Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

imidazol97

Sounds like the "Grapes of Wrath."

PF_Flyer said:

Here's another image from Memory Lane. The slide projector wasn't functioning, but I ran across this slide from spring of 1946. That's my Dad on his honeymoon. He borrowed a friend's car for the trip and it broke down, so Dad took apart the engine to make the repair. Such a romantic

toomanyfumes

Goodyear snow tires go on the Mustang this week, what a difference they make! I have them mounted on an older set of GT 18" wheels so they look pretty good too. The original Pirellis have a little over 20000 on them, they might last one more summer.

houdini1

When I was "courting" my future wife, my right front wheel started making a grinding noise as I was taking her home one afternoon. We were right in front of her house, so we pulled over. I took the tire off and (63 Dodge Dart convertible) and brake parts fell to the ground in a jumble.

I had no idea how they all fit together, so I took the left front tire off, checked it over, and was able to put the other one back together. My bride to be told me later that I had impressed future father-in-law. He was a brilliant chemical engineer, 2nd in his class at Tulsa Univ., etc. etc.,but had no idea how to actually do anything of a practical nature. Great guy though.

After we had been married for about 30 years, we were visiting them one day. He was in the garage and had been trying to put the little grill back on the bottom of their freezer. He told me it was impossible because the grill was recessed about 3 inches beneath the bottom of the door and he had to blindly try to find the two little holes to fit the prongs into. I took one look, opened the freezer door which exposed the holes and slipped the grill on. He just looked at me, shook his head and walked away.

snakeweasel

PF_Flyer said:

Here's another image from Memory Lane. The slide projector wasn't functioning, but I ran across this slide from spring of 1946. That's my Dad on his honeymoon. He borrowed a friend's car for the trip and it broke down, so Dad took apart the engine to make the repair. Such a romantic

Well if we are going old pictures I have this glass negative that was taken outside my grandfathers house. It's only 1 HP but it got the job done.

houdini1

That is one studly looking horse. And that flimsy little "carriage" looks like a racing surrey. Built for speed. That driver was probably known locally as a "hot rodder".

oldfarmer50

PF_Flyer said:

Here's another image from Memory Lane. The slide projector wasn't functioning, but I ran across this slide from spring of 1946. That's my Dad on his honeymoon. He borrowed a friend's car for the trip and it broke down, so Dad took apart the engine to make the repair. Such a romantic

Not being stranded on the road back then was probably very romantic to your mom.

oldfarmer50

driver100 said:

js06gv said:

@stever What's interesting about that Encore is when I pulled up the MSRP from the dealer website it was listed as $1,995 less, which would suggest $1,995 of mop and glow and other worthless add ons. Is that common at this dealer?

I see them on Edmunds site from $25300 to low $30s. Reviews seem pretty good, if space and speed aren't important, not sure the garbage can would fit....better take it with for when you test the car out.. Lots of other similar small SUVs worth checking, including the Escape and RAV4. But, maybe you prefer something a little different....Mitsu Outlander?

Buy the Outlander used and let depreciation work for you. Half price after 3 years maybe.

snakeweasel

houdini1 said:

That is one studly looking horse. And that flimsy little "carriage" looks like a racing surrey. Built for speed. That driver was probably known locally as a "hot rodder".

Yeah, it's that eras version of a Corvette.

oldfarmer50

explorerx4 said:

@stever,
Found you a van, if you don't mind travelling to CT to pick it up.
http://hartford.craigslist.org/cto/5895807498.html

260,000 miles?! Yikes! I could have sold him a van with half that milage for a lot less.

oldfarmer50

toomanyfumes said:

Goodyear snow tires go on the Mustang this week, what a difference they make! I have them mounted on an older set of GT 18" wheels so they look pretty good too. The original Pirellis have a little over 20000 on them, they might last one more summer.

A Mustang in the snow?

Noooooooooooooooooooo!

oldfarmer50

snakeweasel said:

PF_Flyer said:

Here's another image from Memory Lane. The slide projector wasn't functioning, but I ran across this slide from spring of 1946. That's my Dad on his honeymoon. He borrowed a friend's car for the trip and it broke down, so Dad took apart the engine to make the repair. Such a romantic

Well if we are going old pictures I have this glass negative that was taken outside my grandfathers house. It's only 1 HP but it got the job done.

Dang hotrodders!

explorerx4

That setup is closer to a Morgan than a Corvette, wooden frame and all.
Maybe even the horse.

jmonroe

houdini1 said:

driver100 said:

Had to look it up to find out what it was. You can order them today for $4.95 at amazon; Are these politically correct any more?

Yep, that's it.

I had that one too but I also had the one that had a White background with a Blue or maybe it was a Black Indian face.

jmonroe

jmonroe

houdini1 said:

When I was "courting" my future wife, my right front wheel started making a grinding noise as I was taking her home one afternoon. We were right in front of her house, so we pulled over. I took the tire off and (63 Dodge Dart convertible) and brake parts fell to the ground in a jumble.

