Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

graphicguy

OK....last night’s weather was perfect to put a new coat of wax and give the TLX a quick detail. Unfortunately, it got dark before I could take pics. But, I wanted to try one of those “quick wax sprays” to see how they look compared to my usual Zaino routine.

A little background....all over FaceBook are ads for this stuff....www.shinearmor.com. I ordered some early last week. They say they have two warehouses in the U.S. that they ship from. And that orders should be received within 3 days (for my location). That would have had their wax on my doorstep on Friday, maybe Saturday, for a detail I was going to do Sunday.

All I wanted was one bottle of their stuff to see if it’s legit. Doing on line ordering, they went through a series of....”if you buy another bottle, you get a better discount”...that leads to another page stating I needed their scratch repair concoction (I don’t) or their “magic” detail towels (don’t need those either). Finally, you get to their order page for 1 bottle of their wax. Placed the order and received confirmation. Never arrived. Pinged them Monday and they apologized by stating they’d send 2 bottles for the price of one (and subsequently charge another shipping fee for it). I declined that and asked for a refund.

Still haven’t received the refund, so I contacted my payment method (paypal) to give me a credit. Why do I bring this up? I get the sneaky suspicion these guys aren’t what they say they are....and have an air of “scaminess” about them. Stay away.

Flip side, I did order some of this stuff (www.buydualpower.com) instead. Came within a couple of days (actually delivered yesterday a.m.). Put some on last night after a quick wash (although it’s supposed to be a waterless wash, too....which I don’t trust). Easy on...easy off. Tool me all of 15 mins to wipe it on and buff it off. Looks damned good and gives good shine on my TLX. The question is, how long will it bead. Will find out as it’s supposed to rain tomorrow. I’ll report back.

imidazol97

The glass likely broke because of a temperature difference adding stress.  We had a tempered glass patio table crack on a nice sunny spring day. I think it was Martha Stewart collection, but that's a different forum.  I heard the crash as the ten million little chunks of tempered glass hit the wood deck. I suspect that the sun was reflecting off our double windows in the dining area onto one part of the table.

Was it shaded partly so that one part gets heated and the sun didn't hit the other part? Cold nights and warm morning sun... temperature difference. 

I recall a house that had warping plastic siding in a spot. TOH guy pointed out sun reflected off neighbor house's window hit that area and  heated it up. They did the story at a time when the glare of the neighbor's window was on that side of the house.

jmonroe1

imidazol97 said:

The glass likely broke because of a temperature difference adding stress.  We had attempted glass patio table crack on a nice sunny spring day.  I heard the crash as the ten million little chunks of tempered glass hit the wood deck.

Is it shaded partly so that one part gets heated?
I recall a house enact had warping plastic siding in a spot. TOH guy pointed out sun reflected off neighbor house hit that area heated it up.

I think you otta sue your neighbor for having sun reflecting siding pointed at your house. :@

jmonroe

pensfan83

roadburner said:

28firefighter said:

Reminds me of the shop I take the Saab to. Granted, they also have every piece of historical information on the car since they serviced it for the past two owners, so there aren't many surprises.

Hopefully your bill is less than mine are...

My bill was very reasonable; My dealer quotes what Mini refers to as Value Prices for routine maintenance. Plus, Mini is having a Spring special offering additional rebates. So, my oil change and inspection was just $55. 
I was quoted $60 for a full synthetic oil/filter change, fluid top off, and multi-point inspection. The only other things it may need is a tire rotation and new coolant, brake fluid was changed last fall.

imidazol97

graphicguy said:

OK....last night’s weather was perfect to put a new coat of wax and give the TLX a quick detail. Unfortunately, it got dark before I could take pics. But, I wanted to try one of those “quick wax sprays” to see how they look compared to my usual Zaino routine.

A little background....all over FaceBook are ads for this stuff....www.shinearmor.com. I ordered some early last week. They say they have two warehouses in the U.S. that they ship from. And that orders should be received within 3 days (for my location). That would have had their wax on my doorstep on Friday, maybe Saturday, for a detail I was going to do Sunday.

All I wanted was one bottle of their stuff to see if it’s legit. Doing on line ordering, they went through a series of....”if you buy another bottle, you get a better discount”...that leads to another page stating I needed their scratch repair concoction (I don’t) or their “magic” detail towels (don’t need those either). Finally, you get to their order page for 1 bottle of their wax. Placed the order and received confirmation. Never arrived. Pinged them Monday and they apologized by stating they’d send 2 bottles for the price of one (and subsequently charge another shipping fee for it). I declined that and asked for a refund.

