Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations

stever · November 2016

That's yet another odd one @jipster. What browser, operating system, and are you running an ad blocker? Or are you on a phone or tablet? (we had some IOS formatting issues last July).

explorerx4 · November 2016

@Mr_Shiftright.
I loved my 04 Focus ZTS(2.3 5 speed stick), but it was really aggravating to drive at times, for the same reason you noted.
Since I just started driving a mid size sedan after driving a full size supercab pickup just about exclusively for 8 months, a big difference is the sensation of speed.
At 75, the truck doesn't feel like it is going any faster than the car @60.

jmonroe · November 2016

Mr_Shiftright said:

imidazol97 said:

driver100 said:
I noticed, a lot of people follow close, but usually the cars that follow the closest are F-150 pick ups. There must be something about driving one that makes the driver want to be as close as possible to the car in front.
I'd throw in the Ram ppickups as well.

There seems to be a sense of entitlement with the higher vehicle and the size. I know that being higher off the ground makes speed seem less because of the appearance of slower passing of the ground beneath your wheels.

I think it works both ways. I definitely notice a difference when I'm driving the Mini Cooper or the 4X4 truck. In the Cooper, people tend to try and push you around, or jump on you in intersections, etc.---but not when I'm in the truck.

That is what I meant by thinking about getting a pickup for self defense when I lived in SC.

I could have pushed people around and hauled stuff too. What could be better than that?

jmonroe

cdnpinhead · November 2016

From 1978 until 1980 I switched back and forth between my Kenworth cabover tractor (350 Cummins) and my 240Z. Both had their advantages, but it definitely took a different skill set (buzzword alert) to deal with each. The people who try to bully using their toy pickup trucks are amusing -- it's all relative.

jmonroe · November 2016

Hey, I think I better go vote again. It doesn't look like my first vote is doing all that much.

Maybe on the way to the voting booth I can drag in a road kill or two to help me out. Stranger things have happened. I don't want anyone to say I didn't do my part.

jmonroe

driver100 · November 2016

oldfarmer50 said:

Mr_Shiftright said:

imidazol97 said:

driver100 said:
I noticed, a lot of people follow close, but usually the cars that follow the closest are F-150 pick ups. There must be something about driving one that makes the driver want to be as close as possible to the car in front.
I'd throw in the Ram ppickups as well.

There seems to be a sense of entitlement with the higher vehicle and the size. I know that being higher off the ground makes speed seem less because of the appearance of slower passing of the ground beneath your wheels.

I think it works both ways. I definitely notice a difference when I'm driving the Mini Cooper or the 4X4 truck. In the Cooper, people tend to try and push you around, or jump on you in intersections, etc.---but not when I'm in the truck.
but in wife's PT with the cutsie license plate they cut me off .

They still like to pull up right to my bumper at lights.

I think they are trying to tell you something, especially because of the cutsie plates

driver100 · November 2016

jmonroe said:
Hey, I think I better go vote again. It doesn't look like my first vote is doing all that much.

jmonroe

I've watched the results for over 2 hours and I don't know any more than when it started.

stever · November 2016

Just be happy all this will be over in a few hours and we won't have to think about it again for four years.

stickguy · November 2016

Steve, you dreamer. You really think tomorrow everyone will shake hands, call it a day, and move on?

stever · November 2016

fintail · November 2016

Something about a BMW or Audi just forces aggressive driving. Infinitis are often not far behind. The affluent eastside Seattle suburbs are like a proving ground for these things.

Sometimes a newer Honda can be dopey too - this happened in my neck of the woods this morning:

https://youtu.be/N5kkoeMeJ30

henryn said:
I see a lot of BMWs weaving through traffic, missing by inches. And many older cheap cars, Honda Civics, etc. Newer Hondas, not so much. This morning, it was a fairly new Avalon that missed me by inches. I don't think any make or model has a corner on the market of being driven by ________.

snakeweasel · November 2016

driver100 said:

jmonroe said:
Hey, I think I better go vote again. It doesn't look like my first vote is doing all that much.

jmonroe
I've watched the results for over 2 hours and I don't know any more than when it started.

