and more often. It'd be nice to be able to head out within the hour in a car with decent all seasons instead of waiting a day to put the proper tires on a tail heavy rear wheel driver that comes on boost quickly if you don't feather the throttle. Drifting on purpose=big fun. Drifting across 3 lanes because you hit the gas too hard in the rain with worn tires=time for new underwear. I'd imagine the same is true with good summer tires in the snow, and I can't budget that much underwear right now.

Hahaha. Doesn't your car have a manual boost controller? Can't you just crank it down? I'm all over you selling your car (especially out of necessity), but man, all it would take is an extra set of wheels with some cooper snows or something to throw next to the house under a tarp or in a shed.

At any rate, snow doesn't enter in to which car I should or shouldn't buy, unfun-ness, sludge and head gaskets do... any other opinions?

There's no sure way to check for sludge in a 9-5, but the best non-invasive indicator of a problem is the upper PCV hose leading from the valve cover to the separator on the back of the engine. Just pop the small plastic cover (there's only one) and look at the hose - if it has been neglected, the hose will very likely be rotted through on the top bend. Poor crankcase ventilation + neglected or non-synthetic oil (or both) + turbo = expensive.

Beyond that, you can pull the valve cover, or better yet, drain the oil and then take a looped wire coat hanger and scrape the inside of the pan, especially the corners, and inspect. If there's sludge on the hanger, there's probably more on the oil pump pickup (which is very fine on these cars; speculation is it is intentionally so to protect the fragile oil pump), and either a spectacular failure or dropping the oil pan to clean is in your future.

tuna55 wrote: Hahaha. Doesn't your car have a manual boost controller? Can't you just crank it down?

Wheres the fun in that? Its 11 hours to get home and you want me to make it SLOWER???

tuna55 wrote: all it would take is an extra set of wheels with some cooper snows or something to throw next to the house under a tarp or in a shed.

Until I get a new house all I have is a basement storage unit for my apartment. Changing tires in the parking lot is frowned upon, and I wouldn't do that in snow anyway.

Besides, I'm getting car-bored not being able to finish this thing.