Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

snakeweasel

stever said:

(The kachina doll is temporary and on it's way back to its owner after I did some kludge repairs on it )

I would keep the kachina doll and rig it up to point in the direction you need to go.

snakeweasel

henryn said:

Remember, I left quietly and calmly two hours earlier. No ill feelings, no disputes, no problems. If they didn't want my offer, I had no problems with that. The salesman came after me, told me we had a deal, and wasted two hours of my time. They deserved worse than what I gave them.

Work up an invoice on your computer (excel might have some good templates) for two hours of your time and send it to them. If they don't pay it in 30 days add late fees and interest and resend, if they don't pay that sell it to a collection agency.

snakeweasel

henryn said:

fezo said:

Steve I really think the Etch-A-Route is you. I'd reconsider plans if I were you.

I've pretty much abandoned my navigator. Just plug into google maps and let the Bluetooth voice guide me.

Google maps is wonderful, I absolutely love it and cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would pay for an inferior system built into their new car.

I agree completely, read my upcoming sales story.

snakeweasel

dino001 said:

As it shouldn't. Besides the raw commodity costs, there are other costs that become larger percentage of the total, as gas price goes down. In other words, one dollar per barrel at $40 level will not translate to same percentage of gas price drop as 2 dollars at $80. I'm not saying the prices should not go down further (I'm sure they will, eventually, if the oil price stays low), but expecting same percentage drops is like expecting Starbucks to cut their price of coffee in half because the beans are half price. OK, that's a bit extreme, Starbuck's raw coffee price is very small percentage in their latter, but you get the picture. Perhaps a better example would be some wholesale cereal price vs. bulk corn or wheat prices. There is a correlation, but it has its limits.

Very true, lets say that a single gallon of oil costs $1.00 and the cost to transport and refine that gallon of oil to a gallon of gas is $1.00 you cost for a gallon of gas of $2.00. Now the price of oil drops to $0.50 a gallon you still have the $1.00 a gallon costs to refine and transport. So to expect the price of gas to drop in half ($1.00) is unrealistic, it should drop to $1.50 or 25%.

houdini1

driver100 said:

snakeweasel said:

abacomike said:

Today, I can get a date online without the embarrassment or uncertainty of walking up to a girl and carousIng her into going out with me.

#1.) was gone for a few weeks to see my new granddaughter and get back for my sons wedding yesterday so I am trying to catch up on something like 600 new posts. On the plus side I do have a car purchase story for you, I will get to that when I have gotten caught up.

#2.) In response to your post; as long as you stay away from sites like this.

I like what that first guy said;

Name: TJ
I’m looking for a girl named “Julie”.. it’s just easier that way. I got this “Julie” tattoo last year, and would prefer to not deal with it. or if you want to change your name that’s cool. Location: Missouri, USA

And, I have some more advice. Don't bother signing on with Ashley Madison, only 10% are women and most of them sign up and never actually use it. Not great odds!

I think I would be a tad skeptical of any woman who had to hire a service in order to have an affair !!

snakeweasel

andres3 said:

Just a couple of links to show you the stuff I say isn't made up or some regurgitated insurance-backed & perpetuated myth as you wrote above, some which is blatantly plainly false.

Interesting that the links are newspaper articles and not the actual studies.

Fact is that going faster is more risky, you may wish to deny that to justify your need to speed, but the facts are still the facts.

snakeweasel

driver100 said:

For those "gas" experts here is a new fact for you.

I was reading questions and answers in todays newspaper and a fellow had a question. He said alcohol in gasoline damages his engine, glue joints on the carburetor floats that are plastic fail because the alcohol dissolves the glue. The pre-filter screens on the fuel pump get distorted from clogging, and seals degrade, all because of the alcohol.

The answer was interesting. Dennis O'Sullivan said alcohol was added as being good for the environment, supposedly less pollution from the tail pipe. He says all it really does is add more profit for the gas companies and for the car companies - to sell more parts. He says alcohol in the gas can reduce mileage by up to 5% because it has less energy than gasoline.

3 winners!

Gas companies sell more gas
Car companies sell more parts
Government collects more taxes on the gas sold

and one loser,
Us!

Question for you, which new cars today have a carburetor? and how many carburetor equipped cars are out there now?