All I know is that I didn't vote for anyone, but I sure as heck voted against a lot of people.

stickguy · November 2016

seems like that was the theme of the day. But one side was better about getting people out to do it.

I need to make sure not to look at my 401k balance any time soon.

thebean · November 2016

Dow futures down 700 points. Hold on to your hollyhocks boys.

stickguy · November 2016

oh, tomorrow is going to be a bloodbath.

28firefighter · November 2016

Wait until you see the value of the dollar.

fintail · November 2016

I wonder if gold will spike $100 or more.

Nice to see that not only the Limeys make iffy decisions.

stickguy · November 2016

well, that is what happens when enough people get fed up, and act.

Kind of like GM failing and becoming a shell of it's former self (to keep things car related).

stever · November 2016

Good buying opportunity. The DOW went down 5% after Obama initially won (according to my wife). Upon his reelection in 2012 the DOW fell 300+ points (2.4%) and the DOW was just below 13,000, give or take. So 4 years, 5,000 upside. (USA Today)

stickguy · November 2016

markets always find a way to make money. But they really had uncertainty, and unexpected outcomes. And tend to react badly. The day after will tell a lot more.

I still think after the excitement of winning is over, he is really going to hate being stuck with the job!

jmonroe · November 2016

thebean said:
Dow futures down 700 points. Hold on to your hollyhocks boys.

Is that legal?

jmonroe

jmonroe · November 2016

stickguy said:
oh, tomorrow is going to be a bloodbath.

I'm happy to say not for me.

Call me a chicken but 3 weeks ago I transferred everything to fixed income.

It will correct in a month or 2 at the most. Then I get back in.

jmonroe

28firefighter · November 2016

Dow futures trading suspends at -5% I think. My guess is the market will close within an hour of opening tomorrow.

Michaell · November 2016

28firefighter said:
Dow futures trading suspends at -5% I think. My guess is the market will close within an hour of opening tomorrow.

I thought that was the S&P futures.

Just ride it out, just like in '08.

Still no final decision about the election, yet.

28firefighter · November 2016

Michaell said:

Dow futures trading suspends at -5% I think. My guess is the market will close within an hour of opening tomorrow.
I thought that was the S&P futures. Just ride it out, just like in '08. Still no final decision about the election, yet.

You may be right.

Mr_Shiftright · November 2016

This might screw up the car biz for a little while. People tend to postpone large purchases in times of uncertainty. Not me. I'm still buying that new air filter tomorrow.

ab348 · November 2016

The markets are foolish. The same thing happened the day after the Brexit vote and within a week everything was riding high again. Can't read anything into their behavior.

fintail · November 2016

People have been saying we are overdue for a recession, this could be the tipping point. My 401K will take a beating, but my gold will fare well. Just hope my employer can weather it. I am optimistic even if I don't agree with the choice. It'll be an interesting few years, and do or die time for the party.

If anything, SNL might be good for a few years.

jipster · November 2016

explorerx4 said:

@Mr_Shiftright. I loved my 04 Focus ZTS(2.3 5 speed stick), but it was really aggravating to drive at times, for the same reason you noted. Since I just started driving a mid size sedan after driving a full size supercab pickup just about exclusively for 8 months, a big difference is the sensation of speed. At 75, the truck doesn't feel like it is going any faster than the car @60.

Have a new Kindle tablet. Was working fine first couple of days. It's an Amazon tablet. There are no ads... which is good, in a way. Agree with snakie, don't expect much to change with Trump. Putin is happy.

jipster · November 2016

Silk browser. I can just start randomly pushing buttons, would that help?

nyccarguy · November 2016

Michaell said:

28firefighter said:
Dow futures trading suspends at -5% I think. My guess is the market will close within an hour of opening tomorrow.
I thought that was the S&P futures.