I had no idea how they all fit together, so I took the left front tire off, checked it over, and was able to put the other one back together. My bride to be told me later that I had impressed future father-in-law. He was a brilliant chemical engineer, 2nd in his class at Tulsa Univ., etc. etc.,but had no idea how to actually do anything of a practical nature. Great guy though.

After we had been married for about 30 years, we were visiting them one day. He was in the garage and had been trying to put the little grill back on the bottom of their freezer. He told me it was impossible because the grill was recessed about 3 inches beneath the bottom of the door and he had to blindly try to find the two little holes to fit the prongs into. I took one look, opened the freezer door which exposed the holes and slipped the grill on. He just looked at me, shook his head and walked away.

Show off. :@

jmonroe

houdini1

LOL, now that I think of it, maybe he was just tossing me softballs so I could hit 'em out of the park.

jmonroe

houdini1 said:

LOL, now that I think of it, maybe he was just tossing me softballs so I could hit 'em out of the park.

Now the truth comes out.

jmonroe

Mr_Shiftright

houdini1 said:

PF_Flyer said:

Here's another image from Memory Lane. The slide projector wasn't functioning, but I ran across this slide from spring of 1946. That's my Dad on his honeymoon. He borrowed a friend's car for the trip and it broke down, so Dad took apart the engine to make the repair. Such a romantic

Enjoyed that pic pff. People used to know how to actually do stuff.

Great photo! Pretty old car for 1946, but then good used cars were scarce then! People fixed what they had until the pipeline for new cars filled up around 1948-49.

Mr_Shiftright

houdini1 said:

That is one studly looking horse. And that flimsy little "carriage" looks like a racing surrey. Built for speed. That driver was probably known locally as a "hot rodder".

Yep, grandpa was a rake if he was driving one of those. I think that type of carriage was called a "gig".

Nice-looking steed BTW.

driver100

explorerx4 said:

@stever,
Found you a van, if you don't mind travelling to CT to pick it up.
http://hartford.craigslist.org/cto/5895807498.html

Keep it hidden from oldfarmer or he'll get it first.

btw...it has 260000 miles on it...who says German cars don't last?

driver100

houdini1 said:

PF_Flyer said:

Here's another image from Memory Lane. The slide projector wasn't functioning, but I ran across this slide from spring of 1946. That's my Dad on his honeymoon. He borrowed a friend's car for the trip and it broke down, so Dad took apart the engine to make the repair. Such a romantic

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Enjoyed that pic pff. People used to know how to actually do stuff.

Looks like me today trying to get my Homelink hooked up!

Mr_Shiftright

driver100 said:

explorerx4 said:

@stever,
Found you a van, if you don't mind travelling to CT to pick it up.
http://hartford.craigslist.org/cto/5895807498.html

Keep it hidden from oldfarmer or he'll get it first.

btw...it has 260000 miles on it...who says German cars don't last?

You can keep anything running forever if you don't mind spending money on it.

driver100

oldfarmer50 said:

explorerx4 said:

@stever,
Found you a van, if you don't mind travelling to CT to pick it up.
http://hartford.craigslist.org/cto/5895807498.html

260,000 miles?! Yikes! I could have sold him a van with half that milage for a lot less.

Half the mileage and half the body side panels left!

driver100

Mr_Shiftright said:

driver100 said:

explorerx4 said:

@stever,
Found you a van, if you don't mind travelling to CT to pick it up.
http://hartford.craigslist.org/cto/5895807498.html

Keep it hidden from oldfarmer or he'll get it first.

btw...it has 260000 miles on it...who says German cars don't last?

You can keep anything running forever if you don't mind spending money on it.

He wouldn't throw money at it if it ain't worth it

explorerx4

@driver100,
To get to that mileage you could have kept your Passat for another 100 years. ;0

Mr_Shiftright

driver100 said:

Mr_Shiftright said:

driver100 said:

explorerx4 said:

@stever,
Found you a van, if you don't mind travelling to CT to pick it up.
http://hartford.craigslist.org/cto/5895807498.html

Keep it hidden from oldfarmer or he'll get it first.

btw...it has 260000 miles on it...who says German cars don't last?

You can keep anything running forever if you don't mind spending money on it.

He wouldn't throw money at it if it ain't worth it

Well worth it to HIM, sure.

I suppose if the seller could show me a folder of repairs and maintenance about the size of the old Manhattan phone book (remember those?), I might bite if the price were quite the bargain. I bought a truck with 236,000 on it and it runs great---but the previous owner spent thousands keeping it in top shape mechanically.