Filter screens are not going to get clogged due to alcohol in the fuel, they will only if there is contaminates in the gas.

When was the last time you had to replace a part like filters or seals in a modern car? Far less than in the 70's and 80's I'll bet.

Most cars are designed to run 10% alcohol with no issues, so the only issue you should have is the lower gas mileage.

driver100

snakeweasel said:

driver100 said:

Mike, cars get 2 or 3X mileage they used to,

Not to sure about that, my first car was a 1970 Dodge Coronet with the slant 6 and I got 23 or so MPG highway and few cars today will get twice that and none would get three times that.

I drove 1970 Ford Torino that got about 15 mpg and the E400 gets 30 mpg...that's double.
And my neighbors i3 gets 124 mpg so that is about 5X more than your Dodge.
I think gas mileage has improved a lot over the years.

snakeweasel

Mr_Shiftright said:

If you want a villain for the "conspiracy", then choose Big Ag and their paid representatives in DC, not the oil companies.

Yes, oil companies are likely seeing less in sales and profits with using ethanol in gas.

roadburner

I believe the fuel economy improvements really show when related to horsepower. A new Corvette can get 30 mpg or better at a 70 mph cruise, yet it will simply annihilate a 1970 454 Corvette(which was lucky to get much over 14 mpg) by any acceleration metric you want to use.

isellhondas

snakeweasel said:

driver100 said:

Mike, cars get 2 or 3X mileage they used to,

Not to sure about that, my first car was a 1970 Dodge Coronet with the slant 6 and I got 23 or so MPG highway and few cars today will get twice that and none would get three times that.

I am really surprised you got that kind of gas mileage with your slant six in a fairly heavy car like a Coronet.

I have nothing but great respect for those wonderful slant sixes but they were known for poor gas mileage and emissions. Still, they could go 200,000 miles and more at a time most cars couldn't hit 100K without an overhaul.

snakeweasel

mako1a said:

And I notice you didn't put your thumb over your plate in that photo. Aren't you afraid that some axe murderer will look you up and come a chopping?

Or worse yet an Edmunds poster?

imidazol97

75,000,000 computers have been upgraded to Windows 10 successfully.
90,000 different types of computers have been accomadated with the upgrades.

snakeweasel

isellhondas said:

snakeweasel said:

driver100 said:

Mike, cars get 2 or 3X mileage they used to,

Not to sure about that, my first car was a 1970 Dodge Coronet with the slant 6 and I got 23 or so MPG highway and few cars today will get twice that and none would get three times that.

I am really surprised you got that kind of gas mileage with your slant six in a fairly heavy car like a Coronet.

I have nothing but great respect for those wonderful slant sixes but they were known for poor gas mileage and emissions. Still, they could go 200,000 miles and more at a time most cars couldn't hit 100K without an overhaul.

After I posted that I looked it up and found that it was rated at 21-22 MPG highway so getting 23 isn't really that hard. especially with 55 MPH speed limits.

Now city mileage was pretty bad, maybe mid teens.

oldfarmer50

Be still my heart.

I'm coming back from the farmer's market in my POS old van when I look at my down the street neighbor's driveway and see it is filled with maybe 30 Jaguars! They looked to be every type and vintage from I'm guessing the last 30 years. There was even a brand new bright red one with dealer plates. There was a banner proclaiming something about a Jaguar club but I was too busy drooling over this collection to notice exactly what it said.


I knew my neighbor was into Jags but I've only spoken to his wife on rare occasion, never met him.If I knew him better I'd love to nose around over there and take some pictures. They'd probably take me for a carjacker and call the cops.

snakeweasel

OK sales story (in reality a buying story).

Was in VA visiting my new granddaughter and went with my son in law to look at new cars. Now seeing that they now have three kids they were looking for a minivan. They had a 2002 Honda Pilot and an even older Hyundai Elantra so they needed something a bit bigger now with three kids.

We ended up in a little area that had several dealerships within walking distance of each other so a looking we went. My SIL had a requirement that two seats in the back row had child seat anchors. While all the minivans we looked at had these anchor points in both seats in the middle row only two manufactures had two seats in the third row with the anchors. That was the Honda and the Toyota.

