Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

driver100

Interesting letter in Dennis O'Sullivan's column today:
READER’S COMMENT

Mr. O’Sullivan. You are a very big disappointment to me. I was recommended to you because they said that you have a good connection to the garages and you speak their language. I asked you to intervene in a situation that I had with a garage. They were holding my car for ransom until I paid the bill. I was disputing the cost of the repair including the storage cost. You did get the garage to deduct any storage cost but when I went to pay, they would not accept my check. I was in a heated conversation with them and they have now added the cost of the storage back onto the bill. You told me that you would not further intervene for me. Thanks for nothing.

Dan

ANSWER

I am sorry Dan that you feel that way but you did not do as I asked. You created such a fuss at the garage when they refused your personal check that they now want nothing to do with you. I told you that you either had to pay with a credit card or cash and you agreed. I also told you that they would not accept a personal check because your first check to them was “insufficient funds”. You went to them after our agreement with a personal check and they refused to accept that. You called the owner foul names in front of his customers so the garage has again put the storage cost back onto the bill as well as the twenty five dollars that the bank charged them for your bounced check. As I said in my email to you, I cannot do anything more for you.

tjc78

Mini rant here… (and yes a first world problem, but it’s principal)

We bought a brand new golf cart last July for the shore house. All was fine for the first season, but I noticed battery capacity was getting poor early spring this year. By Memorial Day it was about half the capacity. At first I thought it was because I forgot to add distilled water, but learned the cart came with “gel” or AGM batteries that don’t require water.

We spoke to the selling dealer mid June and he right away said they have been having all kinds of problems with these batteries from the time frame our cart was manufactured. So Icon did the right thing and warrantied them.

We have been waiting since then for the new batteries. Cart is stone dead sitting outside the dealer. We blew up Icon today and threatened to pursue a buy back etc etc

They claim the batteries have arrived and they are shipping next week as soon as they can be picked up by a carrier.

Why is nothing ever easy!

imidazol97

I believe we had talked about check scams in the recent past. The Post Office (USPS) apparently uses one key for the blue boxes for mail to be dropped into, at least in this Ohio area. One key for all of them, LOL.

Someone had been taking mail out of those boxes where folks drop their mail, including checks they've written to pay various bills. This is the result in a court case with a face and name attached who used the checks to scam money from older individuals in 4 counties in SW Ohio.

https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/man-admits-to-identity-theft-scheme-that-took-thousands-from-local-senior-citizens/IQVES7EJXBBUDGFEL27H7D53QM/

stickguy

I never trusted those. when I needed to mail something I always went into the lobby and dropped it into the inside box.

and yes, that meant I had to actually Park and get out of my car!!!!! Oh the horrors.

actually the PO at the old house was about a mile away, so most times I just walked to it for my daily steps.

imidazol97

Since I have had a PO Box for decades, I usually drop mail inside when I go to check the box.

I kept a PO Box since the USPS couldn't get my mail straight when I lived east of Cincy. They forwarded my mail to someone's forwarding address, with a last name of e.g. Azolit instead of Azol who lived on the same residential road as I lived but at a completely different street number. So business/finanail related mail goes mostly to the PO Box.

If I do drop something in an outside blue box, I did it shortly before the daytime pickup time.

But it's an embarrassment that the USPS used one key for the blue boxes in some fairly large geographic area. One key. Not one key for all those in a zip code, but e.g. Ohio? Perhaps someone knows better than what I gleaned from the admissions when they started asking the public to help with any info about thefts in Cincinnati and Dayton area a year or so ago.

sda

All lined up in the company parking tower. I recognize several of them that haven't moved all day

sda

A different look losing the Bradford pear trees from a storm earlier this week but not from Idalia. Certainly not cheap to cut them down and grind the stump.

jmonroe1

tjc78 said:

Mini rant here… (and yes a first world problem, but it’s principal)

We bought a brand new golf cart last July for the shore house. All was fine for the first season, but I noticed battery capacity was getting poor early spring this year. By Memorial Day it was about half the capacity. At first I thought it was because I forgot to add distilled water, but learned the cart came with “gel” or AGM batteries that don’t require water.