Trucks and vans have real utility, so one has to judge them less harshly I suppose.

iluvmysephia1

stever - you sure you wouldn't like a Mitsubishi Outlander Sport or an Outlander? Mitsubishi still offers the 10 year and 100,000 mile Warranty like Hyundai/Kia do. Plus, they build a good rig and they last pretty well, too. My '08 Lancer GTS engine failure aside.

iluvmysephia1

Oh, my. The Lancer GTS down on the street, viewed from our front porch, in the small mountain hamlet we lived in there called Kellogg. The Lancer had 18" high performance, low profile tires and not a lot of clearance. Driving could get dicey here. Wallace, ID, about 10 miles east on I-90, would get buried in snow - the snow would pile up on the sides and middle of the freeway. Kellogg was home to a ski resort that was serviced by the world's longest single-car gondola ride, from the Lancer there all I had to do was look west down the street and I could see the gondola's go by on their way up the mountain.

stever

Seems a bit lacking in the safety stuff I want on the Sport (blind spot etc.). The Outlander is likely too big for us at this point.

toomanyfumes

We've had our Outlander almost 10 years and 100k, only repair other than routine maintenance has been tie rod ends, it's been a great car.

I hear a lot of comments when I drive the! Mustang in the winter. To me it's just a car, not even a GT! I have an older Sonata that I drove last winter, but my youngest son is driving that now.

venture

stickguy said:

Venture, if you had run flats or a "mobility kit" you would not have made it home. Just onto a rollback and dropped outside a (closed) tire store!

Ain't that the truth?

venture

berri said:

A lot of new cars have pretty crappy oem tires, so replacing at 25K may not be all that premature sadly.

Yeah. That's the reason I was researching when the *event* happened. At 25k they were running out of tread.

venture

imidazol97 said:

berri said:

A lot of new cars have pretty crappy oem tires, so replacing at 25K may not be all that premature sadly.

It's been my anecdotal opinion that the higher series of cars have better quality tires. The extra costs of the higher models allows for better tires to be put on since the company is not competing with other brands where folks compare the pricing for the cheapest models as a way of deciding they get the most for their money. The exception is the models that add on higher rim sizes and lower cross-sections.

That's been true on the Chevrolets: my Bu 2LT2 has Goodyear Eagle RSA2, while the cheaper models had smaller rims and what I believe are lesser quality tires. Same for the Gen 1 '15 Cruze wheels which are 17's instead of 16's on the base models.

I dig it, but these were Continental ProContact at a list of about $250 each. They are still almost worn out at 25k.

By "almost worn out" I mean I was unsure about using them when the snow hits. If I didn't care and cowered in my house during a snow storm they probably still had 10,000 more miles on them.

driver100

Just reading about the 2017 CTS......looks great with lots of power, beautiful interior. Starts at $45000.

For $10000 more than an Encore.....

snakeweasel

Mr_Shiftright said:

driver100 said:

Mr_Shiftright said:

driver100 said:

explorerx4 said:

@stever,
Found you a van, if you don't mind travelling to CT to pick it up.
http://hartford.craigslist.org/cto/5895807498.html

Keep it hidden from oldfarmer or he'll get it first.

btw...it has 260000 miles on it...who says German cars don't last?

You can keep anything running forever if you don't mind spending money on it.

He wouldn't throw money at it if it ain't worth it

Well worth it to HIM, sure.

I suppose if the seller could show me a folder of repairs and maintenance about the size of the old Manhattan phone book (remember those?), I might bite if the price were quite the bargain. I bought a truck with 236,000 on it and it runs great---but the previous owner spent thousands keeping it in top shape mechanically.

Trucks and vans have real utility, so one has to judge them less harshly I suppose.

Trucks and vans have real utility only to those that repeatedly need that utility, if you don't need it then they don't have much utility.

fintail

But that's a V, right? A lot more than 10K above an Encore Striking cars though.

driver100 said:

Just reading about the 2017 CTS......looks great with lots of power, beautiful interior. Starts at $45000.

For $10000 more than an Encore.....

Michaell

fintail said:

But that's a V, right? A lot more than 10K above an Encore Striking cars though.

driver100 said:

Just reading about the 2017 CTS......looks great with lots of power, beautiful interior. Starts at $45000.

For $10000 more than an Encore.....

CTS-V is way more expensive .. probably in the high 60's or low 70's to start.

iluvmysephia1

Seems a bit lacking in the safety stuff I want on the Sport (blind spot etc.). The Outlander is likely too big for us at this point.

Suit yourself (selves). I do like the Buick Encore - but I wouldn't pay $35,000 for one. Payments of $292 a month are do-able, though, eh, stever?

graphicguy

driver100 said:

Just reading about the 2017 CTS......looks great with lots of power, beautiful interior. Starts at $45000.

For $10000 more than an Encore.....

Yep....that's a CTS-V. MSRP in the $70K range. But, with discounts, you can get it right around mid-high $50s. At that price, a lot of car for the money.

