Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

tbirdmarco

 Have a short list of stuff wanna see on Friday late afternoon when I go to the auto show 

tbirdmarco

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-MKRahy1iHQ

tbirdmarco

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LSpGsyYiV64

explorerx4

@oldfarmer50,
How about just going for the 100 shot of nitrous?

tbirdmarco

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7Umgw2HlZI0

tbirdmarco

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jAQ-C8dYbTg

tbirdmarco

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ9wkrCCUC4

Sandman6472

OF, I wish my commute was as short as yours, mine's 29 miles door to door. Roughly takes about a half hour each way is traffic cooperates. If not, could take up to an hour. And the funny part is like 90% of it is expressway driving! But I try to leave about 6:45 in the morning to avoid some of the early morning traffic. Quitting time is usually between 6 and 6:30 and I hit the end of rush hour. Good thing is they just opened the express lanes on part of I-75 that I use so some are starting to use that. Just opened on the 24th so folks are just getting used to it.
Got to drive my first Chevy Trax today, an LT model. Heard a bunch of noises and rattles going over road imperfections which seemed odd because the new Buick Encore I drove last week was super quiet. But the Encore was new while the Trax even though an 2018 model, had just over 11K on the clock. Am thinking of getting the Encore and liked the way it drove, just not sure if it's something I want over a foreign make. Haven't owned a domestic since my hand me down '67 Olds Cutlass Supreme in high school and college. Just not sure if I plan to keep my damaged VW Golf that I'll get back from the collision shop next week.

The Sandman

Sandman6472

Have been in a RAV4 rental for the past 3 weeks and though nice, a bit too thirsty for my commute. Drives nice enough and has a sunroof and sturdy fabric on the seats, it's an XLE model. Better mpg's than my 2014 Tucson but that's not sayin' much really. I like the higher seating position and sliding in and out is great for my spinal issues but, I just like a car better I think. Also, I want to get 30 city and close to 37 highway in any vehicle I own so am awaiting getting my VW Golf back from the collision shop. I've gotten a few tanks of 40 mpg on the highway in perfect conditions, which ain't to bad for a non hybrid.
I might get a hybrid if I decide to trade the Golf in but question how long the batteries will last. Are they guaranteed for life or for some specified number of miles? And I do like the hybrids coming from Hyundai/Kia to be honest. Anything over 46 mpg has my interest.

The Sandman

stickguy

the batteries tend to be warrantied a long time (like 10 years). And should last a lot longer under normal conditions and usage. I will consider a hybrid next time if I like the car. For our current situation, one would be perfect. Who knows though once we finally move, but should be the same.

oldfarmer50

tbirdmarco said:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-MKRahy1iHQ

OH no another monster grill!

fintail

Monster grille and faux floating C-pillar, it's every bad late 2010's trend in one. Soon to be seen in fleets everywhere.

driver100

explorerx4 said:

@cdnpinhead,
Good explanation!

No it isn't....it is a really good explanation !

biancar

Not a fan of that grille. The inside looks good, though.

tbirdmarco

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qQrmVq4tTEk

tbirdmarco

 To be honest not crazy about the shape of a one on new stuff coming out very few stuff through actually like that’s why I have a shortlist for my mom very short like three cars hopefully she likes them too it’s her money ha ha Ha and start prescribing soon a few months to go 

tbirdmarco

 It is have to start test driving soon with her ha ha Ha not prescribing I’m not a drug dealer or pill pusher Ha ha ha 

tbirdmarco

 I know I know explore for out of control ha ha Ha 

tbirdmarco

 That’s a funny email you got Mike get tons of crazy emails weekly that’s for sure I just laughed 

tbirdmarco

 Send man that’s awesome they have express lanes now will you or they have that here on the Long Island Expressway call the HO V Ln. probably pretty much the same thing I’m sure brothers live in other parts of the country do you have something similar 

tbirdmarco

 Sandy River in the doing with your car to you good you probably get it back next week 

tbirdmarco

 Looking forward to going to the auto show tomorrow afternoon today’s like my Friday this is the tree this week loving it 

tbirdmarco

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fyID0lJbIwk

driver100

Did they do away with all the rules and regulations about bumpers? It looks like none of those front ends offer any protection, even for the smallest bump.

If you hit most of those cars anywhere near that big grill you are going to do around $1000 worth of damage. Not only are the new grills ugly, they seem to be very impractical.

Seems to me, you can survive in a front end collision or even a slightly off to the side collision, but, your car may not survive a bump in the parking lot.

driver100

tbirdmarco said:

 To be honest not crazy about the shape of a one on new stuff coming out very few stuff through actually like that’s why I have a shortlist for my mom very short like three cars hopefully she likes them too it’s her money ha ha Ha and start prescribing soon a few months to go 

Hey Marco...what 3 cars are you prescribing for your Mom?

