Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations

stickguy

The Flex does not bother me. but the Lincoln version? that is flat out nasty.

driver100

Mr_Shiftright said:

If you were born 1945--1950 or so you got the sweet spot of American life IMO, to grow up in.

When you think about the work people used to have to do, and the hours a week, and the little joy you got once you got home....not much in the way of entertainment or fun, those born between 1945 to 50 have lived in the best of times.......with not too many affected by wars.

driver100

Michaell said:

 It's kind of like a Picasso painting – angular and asymmetrical 

Somehow...it reminds me of this:

suydam

Mr_Shiftright said:

If you were born 1945--1950 or so you got the sweet spot of American life IMO, to grow up in.

Depends on what color and class you are. 

driver100

stickguy said:

I always assumed that there was a period where the entire Nissan design department was dropping acid on a daily basis. No other viable explanation.

Love that explanation.....perfect! They must have given bonuses for who could come up with the most way out ideas.

driver100

PF_Flyer said:

Mr_Shiftright said:

I tried to like the Cube, I really did. I tried "unique", I tried "different", I tried "avant-garde", but I kept coming up with ugly.

Yea, even as a "Nissan guy", I couldn't gravitate to the Cube. In white, it looks like a fridge that has fallen over. And to reinforce that beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes all the way through, there's the headliner in the interior

That headliner makes me feel nauseous. I need some Gravol!

driver100

tjc78 said:

I can't stand the Cube or Element, but like the Flex. There must just be something wrong with me.

Flex is OK....a little too square, but, I like how Ford squared off the Edge. Just the right amount of sqareness. What is the difference mechanically between a Flex and Edge?

roadburner

My M235i is back with a new windshield. I dropped the car off Saturday at around 11:00 am and it was ready today at 12:00 pm. While it was in service my SA gave me a new 328i with most every option- and apologized that he didn't have anything more exciting! I don't know if this is true for any other insurance company, but it turns out that Safeco subs ALL of their glass claims out to Safelite, so you wind up dealing with a company that has a vested interest in having their shop performing the work. Nice.

Despite rumors to the contrary, my dealer has a specially trained tech who performs any work involving glass replacement- no outside shop is used. My SA told me that the one problem they see most often with Safelite installs is that they remove the wiper/light sensor from the old windshield and try to bond it to the new windshield. Which works great. Except when it doesn't. Frequently the automatic wipers and/or lights no longer work; of course Safelite claims the problem is unrelated to the windshield replacement- even though the wipers worked fine up until that time.

So, I will probably have to pay extra for the privilege of having the job done correctly- so it goes...

graphicguy

Stickguy.....OldFarmer....Good ideas...thanks.

Will see what CarMax offers. The one around here I've had bid on a couple of cars. They were thousands off on both considering what the trade value was on them.

Still, will see the number they put on it. If I can flip it quick, make a few bucks, I'll do it just because of the garbage I've been put through. They do get crazy money used.

IF it becomes too much of a hassle, it goes to the Aunt and I'll wash my hands of it.

Mr_Shiftright

suydam said:

Mr_Shiftright said:

If you were born 1945--1950 or so you got the sweet spot of American life IMO, to grow up in.

Depends on what color and class you are. 

WEll of course...some people have never had a "good day" in their lives.

snakeweasel

driver100 said:

Cube fans.........I saw one of these today.....they must be available for not much money.


And, it's a Nissan! 2010 Nissan Cube.

On Halloween a few years ago I saw a Cube with four people dressed as Borg inside.

stickguy

RB, did you see the latest issue of R&T, where they compared the different 2 series models (M235, 228, and M2)? the results were interesting, to say the least. Would not have expected the 4 banger to win, but the reasons make sense.

iluvmysephia1

I still like it - why am I suprised that I like the 2015-2016 Nissan Versa S 4-door sedan? Same bunch of healthy, hearty, stealthy designers, that's why. Wife hates it, but she hates all cars I like that aren't Kia Soul's!

snakeweasel

Talk about a close call.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoWZna-x268

roadburner

stickguy said:

RB, did you see the latest issue of R&T, where they compared the different 2 series models (M235, 228, and M2)? the results were interesting, to say the least. Would not have expected the 4 banger to win, but the reasons make sense.

