Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

xwesx

henryn said:

This explanation doesn't sound quite right to me either. I expect the full explanation would be quite a bit longer and more complex. I do recall other automotive safety recalls related to fire hazards in the wiring. And I also remember reading an article a few years back (although I can't seem to find it now) which said the wiring harness was the most expensive part of a new car.

Well, I don't know about BWM's situation, but I'm a little surprised that my Audi didn't catch fire when its alternator failed. When I popped the hood and looked in, the unit was glowing red and there were sparks shooting out of it in all directions. It didn't take me long to shut the engine down after that!

xwesx

nyccarguy said:

Thanks! We went to the ski jump center and where they train for bob sledding/skeleton/louge.

That's a lovely winter scene!

28firefighter

The Jeep is gone.

I checked all the fluids on the Infiniti. Last oil change was about 8 months and 5000 miles ago. Clean as a whistle and totally full. I am not used to this.

corvette

Mine (with the 3.7) did not appear to consume any oil. I think you will like it.

tjc78

@28firefighter said:
The Jeep is gone.

I checked all the fluids on the Infiniti. Last oil change was about 8 months and 5000 miles ago. Clean as a whistle and totally full. I am not used to this.

My old boss had a first gen G35 coupe. He put a lot of miles on that car (200K) and it treated him very well.

tifighter

Finishing up a week in Palm Springs. Time to fill up the rental car-

tifighter

Oh and rental was a 2020 Q3. With 50K miles. And it didn’t sound like it was maintained for any of them.

corvette

At least they sell "Shell liquor" to help you cope with the high prices.

I'm trying to do a trip to the Phoenix/San Diego area soon, if you have any recommendations, I'd appreciate them!

henryn

There is a Mobil about 4 or 5 blocks from my house, with the usual "Corner Gas" type store. And they also have a full fledged liquor store attached. Rather upscale actually, more wine than beer or whiskey.

stickguy

Used my Mobil card tonight. Saved a whopping $.10/gal. Bargain at 4.29. Good thing I got about 29 overall.

corvette

@roadburner - good point on the current range capabilities and charging infrastructure. If I want to take a day trip from here to Evansville to get a burger from one of the last remaining G.D. Ritzy's in the country, it's mostly interstate, but a 260 mile roundtrip. There is a Supercharger north of Evansville, but for other EVs, no DC fast chargers on the route, which would add a significant delay to this hypothetical trip.

I do think my annual pilgrimage to Omaha would be doable in an EV with fast charging, but there would probably be a lot of stops due to the range limitations.

oldfarmer50

explorerx4 said:

To me plugging your vehicle every night is like going back to hand crank starters.
I put fuel in my vehicle and never think about it again until I need to fill up again.

I must admit the problem of charging an EV in a dense urban area never occurred to me until someone mentioned it here but I can see that as a looming disaster. Can you imagine a thousand people in a city high rise fighting over a few available charging stations on any given day. I can certainly see that leading to gun fights or other violence. Heck, look at what happens at gas pumps right now.

oldfarmer50

tifighter said:

Finishing up a week in Palm Springs. Time to fill up the rental car-

How far are you from AZ?

kyfdx

corvette said:

At least they sell "Shell liquor" to help you cope with the high prices.

I'm trying to do a trip to the Phoenix/San Diego area soon, if you have any recommendations, I'd appreciate them!

What sort of recommendations are you looking for? Restaurants?

sda

xwesx said:

At any rate, when I headed to work yesterday morning, I noticed the sign at the station said diesel was $5.05/gal. That's the very first time that has ever happened (in Alaska, at least). I figured I would go ahead and fill up after work because I was at a half-tank, and, if anything, prices are going to continue to rise for a while. After work, I stopped by again....



You gotta be kidding me.

Ouch

ab348

corvette said:

I'm trying to do a trip to the Phoenix/San Diego area soon, if you have any recommendations, I'd appreciate them!

I would recommend taking a train.

corvette

kyfdx said:

corvette said:

At least they sell "Shell liquor" to help you cope with the high prices.

I'm trying to do a trip to the Phoenix/San Diego area soon, if you have any recommendations, I'd appreciate them!

What sort of recommendations are you looking for? Restaurants?

Restaurants, sightseeing, hiking trails, whatever.

jmonroe1

corvette said:

kyfdx said:

corvette said:

At least they sell "Shell liquor" to help you cope with the high prices.

I'm trying to do a trip to the Phoenix/San Diego area soon, if you have any recommendations, I'd appreciate them!

What sort of recommendations are you looking for? Restaurants?