We spoke to the selling dealer mid June and he right away said they have been having all kinds of problems with these batteries from the time frame our cart was manufactured. So Icon did the right thing and warrantied them.

We have been waiting since then for the new batteries. Cart is stone dead sitting outside the dealer. We blew up Icon today and threatened to pursue a buy back etc etc

They claim the batteries have arrived and they are shipping next week as soon as they can be picked up by a carrier.

Why is nothing ever easy!

————————————————
Rich folks always have problems like that.

jmonroe

ab348

sda said:

All lined up in the company parking tower. I recognize several of them that haven't moved all day

As @driver100 might say, that’s very considerate of them to do so when there is a runaway battery fire it will keep it confined to themselves.

driver100

Interesting letter in Dennis O

ab348 said:

sda said:

All lined up in the company parking tower. I recognize several of them that haven't moved all day

As @driver100 might say, that’s very considerate of them to do so when there is a runaway battery fire it will keep it confined to themselves.

That's funny, but actually what @driver100 is thinking is; Look at all those free loaders getting juiced up at the trough!

stickguy

that is what the trough is there for. Just wildly inconsiderate to not go down and move out once your car is juiced up.

tjc78

Last fireworks of the season and a nice full moon!

dino001

All ESPN disappeared on my Spectrum cable in the middle of US Open, which they are sole broadcaster. Corporate greed at its finest. Of course both Spectrum and Disney had "fair offers" for each other and turned the channels off for our own good. I generally wouldn't care so much - not a big ESPN viewer, except Formula 1 and Tennis Grand Slams - but doing it in the middle of US Open really pissed me off.

venture

driver100 said:

Interesting letter in Dennis O

ab348 said:

sda said:

All lined up in the company parking tower. I recognize several of them that haven't moved all day

As @driver100 might say, that’s very considerate of them to do so when there is a runaway battery fire it will keep it confined to themselves.

That's funny, but actually what @driver100 is thinking is; Look at all those free loaders getting juiced up at the trough!

There are some charging stations at the grocery store we frequent. There are cars there almost every time we go there. A few have been plugged in, but most of them just use them as parking spaces that are close to the door.

stickguy

dino001 said:

All ESPN disappeared on my Spectrum cable in the middle of US Open, which they are sole broadcaster. Corporate greed at its finest. Of course both Spectrum and Disney had "fair offers" for each other and turned the channels off for our own good. I generally wouldn't care so much - not a big ESPN viewer, except Formula 1 and Tennis Grand Slams - but doing it in the middle of US Open really pissed me off.

I just checked and ESPN on our Spectrum package has the same self-serving message up on ESPN. No mention of course about giving us a discount since they are no longer paying Disney.

ESPN I would never likely notice, but thankfully they still have ABC on the local stations. That is the local news we watch!

mjfloyd1

RIP Jimmy Buffett😢

sda

mjfloyd1 said:

RIP Jimmy Buffett😢

I just read that elsewhere. Very, very sad.

ab348

stickguy said:

I just checked and ESPN on our Spectrum package has the same self-serving message up on ESPN. No mention of course about giving us a discount since they are no longer paying Disney.

A similar thing happened here a couple of months ago when one of the big Canadian cable channel suppliers tried to raise prices on our relatively small regional cable provider. They would not pay the new higher rates and so the channels went away. But there was no corresponding rate reduction for what was no longer being provided. I guess the PITA that switching is (with few viable alternatives too) makes it easier for these outfits to get away with this stuff.

kyfdx

Disney and Spectrum is just a big stare down, that will likely be concluded in a few days..

stickguy

effectively the same as a union going on strike. becomes a battle to see who blinks first.

tjc78

Comcast had this same battle with Starz right before the last season of Power was to debut.

driver100

stickguy said:

that is what the trough is there for. Just wildly inconsiderate to not go down and move out once your car is juiced up.