Yes, mine came in the mail Saturday. I haven't driven an M2 but I was given an M Sport 228i loaner a while back. I didn't really flog it but I definitely thought it would be more fun with a stick. What I don't get is how much the 4 vibrates; if anything it was even more noticeable in the 3er loaner I just had. I know BMW can make a smooth I4; both the 2 liter M10 in my '02 and the M42 1.8 liter in my ti seem to be much better from an NVH standpoint than Munich's current four cylinders. If I was buying new I'd definitely go with the M2; but I wasn't shopping in the $50k segment.
Ask me how much I like the 2er after this weekend. The sled is making its HPDE debut at Putnam Park Sports Car Course; it will be only the second time I've driven an automatic on the track- the first was a 2007 Alpina B7, which was an entirely different animal...

graphicguy

RB....interesting you mentioned about the "gruffness" of the 4 cyl turbo BMW motor. I had test driven one (again) when I was getting ready to boot my former CTS. It thought the same thing...."this doesn't seem like the typical smooth as silk BMW 4 cyl". Not sure what they've done recently to that motor, but the ones I drove previously were much more civilized.

I noticed the same thing with the Benz C300 4 cyl turbo I drove last week.

Good luck this weekend.

stickguy

well, in the article, they were not particularly fond of the motor. It was the rest of the car (handling, overall balance) that hit the mark.

eventually in the upcoming shopping I will try out the Audi, MB and BMW 2 liter motors for myself.

imidazol97

suydam said:

Mr_Shiftright said:

If you were born 1945--1950 or so you got the sweet spot of American life IMO, to grow up in.

Depends on what color and class you are. 

That sounds like political talk and political correctness! Already get
enough of that on the alphabet networks. LOL

suydam

No, merely pointing out that segregation was a legal practice in the "good ole" 40s and 50s.

ab348

stickguy said:

I always assumed that there was a period where the entire Nissan design department was dropping acid on a daily basis. No other viable explanation.

For further evidence in support of your argument, I submit this:

stickguy

I saw one like that in the showroom once. We left.

PF_Flyer

The semi-passive approach with the chipmunks isn't yielding desired results. I'm going to have to ramp things up a notch. Maybe enlist Carl Spackler

suydam

Regarding Nissan design, seems all over the place. To me the Cube and Juke are cartoon cars. But the Versa, Altima, and Maxima are very tastefully designed. The Soul hits the sweet spot of being quirky in a good way. Interior-wise they all tend to be both functional and beautiful. I thought the round chrome door handles on the Versa were a nice touch on an otherwise very inexpensive car.

driver100

ab348 said:

stickguy said:

I always assumed that there was a period where the entire Nissan design department was dropping acid on a daily basis. No other viable explanation.

For further evidence in support of your argument, I submit this:

That may be the new ugly award winner - for a stock production model car. Took the award from the perennial favorite:

imidazol97

PF_Flyer said:

The semi-passive approach with the chipmunks isn't yielding desired results. I'm going to have to ramp things up a notch. Maybe enlist Carl Spackler

I've put a chipmunk havahart trap in their pathways after I've identified their runs. I used to get acorns from a tree where I parked by a medical office. Crackers and peanut butter don't work as well. We have a chipmunk that got into the garage and chewed a birdseed bag. I put down a sticky mouse trap next to the bag of seek and it (the trap) disappeared. I assume there's a chipmunk running around with a leg stuck on a trap.

roadburner

PF_Flyer said:

The semi-passive approach with the chipmunks isn't yielding desired results. I'm going to have to ramp things up a notch. Maybe enlist Carl Spackler

Want to borrow my dog? This year he has killed a possum a groundhog, and just last night, a racoon...

stever

Time to build a garage. Tell your missus it's to keep the mulch dry.