Restaurants, sightseeing, hiking trails, whatever.

And here I thought all you wanted was info on where to find reasonably priced gas.

jmonroe

Michaell

Are you going to be downtown in San Diego? I can get my sister to make some recommendations, since she lives in the area.

kyfdx

@corvette

Phoenix restaurant: Dick's Hideaway is excellent. New Mexican cuisine (New Mexico, not Mexico).
They have a killer happy hour. (food and drinks)

Hiking: South Mountain is a public park, south of Phoenix. You can make it as easy or hard as you want, as they have a road to the top. Very scenic. 20 minutes or less from Downtown.

kyfdx

San Diego
They have a cluster of museums in Balboa Park, by the zoo.
We visited the auto and flight museums. Both are relatively small, and worth the time.
Of course, the zoo is amazing, and maybe the best one in the U.S.

I'll have to check our restaurant list. It's been at least 12 years since we were there, I think.

kyfdx

San Diego
Torrey Pines has great hiking, with views of the ocean.
We went kayaking in the ocean at La Jolla. That was very cool. No special skills needed.
Stone Brewing is in Escondido. The food is overpriced (but good), and the wait can be long, but the grounds are amazing. The beer is good, too.

mjfloyd1

@xwesx said:
Well, I don't know about BWM's situation, but I'm a little surprised that my Audi didn't catch fire when its alternator failed. When I popped the hood and looked in, the unit was glowing red and there were sparks shooting out of it in all directions. It didn't take me long to shut the engine down after that!

Normal operation 🤣😂

corvette

@kyfdx - thanks for the recommendations. I've found that restaurant lists tend to go stale fairly quickly. Tried to recommend some places in the PacNW for a friend, and most of the places I dined ten years ago no longer exist.

28firefighter

You have some friends here that can help with the PNW. Though given my judgment on other things I’d understand if you listened to @tifighter or @fintail instead.

28firefighter

Taught my son to drive last week and this week. His two wheeler, that is.

Last week in our driveway he got the mechanics down. Then this week we went to an empty school parking lot where he practiced starts, hills, and braking. He’s doing awesome!

sda

28firefighter said:

Taught my son to drive last week and this week. His two wheeler, that is.

Last week in our driveway he got the mechanics down. Then this week we went to an empty school parking lot where he practiced starts, hills, and braking. He’s doing awesome!

How old is he now?

28firefighter

He just turned 5

tjc78

My son was a struggle to teach the bike to for us. When we were at the campground another slightly older kid showed him in 5 minutes. Taught my younger daughter too in record time. My son was six and my daughter not even five yet. Now we all try and bike ride as much as possible when we are at the shore. They love riding on the boardwalk even in the winter.

kyfdx

corvette said:

@kyfdx - thanks for the recommendations. I've found that restaurant lists tend to go stale fairly quickly. Tried to recommend some places in the PacNW for a friend, and most of the places I dined ten years ago no longer exist.

As far as Dick's, I've had two friends go there within the past 12 months, so I'm still sure about that one. From your posts about Louisville food, I think you'd like it.

kyfdx

tjc78 said:

My son was a struggle to teach the bike to for us. When we were at the campground another slightly older kid showed him in 5 minutes. Taught my younger daughter too in record time. My son was six and my daughter not even five yet. Now we all try and bike ride as much as possible when we are at the shore. They love riding on the boardwalk even in the winter.

Same issues with my son (22 years ago). It was a struggle, but the neighbor down the street taught him in ten minutes. Sometimes, Dad just has to get out of the way.

kyfdx

San Diego (I checked to see if still open)

Point Loma Seafood. On the water, casual, order at counter. Busy, parking issues, closes early, not cheap. GREAT FRESH seafood.

Lucha Libre. California Burrito shop. Long lines, but moves quickly. Great burritos.

None of the other restaurants we hit are still open, it doesn't seem.

The Padres park is really nice. Can't beat the weather to watch a game, there.

au1994

San Diego is one of our favorite cities. Taking a ferry out to see the Hotel Coronado is fun, zoo is awesome as mentioned. Georges at the Cove in La Jolla is not to be missed. We took a whale watching excursion that was great if your are hitting it at the right time of year.

I wouldn’t have a clue on restaurants. Last time we were there was pre-COVID so no telling what survived. Or didn’t.

qbrozen

We couldn't get my older son off training wheels to save our lives. Then along comes the daredevil younger son who wanted nothing to do with training wheels and, with a brief explanation from me on the mechanics of pedaling and steering, basically taught himself within minutes at 5 yrs old. Older son, now 9, sees this and knows this can't happen, so asks me to take his off and, of course, he catches on within 20 mins or so by imitating his younger sibling.