If they are offering free electricity they should treat the gasser people equally and offer free gas - we actually pay for the roads to get to work and stores by buying gas.

mjfloyd1

@sda said:
I just read that elsewhere. Very, very sad.

I didn’t realize that “Come Monday” put Jimmy Buffett on the map. I was watching the home made video and came across an interesting comment - “it was a lot more fun being 20 in the seventies than it is being 70 in the twenties “.

driver100

kyfdx said:

Disney and Spectrum is just a big stare down, that will likely be concluded in a few days..

I hope so, I can watch the U.S. Tennis Open here at home fine....but we have Spectrum in Florida and I don't want to miss the big tennis games!
They shouldn't be allowed to lock up major events like that!

Michaell

We've had a similar issue here in Denver for several years. Comcast has been battling with Altitude Sports and Entertainment, a regional spors network owned by the Kronke family, which means that both the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche games are not shown on local TV. We only see them when they are featured on a national telecast.

graphicguy

kyfdx said:

Michaell said:

laurasdada said:

Yup, I love New England weather. If you don't like it, wait a minute...

Nope, that's what we say here in Colorado.

I have personally witnessed a 40 degree drop in the ambient temperature in 30 minutes.

I'll clue you guys in... they say that everywhere...

Funny…sitting outside at a restaurant last night chatting with friends about this very issue. Yeah, you and I get some swings. But overall, we get some some really hot days, and some really cold days, but overall it’s pretty pleasant here.

Probably why every time I think about moving, I realize the low cost of living, the laid back atmosphere and the mostly mild weather is why I stay. In reality, we can live here comfortably with not a lot of money and not much hassle.

oldfarmer50

dino001 said:

All ESPN disappeared on my Spectrum cable in the middle of US Open, which they are sole broadcaster. Corporate greed at its finest. Of course both Spectrum and Disney had "fair offers" for each other and turned the channels off for our own good. I generally wouldn't care so much - not a big ESPN viewer, except Formula 1 and Tennis Grand Slams - but doing it in the middle of US Open really pissed me off.

Yeah, we got the same treatment up here. I’m wondering, will Spectrum give us a refund on our bill for all those missing channels? I’m considering crawling out of my cave and getting one of those fancy streaming services.

I might have to hire a 5 year old to hook it up though.

oldfarmer50

driver100 said:

stickguy said:

that is what the trough is there for. Just wildly inconsiderate to not go down and move out once your car is juiced up.

If they are offering free electricity they should treat the gasser people equally and offer free gas - we actually pay for the roads to get to work and stores by buying gas.

I agree. I wonder if I parked at a gas pump and left the car there all day if anyone would complain. Entitlement I guess.

Speaking of entitlement, I was at the new Chick-Fil-A today and woman with a small dog in her lap (think Trixie) pulls in, obviously for the first time. The kids they have standing outside begin to take her order and I could see her having a long conversation with them. First she pulls out a credit card, then her Apple Pay and finally another credit card, all the while pausing to tell the kids some marvelous (to her) story. Meanwhile cars are building up in line until there’s at least a dozen. Dog lady doesn’t care as she just has to tell them another story.

After maybe 10 minutes she pulls up to the window but stops short so that when they bring my order first I can’t pull around her. I ask the kid to tell her to pull up and she does still yacking away.

I can only imagine how someone like that drives on the road with a dog on her lap and an entitled attitude.

stickguy

going to be one flat dog if she rear ends someone and the airbag blows.

jipster

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

stickguy said:

that is what the trough is there for. Just wildly inconsiderate to not go down and move out once your car is juiced up.

If they are offering free electricity they should treat the gasser people equally and offer free gas - we actually pay for the roads to get to work and stores by buying gas.

I agree. I wonder if I parked at a gas pump and left the car there all day if anyone would complain. Entitlement I guess.