Mr_Shiftright

imidazol97 said:

suydam said:

Mr_Shiftright said:

If you were born 1945--1950 or so you got the sweet spot of American life IMO, to grow up in.

Depends on what color and class you are. 

That sounds like political talk and political correctness! Already get
enough of that on the alphabet networks. LOL

We don't get to choose where we are born, unless maybe if you are a Buddhist, you might think so.

suydam

roadburner said:

PF_Flyer said:

The semi-passive approach with the chipmunks isn't yielding desired results. I'm going to have to ramp things up a notch. Maybe enlist Carl Spackler

Want to borrow my dog? This year he has killed a possum a groundhog, and just last night, a racoon...

Mine was quite the hunter in her day. Never had a problem with groundhogs! A raccoon is tough though. One time we had 3 dogs on a raccoon and 2 of the dogs got the worst of it. One almost lost an eye. Pretty impressive of your dog!

roadburner

suydam said:

roadburner said:

PF_Flyer said:

The semi-passive approach with the chipmunks isn't yielding desired results. I'm going to have to ramp things up a notch. Maybe enlist Carl Spackler

Want to borrow my dog? This year he has killed a possum a groundhog, and just last night, a racoon...

Mine was quite the hunter in her day. Never had a problem with groundhogs! A raccoon is tough though. One time we had 3 dogs on a raccoon and 2 of the dogs got the worst of it. One almost lost an eye. Pretty impressive of your dog!

He has actually killed a total of three raccoons; he picked up a couple of scrapes each time but nothing serious. He is such a laid back dog around people that you wouldn't think he'd be such a crazy hunter.

Mr_Shiftright

I'm trapping rats at the moment (I live near a creek, so the supply is endless).

abacomike

Drug companies are making a fortune off me.  I'm in the "Donut Hole" with my prescription meds which means I am paying 50% of the "retail cost" of the 12 Rx's I take daily.  I just refilled 2-90 day prescriptions and my cost was $1724.  That's 360 pills (I take 2 of each prescription a day) at $4.79 per pill - and that's 1/2 of the retail cost!  Unbelievable!  How does the pharmaceutical industry expect people to afford drugs?  

At at the end of this month, I have 8 prescriptions that need to be refilled at an estimated cost to me of over $2000 for 90 day supplies and most of them are generics.  I can't figure that one out at all! 

stickguy

my dog was good at chasing away animals. Never caught any, which is good, because they would have scared him to death. They didn't realize that the big furry noisy thing probably just wanted to play.

houdini1

roadburner said:

PF_Flyer said:

The semi-passive approach with the chipmunks isn't yielding desired results. I'm going to have to ramp things up a notch. Maybe enlist Carl Spackler

Want to borrow my dog? This year he has killed a possum a groundhog, and just last night, a racoon...

You must have Jerry Clower's old dog, Highball.

suydam

roadburner said:

suydam said:

roadburner said:

PF_Flyer said:

The semi-passive approach with the chipmunks isn't yielding desired results. I'm going to have to ramp things up a notch. Maybe enlist Carl Spackler

Want to borrow my dog? This year he has killed a possum a groundhog, and just last night, a racoon...

Mine was quite the hunter in her day. Never had a problem with groundhogs! A raccoon is tough though. One time we had 3 dogs on a raccoon and 2 of the dogs got the worst of it. One almost lost an eye. Pretty impressive of your dog!

He has actually killed a total of three raccoons; he picked up a couple of scrapes each time but nothing serious. He is such a laid back dog around people that you wouldn't think he'd be such a crazy hunter.

Mine (a 32 pound Brittany) was a sweetheart at home but a relentless hunter outside. On our walks she killed a groundhog every day during the spring and summer months. The raccoon fight was epic and the story gets enlarged -- umm, more entertaining -- every year.

Mike, sorry to hear about your expenses. At least the donut hole is supposed to shrink every year. Doesn't help you now though.

imidazol97

abacomike said:

Drug companies are making a fortune off me. ...over $2000 for 90 day supplies and most of them are generics.  I can't figure that one out at all! 

