Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

graphicguy

berri said:

A lot of today's pop music is country pop since current rock seems to have a lot of either rap or whining in it. But every generation is entitled to their own thing I guess.

My parents HATED my Talking Heads, Zep, Primal Scream, etc. So, while I don't like the pretty pop and rap of today, each generation has their own "style".

explorerx4

A while back, I decided to check the vinyl I had in a milk crate sized container.
Most of it I bought in college in the mid/late 70's and I doubt anything in there is coming back.
A couple of years ago, we went to Cleveland and I was looking for something to bring back for my neighbor who was watching the house.
He is a big Rolling Stones fan and I found a first greatest hits double album at the Rock and Roll HOF for him.

graphicguy

Speaking of which, had dinner here last night.....

https://365cincinnati.com/things-to-do/day-10-the-root-beer-stand

berri

Yeah, I probably was a little quick on the trigger selling my vinyl and left a little money on the table, but I was moving and needed to downsize. I still have some nice wood enclosed component stereo equipment from the Vietnam days though, It ain't going on the sale boards anytime soon!

Isell, I grew up in the lower middle class Chicago suburbs, so those cars from the early 50's would have been my neighborhood in the mid to late 50's. Those drive-ins and the car/surf tune; are you getting a little antsy for some sunshine out your way

ab348

A couple of weeks ago I was in a store up here called Home Outfitters that sells bed & bath stuff, mirrors, accessories, small furniture items, etc. I was surprised to notice near the cash lanes a small display of newly-made vinyl albums, mostly classic jazz albums by Miles, Brubeck, etc., which were exactly the same visually as they were back in the 1960s. Pricing was close to $20 Cdn.

carnaught

graphicguy said:

Speaking of which, had dinner here last night.....

https://365cincinnati.com/things-to-do/day-10-the-root-beer-stand

Much the same as the burger place I grew up with...frosted mug homemade rootbeers, rootbeer floats, hot flat hamburgers on fresh soft buns, chicken, shrimp or fish baskets...mmmmm. The place, now there over 60 years, still has carhops.

roadburner

PF_Flyer said:

I guess you had to be OLD to recognize Cherry Cherry Coupe

That song inspired the final paragraph of my Roundel story on the US intro of the 2007 335i convertible:


"By the time I reached driving age, the first Musclecar era was over. The cars I lusted after-the Boss 302 Mustang, the AAR Cudas, and the 2nd generation Z28-were extinct or emasculated. I never had a chance to actually drive one, but back then I just knew what it would be like: Savage acceleration, pin-sharp handling, powerful brakes. And while those cars were benchmarks for their era, there was no way that they could live up to the performance I had imagined. Until now. You see, as I was pulling into work one day, the Sirius/Logic7 radio began to play the Beach Boys’ Cherry, Cherry Coupe, and suddenly it all clicked into focus with laser-sharp clarity. The 335i convertible is fast, comfortable, acceptably nimble, and MUCH prettier than its sedan stablemate- BMW has built the Ultimate Mustang.
And what’s wrong with that?"

berri

Vinyl, if you have an analog receiver/amplifier, can have a bit of a warm resonance to it which would probably fit a lot of jazz. But most receivers that are hooked to a turntable these days are digital meaning you probably won't really get the full effect. But then I remember back in the early 70's when speakers were advertising all their specs. A fellow lieutenant had a degree in something like acoustical engineering and said most human ears wouldn't notice the difference on the high end speaker specs. He saved me some money on my equipment. Nice thing though was the stuff I bought was Japanese, not Chinese, so it still works well today!

explorerx4

@berri,
Back in the day(my day), when you heard Boston's Foreplay/Long Time, that signaled Spring.
It still does for me to this day.
This weekend doesn't look good weather wise yet, but I'm going to play it in whatever I drive to work on Monday to hopefully force Spring to get here.

nyccarguy

Wait a second!  Time out!  Penalty!  Craig - did you just casually mention "the new Civic I bought?"  Details please my friend!

jmonroe

driver100 said:

I was thinking about recalls and how that affects buyers.......does it affect them?

Here is the conclusion I came to, what it really does is just confirms whatever view you had of that particular brand. For example, Andre hates the Big 3 so this gives him a reason not to like them even more. People who hate German cars will take a recall of a German make and confirm in their own mind....that is why I wouldn't buy one of those.

If it is a make you like, then you defend the car....well, the recall is a good thing, at least they fix their problems.

JM and CDs....that is funny. I wonder if he carries a load of CDs in the Gennie?

Yes I do.

