And doesn't he make that car look good!!

 

I take it he did not have snow tires installed or that would've been easy to drive through.

 

Snow tires are useless when the engine or other driveline component e morto.

 

oops! Deleted duplicate post.

 

You can also get grounded in a sports car when out in the snow, snow piles up under, wheels not in contact anymore.

My experience with my Corvette on its Good Years just driving up my drive way was not possible.

I doubt he'd of gotten that far without all seasons or snow tires.

 

Way back in 1965, I was a ski bum in Vermont and drove my '60 Vette without snow tires and never got stuck. Skinny 6.70-15 whitewall bias-ply Firestone 500 tires and a 4-speed with Positraction. But I never drove during a snow storm and the roads were always plowed or packed. I also never came to a complete stop while going uphill, as I knew that would be the end and I'd have to turn around and go downhill. And I always took it slow around curves ... after my first spinout.

 

Several years ago, while living in Northern Virginia, I owned a Nissan XTerra. I was taking care of some friends' dogs while they were out of state, and we got hit by a huge snowstorm that basically shut down the entire region. Knowing I had to get to my friends' house to take care of their dogs, I set out in snow that was at least two feet deep. No real problems, except for an interesting effect of a pure white background on how one perceives things. I was turning out of a shopping center on a side street, and aiming my Xterra between two stop signs, one on each side of the lane of traffic. Funny thing - with no background for perspective, it is hard to distinguish whether one is traveling perpendicular to the stop signs, or at a slight angle. In my case, it was the latter, and I wound up driving off the side of the road and getting high-sided, with the Xterra teetering on a small berm, no tires touching the actual ground. I was lucky enough to have a chap in a big pickup truck with a winch come along a few minutes later, and he pulled me out without any problems.

. . . except when I noticed his license plate. It read "California". I felt really dumb that day.

 

I'm thinking of getting an XK some time next year. Fitting golf clubs in the truck is important, passenger seating not so important.

 

Absolutely it's for insurance (and probably import, though not something I know about). Also, from my time in both 'vettes and the Cadillac XLR I quickly decided that for me the lack of an area behind the front seats is a dealbreaker (I use my XKR as a daily driver).
I find my convertible works fine as a "3-person" car-- the rear passenger essentially sits sideways, with their legs in the footwell on the opposite side of where they're sitting. I've been back there for 40-mile top down rides and it's fine. (only problem is you've got to remove the wind deflector...)

 

I'm just imagining being stuck in one of the cabs back there thinking "who's the F***ING A-HOLE IN THE MASERATI??... who's posing for a f***ing picture??"
And you know the dude in the black stretch is out of control.

 

I had always heard that the small back seats are for "insurance" rates. It makes sense, right? That the small back seats are there to lower insurance rates?

Sorry, but this is a very, very, widespread myth. Here's an article from a journalist and industry insider debunking the "insurance rate" reasoning:

https://www.autotrader.com/car-news/...surance-266842

So, if not for fooling insurance companies, why are the small backseats there? For practicality, storage, and because people don't want to be limited by things. There are more people who just simply wouldn't buy a car with only two seats (because it limits them) than there are people who will walk away from a purchase just because the seats are there: especially in the luxury grand touring segment. It's about selling more cars, not helping the customers with insurance rates. If you have very small seats, they are still there in a pinch or for kids. It's a great area to store bags, etc. But fooling the major insurance corporations by tricking them to give lower insurance rates...that's not happening.

I expect to take flak on this post because this is one of the big whoppers in the car world. I've heard this rumor far and wide.

Cheers and happy motoring,

Peter

 

Hey I'm always up for learning something new.
Trying to remember where I heard it and it was like 30 years ago when a friend had some god-awful Subaru.. it was a sort-of small pickup truck that had, if I remember correctly, permanent plastic seats with seatbelts, rear-facing, in the bed of the thing. Swear to God. something like that. And I was told it was to make it a four-seater, something like that, for cost and insurance purposes. But that was a looong time ago and I'm always happy to be wrong about things like this.
I'd only add that I don't think anyone who mentions insurance as a factor thinks about "fooling" insurance companies for one second. Loopholes are a work-around, a way of exploiting a regulation, which is a very different thing. Where I live you'll see a lot of super-nice, large-acreage homes with neat rows of douglas fir trees. There's an amount of trees that qualifies the land as a Christmas tree farm, and hence that land is agriculture use and is taxed and regulated accordingly. No one from the state or the IRS is "fooled" for one minute that these guys are going to chuck it all and become Christmas tree farmers. It's more a "rules are rules" thing. (Same thing I always heard about all the multi-million dollar homes in Ranch Santa Fe, CA, and their 25-tree "orange groves...")

 

FOUND IT!
Re my post above, here's a link to the (IMHO) Truly Awful Subaru BRAT.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaru_BRAT
Specifically, this:Jumpseats

The USA and Canada's version also had carpeting and welded-in rear-facing jumpseats in the cargo area. These were a tariff-avoidance ploy,[3]
[4]
[5] with the plastic seats in the cargo bed allowing Subaru to classify the BRAT as a passenger car - charged only a 2.5%, compared to 25% tariff on light trucks due to Chicken tax. They were discontinued after the 1985 model year.

(and if you go to the link, click through to the "chicken tax" link. It's fascinating)
Wondering if the tariff issue is the same motivator with our "backseats?"

 

Haha. I was just going to respond It was a Brat. My friend had one in high school They weren't that awful, it was fun actually. And I can probably assume correctly that those extra seats in the bed did NOT lower insurance premiums. It was pretty dangerous back there.

 

Besides... why are we all obsessing about a back seat?? At least we get a PASSENGER SEAT....
https://www.freep.com/story/money/ca...ats/100370324/

 

No passenger seat in one of my Porsche's, more cargo space that way.

 

If you like the looks of the XK, which does not have Real rear seats, then buy a Aston Martin Rapide four door with rear passenger seats.

LIke mentioned in other replys..........the area behind the drives/passenger seats is just for storage. I never ever thought about putting myself back there for obvious reasons.........ain't large enough for humans, just storage.

SL550's used to have a storage area behind the front seats for storage, but after about 2013 that area disappeared. Not a plus for Mercedes.

Or if you need rear seats buy a CL550 (last yr 2014) or a S550 coupe, both of which have back seats that can be occupied. I sat in the rear of my CL550 once, and once was enough. I can put a Pakayak kayak back there though, so it has some room back there.

Real sport cars do NOT have rear seats. If your friends want to come along......have 'em follow you in their car.

Or buy a Porche Panamera of '17 or newer vintage. Plenty of room back there and it's a hatch back for golf clubs if you do that type of thing.

 

Rear Seats????? Go Big or Go Home:

 

The Porsche 911-- often hailed as "the" quintessential sports car-- has larger rear seats than the XK. It's hard to say the 911 isn't a sports car.

 

Those rears seats are on par with the XK, certainly not larger in any meaningful sense.