Notice to you manufacturers out there get those child seat anchors in two seats in that third row of your minivans, you already lost one sale over it. I'm talking to you Chrysler.

My SIL at this time was just looking to see what they wanted to buy. Their plan was to drive the Elantra back here to Chicago for my sins wedding yesterday, buy the van here and give the Elantra to one of his family members.

Well we looked at both the Honda Odyssey and the Toyota sienna, I found the Sienna to be a little higher and therefor a little harder to get into and out of. Otherwise I found little difference between the two with the exception that the Toyota was a few thousand more.

Interesting note the Toyota dealership had a Harley in the showroom. Seems that they took it in as trade in on a guy buying a Corolla.

The Toyota dealership didn't have the model he wanted and couldn't find it one in the area and offered a "killer deal" on the next higher trim. My SIL declined it.

My SIL wanted my opinion between the two and I suggested the Honda due to it was less expensive, had a lower profile and got slightly better gas mileage.

The Honda dealership we went to had over $1,000 in additional add ons, including pin-striping, wheel locks, a pad in the cargo area and nitrogen in the tires on every car on their lot.

So last Tuesday me and the wife left VA to come back to Chicago to get some things ready for the wedding on Friday with the daughter and SIL with the kids coming Wednesday night in the elantra to get in in time for the wedding rehearsal.

To be continued.

henryn

houdini1 said:

driver100 said:

snakeweasel said:

abacomike said:

Today, I can get a date online without the embarrassment or uncertainty of walking up to a girl and carousIng her into going out with me.

#1.) was gone for a few weeks to see my new granddaughter and get back for my sons wedding yesterday so I am trying to catch up on something like 600 new posts. On the plus side I do have a car purchase story for you, I will get to that when I have gotten caught up.

#2.) In response to your post; as long as you stay away from sites like this.

I like what that first guy said;

Name: TJ
I’m looking for a girl named “Julie”.. it’s just easier that way. I got this “Julie” tattoo last year, and would prefer to not deal with it. or if you want to change your name that’s cool. Location: Missouri, USA

And, I have some more advice. Don't bother signing on with Ashley Madison, only 10% are women and most of them sign up and never actually use it. Not great odds!

I think I would be a tad skeptical of any woman who had to hire a service in order to have an affair !!

Completely free for the women. Not so for the men.

qbrozen

I can't imagine why anyone with 3 kids would want to put 2 child seats requiring anchors in the 3rd row. I know I certainly don't want to climb back there everyday to strap and unstrap kids. Even if I was strapping 1 of 3 kids into the 3rd row, I'd want that to be the center of the 3rd row, which the Odyssey does not offer.

houdini1

henryn said:

houdini1 said:

driver100 said:

snakeweasel said:

abacomike said:

Today, I can get a date online without the embarrassment or uncertainty of walking up to a girl and carousIng her into going out with me.

#1.) was gone for a few weeks to see my new granddaughter and get back for my sons wedding yesterday so I am trying to catch up on something like 600 new posts. On the plus side I do have a car purchase story for you, I will get to that when I have gotten caught up.

#2.) In response to your post; as long as you stay away from sites like this.

I like what that first guy said;

Name: TJ
I’m looking for a girl named “Julie”.. it’s just easier that way. I got this “Julie” tattoo last year, and would prefer to not deal with it. or if you want to change your name that’s cool. Location: Missouri, USA

And, I have some more advice. Don't bother signing on with Ashley Madison, only 10% are women and most of them sign up and never actually use it. Not great odds!

I think I would be a tad skeptical of any woman who had to hire a service in order to have an affair !!

Completely free for the women. Not so for the men

Well that makes sense, since any fairly nice looking woman could walk out onto her front porch, smile nicely, batt her eyes a little, and there would be a riot of guys willing to accommodate her.

graphicguy

henryn said:

On the subject of GG’s Cadillac woes:

I strongly suspect that Cadillac (the corporation, not the local dealers) still don’t believe his car is really “broken”. “Not showing a code” is a really big deal to them. And the car is (mostly) drivable.

I think both of the service departments he has dealt with are not truly presenting his side of the case to the higher levels (regional manager, zone manager, whatever).

When you start dealing with huge corporations, internal communications are often terrible at best. And in this case, the dealerships and Cadillac corporation are two entirely separate entities, with completely different interests.

