Bloopbloob: This cold is killing us! I had mine plugged in last night for about 3 hrs then it started up. It wasn't overly happy for the first minute but it idled Okay and warmed up in about 10 mins total. I'm still not sure if it's better to try and run your car periodically when it gets this cold or to just leave it alone. I needed the car yesterday so there was little choice. I'd leave the block heater on it for a few hours, drain out a little fluid from the drain at the lower pass side of the rad fill it up with more antifreeze and run it. Mine was hard to start but idled well once it settled a bit. At -40 we really can't expect too much from these cars at all. I was impressed with mine last night.
Other than this week it's been really, really mild with no snow. I've been driving without any problems whatsoever. But we are getting HAMMERED at the moment, it's just TOO DAMN COLD! This weekend it's supposed to get alot better though.
BCMBCMBCM: They basically don't check emissions. I had to bring my car in province from BC and it passed the OPI(out of province inspection) with an o/r h-pipe. I have everything else hooked up as original though. We don't have to worry about the emissions "sniffer" either, we are extremely lucky in that regard but there are some real POS cars on the road because of it. They claim they'd like to change it but a quarter of the cars on the road today in our province wouldn't pass. As for the weather it honestly isn't that bad but we get hammered a couple of times a year with the insanely cold weather we're having right now. I have driven my Mustang all year up until this point without any real issues and once the weather gets back to normal i'll put my battery back in it and she'll be back on the road. We don't salt the roads in AB either so it isn't as harmful on your car. I like it but I can't say I didn't wish we had your weather.
Indiana dosent have inspections or sniffers or anything. As the cities within the state grow Im sure it will come back to haunt us. Back in the 70's they did have "safety" inspections. Most places would just "sell" you the sticker and go on.
Sometimes I see cars on the road that shouldnt be. I used to see a spanish man every morning driving a 94-95 Taurus. It dog legged so bad it took up the whole lane: the front right corner was to the right of the lane and the rear left was at the white line. Cops would pass by and not ever stop him.
One day on my way home from work a chevy luv rust bucket was driving toward me. I noticed that the rear wheel base was getting wider then I saw the passinger side wheel shoot off axel and all then the driverside one started coming out while he was rolling on only 3 wheels. I hurried and pulled over and waited untill I saw the truck land on its rear bumper.