Still haven’t received the refund, so I contacted my payment method (paypal) to give me a credit. Why do I bring this up? I get the sneaky suspicion these guys aren’t what they say they are....and have an air of “scaminess” about them. Stay away.

Flip side, I did order some of this stuff (www.buydualpower.com) instead. Came within a couple of days (actually delivered yesterday a.m.). Put some on last night after a quick wash (although it’s supposed to be a waterless wash, too....which I don’t trust). Easy on...easy off. Tool me all of 15 mins to wipe it on and buff it off. Looks damned good and gives good shine on my TLX. The question is, how long will it bead. Will find out as it’s supposed to rain tomorrow. I’ll report back.

As easily as it went on and came off, even if it doesn't last a year, doing the treatment twice a year is no hassle.

Neighbor used to use detailing polish on his Acura every time he went to the spray it yourself car wash.

henryn

A few years back (maybe in the late 90’s), I had a sliding glass back door break. You’ve all seen these things, very heavy glass, and fairly large. And very common a few decades back. At the time I had a Spitz (American Eskimo) dog. He would bark to be let out, and when I went over to that sliding glass door to open it, he would charge over and bounce off of the glass with his front paws. Now this was not a big dog (maybe 26 to 28 lbs), and we had been doing this routine for a number of years.

But on this occasion, the glass shattered. Just came to pieces. And one of the pieces fell on top of his head, cutting it wide open. Took about 30 or 40 stitches to close the wound. The dog was fine after his head was stitched up, but I was a little peeved about that glass breaking.

jmonroe1

cdnpinhead said:

henryn said:

Never touch anyone again. Never. As long as you may live, never again touch anyone. You have been warned.

What a wonderful world we live in. It was not always this way, but now it is.

You are right. Our new world is trying to take some fun out of the work place and everywhere else for that matter.

Back in the mid to late 80's I was the manager of a group of around 10 to 12 guys and a secretary who was a good looker, a damn good looker. One day she put a sign on the edge of the counter in front of her desk that read, "Sexual Comments are Welcome and They Will be Graded". We had some fun with that. The only women that didn't seem to like it, although they didn't run screaming to the personnel office, were the ones that didn't have anything to worry about in the way of receiving those types of comments.

One day my boss was in the area and decided to stop over to see me and saw the fairly new sign. He walks into my office and said, "do you really think that sign on Cathy's desk should be there"? I told him no one seemed to be too bothered by it so for now I think it's OK. Then I said, "why don't you say something and see how she grades you". To which he just shook his head and said, "nooooo, I'm not going to get into that".

FWIW, she was promoted and became my bosses secretary not too long after he saw that sign. However, the sign was not placed on her new desk counter.

The work place used to be more fun than what it turned into just before I retired.

jmonroe

ab348

The problems with that kind of atmosphere in an office (aside from the unintended consequences that could occur if things escalate beyond just comments) are many. Everyone has a different sense of what is just funny and what ventures into the inappropriate. I had a female employee who would often talk (loudly) about such things and it got to the point where people from other parts of the organization who were physically in a different part of the building would come to me when they happened to be in her part of our office and complain. Then there was another, not my employee thankfully, who went thru a messy marriage breakup and tried to befriend me because I had previously helped her out in dealing with a challenging boss of hers. At that stage in her life she would come into my office at times, tell me of her problems, and at one point - while sitting in clear view of passersby via an internal floor to ceiling window - even pulled up her sweater to show me her assets. Talk about uncomfortable, especially given I had no interest in her aside from trying to help her out. Good thing I wasn't married. People just seem to have a hard time understanding limits in a professional setting.

houdini2

bwia said:

With Ford killing all of its passenger cars except the Mustang and Focus, the new 2020 Ford Escape looks less like a crossover and more like a car. The interior looks bland and cheap perhaps a Titanium model might look more upscale. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSGrCjp_a2c

Big improvement. I like those clean simple lines.

ab348

houdini2 said:

bwia said:

With Ford killing all of its passenger cars except the Mustang and Focus, the new 2020 Ford Escape looks less like a crossover and more like a car. The interior looks bland and cheap perhaps a Titanium model might look more upscale. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSGrCjp_a2c

Big improvement. I like those clean simple lines.