My '09 Genny had a 6 CD changer. Funny thing here is that I had a radio problem when it was about 3 years old so they had to order a new radio, that meant that the CD changer had to be replaced but I didn't know that at the time. It fixed the intermittent radio problem but when they took out the CD changer, there went 6 oldies CD's in it. I didn't find that out for about a week when I tried to listen to some CD's. When I went back and asked the service dept. why they didn't eject my old CD's and give them to me before chucking the old CD unit I got the lame answer, "that is the customers responsibility". When I said, "I had a radio problem not a CD exchanger problem", the answer was, "it's the same unit". Well "no kwap", I know that now but I didn't know it then. It's a good thing I made a couple copies of all of them when I first made them. So inserting the copies was no problem, but still, you'd think a service dept. would know that. :@

My '15 Genny only holds one CD so if that unit craps out I'll only lose one CD if the idiot tech doesn't eject it first. Or, the idiot owner allows him to do it to him again.

jmonroe

ab348

berri said:

Vinyl, if you have an analog receiver/amplifier, can have a bit of a warm resonance to it which would probably fit a lot of jazz. But most receivers that are hooked to a turntable these days are digital meaning you probably won't really get the full effect. But then I remember back in the early 70's when speakers were advertising all their specs. A fellow lieutenant had a degree in something like acoustical engineering and said most human ears wouldn't notice the difference on the high end speaker specs. He saved me some money on my equipment. Nice thing though was the stuff I bought was Japanese, not Chinese, so it still works well today!

I've got several silver 70s era Pioneer receivers here so that is not a problem.

tjc78

Michaell said:

Actually vinyl is making a comeback.

Not just vinyl - Moleskine is making a killing with their paper notebooks. Pick up the book "The Revenge of Analog" - really quite the fascinating read.

I love those Moleskin books.  We are testing them in one of our locations and the buyer has tons of samples. I scooped them up.  I'm left handed so I like how they flat and the pages are perforated.  Great for taking notes at meetings, etc. 

explorerx4

My F-150 is going in for a recall to get the power brake booster replaced.
Since it has been about 6 months, time to get the oil changed and tries rotated.
Good chance to look at some new trucks!

tjc78

berri said:

Vinyl, if you have an analog receiver/amplifier, can have a bit of a warm resonance to it which would probably fit a lot of jazz. But most receivers that are hooked to a turntable these days are digital meaning you probably won't really get the full effect. But then I remember back in the early 70's when speakers were advertising all their specs. A fellow lieutenant had a degree in something like acoustical engineering and said most human ears wouldn't notice the difference on the high end speaker specs. He saved me some money on my equipment. Nice thing though was the stuff I bought was Japanese, not Chinese, so it still works well today!

Most new equipment doesn't even have a proper turntable input.  You would need an outboard pre-amp to use one

Michaell

explorerx4 said:

@Michaell, Can I get that book for my ereader?

I just checked Amazon - no electronic version available.

berri

Back in the day(my day), when you heard Boston's Foreplay/Long Time, that signaled Spring.
It still does for me to this day.
This weekend doesn't look good weather wise yet, but I'm going to play it in whatever I drive to work on Monday to hopefully force Spring to get here.

Hey, desperate times Why don't you make it a Boston area roundtrip: Boston out and the Cars back. You can break it up with that 60's one hit wonder the Standells and "Dirty Water" (and the River Charles) - but they were actually an LA group.

berri

ab - I went Sansui back then. I think some Chinese (or maybe Korean) firm bought the rights that name nowadays though. Not gonna be the same!

driver100

jmonroe said:

driver100 said:

I was thinking about recalls and how that affects buyers.......does it affect them?

Here is the conclusion I came to, what it really does is just confirms whatever view you had of that particular brand. For example, Andre hates the Big 3 so this gives him a reason not to like them even more. People who hate German cars will take a recall of a German make and confirm in their own mind....that is why I wouldn't buy one of those.

If it is a make you like, then you defend the car....well, the recall is a good thing, at least they fix their problems.

JM and CDs....that is funny. I wonder if he carries a load of CDs in the Gennie?

My '15 Genny only holds one CD so if that unit craps out I'll only lose one CD if the idiot tech doesn't eject it first. Or, the idiot owner allows him to do it to him again.

jmonroe

You think they would check to see if there were CDs in the CD player....but then again, they probably figure what old dinosaur is going to be driving a new 400 hp car listening to CDs?

You could get some young guy to transfer your CD music onto a USB stick, and then you can transfer it to your next car which probably won't have a CD player in it,

explorerx4

@Berri ,
I do have some Cars stuff, but to me they are not Spring.
Dirty Water, didn't know about the LA roots, Boston is still milking it.
https://vimeo.com/dirtywatertv

berri

Hmm, Cars - what season? Can be a bit frenetic at times, so I'll go "summer" I think

isellhondas

suydam said:

Couldn't have been Jan and Dean since you said the group was still touring. They were my first thought.