Speaking of entitlement, I was at the new Chick-Fil-A today and woman with a small dog in her lap (think Trixie) pulls in, obviously for the first time. The kids they have standing outside begin to take her order and I could see her having a long conversation with them. First she pulls out a credit card, then her Apple Pay and finally another credit card, all the while pausing to tell the kids some marvelous (to her) story. Meanwhile cars are building up in line until there’s at least a dozen. Dog lady doesn’t care as she just has to tell them another story.

After maybe 10 minutes she pulls up to the window but stops short so that when they bring my order first I can’t pull around her. I ask the kid to tell her to pull up and she does still yacking away.

I can only imagine how someone like that drives on the road with a dog on her lap and an entitled attitude.

Maybe more oblivious than entitled. I would be tempted to do a quick tap on the horn...then point to your wristwatch. LOL

How's your son's Fusion doing? Just replaced the rusted out transmission cooler lines on my son's Milan. Was leaking fluid. Was 2 quarts low. At 196,000 miles. Fingers crossed.

Neighbors have a red 2013 Ford Focus Titanium they will be selling in a few months. Only 56k miles. Excellent condition. Family owned. Only problem is those transmissions have had a lot of reliability issues. Too bad. Could have sold my Kia and used the Focus for backup duty.

houdini1

oldfarmer50 said:

Michaell said:

I removed the paywall from this NY Times article:

Even newbies can rent an EV and make it work, for a day...

Well, I guess I’ll never rent an EV since my flip phone doesn’t “app”.

So in Manhattan it costs $332. a day to rent an ordinary ice car? I don't think so.

snakeweasel

dino001 said:

All ESPN disappeared on my Spectrum cable in the middle of US Open, which they are sole broadcaster. Corporate greed at its finest. Of course both Spectrum and Disney had "fair offers" for each other and turned the channels off for our own good. I generally wouldn't care so much - not a big ESPN viewer, except Formula 1 and Tennis Grand Slams - but doing it in the middle of US Open really pissed me off.

You know I was very disappointed when I found out the ESPN wasn't the Psychic Network.

snakeweasel

houdini1 said:

So in Manhattan it costs $332. a day to rent an ordinary ice car?

Man that's cold, how much to rent on with heat?

ab348

Re. OF's entitled Chick-Fil-A lady, a couple of weeks ago I had to renew my passport. I went and downloaded the forms from the feds, determined what information they needed, and went and got my passport pics taken. There were 3 federal offices about equally far away where I could submit it (you have to do it in person) and since 2 of them were in downtown offices where parking would be painful, I picked a third one in a smaller bedroom community that was in a mall. Figured it would be less busy also.

I show up on a Tuesday morning, and there are about 6 people in line at the one reception desk. The lady staffing it is good although chatty, and the first 2 people move through reasonably quickly. Number 3 though is a different story. She begins by telling much of her life story before getting to why she's there (they do a bunch of things besides passports). What she wanted to do first required some forms to be filled out in advance because of the information they required. She didn't have the forms and said she couldn't use a computer to get them, so the lady had to print out this large pile of paper to give her and explain to her how to fill it out. Then she segued into issue #2, which was something this office didn't do, and the lady had to help her understand how and where to get that done when she wanted to deal with it. In between we listened to all sorts of life experiences she was relating. Then finally she needed info on her late husband's pension benefits, for which the clerk had nothing she could help her with either. All of this was at least 20 minutes with no movement for the growing lineup of people. I guess the Feds here aren't big on queue management.

As frustrating as this was, it was opposite of another older couple who showed up wanting to apply for their first-ever passports and had no idea about anything. No forms, no ID, no pictures, nothing. This time the lady just sent them away with a brochure. Amazing.

tjc78

Stunning beach day today and the rest of the weekend looks killer.

Kids back to school Thursday. We took off Tuesday to move back home and get back into the routine.

We started off the weekend with a huge seafood boil we brought to our friend’s place across the street. The fish market up the street from us is fantastic

Everyone enjoy the weekend!!

tjc78

I’m a total beach bum!

tjc78

@qbrozen
How was Myrtle Beach?

dino001

kyfdx said:

Disney and Spectrum is just a big stare down, that will likely be concluded in a few days..