It looks like a Tesla with a grille.

Mr_Shiftright

It's my impression that Ford is really doing to best job among domestic automakers right now.

abacomike

jmonroe1 said:

Had a great day with my daughter yesterday. I took her shopping and she bought some pants, shorts, shoes, etc.  it was so nice to buy her things she needed.  Then we went out for dinner and she had a Caesar salad and a lobster tail and several glasses of wine.  I had part of her salad, sautéed mushrooms and a filet mignon.  Very enjoyable dinner.

She is in North Palm Beach today on a job interview.  Boy would that be nice if she could find something down here.  Great spending some time with her! 😛

@Mike, since you're never going to send me airfare money to come visit you, I'm going to Plan B. What do you think of this? The next time I go to visit my Delray Beach SIL, I'll give you a call and you can treat Mrs. j and I to a nice surf and turf dinner at a restaurant of your choosing. This is probably a better idea, right? jmonroe

You’re on!  It would be my pleasure! 😇

Michaell

abacomike said:

jmonroe1 said:

abacomike said:

Had a great day with my daughter yesterday. I took her shopping and she bought some pants, shorts, shoes, etc.  it was so nice to buy her things she needed.  Then we went out for dinner and she had a Caesar salad and a lobster tail and several glasses of wine.  I had part of her salad, sautéed mushrooms and a filet mignon.  Very enjoyable dinner.

She is in North Palm Beach today on a job interview.  Boy would that be nice if she could find something down here.  Great spending some time with her! 😛

@Mike, since you're never going to send me airfare money to come visit you, I'm going to Plan B. What do you think of this? The next time I go to visit my Delray Beach SIL, I'll give you a call and you can treat Mrs. j and I to a nice surf and turf dinner at a restaurant of your choosing. This is probably a better idea, right?

jmonroe

You’re on!  It would be my pleasure! 😇

@jmonroe1 immediately navigates to a travel website to book plane tickets...

This will be the most expensive free meal we've seen on these boards.

henryn

The last time I tried to sit in an Escape (maybe 2014 or 15), there was a severe shortage of headroom. Which was a shame, as the old style (2011 and previous) had a generous amount. The video (linked above) says the new 2020 is "lower and wider", so that doesn't good.

abacomike

Michaell said:

jmonroe1 said:

Had a great day with my daughter yesterday. I took her shopping and she bought some pants, shorts, shoes, etc.  it was so nice to buy her things she needed.  Then we went out for dinner and she had a Caesar salad and a lobster tail and several glasses of wine.  I had part of her salad, sautéed mushrooms and a filet mignon.  Very enjoyable dinner.

She is in North Palm Beach today on a job interview.  Boy would that be nice if she could find something down here.  Great spending some time with her! 😛

@Mike, since you're never going to send me airfare money to come visit you, I'm going to Plan B. What do you think of this? The next time I go to visit my Delray Beach SIL, I'll give you a call and you can treat Mrs. j and I to a nice surf and turf dinner at a restaurant of your choosing. This is probably a better idea, right? jmonroe

You’re on!  It would be my pleasure! 😇

@jmonroe1 immediately navigates to a travel website to book plane tickets... This will be the most expensive free meal we've seen on these boards.

The kicker here is that I get to pick the restaurant! 🤪😜

tjc78

abacomike said:

Michaell said:

jmonroe1 said:

Had a great day with my daughter yesterday. I took her shopping and she bought some pants, shorts, shoes, etc.  it was so nice to buy her things she needed.  Then we went out for dinner and she had a Caesar salad and a lobster tail and several glasses of wine.  I had part of her salad, sautéed mushrooms and a filet mignon.  Very enjoyable dinner.

She is in North Palm Beach today on a job interview.  Boy would that be nice if she could find something down here.  Great spending some time with her! 😛

@Mike, since you're never going to send me airfare money to come visit you, I'm going to Plan B. What do you think of this? The next time I go to visit my Delray Beach SIL, I'll give you a call and you can treat Mrs. j and I to a nice surf and turf dinner at a restaurant of your choosing. This is probably a better idea, right? jmonroe

You’re on!  It would be my pleasure! 😇

@jmonroe1 immediately navigates to a travel website to book plane tickets... This will be the most expensive free meal we've seen on these boards.