Oh yeah, that's true!

berri

You know the Wrecking Crew back up studio musicians out in LA back in those days could have recorded for them. If you are into 60's rock, there is a book about them that is a good read. It is very interesting and kind of surprising at times.

isellhondas

nyccarguy said:

Wait a second!  Time out!  Penalty!  Craig - did you just casually mention "the new Civic I bought?"  Details please my friend!

I thought I had mentioned the Civic! It was a replacement for our much loved 2003 CRV that we gave to our son. It's a lowly LX sedan. Nothing special but compared to the Civic LX's I sold in 1996 it is loaded with options many of which I don't care about.

It has a cool info screen that gives me instant mpg, miles to empty, outside temps and other stuff. this is pretty cool but it can be clumsy to use.

NO CD PLAYER!!! But...I get a nifty little plug in that I can run my cell phone through if I can figure out how to get music on it. Getting there but I'm not a fan! Bluetooth which is OK I guess but I try to focus on driving and not talking. Rear camera.....OK, I suppose but not really a big deal to me. Electronic parking break. totally useless when a quick pull on the handle used to get the job done. Traction Control and ABS. Good to have. electronic brake distribution which (I guess) is a good thing. Let's see...what else...LED daytime driving lights, electronic plugs in's that I have no idea what their use is?

I miss my old GTO and my '62 Impala SS and even more so my 409 SS Impala!

Funny, most of these extras that I don't give a rip about are MUST HAVES for a lot of shoppers these days! and, they wonder why prices are so high.

But, I'm safe with my multiple airbags and five star safety ratings! Averaging 28 MPG in town isn't bad either!

How did I survive the freeways of So. California in my 1964 Volkswagen dodging semis?

berri

USB sticks are probably the most convenient music approach, but I haven't perfected it yet. Seems like between Windows and auto manufacturer proprietary software there can be conflicts. Bring back my cd player. Stick it in the console between the seats if they need the dash space.

graphicguy

ab348 said:

berri said:

Vinyl, if you have an analog receiver/amplifier, can have a bit of a warm resonance to it which would probably fit a lot of jazz. But most receivers that are hooked to a turntable these days are digital meaning you probably won't really get the full effect. But then I remember back in the early 70's when speakers were advertising all their specs. A fellow lieutenant had a degree in something like acoustical engineering and said most human ears wouldn't notice the difference on the high end speaker specs. He saved me some money on my equipment. Nice thing though was the stuff I bought was Japanese, not Chinese, so it still works well today!

I've got several silver 70s era Pioneer receivers here so that is not a problem.

Those '70s era Pioneer, Marantz, Luxman, Sansui, amps and receivers will bring a pretty penny on eBay or Audiogon. That's some good equipment!

berri

When I was in elementary school an uncle stayed with us for awhile to finish high school. He had a friend who's dad was an exec for GE. When the friend graduated he got a new 63 Impala SS as a present. One if the first things he did was replace the badging with a "6" emblem. Like the competition couldn't tell by the sound

abacomike

Results of test so far are negative - might be able to go home tomorrow, which would be great.  I'll report on this stuff tomorrow.  

isellhondas

I knew a guy who did the opposite. He replaced his 283 emblems with 409 emblems.

A puny 170 H.P. 283 with Powerglide no less!

I wonder how many sales he cost Chevrolet?

graphicguy

berri said:

You know the Wrecking Crew back up studio musicians out in LA back in those days could have recorded for them. If you are into 60's rock, there is a book about them that is a good read. It is very interesting and kind of surprising at times.

Interesting....

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wrecking_Crew_(2008_film)

carnaught

abacomike said:

Results of test so far are negative - might be able to go home tomorrow, which would be great.  I'll report on this stuff tomorrow.  

Glad to hear it Mike!

berri

Aba - if they get done soon people are going to see a guy in a hospital gown running down the street

berri

Make that 283 a Mopar 383 and I'll go for it!

isellhondas

abacomike said:

Results of test so far are negative - might be able to go home tomorrow, which would be great.  I'll report on this stuff tomorrow.  

Good news Mike! Now, get a good night's sleep!

berri

He can't go to sleep early - I think he spent time in the Big Apple.

28firefighter

@rayainsw - you are located in Atlanta, right?  Are you impacted by the I-85 collapse?

jmonroe

isellhondas said:

I knew a guy who did the opposite. He replaced his 283 emblems with 409 emblems.