I have stated before, here in these forums, eventually dealerships are going to be owned / run by the car companies. I think that HAS to happen, eventually.

Henry...I also think that the Cadillac service depts are somehow rated/funded by how well they fix the new cars they sell. Can't fix it? Don't know what's wrong? Tell Cadillac corporate that it's operating "as designed".

Although, I don't know how you can ignore the power steering going out.

While Cadillac and their dealers CLAIM they prize customer service and support highly, in reality the cheaper then can get away with supporting their customer, the better.

That's quite different than probably Mercedes, BMW , Acura, Infiniti, Lexus, et al view it, where they prize repeat business highly. And, the one sure fire way to secure than is with top notch customer service and support.

snakeweasel

qbrozen said:

I can't imagine why anyone with 3 kids would want to put 2 child seats requiring anchors in the 3rd row. I know I certainly don't want to climb back there everyday to strap and unstrap kids. Even if I was strapping 1 of 3 kids into the 3rd row, I'd want that to be the center of the 3rd row, which the Odyssey does not offer.

The way they have it set up is one kid (oldest) in the third row, with the two other in the middle row. The oldest is in a booster seat and can buckle herself in. The middle child needs help a little more than half the time so no climbing in the back to strap in anyone. My guess is they wanted the option of which side to put the oldest boaster seat.

dino001

graphicguy said:

henryn said:

On the subject of GG’s Cadillac woes:

I strongly suspect that Cadillac (the corporation, not the local dealers) still don’t believe his car is really “broken”. “Not showing a code” is a really big deal to them. And the car is (mostly) drivable.

I think both of the service departments he has dealt with are not truly presenting his side of the case to the higher levels (regional manager, zone manager, whatever).

When you start dealing with huge corporations, internal communications are often terrible at best. And in this case, the dealerships and Cadillac corporation are two entirely separate entities, with completely different interests.

I have stated before, here in these forums, eventually dealerships are going to be owned / run by the car companies. I think that HAS to happen, eventually.

Henry...I also think that the Cadillac service depts are somehow rated/funded by how well they fix the new cars they sell. Can't fix it? Don't know what's wrong? Tell Cadillac corporate that it's operating "as designed".

Although, I don't know how you can ignore the power steering going out.

It's all based on assumption that customer has no credibility when reporting a problem, so you can forget about compensation without a code. The relationsgip between GM and its dealers must be absolutely awful, if they don't give them enough goodwill to allow investigations without those codes. It is also clear that avoiding short term loss is still much more important to them than building a brand position. Everybody knows that one very unhappy customer usually spills into multiple losses of business, but they seem to simply not care. There are people out there that impossible to satisfy, no matter what, they'll always find something to be unhappy about, so sometimes it may be only course of action to cut them off and fight them. However, based on available information, I don't think yours is that case. It is GM and its dealers who don't deserve a benefit of the doubt here.

"Operating as designed" is a very good concise manifestation their of culture.

snakeweasel

OK part two.

The kids decide on the Odyssey EX-L with Navigation. I had tried to talk him out of the navigation seeing that he has it on his iPhone so he would be paying a few thousand more for something he already has. Now we just have to find our price point.

They decide on the 2015 since they could get one at a good price and the first thing we did was look it up on True Car. Then we jumped on Edmunds and tried the "price promise" but all that got us was a few dealerships saying "Come on in and we can talk". Now mind you they will just be in town a day or two to buy the car and they just want a good price for the Odyssey that they want and get in, get it and get out. Would be an easy sale.

Well just before the wife and I left Tuesday we decided that I would check USAA car buying service and contact a few dealers and see what I can do for him. Now halfway home we receive a phone call from the SIL. Apparently the SIL had found out that he had a meeting on the next day and he couldn't come in with our daughter the next day and he didn't want her to miss the rehearsal Thursday evening.

Now he told us he was trying to work things out and see if he could get out of the meeting but asked me if I could fly into DC the next afternoon and drive back to Chicago with our daughter so she could get to the rehearsal on Thursday. I said OK.

So the next day (Wednesday) I used USAA and contacted the dealerships and found a dealer more than willing to give a good price (just over $31K) from a dealer maybe 40 minutes away from me. Meanwhile I waited to see what would happen about this meeting and if I would fly to DC that day.