The kicker here is that I get to pick the restaurant! 🤪😜

Denny’s it is 

driver100

imidazol97 said:

The glass likely broke because of a temperature difference adding stress.  We had a tempered glass patio table crack on a nice sunny spring day.

That is a likely cause. I once had a rear window blow out of a 1976 Chrysler Grand Fury - company car. It may have been caused by the structure settling and just the right or wrong temperature.

driver100

ab348 said:

. Then there was another, not my employee thankfully, who went thru a messy marriage breakup and tried to befriend me because I had previously helped her out in dealing with a challenging boss of hers. At that stage in her life she would come into my office at times, tell me of her problems, and at one point - while sitting in clear view of passersby via an internal floor to ceiling window - even pulled up her sweater to show me her assets.

Why don't those things ever happen to me?

Michaell

tjc78 said:

abacomike said:

Michaell said:

abacomike said:

jmonroe1 said:

abacomike said:

Had a great day with my daughter yesterday. I took her shopping and she bought some pants, shorts, shoes, etc.  it was so nice to buy her things she needed.  Then we went out for dinner and she had a Caesar salad and a lobster tail and several glasses of wine.  I had part of her salad, sautéed mushrooms and a filet mignon.  Very enjoyable dinner.

She is in North Palm Beach today on a job interview.  Boy would that be nice if she could find something down here.  Great spending some time with her! 😛

@Mike, since you're never going to send me airfare money to come visit you, I'm going to Plan B. What do you think of this? The next time I go to visit my Delray Beach SIL, I'll give you a call and you can treat Mrs. j and I to a nice surf and turf dinner at a restaurant of your choosing. This is probably a better idea, right?

jmonroe

You’re on!  It would be my pleasure! 😇

@jmonroe1 immediately navigates to a travel website to book plane tickets...

This will be the most expensive free meal we've seen on these boards.

The kicker here is that I get to pick the restaurant! 🤪😜

Denny’s it is 

Doesn't a Big Mac and a Filet 'o Fish from McDonald's count as surf and turf?

ab348

Mr_Shiftright said:

It's my impression that Ford is really doing to best job among domestic automakers right now.

I don't get that impression at all, actually. I should find a pool on how long until Hackett is let go.

explorerx4

It could have been the wind that caused that glass panel to pop out, or your new dog.

Not sure how to read Hackett, but as someone pointed out he green lighted a lot projects that had been halted by the previous CEO.
It's going to take a while to see the results of that.

tjc78

Michaell said:

abacomike said:

Michaell said:

jmonroe1 said:

Had a great day with my daughter yesterday. I took her shopping and she bought some pants, shorts, shoes, etc.  it was so nice to buy her things she needed.  Then we went out for dinner and she had a Caesar salad and a lobster tail and several glasses of wine.  I had part of her salad, sautéed mushrooms and a filet mignon.  Very enjoyable dinner.

She is in North Palm Beach today on a job interview.  Boy would that be nice if she could find something down here.  Great spending some time with her! 😛

@Mike, since you're never going to send me airfare money to come visit you, I'm going to Plan B. What do you think of this? The next time I go to visit my Delray Beach SIL, I'll give you a call and you can treat Mrs. j and I to a nice surf and turf dinner at a restaurant of your choosing. This is probably a better idea, right? jmonroe

You’re on!  It would be my pleasure! 😇

@jmonroe1 immediately navigates to a travel website to book plane tickets... This will be the most expensive free meal we've seen on these boards.

The kicker here is that I get to pick the restaurant! 🤪😜

Denny’s it is 

Doesn't a Big Mac and a Filet 'o Fish from McDonald's count as surf and turf?

Without question ! 

roadburner

In other news, I checked the caseload stats for my office and they showed that since my team took over on January 7 we have disposed of 174 cases- 50 more cases than we have indicted. If we can maintain that level of performance for the next 12-18 months we will eliminate the backlog of cases almost completely. 

oldfarmer50

driver100 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

We had a deck put up 2 1/2 years ago. Strangely, one of the glass panels shattered yesterday for no apparent reason. I wrote to the company that installed it a nice email, I said we love the deck, how do we get a new panel? I expected they would tell me we will fix it for $200 or so. They wrote back within an hour and said we will be out to replace it tomorrow.

Now that is the kind of company I love to do business with.

Some sort of frost heave I’d guess.


Or a raccoon with a rock.