The drug companies were protected from competition in the law they wrote for the healthcare takeover so the drug companies wouldn't campaign against the takeover. So the Canadian drugs that were available via internet and others can't be brought it for competition. Even generics cost more. The 3 I take are generics.

I had a friend comment yesterday that competition from the foreign brands had been good for the US car makers. He pointed out that many cars were probably better than the foreign competitors. Of course he didn't consider the unfair pricing due to improper exchange rates of the home country currencies making their products cheaper here. He's a Kia owner very proud that they lied about fuel mileage and have to pay him $50 approximately every year based on his mileage he reports to them. Hmmm.

suydam

He is talking about Medicare. unless that's the "healthcare takeover" you mean.

abacomike

suydam said:

He is talking about Medicare. unless that's the "healthcare takeover" you mean.

I have a Medicare Advantage Plan - with Part D which covers drugs.  It's the drug coverage part of Medicare that I am talking about.  I've gone over the $3200 drug cost limit for stage 1.  I am now in stage 2 where I pay 50% of retail price until I have an additional $3800 in drug costs.  Then, eventually, I will go into stage 3 which is catastrophic.  I still have copays at stage 3, but they are $2.50 - $150.00 once I am at stage 3.

Last year, same thing happened.  But last uear I had help from the drug foundations for the Hep C drugs - no help this year.

driver100

abacomike said:

Drug companies are making a fortune off me.  I'm in the "Donut Hole" with my prescription meds which means I am paying 50% of the "retail cost" of the 12 Rx's I take daily.  I just refilled 2-90 day prescriptions and my cost was $1724.  That's 360 pills (I take 2 of each prescription a day) at $4.79 per pill - and that's 1/2 of the retail cost!  Unbelievable!  How does the pharmaceutical industry expect people to afford drugs?  

At at the end of this month, I have 8 prescriptions that need to be refilled at an estimated cost to me of over $2000 for 90 day supplies and most of them are generics.  I can't figure that one out at all! 

Chances are good all of those drugs would be covered if you lived in Canada...there could be an exception but not usually. I like the free enterprise system, but, it seems unfair people can lose everything through no fault of their own. I pay more taxes, more for everything to have a health medical plan, but, it is insurance, and if I am fortuantate not to need it very much, that's fine....I would rather pay so others don't have to pay $1000s for health care.

driver100

One more thought. I was just talking to a guy who gets prescriptions filled in Mexico....doesn't need a prescription there. He goes to Arizona for the winter, travels 3 hours across the border, buys a cold sore prescription that costs $22 here, for $2.50 in Mexico. He saves at least 75% on other meds.

PF_Flyer

stever said:

Time to build a garage. Tell your missus it's to keep the mulch dry.

If I build a garage, that would just move the food source and turn the chipmunks into an INDOOR problem

The bucket is starting to do its job, but like Shifty's rats, I'm pretty sure I have a huge supply of chipmunks.

suydam

driver100 said:

One more thought. I was just talking to a guy who gets prescriptions filled in Mexico....doesn't need a prescription there. He goes to Arizona for the winter, travels 3 hours across the border, buys a cold sore prescription that costs $22 here, for $2.50 in Mexico. He saves at least 75% on other meds.

Well, I don't think I'd try that with my transplant drugs.

oldfarmer50

snakeweasel said:

Talk about a close call.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoWZna-x268

Wouldn't want to be the person who had to wash his underwear.

oldfarmer50

graphicguy said:

RB....interesting you mentioned about the "gruffness" of the 4 cyl turbo BMW motor. I had test driven one (again) when I was getting ready to boot my former CTS. It thought the same thing...."this doesn't seem like the typical smooth as silk BMW 4 cyl". Not sure what they've done recently to that motor, but the ones I drove previously were much more civilized.

I noticed the same thing with the Benz C300 4 cyl turbo I drove last week.

Good luck this weekend.