Enjoy the auto show, let us know what you find.

stickguy

Bumper rules seem to exclude sacrificing fascia covers if nothing else.

Was that a redesigned forester? Didn’t know one of them was coming out

imidazol97

cdnpinhead said:

isellhondas said:

Can someone tell me exactly what F-85 is? Never heard of hit but I did have a buddy with an F-85 Olds!

It's E85, not F85. Either way, it's a concoction created by the corn lobby in the midwest (mostly Iowa) that consists of 85% alcohol and 15% petroleum. Engines have to be modified to tolerate that much alcohol and are identified as such with a label in the filler and a yellow filler cap. It's pretty cheap, but the fuel mileage is enough less that it's a wash. When one pulls into a Casey's (they're everywhere) to fill up, one of the pumps is way cheaper than the others, and it's not always apparent why. Sometimes it's not even possible to get real gasoline without paying very very close attention. The alcohol shows up as having high octane, which is only a small piece of the story.

Ethanol (IMNHO) is a put-up job by the farm lobby. It costs much more (environmentally and otherwise) to distill the alcohol from corn than is recovered as fuel, but who's counting? Oh, and making fuel from corn raises the price of corn used for food that could otherwise be exported to the rest of the world to reduce hunger. The hand-wringing bleeding-heart people have to pick their poison. Imagine.

Alcohol kills o-rings that aren't designed to deal with it, absorbs water from the atmosphere and yields lower mileage per gallon. What's not to like?

OMG. A great explantion. Just let me add that the increase in cost of corn that's used to feed beef and pork and chickens and who knows what other animals, directly increases the cost of the meat at the grocery store. And as well, the diversion of tillable land from other crops to use it to produce corn, means things from those other crops rise in price. E.g., soybeans are used in many products; less soybean production, higher costs for those products downstream in soybeans.

I live relatively near a large company's ethanol plant (Greenville, OH -- the boonies, lol) and if I drive that direction I see tankers that haul the alcohol. They also produce dry ice. Earlier, they tried to fool the environmentalist [non-permissible content deleted] types by piping the CO2 that is produced by that plant deep underground to "store" it under pressure. But the CO2 is being put into the atmosphere.

ab348

stickguy said:

Bumper rules seem to exclude sacrificing fascia covers if nothing else.

Was that a redesigned forester? Didn’t know one of them was coming out

Here's some more info. Slightly larger but no more turbo engine.

http://www.autoverdict.com/suburu/2019-subaru-forester-grows-in-size-loses-turbo-engine/

nyccarguy

ab348 said:

stickguy said:

Bumper rules seem to exclude sacrificing fascia covers if nothing else.

Was that a redesigned forester? Didn’t know one of them was coming out

Here's some more info. Slightly larger but no more turbo engine.

http://www.autoverdict.com/suburu/2019-subaru-forester-grows-in-size-loses-turbo-engine/

BOO! No Turbo?

andres3

http://www.thisisinsider.com/gm-cruise-self-driving-car-ticket-not-yielding-pedestrian-2018-3?utm_source=quora

Based on my knowledge of law enforcement in CA, I'd say 90-95% certainty that GM is right, the ticket is complete and utter BS.

"We don't look at the data, we just rely on Officer observation."

Truer words never before spoken.

Dash Cams are going to be a ticket killer for those that install them and manage to find an honest traffic judge/referee/lackey.

Mr_Shiftright

graphicguy said:

Mr_Shiftright said:

Stop messing around with diddley stuff and put a blower on it!

OF....I'm with Shifty. If you're gonna do it, go all the way!

Some of these tunes can trick you---they increase throttle response and it FEELS like you're going a lot faster, but on the clock it's probably not but a few 10ths of a second. But with a blower, the car is transformed.

xwesx

oldfarmer50 said:

OH no another monster grill!

Better airflow over the radiator that way.

driver100

xwesx said:

oldfarmer50 said:

OH no another monster grill!

Better airflow over the radiator that way.

I'll take better looks over .02 more miles per gallon.

jmonroe

nyccarguy said:

ab348 said:

stickguy said:

Bumper rules seem to exclude sacrificing fascia covers if nothing else.

Was that a redesigned forester? Didn’t know one of them was coming out

Here's some more info. Slightly larger but no more turbo engine.

http://www.autoverdict.com/suburu/2019-subaru-forester-grows-in-size-loses-turbo-engine/

BOO! No Turbo?

I'm with you.

