Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

tjc78

I looked at Philly’s plan and it was pretty scaled back too.

stickguy

I miss the old philly show.

I didn’t go this year but Albany had one and it looked to have as many brands as philly does now.

Michaell

The Denver Auto Show doesn’t even have a floor plan posted on the website.

laurasdada

Boston's show is in April, let's see what that brings.

Greenwich Concours June 1 weekend, that will be a better show!

kyfdx

Cincinnati's website shows the 2023 floor plan (though there are new dates for 2024)

driver100

laurasdada said:

Northeast International Autoshow in Providence coming up. Wow, what a wasteland it looks like, per the floorplan on the site...

https://providenceautoshow.com/floor-plan/

Thinking back to the wonderful NYIAS in The Colosseum and Javits Center of my youth, even in Boston when I first moved here, really makes me a bit sad.

It may be sad but if the interest isn't there it doesn't make sense for the car makers to exhibit their cars. Shows are costly and time consuming. Not participating is probably a smart business decision.

laurasdada

Yes, unfortunately so. Unlike the glory days of my youth, the internet makes it so much easier to gather data when considering a purchase.
But, to a core of folks who like to see, touch, smell and taste the iron (not to mention the SWAG! I used to get), it's not a desirable path going forward.

carnaught

Wow, a truncated autoshow to be sure.

roadburner

I remember attending IAA Frankfurt in 1989. My friend and I had press passes so we were able to check everything out for two days before it opened to the general public. The stand of most every major manufacturer had an upper level reserved for the press- lots of free food and drink. The manufacturers must have spent a fortune. Now the show is all about "mobility" and is held in Munich.

sda

I don't show a date for the Charlotte Auto Show which is typically in November.

oldfarmer50

stickguy said:

I miss the old philly show.

I didn’t go this year but Albany had one and it looked to have as many brands as philly does now.

It’s been pretty nice in the past if you don’t mind climbing stairs.

snakeweasel

dino001 said:

houdini1 said:

Mike Tyson said that whoever he fought always had a plan how to beat him, but once they got hit, the plan changed to how do I survive.

If I recall, his reported exact words were "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in their mouth"

The military has a saying that your battle plan doesn't survive first contact with the host.

snakeweasel

sda said:

I don't show a date for the Charlotte Auto Show which is typically in November.

The Chicago Auto show is next month. I haven't gone in a long time and my memories of it is that it's very big, very crowded and a pain to get to.

driver100

Things are a bit slow so here is a Dennis O'Sullivan for your amusement:

QUESTION

I do recall you helping someone who purchased a car and was not able to pay for it because of a job loss. I am in that same boat. I purchased a car from a used car dealer and left a thousand dollar deposit with the dealer. I was told that the car needed some safety work and that I could pick the car up in two days. A day after I left the deposit, I lost my job. I called the used car dealer and told them about losing my job and they told me that they were sorry about the job loss but they already had transferred the vehicle into my name so I had to take ownership of the car. Is there any way that you can help me get out of this purchase and get my deposit back?

Bill from ?????

ANSWER

Billy, Billy, Billy, what a web we can weave for ourselves and then get caught in that very web. You did not lose your job but you did quit your job and that new job you found came with

a car. You basically own the car that you signed for and they have all the legal right in the world to make you take it. I had negotiated the one thousand dollar deposit down to five hundred dollars since the used car dealer did have sympathy for you losing your job. That was until I found out the real reason that you wanted to cancel the deal and get your one thousand dollars back. Right now, you have two options. You can either take the car and try to sell it yourself or you can forfeit the one thousand dollars and walk away from the deal. The sad part of this story is that if you had been honest with me, I might have been able to save you five hundred dollars but as it stands now, you are on your own. To save you any further embarrassment or even possibly losing your new job, I have not revealed where you are from.

kyfdx

Why would anyone write this guy?

stickguy

Seems made up. How would a columnist learn that the guy quit his job to start another one that came with a car? And what idiot would have a job offer pending like that who would go buy a car the day before?