Likely, but US Open will end by then.

tjc78

There must be someplace online you can stream the Open.

pensfan83

Food looks fantastic, as does the weather. Enjoy it all!

driver100

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

stickguy said:

that is what the trough is there for. Just wildly inconsiderate to not go down and move out once your car is juiced up.

If they are offering free electricity they should treat the gasser people equally and offer free gas - we actually pay for the roads to get to work and stores by buying gas.

After maybe 10 minutes she pulls up to the window but stops short so that when they bring my order first I can’t pull around her. I ask the kid to tell her to pull up and she does still yacking away.

I can only imagine how someone like that drives on the road with a dog on her lap and an entitled attitude.

Just to be clear, our Trixie stays in her crate in the car
It is the same with the first cars in the leftlane advanced green arrow turning lane. If they are half asleep they move slowly, and only 2 or 3 cars get through when 6 cars could have turned....they don't think of anyone else.

oldfarmer50

jipster said:

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

stickguy said:

that is what the trough is there for. Just wildly inconsiderate to not go down and move out once your car is juiced up.

If they are offering free electricity they should treat the gasser people equally and offer free gas - we actually pay for the roads to get to work and stores by buying gas.

I agree. I wonder if I parked at a gas pump and left the car there all day if anyone would complain. Entitlement I guess.

Speaking of entitlement, I was at the new Chick-Fil-A today and woman with a small dog in her lap (think Trixie) pulls in, obviously for the first time. The kids they have standing outside begin to take her order and I could see her having a long conversation with them. First she pulls out a credit card, then her Apple Pay and finally another credit card, all the while pausing to tell the kids some marvelous (to her) story. Meanwhile cars are building up in line until there’s at least a dozen. Dog lady doesn’t care as she just has to tell them another story.

After maybe 10 minutes she pulls up to the window but stops short so that when they bring my order first I can’t pull around her. I ask the kid to tell her to pull up and she does still yacking away.

I can only imagine how someone like that drives on the road with a dog on her lap and an entitled attitude.

Maybe more oblivious than entitled. I would be tempted to do a quick tap on the horn...then point to your wristwatch. LOL

How's your son's Fusion doing? Just replaced the rusted out transmission cooler lines on my son's Milan. Was leaking fluid. Was 2 quarts low. At 196,000 miles. Fingers crossed.

Neighbors have a red 2013 Ford Focus Titanium they will be selling in a few months. Only 56k miles. Excellent condition. Family owned. Only problem is those transmissions have had a lot of reliability issues. Too bad. Could have sold my Kia and used the Focus for backup duty.

196k? That’s phenomenal. Didn’t they tell you that the engine was going to blow up about 100k miles ago? We replaced the tranny cooler lines on my son’s Sable too so that must be a common failure point.

I would stay away from that Focus. When I first started at Enterprise we still had a few and they shifted like a bucking horse. The 17’-18’ models drove much better but I wouldn’t trust them.

The kid’s Fusion is doing fine at 55k miles. I keep looking for rust but none so far. I popped the access caps on the rear door frame to get a look down into the rockers which is where rust normally starts. It was very clean but I sprayed some Fluid Film in there anyway. He is not particular about cars but says the Fusion is the best he’s ever had.

oldfarmer50

houdini1 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

Michaell said:

I removed the paywall from this NY Times article:

Even newbies can rent an EV and make it work, for a day...

Well, I guess I’ll never rent an EV since my flip phone doesn’t “app”.

So in Manhattan it costs $332. a day to rent an ordinary ice car? I don't think so.

If I remember she had it for several days. As to cost, rentals are outrageous these days. I found the paperwork a customer left in a big Ford and the total for the week was over $3000.

jmonroe1

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

stickguy said:

that is what the trough is there for. Just wildly inconsiderate to not go down and move out once your car is juiced up.

If they are offering free electricity they should treat the gasser people equally and offer free gas - we actually pay for the roads to get to work and stores by buying gas.