A puny 170 H.P. 283 with Powerglide no less!

I wonder how many sales he cost Chevrolet?

My first second car (huh, did I really say that?) was a '67 Impala with the powerful 283 V8 and Powerglide tranny that I got used in the early 70's. There were times when I was going up hills I thought I'd have to turn the radio off to get more power. Not much better than a 6 cyl.

jmonroe

driver100

carnaught said:

abacomike said:

Results of test so far are negative - might be able to go home tomorrow, which would be great.  I'll report on this stuff tomorrow.  

Glad to hear it Mike!

+1

graphicguy

driver100 said:

carnaught said:

abacomike said:

Results of test so far are negative - might be able to go home tomorrow, which would be great.  I'll report on this stuff tomorrow.  

Glad to hear it Mike!

+1

+2

Very briefly, I had a '63 Biscayne with a 283 and a 2 speed automatic. Car was really old when I bought it, thinking I paid a couple hundred for it. Odo busted so who knew what the mileage was. Didn't leak, didn't burn, though. Key was, it was a coupe. More rust than paint. And, I (wrongly) believed I could make that 283 into something it wasn't...that is, powerful. At least I couldn't do it on my budget.

Was going to do the usual...headers, big carb, hot cam, but the trans bit the dust before I had a chance. Well, I may have helped it along. First month I had it, I was high reving in neutral, planning to do a burn out, dropped the gear shifter into drive, breaking a motor mount and trashing the trans in the process. Bye-Bye Biscayne.

Lesson learned. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig.

ab348

Glad to hear the news, Mike.

js06gv

ab348 said:

Any Ford owners in the aufdience? This is getting expensive for them.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/ford+recalls+440k+vehicles+fire+risk+door+latch+trouble/13224178/story.html

Although not specifically mentioned in the article, I had the door latches on my Mustang replaced under recall a couple of months ago. Which reminds me, I need to take it back in because the passenger exterior door handle is now notchy, like it wasn't reinstalled correctly.

@oldfarmer50 , did you get the same recall notice?

ab348

Regarding The Wrecking Crew, just last weekend I happened to watch a long YouTube interview with Carol Kaye, who was the bass player in that crew. It was very interesting and gave me a lot of info I never knew. Apparently being a session player back then was pretty lucrative. She lamented the way the industry has changed and these days I gather it is tough to make a living doing that.

isellhondas

Did I really say "break" instead of "brake" in my last post? One of my pet peeves when others do this yet I did it myself! For shame! What was I thinking.

All of this talk about "gutless" 283 engines. I really have to disagree. For some reason in 1963 Chevy boosted the horsepower on their 283's from 170 to 195. I'm really not sure how they accomplished this but a 283 Impala of that vintage is far from being a slug especially when equipped with a stick and not the Powerglide.

Put that same 283 in a Chevy II Station Wagon with a three speed on the column and you would have a real sleeper!

graphicguy

Craig...I think the one I briefly had was probably well worn and down on compression in at least a couple of cylinders. But, at a time when so called "muscle cars" (early '80s) were pushing out 150 HP (an early "Knight Rider" 305 Trans Am comes to mind) when I was working on that '63 Biscayne, the 283 would out run the T/A....even with a tired engine.

jmonroe

isellhondas said:

Did I really say "break" instead of "brake" in my last post? One of my pet peeves when others do this yet I did it myself! For shame! What was I thinking.

All of this talk about "gutless" 283 engines. I really have to disagree. For some reason in 1963 Chevy boosted the horsepower on their 283's from 170 to 195. I'm really not sure how they accomplished this but a 283 Impala of that vintage is far from being a slug especially when equipped with a stick and not the Powerglide.

Put that same 283 in a Chevy II Station Wagon with a three speed on the column and you would have a real sleeper!

I guess you can say it is relative.

When I had the '67 Impala with the 283 CID V8 and Powerglide tranny as my second car, my first car was a '68 Olds Delta 88 Custom with a 455 CID V8. I can't remember now what tranny it had but it was matched pretty good to the engine.

Unfair of me to compare, huh?

jmonroe

isellhondas

It IS all relative!

When I delivered chicken as a 16 year old for Chicken Delight we used old Ford Falcons with the 144 engines mated to a three speed stick. Had you jumped in your 67 Impala after driving one of those slugs you would have been terrified at the new found power under your right foot!

berri

Chicken Delight, now there is a chain long forgotten

andres3

driver100 said:

I was thinking about recalls and how that affects buyers.......does it affect them?