Smells like a scam to me.

driver100

I know Dennis is real, I wrote to him and he gave me good advice.
Also, I once leased a 1992 Chev and a few days later I thought I would be losing my job.
I called the salesman and he surprised me by saying they would cancel the order and refund my deposit. As it turned out I was able to keep the job, for 2 more years and then they canned me, so I think it is true.
I can tell by the questions and his answers....I don't think he makes up these stories.
Not everything is fake or a conspiracy.

28firefighter

@kyfdx said:
Why would anyone write this guy?

Afraid of confrontation? Incompetent in basic matters of life? A troll? I can think of many reasons…

The better question is how does the column still get readers…

kyfdx

28firefighter said:

@kyfdx said:

Why would anyone write this guy?

Afraid of confrontation? Incompetent in basic matters of life? A troll? I can think of many reasons…

The better question is how does the column still get readers…

He's definitely not a consumer watchdog.

driver100

The newspaper quietly cancelled Dennis's column a few months ago in order to save money. The brought him back because of popular demand.
Different tastes, but I find people like the way he answers questions and finds solutions, and finds the scammers.
You can't please all of the people all of the time.

jmonroe1

driver100 said:

The newspaper quietly cancelled Dennis's column a few months ago in order to save money. The brought him back because of popular demand.
Different tastes, but I find people like the way he answers questions and finds solutions, and finds the scammers.
You can't please all of the people all of the time.

————————————————-
When did they teach Canadians spin-offs of Abe Lincoln proverbs?

jmonroe

tjc78

So gang … what would you do?

We have the 6’ tall white vinyl fencing all around our property. When we moved in our neighbors had their side done, and we matched the rest of our property (two fences back to back is stupid, and I’ll never be changed of my opinion).

Their install wasn’t great. It’s not perfectly straight and a little sloppy compared to ours. I’ve already once had to take a section apart after a storm and fix it.

Now we have new neighbors who just moved in. With the crazy wind we had recently once section had all the panels blown out. I just went to fix it and three posts are broken at the bottom. Luckily I was able to rig it temporarily.

I told my wife that I was going to go to the new neighbor and offer to get the quote to fix and if we agreed on the price to split it.

She said “it’s their fence” … I said well we both need it (they have a dog too) so I thought it was a more than fair offer. She eventually agreed.

Thoughts?

qbrozen

I agree that is way more than fair. Plenty of people wouldn't do a damned thing and wait it out. The fact you even tried to fix it is admirable. Of course, they may think it is yours since you did that.

stickguy

I would have told them they need a new fence and hope they took care of it as the first option. making sure they knew it was theirs (which should be clear based on which side was the finished (outside) part that should be facing your yard. But offering to split it (with you doing the legwork) was a nice gesture. Though if you are putting it up, should put it in belonging to you this time!

in our old house, when we put the pool in, we needed to fence our yard. both neighbors had fences already from the same place (cedar). one side was tall (5 or 6') and we left that. The other side had a low version, which was not tall enough. Same as you, I did not want 2 fences back to back, so we offered that neighbor that we would take down their side fence, and replace it with a taller one that would belong to us. So they got a higher fence on one side, brand new. The owner at the time was fine with that. Next owner though was confused as to why there was a pile of spare fence panels stacked up behind their back fence (we backed up to an easement so the fence stopped about 20' before the property line, and it was just woods behind us anyway).

kyfdx

I agree with @stickguy
Before making a proposal, make sure they know the fence belongs to them. Otherwise, they might think you’re asking them to help you pay for your fence.

tjc78

Thanks Guys. 100% letting them know it is theirs.

If they question it I can 100% prove it with pictures right from the real estate listing.

ab348

It's nice when neighbors foot the bill for improvements on the property line.

A couple of years ago that happened in my favor. My garage and driveway are close to the property line with a neighbor's house. Many years ago the jerk neighbor planted hedges (the cheapest ones he could find) and had a guy build a chain link fence right along the line to boot. He was crazy and quite anti-social so I had zero relationship with him. He had the whole lot encircled by tall hedges which he never trimmed so nobody could see anything. Eventually he died (in the house, and wasn't discovered for a couple of weeks, ewww) and an older lady bought the place. She's been fine and I enjoy her when we talk. She is a gardening enthusuast and has done lots to the outside of the place.