I was actually thinking that if I could talk Mrs. j into letting go of her beloved 2012 Legacy (just turned 31K miles) that maybe just maybe we should get a CUV type, say a Forrester, almost in self defense since there are so many CUV types on the road nowadays. And it would save me from having to get either of my Sons van or SUV to haul even a lawnmower or something that size which will not fit in either my Genny or her Legacy. With a small non-turo 4 cyl. engine as standard on the 2019 Forrester it might have a hard time getting that home.

I have almost resigned myself that getting a grocery getter of any type will put me in a CVT vehicle but that along with a standard 4 cyl. job is too much to take all at once.

jmonroe

snakeweasel

andres3 said:

snakeweasel said:

andres3 said:

snakeweasel said:

andres3 said:

murphydog said:

Maybe the issue isn't self driving cars, but pedestrians darting into the street?

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/tempe/2018/03/20/tempe-police-chief-fatal-uber-crash-pedestrian-likely-unavoidable/442829002/

Turns out they did "release the video." I watched it. I wouldn't use the term "darting", however:

While video is never as good as your own human eyeballs (assuming you have normal vision), I think Uber and Autonomous cars can be given a break here. She appears to have been wearing black at night. The Volvo's headlights were not very good. The car still should have had time to react and hit the brakes though, but in fact, a collision may have been very tough to avoid.

All I know is my personal safety record of 0.00 fatalities per mile traveled is better than autonomous cars now.
No matter how many miles autonomous cars log, they'll never get down to 0.00 again. I intend to keep my 0.00 score for at least this lifetime too.

Another observation.

Had the self driving car been driven by a human speeder, it probably would have only taken the speeder a few seconds of speeding by a "normal speeding margin" to have avoided that collision. The extra speed would have put the Volvo at a further position down the road before the woman walking the bike crossed paths with it.

So any of you doubters that "going faster" can avoid wrecks, have been proven wrong yet again.

You can play that game in reverse, if they had been going slower, even by 1 MPH, the pedestrian would have been across the road before the car got there.

Of if he car was going faster and been past the incident point before the pedestrian got there who is to say that there would not have been a collision further down the road?

It has not been proven wrong.

yes, the game works in both ways and at all speeds. This is why speed is fairly irrelevant, as long as it is safe for conditions. You can't account for when a pedestrian is going to wear dark clothes and blindly cross a dark road (although there is debate that roadway was dark and it is just a crappy camera that makes it look dark).

I believe the reported speed was 38 MPH. That's not fast for that type of road. So if less speed is better, then 0 is best. It's a bad argument. It doesn't pass the logic test.

A simple quarter turn flick of the wheel to the left would have avoided the fatality. The left lane was open.

There is one difference though. Going faster gives less time to random pedestrians randomly trying to walk in front of you.

Also going faster gives you less time to react, increases the distance you travel as you react and decreases your ability to maneuver the vehicle.. It also increases the amount of force you hit the pedestrian if a collision occurs.

But Vision-Zero nuts say 20 MPH is the magic speed at which pedestrians survive a collision. Any faster and it's bad news. So either we slow down to 20 MPH, or we drive at the most efficient speed, and tell people/bikes to stay out of the way.

A couple of things here. First is that no one is saying we should drive everywhere really slow, just that going faster is more dangerous when all things are equal. Which means that one should be aware of that fact and act accordingly. Secondly it's not only people and bikes but other drivers on the road.

snakeweasel

Yes. And in my calculations, the increased risk of going faster pales in comparison to the decreased risk of less time-exposure to morons and acts of God on the roadway.

Actually the few minutes less you're on the road doesn't make up for he greater risk at driving faster.

andres3 said:

It works for Germany, it works for me.

It doesn't work for Germany, what works for Germany is much better driver education and how much harder it is to get a license.

andres3 said:

There is a diminishing return though, as shown by the Solomon curve. You can only go a little bit faster than average traffic in order to minimize risks. Once you get away from the median speed in either direction (up or down) you start adding risk.

There are issues with the solomon curve, maily the fact that they did not take into account of stopped and turning traffic.

andres3 said:

The other benefits of less time on the roadway (reduced risk) include:

• 1) Less fatigue (drowsiness has been shown to be up there with drunk driving in causing collisions)
  
• 2) More % of driving time spent on high-alert.
  
• 3) More attention to driving when you can drive, whereas when you are escorted in a line moving 2 MPH you are not really driving, you are just following and mimicking the cars in front of you.
  
• 4) Not for everyone, but for me, less stress. For some people, going faster is stressful. Going slower is stressful to me.
  
• 5) And of course, more time to enjoy your destination.
  

Well #1 and #2 tend to cancel each other out.