Kids with a BB gun!

Maybe the tree cutting neighbor welcoming you home.

ruking1

roadburner said:

In other news, I checked the caseload stats for my office and they showed that since my team took over on January 7 we have disposed of 174 cases- 50 more cases than we have indicted. If we can maintain that level of performance for the next 12-18 months we will eliminate the backlog of cases almost completely. 

I don’t know what you do, but it sounds like life is good!

oldfarmer50

ab348 said:

explorerx4 said:

@driver100,
Maybe Canada has different standards, but here a deck needs to be built on piers that are deeper than the frost line.
I will say the pavers you have look pretty level.
Why would someone climb the stairs to kick out the glass when they could stand on flat ground and kick it in?
You contractor must a 5 on a scale of 10.

The standards here are that a deck 4’ or less off the ground does not need piers that go below the frost line.

Sure, what could go wrong?

oldfarmer50

bwia said:

With Ford killing all of its passenger cars except the Mustang and Focus, the new 2020 Ford Escape looks less like a crossover and more like a car. The interior looks bland and cheap perhaps a Titanium model might look more upscale. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSGrCjp_a2c

According to my Ford dealer the Focus is already gone. I think the current Escape is too tiny. I drove one recently and thought it was an EcoSport.

oldfarmer50

graphicguy said:

OK....last night’s weather was perfect to put a new coat of wax and give the TLX a quick detail. Unfortunately, it got dark before I could take pics. But, I wanted to try one of those “quick wax sprays” to see how they look compared to my usual Zaino routine.

A little background....all over FaceBook are ads for this stuff....www.shinearmor.com. I ordered some early last week. They say they have two warehouses in the U.S. that they ship from. And that orders should be received within 3 days (for my location). That would have had their wax on my doorstep on Friday, maybe Saturday, for a detail I was going to do Sunday.

All I wanted was one bottle of their stuff to see if it’s legit. Doing on line ordering, they went through a series of....”if you buy another bottle, you get a better discount”...that leads to another page stating I needed their scratch repair concoction (I don’t) or their “magic” detail towels (don’t need those either). Finally, you get to their order page for 1 bottle of their wax. Placed the order and received confirmation. Never arrived. Pinged them Monday and they apologized by stating they’d send 2 bottles for the price of one (and subsequently charge another shipping fee for it). I declined that and asked for a refund.

Still haven’t received the refund, so I contacted my payment method (paypal) to give me a credit. Why do I bring this up? I get the sneaky suspicion these guys aren’t what they say they are....and have an air of “scaminess” about them. Stay away.

Flip side, I did order some of this stuff (www.buydualpower.com) instead. Came within a couple of days (actually delivered yesterday a.m.). Put some on last night after a quick wash (although it’s supposed to be a waterless wash, too....which I don’t trust). Easy on...easy off. Tool me all of 15 mins to wipe it on and buff it off. Looks damned good and gives good shine on my TLX. The question is, how long will it bead. Will find out as it’s supposed to rain tomorrow. I’ll report back.

Took the Mustang to work today and after sitting in the windy unpaved lot it looks like I was off roading. Off to the car wash tomorrow.

I also managed to shock or impress (not sure which) the boss this morning. As I went to headquarters in the dark I couldn’t resist blazing through an empty round about at about 45. I didn’t know he was right behind me. He mentioned my adventurous driving twice today. He was smiling both times so I’m going with impressed.

roadburner

ruking1 said:

I don’t know what you do, but it sounds like life is good!

I'm the Commonwealth's Attorney for my county- in KY that means I indict and prosecute felony cases.

ab348

roadburner said:

ruking1 said:

I don’t know what you do, but it sounds like life is good!

I'm the Commonwealth's Attorney for my county- in KY that means I indict and prosecute felony cases.

Do you have a Felony Squad?

carnaught

I think that Escape is kind of meh.

Mr_Shiftright

ab348 said:

Mr_Shiftright said:

It's my impression that Ford is really doing to best job among domestic automakers right now.

I don't get that impression at all, actually. I should find a pool on how long until Hackett is let go.

Well I meant that in a relative sense--surely you wouldn't give the edge to Fiat-Chrysler would you?

henryn

oldfarmer50 said:

According to my Ford dealer the Focus is already gone. I think the current Escape is too tiny. I drove one recently and thought it was an EcoSport.