One of the things she hated was the old plantings along the line, which by then had grown through and over the chain-link which made trimming very difficult. I ended up doing most of that and it was a miserable job. We had talked about getting rid of both the fence and the hedges, and one day she told me she was going to do it if it was OK with me. Sure thing, and I told her I'd be happy to go for half the cost.

One day a dump truck with 2 guys in it and a trailer shows up. There was a small excavator on the trailer, not the usual mini type but a bit bigger, though not the full-size either. For 30 minutes we were entertained by it making short work of what was there. Once the debris was loaded into the dump truck, they left for a while and came back with a load of topsoil and some sods. They recontoured the area, spread the soil, and put down the sods. With some watering that first few months, they took off and now the area is a nice-looking grassy transition between the two properties. We are both quite pleased with the outcome.

She resisted telling me what it all cost but finally i learned that it was about $2500. I wanted to pay half and she refused. After asking her to take my money a few more times she told me to just stop that, so I did. Good neighbor!

jmonroe1

tjc78 said:

Thanks Guys. 100% letting them know it is theirs.

If they question it I can 100% prove it with pictures right from the real estate listing.

————————————————
The fence probably belongs to your neighbor like you say but I’d never carte blanche believe what a realtor says. A lot of times they go by heresay. The best place to confirm who owns the fence is to go to the township. The down side of that is if the owner who installed the fence didn’t get a permit. If that happened that will open up a can of worms and your new neighbor will never talk to you again.

FWIW, I feel that what you propose is more than fair.

jmonroe

imidazol97

One of the first things I did when we moved into our house during the first year was to find the survey stakes. The official ones were along the back edge of the property and I could tell where the property line was based on fences other properties upstream or downstream were located.

I found them from temp stakes put in the front yard by the builder and measured the distance to the back. Then I used a spade to find those office survey stakes with the blue collar onthem.

I built the fence 3 inches onto my property.

The property behind was owned by a local, smalltown lawyer. When the kids were using our yard as part of theirs and hit the house with a soccer ball, I knew we needed the fence. Then there's the small kid of theirs who was challenged who yelled about someone was in their yard because my fence builders were here marking the location for the posts... He's the same kid who unplugged the freezer in garage of a house a couple away from them on their street. People lost all the meat they had in their extra freezer because they didn't know it was off.

Good fences make good neighbors. (Did Abraham Lincoln say that?)

tjc78

J - I installed the fence on the other three sides. It’s definitely theirs. We have pics that can prove it.

driver100

jmonroe1 said:

driver100 said:

The newspaper quietly cancelled Dennis's column a few months ago in order to save money. The brought him back because of popular demand.
Different tastes, but I find people like the way he answers questions and finds solutions, and finds the scammers.
You can't please all of the people all of the time.

————————————————-
When did they teach Canadians spin-offs of Abe Lincoln proverbs?

jmonroe

Actually Lincoln plagarized it from John Lydgate an English poet from England...a poet and a monk 1370 to 1451.
The following quote is attributed to the poet John Lydgate and later adapted by President Lincoln:

“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”.

I have more right to it than you do

stickguy

Found a car wash today with a DIY bay. Took advantage to spray the dust off the maverick and blast the underneath as best I could. Was going to do it in the driveway but 39 and cloudy was a bit too cold for that.

driver100

RE: The fence issue. I see these on Judge Judy quite often. One party fixes a fence and the real owner complains even if the neighbor paid to fix the owners fence without permission, and it should be in writing.
Definitely discuss, make sure to have a written agreement including type of fence, who is responsible to choose it, and who is paying for it. I think your offer is generous, but at least you will have the fence you want.

jmonroe1

imidazol97 said:

One of the first things I did when we moved into our house during the first year was to find the survey stakes. The official ones were along the back edge of the property and I could tell where the property line was based on fences other properties upstream or downstream were located.