I agree. I wonder if I parked at a gas pump and left the car there all day if anyone would complain. Entitlement I guess.

Speaking of entitlement, I was at the new Chick-Fil-A today and woman with a small dog in her lap (think Trixie) pulls in, obviously for the first time. The kids they have standing outside begin to take her order and I could see her having a long conversation with them. First she pulls out a credit card, then her Apple Pay and finally another credit card, all the while pausing to tell the kids some marvelous (to her) story. Meanwhile cars are building up in line until there’s at least a dozen. Dog lady doesn’t care as she just has to tell them another story.

After maybe 10 minutes she pulls up to the window but stops short so that when they bring my order first I can’t pull around her. I ask the kid to tell her to pull up and she does still yacking away.

I can only imagine how someone like that drives on the road with a dog on her lap and an entitled attitude.

————————————————
Like me like my dog. Just for your info lady, I don’t like you or your mutt.

jmonroe

jmonroe1

tjc78 said:

Stunning beach day today and the rest of the weekend looks killer.

Kids back to school Thursday. We took off Tuesday to move back home and get back into the routine.

We started off the weekend with a huge seafood boil we brought to our friend’s place across the street. The fish market up the street from us is fantastic

Everyone enjoy the weekend!!

————————————————
Anyone else miss the invite?

jmonroe

stickguy

if I hadn't moved out of NJ I am sure they would have called me. I could be there in 1.5 hours.

jipster

@oldfarmer50 said:
196k? That’s phenomenal. Didn’t they tell you that the engine was going to blow up about 100k miles ago? We replaced the tranny cooler lines on my son’s Sable too so that must be a common failure point.

I would stay away from that Focus. When I first started at Enterprise we still had a few and they shifted like a bucking horse. The 17’-18’ models drove much better but I wouldn’t trust them.

The kid’s Fusion is doing fine at 55k miles. I keep looking for rust but none so far. I popped the access caps on the rear door frame to get a look down into the rockers which is where rust normally starts. It was very clean but I sprayed some Fluid Film in there anyway. He is not particular about cars but says the Fusion is the best he’s ever had.

Yes. The dealership was giving me estimates
for a rebuilt engine 3 months after I bought it. That was over 90k miles ago. Was hoping just to get 2 years out of the car. It's at 4 1/2 years now. Car runs good. Showing some rust on rear quarter panels. Was a northern Indiana car for 3-4 years.

Did replace the Fusions AAA battery last week. Don't know what's going on with their contractors, but they don't want to honor prorating their bad batteries. On 2 occasions, in the last 6 months, they've come out and said the battery wasn't bad. Said there's a battery drain somewhere.
I take the car to my mechanic, the next day, and it is indeed a bad battery.

Yeah, my brother bought a new Focus when they first came out with those dual clutch transmissions. Had all kinds of problems. So yeah, will stay away.

qbrozen

@tjc78 said:
@qbrozen
How was Myrtle Beach?

It was fine. Thanks.
Damned hot/humid though.

Not much beach time for me, since I hate it.

Did 3 escape rooms, 1 night of bowling, murder mystery dinner at House of Blues, 1 night of music there, too, and 1 gospel brunch since my 17-yr-old was chosen as the murder mystery winner and got 2 free tix, countless rounds of mini golf at the behest of the 13-yr-old, and lots of eating out.

The night of music was a bust. My oldest and I intended to see Clutch. I had no idea they run it like a typical bar and don’t intend for the main act to go on for several hours after the start time. We didn’t make it through the 2nd opener, so we never actually saw Clutch.

Due to impending weather, we left Wed instead of Fri.

tjc78

Sounds like a good time. I had a feeling the weather could have been a problem.

I haven’t been there for many years, I’m sure it changed a lot.

kyfdx

A friend was at Topsail Beach in NC, last week. They'd rented a big house on the beach for a family of 7. They rode out the storm, early on Thursday, and by that evening, all was good. Scary for a little while, though. Idalia turned East, and the 50 MPH forecast winds were only 30 MPH.