Both you and I are definitely out of sync with the majority in this crowd. They mostly seem to think "smaller is better". I am strongly opposed to that when I don't fit. :@

explorerx4

I remember when the 2013 Escape was introduced, there was a lot of outrage, but it ended up selling pretty well.

jmonroe1

abacomike said:

Michaell said:

abacomike said:

jmonroe1 said:

abacomike said:

Had a great day with my daughter yesterday. I took her shopping and she bought some pants, shorts, shoes, etc.  it was so nice to buy her things she needed.  Then we went out for dinner and she had a Caesar salad and a lobster tail and several glasses of wine.  I had part of her salad, sautéed mushrooms and a filet mignon.  Very enjoyable dinner.

She is in North Palm Beach today on a job interview.  Boy would that be nice if she could find something down here.  Great spending some time with her! 😛

@Mike, since you're never going to send me airfare money to come visit you, I'm going to Plan B. What do you think of this? The next time I go to visit my Delray Beach SIL, I'll give you a call and you can treat Mrs. j and I to a nice surf and turf dinner at a restaurant of your choosing. This is probably a better idea, right?

jmonroe

You’re on!  It would be my pleasure! 😇

@jmonroe1 immediately navigates to a travel website to book plane tickets...

This will be the most expensive free meal we've seen on these boards.

The kicker here is that I get to pick the restaurant! 🤪😜

You can't cheap-out on a poster buddy like that. Remember, Mrs. j will be with me so that won't be a good idea. :@

jmonroe

driver100

tjc78 said:

abacomike said:

Michaell said:

abacomike said:

jmonroe1 said:

abacomike said:

Had a great day with my daughter yesterday. I took her shopping and she bought some pants, shorts, shoes, etc.  it was so nice to buy her things she needed.  Then we went out for dinner and she had a Caesar salad and a lobster tail and several glasses of wine.  I had part of her salad, sautéed mushrooms and a filet mignon.  Very enjoyable dinner.

She is in North Palm Beach today on a job interview.  Boy would that be nice if she could find something down here.  Great spending some time with her! 😛

@Mike, since you're never going to send me airfare money to come visit you, I'm going to Plan B. What do you think of this? The next time I go to visit my Delray Beach SIL, I'll give you a call and you can treat Mrs. j and I to a nice surf and turf dinner at a restaurant of your choosing. This is probably a better idea, right?

jmonroe

You’re on!  It would be my pleasure! 😇

@jmonroe1 immediately navigates to a travel website to book plane tickets...

This will be the most expensive free meal we've seen on these boards.

The kicker here is that I get to pick the restaurant! 🤪😜

Denny’s it is 

tjc78 said:

abacomike said:

Michaell said:

abacomike said:

jmonroe1 said:

abacomike said:

Had a great day with my daughter yesterday. I took her shopping and she bought some pants, shorts, shoes, etc.  it was so nice to buy her things she needed.  Then we went out for dinner and she had a Caesar salad and a lobster tail and several glasses of wine.  I had part of her salad, sautéed mushrooms and a filet mignon.  Very enjoyable dinner.

She is in North Palm Beach today on a job interview.  Boy would that be nice if she could find something down here.  Great spending some time with her! 😛

@Mike, since you're never going to send me airfare money to come visit you, I'm going to Plan B. What do you think of this? The next time I go to visit my Delray Beach SIL, I'll give you a call and you can treat Mrs. j and I to a nice surf and turf dinner at a restaurant of your choosing. This is probably a better idea, right?

jmonroe

You’re on!  It would be my pleasure! 😇

@jmonroe1 immediately navigates to a travel website to book plane tickets...

This will be the most expensive free meal we've seen on these boards.

The kicker here is that I get to pick the restaurant!

🤪😜

Denny’s it is

 

JMonroes favorite!

driver100

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

We had a deck put up 2 1/2 years ago. Strangely, one of the glass panels shattered yesterday for no apparent reason. I wrote to the company that installed it a nice email, I said we love the deck, how do we get a new panel? I expected they would tell me we will fix it for $200 or so. They wrote back within an hour and said we will be out to replace it tomorrow.

Now that is the kind of company I love to do business with.

Some sort of frost heave I’d guess.


Or a raccoon with a rock.

Kids with a BB gun!

Maybe the tree cutting neighbor welcoming you home.