I found them from temp stakes put in the front yard by the builder and measured the distance to the back. Then I used a spade to find those office survey stakes with the blue collar onthem.

I built the fence 3 inches onto my property.

The property behind was owned by a local, smalltown lawyer. When the kids were using our yard as part of theirs and hit the house with a soccer ball, I knew we needed the fence. Then there's the small kid of theirs who was challenged who yelled about someone was in their yard because my fence builders were here marking the location for the posts... He's the same kid who unplugged the freezer in garage of a house a couple away from them on their street. People lost all the meat they had in their extra freezer because they didn't know it was off.

Good fences make good neighbors. (Did Abraham Lincoln say that?)

————————————————
You got that backwards. Fences don’t make anything. They’re dumb and just stand there. People make fences. Now you know.

jmonroe

oldfarmer50

tjc78 said:

So gang … what would you do?

We have the 6’ tall white vinyl fencing all around our property. When we moved in our neighbors had their side done, and we matched the rest of our property (two fences back to back is stupid, and I’ll never be changed of my opinion).

Their install wasn’t great. It’s not perfectly straight and a little sloppy compared to ours. I’ve already once had to take a section apart after a storm and fix it.

Now we have new neighbors who just moved in. With the crazy wind we had recently once section had all the panels blown out. I just went to fix it and three posts are broken at the bottom. Luckily I was able to rig it temporarily.

I told my wife that I was going to go to the new neighbor and offer to get the quote to fix and if we agreed on the price to split it.

She said “it’s their fence” … I said well we both need it (they have a dog too) so I thought it was a more than fair offer. She eventually agreed.

Thoughts?

What if they assume that the section of fence is yours and that your trying to scam them to pay half? They might seeing that your entire fence matches theirs.

oldfarmer50

imidazol97 said:

One of the first things I did when we moved into our house during the first year was to find the survey stakes. The official ones were along the back edge of the property and I could tell where the property line was based on fences other properties upstream or downstream were located.

I found them from temp stakes put in the front yard by the builder and measured the distance to the back. Then I used a spade to find those office survey stakes with the blue collar onthem.

I built the fence 3 inches onto my property.

The property behind was owned by a local, smalltown lawyer. When the kids were using our yard as part of theirs and hit the house with a soccer ball, I knew we needed the fence. Then there's the small kid of theirs who was challenged who yelled about someone was in their yard because my fence builders were here marking the location for the posts... He's the same kid who unplugged the freezer in garage of a house a couple away from them on their street. People lost all the meat they had in their extra freezer because they didn't know it was off.

Good fences make good neighbors. (Did Abraham Lincoln say that?)

Robert Frost.

Re: fencing.

My next door neighbor has been acting odd for some time. During Covid she was quite hostile if I tried to strike up a conversation with her. Recently she put up a low chicken wire fence near the property line and spread landscape fabric on my side, probably onto my property a few feet.

One day she comes up to me and tells me she put up the barrier because she thinks I poisoned her dog while spraying weed killer on my driveway. I told her I haven’t use weed killer in years but use Vinegar instead. She ignored that and claimed she saw me sneaking onto her property to spray. At that point I walked away rather than get into a confrontation.

Now she spends hours raking leaves and pine needles along the property line almost as if on guard. The other day I saw her raking snow in her driveway. Very sad.

explorerx4

Not sure when it's going to completely dry out, so I went to the touchless car wash today.
Wiped the Explorer down when I got back home. Very therapeutic!

tjc78

@oldfarmer50 said:
What if they assume that the section of fence is yours and that your trying to scam them to pay half? They might seeing that your entire fence matches theirs.

The entire development has the same fence.