Driving slower does tend to create less stress. Just think of how much less stress in your life if you didn't have to deal with your tickets. But beyond that there is a zen to driving, taking a slow relaxing drive is much less stressful than trying to get places faster.

snakeweasel

fintail said:

I think you hit on something in a way. I believe most drivers don't want to have to be attentive. They don't want to be forced to take it seriously, don't want to pay attention, don't want to put forth an effort, don't really enjoy driving. To a lot of people, driving is likely up there with scrubbing the toilet or folding laundry. They get upset when asked to do things properly.

I think part of that is why I can be irked driving here - I can be hyper attentive, and without so much to focus on due to artificially low limits and plodding traffic, the dopey little errors catch my eye. If I drive in a place where people are expected to take it seriously, are better trained, and drive with a little more purpose, I don't become nearly as annoyed. I find driving in Germany, where most take it seriously, most expect competency, and distracted driving a social faux pas as much as being illegal, to be more enjoyable than many places here. I think many locals would be eaten alive on the roads away from the US and Canada.

andres3 said:

Yes. And in my calculations, the increased risk of going faster pales in comparison to the decreased risk of less time-exposure to morons and acts of God on the roadway.

It works for Germany, it works for me.

4) Not for everyone, but for me, less stress. For some people, going faster is stressful. Going slower is stressful to me.
5) And of course, more time to enjoy your destination.

To tell the truth in my daily commute I really don't enjoy the drive. Traffic is way to heavy and it's hard to get places. But give me a little breathing room on an open road in the country and I am in heaven.

tbirdmarco

 Yes stick guy that is a new Forrester had no idea one was coming out either don’t like the looks of the rear prefer the current one everything to me at least starting to look the same from every brand not good Ha ha ha we’ll see if anything I find interesting at the auto show tomorrow to report back on but nothing really groundbreaking coming out at this show 

tbirdmarco

 Driver 100 thank you yes I’ll report back if anything interesting what is my eye well but I like shouldn’t say hi ha ha Ha nothing interesting new really coming out 

tbirdmarco

 Shortlist is the GMC terrain actually someone close the other day in the parking lot wanna see the interior the thing was on someone was in it and the engine was super quiet was amazed how quiet it was but it was running no doubt also on the Tucson or Santa Fe maybe even Ford a scape or edge 

tbirdmarco

 Oh last one out the Jeep grand Cherokee or Cherichi she likes the smaller jeep below the Cherokee but my aunt and cousin both have one I told her not to be the third one but the same car too much of the same Ha ha ha I think my aunts lease is up in a couple of months will see if she gets another one goes with another jeep we shall see 

tbirdmarco

Actually I don’t think it’s the one below the Cherichi it’s the renegade smallest one but I don’t want her to get it and be the third one with

snakeweasel

xwesx said:

driver100 said:

stickguy said:

Wouldn’t have these issues with a manual. Any stick driver would know what to do.

Yeh stick....that would apply to about 4% of the cars on the road in the USA.

Easy solution: Ban automatic transmissions! Going forward, you have autonomous/public transit and private manual transmission cars. A straight up utopia, that would be!

Ban automatic transmissions? Try it and you will get a lot of crap from disabled rights people.

snakeweasel

explorerx4 said:

@oldfarmer,
Pretty hard to fill a gas vehicle with diesel unless the supplier put the wrong fuel in the underground tanks.
Just happened near here the other day.

My mom filled up her car one day and found out real quick that she had a tank full of water. Seems like the underground tank got a leak and filled up with ground water after a rain. The real bad thing was that there was less than 5K miles on the car at the time.

snakeweasel

driver100 said:

Yes, we have no idea what it is like when in a stressful situation. Often cops will shoot a guy they really think was armed, and they continue to pump bullets into him...happened in Toronto as well as other places. Some experts say they can't help it...it is the stress of the situation and they lose it. (Just saying it happens, not discussing the right or wrong of it).

If you want an eye opener try taking a "Shoot don't shoot" training sometime. A lot of stuff happens and you have to make instant decisions as things unfold. It's very hard to understand police shootings without experiencing that training.

snakeweasel

imidazol97 said:

OMG. A great explantion. Just let me add that the increase in cost of corn that's used to feed beef and pork and chickens and who knows what other animals, directly increases the cost of the meat at the grocery store. And as well, the diversion of tillable land from other crops to use it to produce corn, means things from those other crops rise in price. E.g., soybeans are used in many products; less soybean production, higher costs for those products downstream in soybeans.

Forget all about that, how does it affect the production and cost of whisky?

explorerx4

@oldfarmer50,
Did some talent scouting for you.

https://newhaven.craigslist.org/cto/d/2000-chrysler-sebring-jxi/6546699253.html

https://newhaven.craigslist.org/cto/d/1997-lincoln-town-car/6546698597.html

tbirdmarco

 Call Lincoln above explore 

tbirdmarco

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-i_edZBUjao

tbirdmarco

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gnKgUK6RFPM