Maybe they couldn't reach an agreement with Mitsubishi.

abacomike

The only experience I have had with nature intruding in my privacy or property was when I lived in the southwest suburbs of Chicago.  We had just moved into our brand new custom built 2-story house in the spring and every morning, we heard a constant "rat-a-tat-tat-tatting" somewhere above our 2nd story master bedroom windows.  The only thing that could be making that racket was a woodpecker!  

So, one morning, I got dressed early and waited for the pecking sound to start.  Sure enough, it started at about 6:30 AM on a Saturday.  I went outside and looked up to our bedroom windows and there it was - pecking away at my eaves.  I tried everything to convince this woodpecker that he was "pecking up the wrong tree!"  But to no avail.

A friend of mine worked at the zoo and I called him and asked him to check with the aviary specialist as to what I could do to rid myself of the woodpecker menace - he would eventually work his way through my eaves.  He called me back and said there were four suggestions - shoot it down (and damage the roof even further since I was not a sharpshooter) - scare it away with loud noises or a broomstick - move the house (he was joking of course) - or have my eaves and facias covered in aluminum.

I tried the broomstick idea which didn't work - almost fell out of the window one morning!  I then tried one of those aerosol horns every morning when he'd show up - but all I did was cause hate and discontent among my immediate neighbors.  So, accepting defeat, I called the aluminum siding installers that had sided my house around the brick veneer and they covered all wood surfaces on the upper level of my house including the window sills and frames around the storm windows.  $2500 was the cost which was a lot of money back in 1982.

Well, after pecking at the aluminum for a few days, the woodpecker ended up bothering one of the houses across the street.  I just figured out why they never talked to us or came over for our yearly Christmas Open Houses - now he was stuck with a woodpecker. 

suydam

We have lots of woodpeckers. We put up suet cakes and feeders for them. They eat a lot of insects that we don't want. But we are country folks!

abacomike

suydam said:

We have lots of woodpeckers. We put up suet cakes and feeders for them. They eat a lot of insects that we don't want. But we are country folks!

Country folks "is" good.  I was brought up in the city so when I moved to the "country", lots of "city" came with me.  My wife and I were like "Green Acres" - I would work on a project in my good slacks and dress shirts or use the snowblower wearing my good leather shoes.  Luckily, after several years, I learned to wear jeans and work boots when blowing snow.  The woodpecker caper was an awkward situation since I never had to deal with nature in my own backyard.

Now, I could never live in a city - too confining.

driver100

suydam said:

driver100 said:

One more thought. I was just talking to a guy who gets prescriptions filled in Mexico....doesn't need a prescription there. He goes to Arizona for the winter, travels 3 hours across the border, buys a cold sore prescription that costs $22 here, for $2.50 in Mexico. He saves at least 75% on other meds.

Well, I don't think I'd try that with my transplant drugs.

Agreed, wouldn't fool around under normal circumstances.......but, if you have limited funds and need the drugs it is an option worth looking into.

abacomike

driver100 said:

One more thought. I was just talking to a guy who gets prescriptions filled in Mexico....doesn't need a prescription there. He goes to Arizona for the winter, travels 3 hours across the border, buys a cold sore prescription that costs $22 here, for $2.50 in Mexico. He saves at least 75% on other meds.

Well, I don't think I'd try that with my transplant drugs.

Agreed, wouldn't fool around under normal circumstances.......but, if you have limited funds and need the drugs it is an option worth looking into.

Only if you live relatively close to the border.  For me, it is not an option - it would cost me more to travel to Mexico than what I pay for scripts.

snakeweasel

imidazol97 said:

I've put a chipmunk havahart trap in their pathways after I've identified their runs. I used to get acorns from a tree where I parked by a medical office. Crackers and peanut butter don't work as well. We have a chipmunk that got into the garage and chewed a birdseed bag. I put down a sticky mouse trap next to the bag of seek and it (the trap) disappeared. I assume there's a chipmunk running around with a leg stuck on a trap.

We had a slight mouse problem in the garage a few years back so I put out a few of those spring loaded mouse traps out. One day I walked into the garage and saw a mouse scurrying across the garage floor as fast as he could with one of of his back legs trapped in the trap dragging it along.