Here is my house from the real estate listing in 2020. The fence was clearly there before mine, it’s the neighbor to the left

I just want it fixed and figured if I offered a few bucks toward it, they would get it done. We need to let our dog out and they have a massive dog compared to us and my wife is afraid for our dog if it isn’t friendly

abacomike

I brought the G90 in to service Tuesday for a battery check-up. It failed the test so they put in a new Interstate battery. Now, it is holding its charge at 92%. Service manager informed me that the warranty on the old battery would have expired in 6 weeks (3 years). There was no charge for labor or the new battery.

The battery was humongous in physical size. Retail on the replacement battery online is $289.00. Wow, did I get lucky this time! The new battery also has a 36 month replacement warranty. I checked the battery on CR and it was a recommended brand and model.

driver100

@tjc78
If the problem is at ground level could you just repair the gap at the bottom of your fence? Even strong wire or rocks.
When Trixie was a puppy and weighed about 6 pounds she got out by going under the fence. Once I found her in our neighbors yard. I had to get her back with a treat. Then she got out at another place and fortunately some people who were walking by knew she was ours and they brought her back.
I used special wire that sticks in the ground and reaches the bottom of the fence, and it is high enough to keep her inside.
But, yeh, if there is a big dog that I wouldn't trust next door I would want something foolproof.

jmonroe1

abacomike said:

I brought the G90 in to service Tuesday for a battery check-up. It failed the test so they put in a new Interstate battery. Now, it is holding its charge at 92%. Service manager informed me that the warranty on the old battery would have expired in 6 weeks (3 years). There was no charge for labor or the new battery.

The battery was humongous in physical size. Retail on the replacement battery online is $289.00. Wow, did I get lucky this time! The new battery also has a 36 month replacement warranty. I checked the battery on CR and it was a recommended brand and model.

————————————————-
@Mike, I think I mentioned that I had to replace the battery in my ‘15 Genny a month or so ago. It is a huge battery and it cost me a tick over $300 installed at a near by Interstate dealer. No savings to do it myself so why not let them do it?

Then, just 2 weeks ago I had to replace the battery in Mrs. j’s ‘18 Legacy. That cost me a tick over $200. Needles to say this ain’t been the best way to start the Winter season for me.

jmonroe

imidazol97

abacomike said:

I brought the G90 in to service Tuesday for a battery check-up. It failed the test so they put in a new Interstate battery. Now, it is holding its charge at 92%. Service manager informed me that the warranty on the old battery would have expired in 6 weeks (3 years). There was no charge for labor or the new battery.

The battery was humongous in physical size. Retail on the replacement battery online is $289.00. Wow, did I get lucky this time! The new battery also has a 36 month replacement warranty. I checked the battery on CR and it was a recommended brand and model.

Wahoo!
I think I mentioned a possible warranty on the battery when I suggested calling service at dealer to ask about the low reading on the charge the car's meter was sensing.
I'm really glad it was caught early enough.

After your problem I checked my battery at nearly 3 years on my Cruze--a Walmart battery. It shows 98% charged and shows 590 CCA when the battery is rated at 525 CCA. Far above its rating.
It'll probably go dead next week, but hey, it's doing well now.

houdini1

CHIEFS !!!!

snakeweasel

tjc78 said:

So gang … what would you do?

We have the 6’ tall white vinyl fencing all around our property. When we moved in our neighbors had their side done, and we matched the rest of our property (two fences back to back is stupid, and I’ll never be changed of my opinion).

Their install wasn’t great. It’s not perfectly straight and a little sloppy compared to ours. I’ve already once had to take a section apart after a storm and fix it.

Now we have new neighbors who just moved in. With the crazy wind we had recently once section had all the panels blown out. I just went to fix it and three posts are broken at the bottom. Luckily I was able to rig it temporarily.

I told my wife that I was going to go to the new neighbor and offer to get the quote to fix and if we agreed on the price to split it.

She said “it’s their fence” … I said well we both need it (they have a dog too) so I thought it was a more than fair offer. She eventually agreed.

Thoughts?

Well if I had a white vinyl fence around my property I would rip it out and install a proper fence.

In reality since my property sits on a small lake with a park on the other side of the lake I keep it sans fence for the view.