Just ride it out, just like in '08.

Still no final decision about the election, yet.

Personally, I think the stock market is overdue for a major correction anyway. There is no way it should be at 18K.

stever · November 2016

jipster said:
Silk browser. I can just start randomly pushing buttons, would that help?

Ah, got no experience with that one. But that's probably it, something about how it renders our pages. I'll ask around.

imidazol97 · November 2016

stever said:

jipster said:
Silk browser. I can just start randomly pushing buttons, would that help?

Ah, got no experience with that one. But that's probably it, something about how it renders our pages. I'll ask around.

Several months back I had trouble with what might be similar pages showing up with everything justified along the left side--no formatting. My Firefox wasn't reading the style sheets was my thought. I switched to Chrome, but still occasionally loaded a page that was missing formatting. My computer is XP. Firefox keeps updating but Chrome says it won't update because my OS is out-of-date! Imagine that, LOL.

I took a screen shot then, but can't find it now. Problem got fixed somehow by someone.

driver100 · November 2016

World Report: Dow is now up 62 points at 11:12 a.m. And the sky has not fallen.

Hopefully it will be a change for the better.

Have to agree though, why would anyone want that job, especially if you have Billions....I'd rather have a garage like Jay Lenos.

28firefighter · November 2016

What it tells us is that the country is not nearly as surprised as everyone thinks.

Time to heal. Time to go car shopping.

Mr_Shiftright · November 2016

Please folks.....cars, not politics. Thank you. General comments relating to economy should be ok as it relates to auto industry/car buying/energy policy/etc.

berri · November 2016

OK, here's my take - not much really happens with imports from Mexico because that will just hurt Detroit and help the Asian transplants in the car segment. Also, D3 is pretty much at capacity in their US plants and not really in a good position to build more new US plants. Might impact Chinese Buick's if things get ugly though. Export Import bank may get hurt initially, but that will really smack companies like GE and Boeing, as well as high paying jobs in places like South Carolina, so if that happens it comes back with a new name. Bottom line, politics is politics no matter who is running it

ab348 · November 2016

The ATS is at the dealer today for its 6-month service so I get a loaner car. This dealer usually gives me a Malibu but today I got a 2017 Cadillac XT5 SUV. 1500 miles on it, 3.6 V6, dark gray metallic over black of course. I was surprised to find it doesn't actually drive a whole lot bigger than the ATS though obviously you are up higher and you do feel the added heft. It has a whole bunch of the nanny features some of you guys talk about which might take me a bit of time to get used to. It has really nice seats, much nicer than the ATS seats, and the interior would be lovely if it wasn't all-black.

It tried to kill me the first few times I got in and out because someone had set the memory features to move the seat forward and put the outside mirrors into useless positions when you started it. I was able to fix that. The electronic gearshift takes a lot of getting used to and I don't see the point of it. It took a whole page of the owners manual to explain how to put it into neutral at a car wash, and I still couldn't figure it out. Even shifting into reverse is painful. Foolish. It also has a slight rattle in the headliner or sunroof which would irritate me if I was the owner. Other than those things it is nice enough and would probably suit me better in a different color combo.

It doesn't seem quick but it actually is. A few times I found myself zooming along much faster than I thought because it didn't feel like I was going fast. It is more car than I need but I can see why some people like SUVs in this size. No idea what this is worth but I'd guess the sticker is somewhere between 50K and 60K Cdn. I'd pass, but it is interesting to have it for the day.

