mtbski

My girlfriend and I drove our 2002 allroad (silver, nav, xenons, rubber mats, factory ski racks)and had a great time. I-80 across Nevada is so smooth - almost like the Autobahn. There are places where the road just goes straight for 20 miles. On one of those stretches I took the allroad up to 130 mph - very nice and very smooth. By the way, those factory ski racks are awesome - minimal to no wind-noise at high speeds - much better than my Yakima racks. Then as my girlfriend was driving she passed a sheriff going 85 ("Gee I didn't think he was going to pull us over since he was driving a truck"), so he pulled us over. She apologized and I added how good the roads were in Nevada and how easy it was to go fast, so he was kind enough to let us go. We kept the speeds down at that point.

It was great being at the Olympics with the allroad. We saw lots of alpine skiing and the bobsled finals - awesome. You could meet the athletes up close and personal if you stayed after the events - met Janica Kostelic, Anja Paerson, Jean Paul Vidal, Picabo Street, Sonja Nef, Johan Olaf Koss (1994 olympian), Nadia Comaneci (1984 olympian). Also, got to see the German Ski Team's royal blue allroads - very nice - and the new Volvo SUV (a bit like the Cross-Country and the X5, but with lots more trunk space).

On the way back, we passed near Bonneville salt flats. I wanted to drive on the salt flats and get a cool picture of the allroad a la car advertisments so about 10 miles east of Bonneville I pulled off of I-80 and guess what, the allroad sank below the dry cracked surface and into the softer layer of sand/mud and we got stuck. So much for "all the power going to the wheel with the most traction". With the car jacked up all the way and plenty of clearance underneath, only one wheel was spinning, the left rear(an experience similar to that previously described in: "AWD with snow-tires - still got stuck"). Fortunately, a big semi tow truck happened to be driving by and pulled us out for $20 by connecting a tow cable to that nifty tow-hook-eyelet that you screw in behind the right front grill. My conclusion is that you definitely need 4wd drive and not AWD if you plan on doing some off-roading in places with heavy sand or mud, other than that, the allroad is an awesome touring machine.

yzf996fltri

Great story, except for the part about getting stuck! Don't like the sounds of that! Curious, did you try turning the traction control off?

MarkFank

We had extra tickets to almost every medals plaza concert. We ended up giving them away to friends.

We had a blast during the Olympics! We went to Opening & Closing Ceremonies, mens & womens Snowboard halfpipe, women's downhill, women's giant slalom, USA vs Finland hockey & USA vs Russia hockey (the prelim game).

We also went to the medals plaza almost every night and saw Dave Mathews Band, Foo Fighters, Bare Naked Ladies, Sheryl Crow, Train, Creed, Alanis Morrisette & Goo Goo Dolls.

We were also able to meet many of the athletes. The Irish bobsled team was a riot! I met Mike Eruzioni at the USA Finland game & got a few autographs. I was able to get him to sign a March 3, 1980 Sports Illustrated that has the Miracle on Ice picture on the cover.

Sad to see the Olympics leave but now I can get some sleep!