Other than that, I think you did a fair and neighborly thing in offering to split the cost.

venture

Our vacuum was working, but not as well as it should have been. We also have a small one for hard to reach places. It never did well.

So off we went looking for a vacuum. Stopped at Target - not much to choose from. Stopped at Lowes on the way home and they had a nice selection. We got a Shark upright as well as a Shark cordless stick vacuum.

When we got home, I plugged in the cordless and let it charge overnight. This morning Mrs. venture started vacuuming in the breakfast room to see how it worked. She was amazed how much crapola it picked up from a carpet that was just vacuumed two days ago.

She likes it so much that we may return the upright. Time will tell.

snakeweasel

ab348 said:

It's nice when neighbors foot the bill for improvements on the property line.

A couple of years ago that happened in my favor. My garage and driveway are close to the property line with a neighbor's house. Many years ago the jerk neighbor planted hedges (the cheapest ones he could find) and had a guy build a chain link fence right along the line to boot. He was crazy and quite anti-social so I had zero relationship with him. He had the whole lot encircled by tall hedges which he never trimmed so nobody could see anything. Eventually he died (in the house, and wasn't discovered for a couple of weeks, ewww) and an older lady bought the place. She's been fine and I enjoy her when we talk. She is a gardening enthusuast and has done lots to the outside of the place.

One of the things she hated was the old plantings along the line, which by then had grown through and over the chain-link which made trimming very difficult. I ended up doing most of that and it was a miserable job. We had talked about getting rid of both the fence and the hedges, and one day she told me she was going to do it if it was OK with me. Sure thing, and I told her I'd be happy to go for half the cost.

One day a dump truck with 2 guys in it and a trailer shows up. There was a small excavator on the trailer, not the usual mini type but a bit bigger, though not the full-size either. For 30 minutes we were entertained by it making short work of what was there. Once the debris was loaded into the dump truck, they left for a while and came back with a load of topsoil and some sods. They recontoured the area, spread the soil, and put down the sods. With some watering that first few months, they took off and now the area is a nice-looking grassy transition between the two properties. We are both quite pleased with the outcome.

She resisted telling me what it all cost but finally i learned that it was about $2500. I wanted to pay half and she refused. After asking her to take my money a few more times she told me to just stop that, so I did. Good neighbor!

When we moved into our current home we did a similar thing as your neighbor along the sides of the property except not hedges but a more decorative foliage and no fence (our new neighbors put a cedar fence in next to it after they moved in this last summer). We keep it trimmed on both sides and try not to let it grow over the neighbors property.

stickguy

houdini1 said:

CHIEFS !!!!

Boo. that shark has been jumped multiple times. They need to go away, take Taylor and all the Mahomes/Reid commercials with them!

stickguy

got an email from the SSA that my statement was ready, so got ambitious and went to play around in the site with the calculators. Turns out that working longer will only up the monthly by about $12. Now I am sorry we are still spending money instead of just retiring! Not that the benefit would start for a while (shooting for 67) but less incentive to keep adding new years to the list. a wedding, trip to Europe, and a kids wedding this year though takes care of any thought about going sooner! Plus that pesky issue of what to live on until SS kicks in.

jmonroe1

houdini1 said:

CHIEFS !!!!

————————————————-
I knew you’d like that.

The Steelers are so far from being there, even if I was good at math I still couldn’t count all the pieces they would need to get there.

Good luck and enjoy the ride.

jmonroe

ab348

stickguy said:

houdini1 said:

CHIEFS !!!!

Boo. that shark has been jumped multiple times. They need to go away, take Taylor and all the Mahomes/Reid commercials with them!

stickguy said:

houdini1 said:

CHIEFS !!!!

Boo. that shark has been jumped multiple times. They need to go away, take Taylor and all the Mahomes/Reid commercials with them!

I don’t pull for the Chiefs but acknowledge that Mahomes is a tremendous talent and Reid is a good coach. But the entire thing with Swift and all of the Kelces needs to go away, stat. I find Taylor’s BF an arrogant, obnoxious boor.