BTW, this service usually takes a couple of hours. But even though I live only about 3 miles from the dealer, it is on the other side of a toll bridge across the harbor that is often congested and the dealer's shuttle drivers won't go over it most of the time because of that. So they soak Cadillac for a "rental car" which is actually the dealer's own rental service that only their service customers use.

driver100 · November 2016

Great review ab. I checked out that shifter and it seems pretty complicated, though once you do it a few times you would get used to it. The XT5 they use has a nice looking interior....the color really helps. That name, XT5, I have trouble remembering that. Here is the 3 minute video about shifting, it would help if I had an engineering degree;

https://youtu.be/mF07SYZIbCI

jmonroe · November 2016

ab348 said:
The ATS is at the dealer today for its 6-month service so I get a loaner car. This dealer usually gives me a Malibu but today I got a 2017 Cadillac XT5 SUV. 1500 miles on it, 3.6 V6, dark gray metallic over black of course. I was surprised to find it doesn't actually drive a whole lot bigger than the ATS though obviously you are up higher and you do feel the added heft. It has a whole bunch of the nanny features some of you guys talk about which might take me a bit of time to get used to. It has really nice seats, much nicer than the ATS seats, and the interior would be lovely if it wasn't all-black.

It tried to kill me the first few times I got in and out because someone had set the memory features to move the seat forward and put the outside mirrors into useless positions when you started it. I was able to fix that. The electronic gearshift takes a lot of getting used to and I don't see the point of it. It took a whole page of the owners manual to explain how to put it into neutral at a car wash, and I still couldn't figure it out. Even shifting into reverse is painful. Foolish. It also has a slight rattle in the headliner or sunroof which would irritate me if I was the owner. Other than those things it is nice enough and would probably suit me better in a different color combo.

It doesn't seem quick but it actually is. A few times I found myself zooming along much faster than I thought because it didn't feel like I was going fast. It is more car than I need but I can see why some people like SUVs in this size. No idea what this is worth but I'd guess the sticker is somewhere between 50K and 60K Cdn. I'd pass, but it is interesting to have it for the day.

BTW, this service usually takes a couple of hours. But even though I live only about 3 miles from the dealer, it is on the other side of a toll bridge across the harbor that is often congested and the dealer's shuttle drivers won't go over it most of the time because of that. So they soak Cadillac for a "rental car" which is actually the dealer's own rental service that only their service customers use.

It's nice to hear that you got a Caddy loaner when you took your ATS in for service. Now you know about a 2017 Cadillac XT5 SUV. They gave you a chance to see if you would consider getting one.

My local Hyundai dealer never gave me a Genny as a loaner when I had the '09 (I have not needed one for the '15 so far) and to be honest I didn't want one because I know what they are like. Getting a different brand because they deal with Enterprise was fine with me since it gave me a chance to see what is out there in the daily driver category . However, one time when the Enterprise guy pulled up with a Kia Rio, I told him to take it back. I was NOT going to accept it because I was going to be driving the PA pike and didn't feel that the Kia was a close substitute for a Genny in terms of safety or in it's ability to get out of it's own way let alone get up to speed from the on ramp of the pike. He said, "you have to take it because this is what they have set up for you". I told him to wait and I went over to the service desk and told the service advisor about what was going on and he just smiled and said, "Oh, sorry about that Mr. jmonroe, how about a Sonata we don't have a Genesis for you right now". I'm easy to get along with so I took the Sonata.

Every time after that when I had to have warranty work done, the guy at the service desk looked at his "system" and said, "I see you don't want a small car. I can get you a full size no problem". I don't have to be pampered but I don't have to be taken advantage of either.

jmonroe

explorerx4 · November 2016

The shift in that Cadillac kind of reminds me of the BMW shift lever.

jmonroe · November 2016

driver100 said:
Great review ab. I checked out that shifter and it seems pretty complicated, though once you do it a few times you would get used to it. The XT5 they use has a nice looking interior....the color really helps. That name, XT5, I have trouble remembering that. Here is the 3 minute video about shifting, it would help if I had an engineering degree;
https://youtu.be/mF07SYZIbCI

FWIW, I have one of those pieces of paper but I'll be damned if I'd want to own a beast that has that kind of a "system".

Talk about doing something because you can, that is the epidemy of that philosophy.

Another FWIW, Mrs. j would never be able to drive a car with that monstrosity. :@

jmonroe

driver100 · November 2016

explorerx4 said:
The shift in that Cadillac kind of reminds me of the BMW shift lever.

