Originally posted by chongo:
Would one of the moderators please move this to the General board,
so that Zetetic can get some more responses.



No, please don't move it, because I'd rather not move the flames with it, as that tends to sway people's responses, and I would prefer to get input here and modify my post to correct the issues I'm seeing here. Thanks!


Sorry for the confusion peoples, when I said I'm "leaning in a direction," the comment was focused on leaning towards getting a used car rather than a another new one IF I was going to sell this car (a decision I'm very split on).

I also tried to emphasize that I know my hard driving has consequences. This is why I take meticulous care of my car, changing the mobil 1 every 3000 miles (it needs it, too), and trying to stay on top of other maintenance as well (hence me looking at replacing things even if a bit earlier than usual).

erb13 and 96mercury, awesome input, THANKS!

akrump47, thanks as well for your advice, though I have a question about the shocks - I'm not even sure they are what needs to be replaced. The symptom is whenever the tire falls out-of-contact with the road it seems to really thump when it comes back in contact with the road. Taking corners at higher speeds (like the 'tour was meant to!!) this has potentially nasty side effects (oversteer). Standard disclaimer, since you guys don't know me, I only do high(er) speed cornering when I know the terrain really well and I'm the only one that could get hurt. But we only need to talk about my driving habits to the point of, I like to drive hard and will continue to do so, because that's why I bought this car - imho if you don't like to carve up the corners at least a little bit, you might as well have bought a standard grocery getter! Anyway, back to the topic, I thought "shocks" because that's what (in my mind) presses the tire against the ground, so if things are a little loose back there and the ride seems rougher in general, I thought of shocks first (well, after tire psi). But if there is something else I should look at let me know!