Well as it turned out he couldn't get out of his meeting and called me to let me know. He then called Southwest Airlines to book me a flight into Dulles airport and they would pick me up and me and my daughter would drive back.

So I get a cab to take me to the airport, the cab was an older Lincoln Town Car with almost 600K miles on it. That car rode nice and smooth and the interior was well kept. Still a great ride.

Anyway I got to the airport and went up to the ticket agent to get my ticket. Now my SIL got the "wanna get away" ticket which is the lowest fair they have but when the lady at the ticket counter said it was bought as a military discount ticket and since i didn't have a military ID I had to pay the difference between the discounted price and the full fare. I argued that "fact" with her for a while but since I was getting nowhere fast and that my flight was leaving in less than 20 minutes and I had to be on that flight I decided to pay the difference and fight it out with southwest later.

Now mind you I now have a one way ticket to DC bought by a different person less than an hour ago and I had no checked or carry-on baggage yet no one questioned it and I made it through security with no hassle.

Anyway, I made it to DC and who do you think drives up to pick me up in their brand new Odyssey van?

Come on, guess who picks me up in their brand new Honda Odyssey EX-L with NAV?

To be continued.

abacomike

The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch for all of South Florida effective immediately.  They predict 3-8 inches of rain between now and Monday morning.  Bands of rain showers and thunderstorm have already begun to arrive here in North Broward County.  Tomorrow morning through Monday evening is supposed to be the heart of the storminess. 

One problem we have down here is lack of storm drainage on most roads.  It was thought that the sandy soil would naturally drain flooding, but unfortunately when you have nowhere for the water to drain off streets, it becomes a serious hazard.  Couple that with topography that is often compared to a pancake, water just pools.  Interstates and the Turnpike are fine and well-drained.  It's the local streets that cause problems.

isellhondas

imidazol97 said:

75,000,000 computers have been upgraded to Windows 10 successfully.
90,000 different types of computers have been accomadated with the upgrades.

Well, good for those 75,000,000 people!

I can think of at least four people including myself and my VERY computer savvy cousin. Fro us, it was such a nightmare that we were lucky to switch back to Win 7!

I think for the people that were running Windows 8.1, the upgrade was easy and without problems.

So much for trying to "improve" something that we had never had one problem with!

Lesson learned!

abacomike

I upgraded from Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.  I had no problems at all.  It might be the type of computer and the processor.  I have an I7 Intel 33.6 MHz processor and 12 gigs of RAM.

I am surprised you had so much trouble.  Sorry.

isellhondas

It lost all of my favorites which I finally recovered. It dumped all of my auto fill passwords and it forces you to use Bing which I despise. I have no idea what my processor speed is but we have 8 gigs of RAM.

Back in 1995 or 1996 when these forums first started, I had a password that I've long forgotten since it would always auto fill. I tried EVERYTHING to no avail. I couldn't figure out how to contact anyone at Edmunds either.

But, I'm back now! My seniority and benefits and vacation pay are intact! Life is good!

Nobody even missed me, I know....

abacomike

isellhondas said:

It lost all of my favorites which I finally recovered. It dumped all of my auto fill passwords and it forces you to use Bing which I despise. I have no idea what my processor speed is but we have 8 gigs of RAM. Back in 1995 or 1996 when these forums first started, I had a password that I've long forgotten since it would always auto fill. I tried EVERYTHING to no avail. I couldn't figure out how to contact anyone at Edmunds either. But, I'm back now! My seniority and benefits and vacation pay are intact! Life is good! Nobody even missed me, I know....

Hmmm, and I was just thinking a few days ago, "...boy, I wonder what happened to isellhondas - I miss his cryptic posts!"  See, and you thought you weren't missed.

imidazol97

isellhondas said:

It lost all of my favorites which I finally recovered. It dumped all of my auto fill passwords and it forces you to use Bing which I despise.

What kind of machine were you upgrading? Some of the problematic machines have been
Dells and some others not in the mainstream. I upgraded an HP G7 and have an HP G6 lined
up for the upgrade.

I'm listening to a computer call in program right now and they were saying
something about Dell and some others. They don't do podcasts or I would
wait til that's posted and verify what they were saying.