Na, he got canned from his high paying job and moved to the West Coast....I got rid of him. I usually get my revenge. Companies that fired me or gave me a hard time are out of business.......people who have crossed me have paid dearly. I put the hex on that guy. He messed up some computer program and went way over the time limit.

driver100

oldfarmer50 said:

graphicguy said:

OK....last night’s weather was perfect to put a new coat of wax and give the TLX a quick detail. Unfortunately, it got dark before I could take pics. But, I wanted to try one of those “quick wax sprays” to see how they look compared to my usual Zaino routine.

A little background....all over FaceBook are ads for this stuff....www.shinearmor.com. I ordered some early last week. They say they have two warehouses in the U.S. that they ship from. And that orders should be received within 3 days (for my location). That would have had their wax on my doorstep on Friday, maybe Saturday, for a detail I was going to do Sunday.

All I wanted was one bottle of their stuff to see if it’s legit. Doing on line ordering, they went through a series of....”if you buy another bottle, you get a better discount”...that leads to another page stating I needed their scratch repair concoction (I don’t) or their “magic” detail towels (don’t need those either). Finally, you get to their order page for 1 bottle of their wax. Placed the order and received confirmation. Never arrived. Pinged them Monday and they apologized by stating they’d send 2 bottles for the price of one (and subsequently charge another shipping fee for it). I declined that and asked for a refund.

Still haven’t received the refund, so I contacted my payment method (paypal) to give me a credit. Why do I bring this up? I get the sneaky suspicion these guys aren’t what they say they are....and have an air of “scaminess” about them. Stay away.

Flip side, I did order some of this stuff (www.buydualpower.com) instead. Came within a couple of days (actually delivered yesterday a.m.). Put some on last night after a quick wash (although it’s supposed to be a waterless wash, too....which I don’t trust). Easy on...easy off. Tool me all of 15 mins to wipe it on and buff it off. Looks damned good and gives good shine on my TLX. The question is, how long will it bead. Will find out as it’s supposed to rain tomorrow. I’ll report back.

I also managed to shock or impress (not sure which) the boss this morning. As I went to headquarters in the dark I couldn’t resist blazing through an empty round about at about 45. I didn’t know he was right behind me. He mentioned my adventurous driving twice today. He was smiling both times so I’m going with impressed.

Glad you didn't do a few donuts in front of him. You may have been put on the Lada patrol.

oldfarmer50

explorerx4 said:

I remember when the 2013 Escape was introduced, there was a lot of outrage, but it ended up selling pretty well.

They ruined the Focus with that darned DCG. I suppose they could have been worse and gone with a CVT. Then they messed up the Escape by making it too small.

ronsteve

henryn said:

According to my Ford dealer the Focus is already gone. I think the current Escape is too tiny. I drove one recently and thought it was an EcoSport.

Both you and I are definitely out of sync with the majority in this crowd. They mostly seem to think "smaller is better". I am strongly opposed to that when I don't fit. :@

I'm disappointed that Car and Driver road tests of SUVs and wagons no longer include the "practical" cargo dimensions like cases of beer or "largest sheet of plywood." I care a lot more about the cargo footprint than the volume, and my 2nd generation RDX has just enough for what I need to do, and I'm quite thankful that the rear footwell remains available for small to medium items when the seatbacks are dropped. 

I was vaguely envious of the cargo space my friend has in her Edge, but I wasn't a fan of the way the Edge drove when I was test driving early last year. 

roadburner

ab348 said:

roadburner said:

ruking1 said:

I don’t know what you do, but it sounds like life is good!

I'm the Commonwealth's Attorney for my county- in KY that means I indict and prosecute felony cases.

Do you have a Felony Squad?

No, but we do have a Narcotics Task Force. Sad to say, I suspect over 75% of our cases are drug-related.

bwia

The new face-lifted 2020 Buick Lacrosse for China looks wonderfully pleasing to the eye. While GM has discontinued most of its sedans in North America foreign brands have not followed suit. Not sure what they thinking but GM will regret that strategy because karma has a way of biting you in the butt.
(Sorry I can't post the pic--help?)

stickguy

I think there is some amount of circular reasoning going on (self fulfilling prophecy). Sedans became a little less popular, so some makers stopped concentrating on them so they got staler, so even less attractive, and thus you end up with a death spiral.