28firefighter

This is the heck of it all for us. My little one, under no circumstances, will care about doing something just because someone else is doing it. While I’m sure that will serve him well later, assuming we harness that for the power of good, it was of no use getting him to ride. Our neighbor’s daughter is 15 months younger and was riding before him - he didn’t care at all.

But now that I convinced him his bike is like a fighter jet and he can go “fly missions”? We’re off.

tjc78

Pretty interesting how some of us have similar stories.

@qbrozen
Did I miss something? Where is the S90? Did you hold off because one of the 4xEs came in?

explorerx4

One of my kids had a hard time learning to ride without the training wheels so we took her up to her school and put her on the grass. Took right off after that. I guess they were afraid of falling on the pavement.

au1994

explorerx4 said:

One of my kids had a hard time learning to ride without the training wheels so we took her up to her school and put her on the grass. Took right off after that. I guess they were afraid of falling on the pavement.

This is what worked. Learned on the front yard. Off and running after that.

qbrozen

@tjc78 said:
Pretty interesting how some of us have similar stories.

@qbrozen
Did I miss something? Where is the S90? Did you hold off because one of the 4xEs came in?

Its coming. Seems like Mass has some weird rules and it has to be plated before it can leave their lot? I dunno. Plus, it is at the dealer getting service, TSB, and extra key. We may be able to get it shipped next week.

stickguy

oh yeah, the Mass issue. Good luck. My son's friend (NY resident) a couple years ago bought Jag (used I think) from a dealer in Mass. Fuzzy on the details but they had trouble getting it registered for him. Something about him needing to go there for some reason on no notice? Took something absurd like a month before they got it done and he could go pick up the car. Every other state it seems would just throw a temp tag on, and off you go.

jmonroe1

@au1994 said:
This is what worked. Learned on the front yard. Off and running after that.

I never heard of learning to ride a bike in the yard.

I remember one time when I was riding my bike and when I moved over to let a car go by I pulled over too far and went about a foot into a guys yard. With my luck the old coot was sitting on his front porch and yelled out, “HEY KID, GET OFF MY LAWN AND STAY OFF”.

jmonroe

corvette

If my Maverick doesn't arrive before I need it, I found a possible replacement, much cheaper, too!

stickguy

little smaller in the back seat.

explorerx4

Oldsmobile should have given that a shot.

tjc78

@explorerx4 said:
Oldsmobile should have given that a shot.

The proportions on that aren’t all that bad. The Century curved rear window would have to go of course.

tjc78

@qbrozen said:

@tjc78 said:
Pretty interesting how some of us have similar stories.

@qbrozen
Did I miss something? Where is the S90? Did you hold off because one of the 4xEs came in?

Its coming. Seems like Mass has some weird rules and it has to be plated before it can leave their lot? I dunno. Plus, it is at the dealer getting service, TSB, and extra key. We may be able to get it shipped next week.

I never knew that about MA. Wonder why they wouldn’t they adopt a temp tag like every other state?

explorerx4

I was thinking the rear window looks like a Buick, but the wheel covers are Oldsmobile and the script on the fender also reminds me of Oldsmobile.

sb55

stickguy said:

oh yeah, the Mass issue. Good luck. My son's friend (NY resident) a couple years ago bought Jag (used I think) from a dealer in Mass. Fuzzy on the details but they had trouble getting it registered for him. Something about him needing to go there for some reason on no notice? Took something absurd like a month before they got it done and he could go pick up the car. Every other state it seems would just throw a temp tag on, and off you go.

Mass. is weird. When I was trading our 535xiT for the CPO 535d in the Boston area, we negotiated over email. I drove down to make the trade and drive it home. NOT. They never told me that they couldn't release if from MA to VT, even though most bordering states do it. So I drove the old car home. They arranged for a driver to bring the 535d and meet me at the VT DMV. I had to get the plates switched while the driver waited. He then drove the 535xiT away. This was pre-COVID. I have no idea what would have happened during the time the DMV was closed for in person.

tjc78

@explorerx4 said:
I was thinking the rear window looks like a Buick, but the wheel covers are Oldsmobile and the script on the fender also reminds me of Oldsmobile.

No you’re correct. I just looked and the Ciera had the same curved window as the Century. For some reason I thought the Ciera was straight.

nyccarguy

MA doesn't issue temporary tags. That's the major issue.