I do remember it tried, like so many things try to do, to make Bing the default. I just
piddled around and found how to add other search engines to the choices and make
Google the default.

As I said earlier, the only problem I had was Win10 chose the wrong screen size
for my laptop. I found the settings for the display and found there was a 1600 x
something available and clicked and that was the one needed.

dino001

I'm not upgrading yet. Will wait probably to the end of free upgrade period. Let them work out all the bugs.

stever

There should be a "forgot password" link here at the login page. And check out DuckDuckGo for a search engine. No tracking.

driver100

snakeweasel said:

driver100 said:

For those "gas" experts here is a new fact for you.

I was reading questions and answers in todays newspaper and a fellow had a question. He said alcohol in gasoline damages his engine, glue joints on the carburetor floats that are plastic fail because the alcohol dissolves the glue. The pre-filter screens on the fuel pump get distorted from clogging, and seals degrade, all because of the alcohol.

The answer was interesting. Dennis O'Sullivan said alcohol was added as being good for the environment, supposedly less pollution from the tail pipe. He says all it really does is add more profit for the gas companies and for the car companies - to sell more parts. He says alcohol in the gas can reduce mileage by up to 5% because it has less energy than gasoline.

3 winners!

Gas companies sell more gas
Car companies sell more parts
Government collects more taxes on the gas sold

and one loser,
Us!

Question for you, which new cars today have a carburetor? and how many carburetor equipped cars are out there now?

Filter screens are not going to get clogged due to alcohol in the fuel, they will only if there is contaminates in the gas.

When was the last time you had to replace a part like filters or seals in a modern car? Far less than in the 70's and 80's I'll bet.

Most cars are designed to run 10% alcohol with no issues, so the only issue you should have is the lower gas mileage.

The reply regarding ethanol was to a fellow who was having problems using it in his older British Sports Car, that did have a carburetor. However, the point was, it could still do some damage to parts of the fuel system, jam up filters, corrode plastic etc.

There is very little upside, lots of downside to ethanol, unless you are an oil refinery, car maker, or the government.

stickguy

daughter and SIL Snake?

Just a WAG....

suydam

The whole fam?

driver100

roadburner said:

I believe the fuel economy improvements really show when related to horsepower. A new Corvette can get 30 mpg or better at a 70 mph cruise, yet it will simply annihilate a 1970 454 Corvette(which was lucky to get much over 14 mpg) by any acceleration metric you want to use.

And that is a big part of the equation to be considered too. The E400 gets 30 mpg and has 330 hp. Most 1970 that had a fairly large engine did not get great gas mileage.

In fact, this chart shows 1970 cars only averaged 13.5 mpg, and that was less than a 1960 car. Some say the worst year was 1973 at 11.9 mpg. But, after the 70s it continued to rise, slowly.
AVERAGE MPG since 1960

And then I found these numbers CAFE fleet average:
The average fuel economy for cars must improve from the current 27.5 mpg, where it has been since 1990, to 37.8 mpg by 2016.

oldfarmer50

Hey driver100:

Didn't you say you wanted a '58 Thunderbird?

Just happen to find one for you.

http://albany.craigslist.org/cto/5184265148.html

berri

That T-Bird looks in nice condition.

berri

Isell - I don't like to touch a new Microsoft software until at least service pack 1 has been issued. Gonna probably be buggy. Maybe this time will be different.

Don't feel bad about the failed upgrade. This can be due to computer specs not meeting the new software requirements, but more often I think it is related to driver issues. Nothing wrong with Windows 7. It's the culmination of XP, so most of the issues were worked out by then. Windows 8, that's another story!

If you still want to upgrade, I'd probably take it to a computer repair place with a good reputation. They can make sure the hardware will work, backup your files and update your drivers as necessary, and probably do it for less than the price of a new software package if you had to pay for it in the first place (and in less time).

stickguy

that thing looks like a sawzall and case of beer "custom" on some other frame.

To my eye, not at all attractive. Quite a turnabout from the 57!

berri

Uplander, I'm not positive, but I think Ford moved a Fusion line to Detroit, but still has one in Mexico. I know that like GM, they are in the process of shifting some of the plant product lines around. I'm pretty sure though, that the net for Ford will be an increased percentage in Mexico. At GM, I think I read that over the next few years Buick will produce a lot of their vehicles in China for export around the world including the US. If the recent China slowdown is a longer term thing, I suspect more GM product will be exported from there into the US because of their rather large manufacturing footprint in Asia.