even at lower volumes, they still sell a lot of them, and they should be pretty cost effective. Plus most CUV platforms are car based anyway. So, maybe the answer is to figure out how to make sedans more attractive to buyers, and try to win some buyers back. plus it still to me seems like ST thinking to get rid of them entirely, since that takes sedan buyers (often entry buyers, who you can get "into the family" to move up the food chain),

so maybe you don't need 3 sizes, and cut back to 2. heck, even one can cover up and down if you are smart about design. And stop trying to make family sedans overly sport (so, low and harsher). A higher hip point could appeal to buyers. Stuff like that.

does not seem hard for Ford to maintain a sedan off whichever new CUV platform makes sense to replace the focus/fusion (maybe Jetta sized?). Same with Chevy.

andres3

snakeweasel said:

berri said:

I always find it interesting that no insurance company or body shop will give you a straight answer on diminished value when you have a car accident repaired. Yet go to trade it in and - wham, its like it is ruined

Well for one your insurance policy isn't for diminished value it is to repair your car to proper working order and cover any liability in case you do damage to others. 

Secondly diminished value is a moving target.
 

So is the undiminished value though. A moving target that is.

You can apparently insure just about anything though.

Lastly, and most importantly, most DV claims are on third party claims (there is no policy, only a moral and LEGAL duty to make the victim whole)!!!!

dino001

I think Detroit is simply unable to profitably make a competitive sedan. They can make a good one at high price or a mediocre one at low price. So they bow out saying “people want SUVs and crossovers”. This will not be end well, just like 90s truck-based Explorer and Trailblazer bonanza ended in near death in 2007/08. Why don’t these people learn?

oldfarmer50

CorineCurtis said:

Medical expenses are not affordable for everyone. So find the health insurance plans which gives you the coverage, whether partial or full as per your need and the cost related to your treatments for the health problems. One can take AARP united healthcare plan F or Human plan F from The Health Exchange Agency . I heard about it, it gives more benefits with discounts. So choose the plan which is right for you.

Spam. Please remove.

ab348

Mr_Shiftright said:

ab348 said:

Mr_Shiftright said:

It's my impression that Ford is really doing to best job among domestic automakers right now.

I don't get that impression at all, actually. I should find a pool on how long until Hackett is let go.

Well I meant that in a relative sense--surely you wouldn't give the edge to Fiat-Chrysler would you?

Ford's sales in the first quarter were 39% to fleets. Just behind was Nissan at 34%. FCA was at 23%. GM and Toyota were each at about 13%. Fleet sales are not very profitable and will dilute resale values later on, along with possibly depressing new sales and transaction prices when those vehicles flood the used market.

Before the bankruptcy people used to rag on GM for their fleet sales, for good reason. If this continues it could become a leading indicator for much more serious problems for Ford.

sda

I am curious if the bulk of fleet sales is sedan related. Sell cheaply and clear the lot.

driver100

bwia said:

The new face-lifted 2020 Buick Lacrosse for China looks wonderfully pleasing to the eye. While GM has discontinued most of its sedans in North America foreign brands have not followed suit. Not sure what they thinking but GM will regret that strategy because karma has a way of biting you in the butt.
(Sorry I can't post the pic--help?)

The Chinese Buicks always look nicer. They spruced up the LaCrosse quite a bit, but it looks better from some angles than others.

I think they really improved the looks of the Regal....but, are they selling 2020 Regals in North America?

driver100

ab348 said:

Mr_Shiftright said:

ab348 said:

Mr_Shiftright said:

It's my impression that Ford is really doing to best job among domestic automakers right now.

I don't get that impression at all, actually. I should find a pool on how long until Hackett is let go.

Well I meant that in a relative sense--surely you wouldn't give the edge to Fiat-Chrysler would you?

Ford's sales in the first quarter were 39% to fleets. Just behind was Nissan at 34%. FCA was at 23%. GM and Toyota were each at about 13%. Fleet sales are not very profitable and will dilute resale values later on, along with possibly depressing new sales and transaction prices when those vehicles flood the used market.

Before the bankruptcy people used to rag on GM for their fleet sales, for good reason. If this continues it could become a leading indicator for much more serious problems for Ford.

Sometimes these companies need those fleet sales to offset costs and to keep production lines going. Sometimes you do things in business, that aren't necessarily profitable, but, it is better than sitting idle, sending workers home, and actually taking a loss. But, definitely not a good sign when you have to sell to fleets....in fact, it is like a red flag.