It is like a complicated version of the bmw shifter. Roadrunner calls it the beer tap shifter, and I see why. It did take a little while to learn how to use it, especially since the bmw salesman sent me out in a demonstrator without explaining it. I cam head on with another car in the parking lot and I felt like an idiot, because I couldn't put it in reverse. But, once I learned how to use it it was easy and I actually liked it...but, the Caddie one seems a lot more complicated.

jipster · November 2016

Things seem to be back in order Steve. Just deleted all the cookies,the icon directing me to this discussion, and started over. Thx. :-)

driver100 · November 2016

jmonroe said:

driver100 said:
Great review ab. I checked out that shifter and it seems pretty complicated, though once you do it a few times you would get used to it. The XT5 they use has a nice looking interior....the color really helps. That name, XT5, I have trouble remembering that. Here is the 3 minute video about shifting, it would help if I had an engineering degree;
https://youtu.be/mF07SYZIbCI
FWIW, I have one of those pieces of paper but I'll be damned if I'd want to own a beast that has that kind of a "system".

Talk about doing something because you can, that is the epidemy of that philosophy.

Another FWIW, Mrs. j would never be able to drive a car with that monstrosity. :@

jmonroe

I was thinking of you when I said it would take an engineering degree to be able to manage that shifter. Shifters seem to be something everyone is trying to improve upon. It is great that shifters have become electronic, but someone also has to use that science wisely if they are trying to make it better.

Consumers Reports show some of the odd shifters out there, and says shifters should be intuitive, and designed so they are easy to use.

CONSUMER REPORTS SHIFTERS

I had been driving the BMW rental car, and one night we used Mrs D's GLK. I went to turn on the windshield wipers - which I thought was the stalk on the right of the steering wheel as that was the one I used in the BMW bit somehow I hit the paddle shifter and I put the car into 2nd gear. Had to pull over on a busy road, and turn the car off and on again to get it back into drive. What happened to KISS (keep it simple stupid?)

explorerx4 · November 2016

My Fusion has a dial in the center console with P R N D pretty much in the 10 to 2 area of it, with an S button in the center of the dial. Very easy to use.
I will have to look at a picture of what the shift in my 2013 looked like, because I just don't remember.
It also has paddle shifters.

ab348 · November 2016

explorerx4 said:
My Fusion has a dial in the center console with P R N D pretty much in the 10 to 2 area of it, with an S button in the center of the dial. Very easy to use.
I will have to look at a picture of what the shift in my 2013 looked like, because I just don't remember.
It also has paddle shifters.

What does the "S" do?

On the XT5, by this afternoon I had gotten a bit more used to the drill of pressing the button on the side of the handle while jerking it to the left to go into reverse or back to go into drive. The P button on the top baffled me for a bit but eventually I figured out that of you just forgot about everythng else and pushed it when you were stopped it went into Park automatically.

I think the pushbutton selectors inspired by the old Mopars and updated to work electronically might make more sense now than what Caddy did.

One of the things I forgot in the original post - the XT5 had that auto engine stop/start when you come to a stop and just like in a Malibu I had a while ago, I hated it. In the XT5 I was surprised at how it felt - sort of like the transmission popping out of gear and then back in. It was very noticeable as the car shuddered each time it stopped or started. I looked and could not see any way to turn that thing off either. That might be a deal-breaker if true.

snakeweasel · November 2016

driver100 said:

Have to agree though, why would anyone want that job, especially if you have Billions....I'd rather have a garage like Jay Lenos.

Some want the job to acquire power, some are answering a higher calling.

You can decide who was doing it for which reason.

stickguy · November 2016

or ego. lots of reasons.

stickguy · November 2016

car related, I would have to decline the presmo job is offered. They aren't allowed to drive! That would never fly.

can you imagine being president, and just popping in to some random car dealer over in Fairfax, to pick up a new set of wheels for yourself? Think the salesmanager is going to put on the hard sell?

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