Personally, I use US content as a tie breaker, but wouldn't buy a vehicle primarily based on this issue. But I am suspect of Chinese quality and business ethics, so the China thing does give me some pause. I guess it will depend on how tight GM manages not only the Chinese plants, but maybe more importantly, the Chinese supply chain. I don't trust the supply chain thing at this point.

abacomike

It's been thundering, lightning and raining all night.  Another band is coming through right now.  Didn't get much sleep last night.  I don't know how much rain we've had, but it was quite a lot.  It's supposed to rain all day.

abacomike

As the sun comes up, the sky is a bright orange.  I have never seen a sky so orange before.  Heavy clouds due to the rain and thunderstorms and as the light from the sun refracts through the clouds causing the entire sky to glow a pumpkin color.  Eerie looking.

tommister2

abacomike said:

As the sun comes up, the sky is a bright orange.  I have never seen a sky so orange before.  Heavy clouds due to the rain and thunderstorms and as the light from the sun refracts through the clouds causing the entire sky to glow a pumpkin color.  Eerie looking.

I hope you stay safe and dry Mike. Sounds like FL is getting a ton of rain.

driver100

I was sent this contest....guess the cars.

I got 48 out of 56, I mixed up some Desotos and Chryslers, and a Lincoln and a Packard.

Check out some of those 50s and 60s cars too....some of them are fantastic.

GUESS THE CAR

This gives me a chance to do this picture too, which I like posting, haven't done it for about 3 years now,

driver100

abacomike said:

It's been thundering, lightning and raining all night.  Another band is coming through right now.  Didn't get much sleep last night.  I don't know how much rain we've had, but it was quite a lot.  It's supposed to rain all day.

Good luck Mike. Our neighbors in Florida called and said the house was OK so far, just lots of rain.

roadburner

1964 Thunderbird.

Michaell

Stay safe, Mike!

driver100

roadburner said:

1964 Thunderbird.

You're very close RB.

imidazol97

I cleaned up the link that Mr. Driver was posting. It didn't work right in my
browser from his post.

http://www.americantorque.com/game/tailfins/

graphicguy

dino001 said:

graphicguy said:

henryn said:

On the subject of GG’s Cadillac woes:

I strongly suspect that Cadillac (the corporation, not the local dealers) still don’t believe his car is really “broken”. “Not showing a code” is a really big deal to them. And the car is (mostly) drivable.

I think both of the service departments he has dealt with are not truly presenting his side of the case to the higher levels (regional manager, zone manager, whatever).

When you start dealing with huge corporations, internal communications are often terrible at best. And in this case, the dealerships and Cadillac corporation are two entirely separate entities, with completely different interests.

I have stated before, here in these forums, eventually dealerships are going to be owned / run by the car companies. I think that HAS to happen, eventually.

Henry...I also think that the Cadillac service depts are somehow rated/funded by how well they fix the new cars they sell. Can't fix it? Don't know what's wrong? Tell Cadillac corporate that it's operating "as designed".

Although, I don't know how you can ignore the power steering going out.

It's all based on assumption that customer has no credibility when reporting a problem, so you can forget about compensation without a code. The relationsgip between GM and its dealers must be absolutely awful, if they don't give them enough goodwill to allow investigations without those codes. It is also clear that avoiding short term loss is still much more important to them than building a brand position. Everybody knows that one very unhappy customer usually spills into multiple losses of business, but they seem to simply not care. There are people out there that impossible to satisfy, no matter what, they'll always find something to be unhappy about, so sometimes it may be only course of action to cut them off and fight them. However, based on available information, I don't think yours is that case. It is GM and its dealers who don't deserve a benefit of the doubt here.

"Operating as designed" is a very good concise manifestation their of culture.

Cadillac's level of incompetence with their product is staggering. Not sure the dealer is complicit, but I almost feel sorry for the servicing dealer. Cadillac seems to be treating them poorly too, given they won't compensate them to really diagnose, and in turn, fix the problems.