Took my CTS in for a software download (something about the MPG computer needed an update). It only took about an hour, but the dealer let me drive the CT6 with the dual turbo to go to lunch while my car was being serviced. Pretty darned amazing car. Again, right at $70K...but hit them around December 30-31st, or wait 9-10 months, and I bet the same car is in the mid $50K range....which would be a terrific bargain.

BTW...keeping in the GG family tradition, the sister that bought the Mercedes about 18 months ago is livid. She went for a Dr appointment and while at a redlight on the way home she said the dash lit up and the car quit. Wouldn't restart. Mercedes dealer flat bedded it to the dealership, after she waited 2 hours.

She's back in the hunt for a Jag.

suydam

Not being in the position to drop 60k on a vehicle, I could have one CTS -- or two cars.

qbrozen

I bet the CT6 will be an amazing used car bargain.

stever

iluvmysephia1 said:

Seems a bit lacking in the safety stuff I want on the Sport (blind spot etc.). The Outlander is likely too big for us at this point.

Suit yourself (selves). I do like the Buick Encore - but I wouldn't pay $35,000 for one. Payments of $292 a month are do-able, though, eh, stever?

We just countered $28,200 on an Encore. I have a meeting in 30 minutes and had to leave so they let us take the Encore home for the day while they work on their numbers. MSRP was $33,465. Pic here. Dealer info here, more pics, etc..

bwia

http://st.automobilemag.com/uploads/sites/11/2016/08/2017-Buick-LaCrosse-interior.jpg?interpolation=lanczos-none&fit=around|680:452&crop=680:452;*,*
Genuine luxury or a G3 pretender?

Mr_Shiftright

stever said:

iluvmysephia1 said:

Seems a bit lacking in the safety stuff I want on the Sport (blind spot etc.). The Outlander is likely too big for us at this point.

Suit yourself (selves). I do like the Buick Encore - but I wouldn't pay $35,000 for one. Payments of $292 a month are do-able, though, eh, stever?

We just countered $28,200 on an Encore. I have a meeting in 30 minutes and had to leave so they let us take the Encore home for the day while they work on their numbers. MSRP was $33,465. Pic here. Dealer info here, more pics, etc..

Seems like a decent price. Which engine did you want?

stever

Engine?

Looks like a 1.4.

Who cares, it won't let me run over the white line without warning me and there's a 110 outlet in the console.

Mr_Shiftright

A) Have you ever run over the white line and killed yourself previously? If "no", then you probably don't need this.
As for using your electric razor or table saw while driving, how often might you do that?

I thought you had a choice of 1.4 or 1.4 Turbo.

stever

No but that's how my sister wrecked her Honda.

This one is the turbo and has that awful word near the dipstick.

(dexos)

Michaell

Mr_Shiftright said:

A) Have you ever run over the white line and killed yourself previously? If "no", then you probably don't need this.
As for using your electric razor or table saw while driving, how often might you do that?

I thought you had a choice of 1.4 or 1.4 Turbo.

Only the 1.4T available in the Encore. 138HP.

The 1.4T in my Jetta has 150HP.

Mr_Shiftright

Michaell said:

Mr_Shiftright said:

A) Have you ever run over the white line and killed yourself previously? If "no", then you probably don't need this.
As for using your electric razor or table saw while driving, how often might you do that?

I thought you had a choice of 1.4 or 1.4 Turbo.

Only the 1.4T available in the Encore. 138HP.

The 1.4T in my Jetta has 150HP.

I thought there were two 1.4L options---perhaps both turbos, but different engines.

driver100

stever said:

iluvmysephia1 said:

Seems a bit lacking in the safety stuff I want on the Sport (blind spot etc.). The Outlander is likely too big for us at this point.

Suit yourself (selves). I do like the Buick Encore - but I wouldn't pay $35,000 for one. Payments of $292 a month are do-able, though, eh, stever?

We just countered $28,200 on an Encore. I have a meeting in 30 minutes and had to leave so they let us take the Encore home for the day while they work on their numbers. MSRP was $33,465. Pic here. Dealer info here, more pics, etc..

Good luck. Don't pay $200 more for it or you will never hear the end of it from Monroe.

Pretty blue

suydam

stever said:

iluvmysephia1 said:

Seems a bit lacking in the safety stuff I want on the Sport (blind spot etc.). The Outlander is likely too big for us at this point.

Suit yourself (selves). I do like the Buick Encore - but I wouldn't pay $35,000 for one. Payments of $292 a month are do-able, though, eh, stever?

We just countered $28,200 on an Encore. I have a meeting in 30 minutes and had to leave so they let us take the Encore home for the day while they work on their numbers. MSRP was $33,465. Pic here. Dealer info here, more pics, etc..

That seems like a pretty fair price if you get it. Before taxes and such?