Here is the conclusion I came to, what it really does is just confirms whatever view you had of that particular brand. For example, Andre hates the Big 3 so this gives him a reason not to like them even more. People who hate German cars will take a recall of a German make and confirm in their own mind....that is why I wouldn't buy one of those.

If it is a make you like, then you defend the car....well, the recall is a good thing, at least they fix their problems.

JM and CDs....that is funny. I wonder if he carries a load of CDs in the Gennie?

Well, to be fair, I at least have owned a big 3 car before. Also, I can't recall a single recall on the Dodge I owned, so it wasn't recalls that stirred up resentment of the brand.

In fact, I do remember the Honda Accord having 1 or 2 recalls too many (probably 3 or 4). Finally, I got irked they didn't take care of one recall while I had brought it in for another. I made them give me a rental car for that mistake. One of the recalls was for an ill-advised stop-gap transmission repair that was supposed to prevent catastrophic destruction I suppose. It didn't work in my car, as within a year they were replacing my transmission. So in my case, a wasted dealer visit, and Honda didn't give loaners (though they did when I had to do the transmission replacement).

I think it all has to do with how much inconvenience a car brand causes you. Whether it is just wasted time, time without a car (loaners help here), and/or wasted money. They all factor in, and usually coincide. I definitely need a car I can trust.

andres3

berri said:

Vinyl, if you have an analog receiver/amplifier, can have a bit of a warm resonance to it which would probably fit a lot of jazz. But most receivers that are hooked to a turntable these days are digital meaning you probably won't really get the full effect. But then I remember back in the early 70's when speakers were advertising all their specs. A fellow lieutenant had a degree in something like acoustical engineering and said most human ears wouldn't notice the difference on the high end speaker specs. He saved me some money on my equipment. Nice thing though was the stuff I bought was Japanese, not Chinese, so it still works well today!

Sometimes written specs don't tell the whole story when it comes to audio and audio equipment. My suggestion is to use your own ears, on several songs you know very well, and have personally adjusted the sound settings on whatever amplifier is being used to test equipment so that it is equal across the board. This can be done at home too with back to back comparisons, but it does take more work, and you also have to return the stuff you didn't like as much.

My OPPO Blu-Ray player still works and it has probably played more disc revolutions than most disc players out there still alive today.

What do you mean most receivers are digital now? If you mean Class D digital amplification I would think "most" is the wrong word here.

I will say although I like my current Japanese built Denon receiver, the idiots that designed it ruined the multi channel analog inputs by not providing an option to apply the Audyssey EQ and digital enhancements to those inputs. I think analog can beat digital HDMI audio with the right high end equipment, but without the EQ setting, the slight step forward takes 2 big steps back!

Anyone like silver conductors? Theoretically silver is a better conductor than gold or copper right? Most cables have copper with gold plated contacts.

andres3

jmonroe said:

driver100 said:

I was thinking about recalls and how that affects buyers.......does it affect them?

Here is the conclusion I came to, what it really does is just confirms whatever view you had of that particular brand. For example, Andre hates the Big 3 so this gives him a reason not to like them even more. People who hate German cars will take a recall of a German make and confirm in their own mind....that is why I wouldn't buy one of those.

If it is a make you like, then you defend the car....well, the recall is a good thing, at least they fix their problems.

JM and CDs....that is funny. I wonder if he carries a load of CDs in the Gennie?

Yes I do.

My '09 Genny had a 6 CD changer. Funny thing here is that I had a radio problem when it was about 3 years old so they had to order a new radio, that meant that the CD changer had to be replaced but I didn't know that at the time. It fixed the intermittent radio problem but when they took out the CD changer, there went 6 oldies CD's in it. I didn't find that out for about a week when I tried to listen to some CD's. When I went back and asked the service dept. why they didn't eject my old CD's and give them to me before chucking the old CD unit I got the lame answer, "that is the customers responsibility". When I said, "I had a radio problem not a CD exchanger problem", the answer was, "it's the same unit". Well "no kwap", I know that now but I didn't know it then. It's a good thing I made a couple copies of all of them when I first made them. So inserting the copies was no problem, but still, you'd think a service dept. would know that. :@

My '15 Genny only holds one CD so if that unit craps out I'll only lose one CD if the idiot tech doesn't eject it first. Or, the idiot owner allows him to do it to him again.

jmonroe

I think you are right that CD's left in broken unit is both parties fault. The owner, and the shop that replaces the unit should have thought about emptying the unit of CD's prior to replacement. Given 50/50 blame, the customer should be right and win that argument, and the shop should have just offered to pay for the replacement of those 6 lost CD's! At a minimum maybe a $100 gift-card to be used in their shop.

Another example of lame Hyundai customer service if you ask me.