Winter Beater Picture Thread

In reply to Zachary :

That's cool!

Winter only car for the last 6 years of it's life. Succumbed to iron oxide disease in 2016 at 464,000 miles. 

2018 Challenge Car with studded tires 

Pulling a snowblower

Knurled. said:

Professor_Brap said:

In reply to Knurled. :

My 1k (5 years 120k ago) beater has never left me stranded. 

Would it pass emissions?  The floor for cars that do seems to be about $2k.

Yes it would, no cel, would pass a tail pupe emissions, all lights work and no holes in body. Mind you car even has 314k on it. 

Not the best for outright traction but manual transmission, heated seats, and a good heater! Snow/ice is great at hiding the ruined clear coat. 

Knurled. said:

I'm also not rich enough to buy a new $2k beater every year just to throw it away, and a "beater" is something that isn't gonna last very long.

No no no beater is something that you don't care about very much.  Cheap to buy, cheap to maintain, if it gets scratches, dents, etc. no big deal.

I paid 3k for my last car and drove it 7 years before selling it (and yes we have emissions here).  That's beater status IMO.

This was my last beater/daily/whatever car.  I sold it in 2019.  It hasn't snowed since this picture was taken in 2018 (and I hope it doesn't because my Veloster has summer tires).

2011 Colorado LT 2wd Auto 2.9L

Mods: 2/3 drop, K&N air filter

Winter Mods: Winter tires on the rear, weight in the box

I will have to update this later with a recent picture of it...

Hardly a beater, but my FR-S gets driven year round and in all conditions. Bone stock aside from a set of Rally Armor mud flaps and Blizzaks for the winter. Around 6-8" of fresh snow seems to be the limit before ground clearance becomes a major limitation, but it hasn't left me stranded yet. And I can guarantee I'm having more fun than anyone else on the road! No pics handy at the moment.

My POS: 2006 Audi A4 Quattro w/ manual. I got it for $5,800 shipped from Florida with 92,000 miles on it. So far, it's been very cheap to own with only a couple hundred in repair parts over two years. Only mods are a used S4 front swaybar ($45) , a used RS4 rear swaybar ($50), and VW Detroit wheels w/ Michelin snow tires. The thing is literally unstoppable in the snow. 

New 1k winter beater! 274k miles, runs drive great, but most important are the heated seats and high pressure turbo! 1999 v70 T5

My 2007 Civic Si in winter mode. When I bought it with 180k miles it came with the heaviest steel universal wheels and Blizzacks. Hated how it drove with such heavy wheels so switched to a set of TL wheels I got for $150.

In reply to westsidetalon :

Dont you want to manual swap it? I have what you need

Getting closer to beater status is 2004 Acura TSX - 6spd.

Also our 1996 Toyota Tercel - 5spd, DOHC

It's the year around daily.

The winter car looks like the every other day car with different wheels and tires. A well used 2014 Buick on 16 inch American Racing wheels and Firestone Winterforce tires.  I throw in a snow brush, extra flannel, folding shovel, and hand warmers.

Very serious Kentucky winter duty. My Mustang convertible got driven all winter one year.

ProDarwin said:

Knurled. said:

I'm also not rich enough to buy a new $2k beater every year just to throw it away, and a "beater" is something that isn't gonna last very long.

No no no beater is something that you don't care about very much.  Cheap to buy, cheap to maintain, if it gets scratches, dents, etc. no big deal.

Exactly! I only call mine a beater because it's got rough paint and no carpet. Runs well(enough) and is mechanically sound(no salt in Cali) but I'm not afraid to back into a snowbank or get rock chips on the highway.

2004 Volvo XC70 is my daily/work/winter beater. Bought it for $600 off of a co-worker, it has 192000 miles on it and everything works on it except AWD. Yup, my winter car's AWD doesn't work but it's still great in the snow with snow tires on all four corners. I might even not bother to try to fix it. It has the warmest seat heaters I've ever had and the heat is warm very quickly. 
My other work/winter beaters have been a 2006 Sonata with 185k that my daughter still drives, 1994 Camry with 240k that ran great when I sold it, and a bunch of other similar stories. 

In reply to clutchsmoke :

The TL wheels look great IMO. 

Run_Away said:

Picture from Thursday. '04 Sentra with VQ35 swap, stock gearset and helical LSD in a Maxima housing. Heated seats, remote start, hankook winter's.

Actually not the greatest car in winter, too much weight and torque for the 205s I think.

I didn't know that was possible (not that I necessarily would). What's it like to drive in good weather?

It was 70 today.  The A/c works great! 

2003 X5 manual transmission.  Has new Sumitomo ice edge tires.  200k miles.  Still runs great.

Also run 2013 TL 6 speed manual  awd new nokian snows.