Karl's Daily Log Book

andys120

Aw come on. I had a top on my 124 Spider that could be raised or lowered from inside, unlike the setup on my previous ride TR-4A, I thought it was a nice little plus but i8t hardly would've made the difference in a "buy or not" decision.

The tops on MGAs, Sprites and TR-3s had to be erected be putting up a framework, stretching the top over it and fastening side curtains to either side, now that's inconvenient (and time consuming-- 10 minutes or so). :P

I'd still kill to have one of those today.

nitromax

Look at it this way. Is Ford going to require him to produce receipts showing he purchased only premium?

If they take the engine apart and see tell-tale signs of premature detonation, then they may suspect that inferior gas was used. And if they investigate further and find that all of the other systems are working fine then they can be pretty sure that's the culprit.

A lot of cars now have requirements that ask for high octane gas, but the GT is the first one that I know of that has a label right next to the gas cap that says 91+ octane. Ford must be serious if they went through the trouble.

kevm14

premature detonation

This is a really good read. 8 pages but well worth it.
http://www.streetrodstuff.com/Articles/Engine/Detonation/index.php

nitromax

Got a Cliffs notes version?
:-)

I glanced through it quickly and it pretty much backs up my statement earlier. Perhaps my terms were not quite correct, thank you for the correction, but the general scope was right. There are tell tale signs of engine damage due to detonation. It also appears that extreme hi output engines (probably such as the GT) are even more succeptable to detonation damage than standard hi output engines.

to bad I'm at work and can't read it fully....good article.

michaellno

I've got a 2003 Focus and live in Colorado, where our octane ratings are 85 (regular), 87 (mid grade) and either 89 or 91 (premium).

In the owners manual, Ford specifies 87 octane, even if you live in a high altitude location. So, while folks in the rest of the country can put in 87 octane which is listed as "regular", I've got to cough up the extra .10/gal to put in mid-grade.

Not that I'm complaining about the extra price difference. As noted above, mid-grade tends to run about .10/gal more than regular; with a fill up of around 10 or 11 gallons, I'm looking at about an extra $1 per tank, or $50 a year.

editor_karl

Hey Guys,

We just picked up a Honda Civic GX and we're going to have it for the next week. The entire editorial team is headed up to Laguna Seca for a Skp Barber driving school (have to do it once a year for insurance requirements, plus it's a great way to keep editors crisp on their driving skills and their understanding of vehicle dynamics).

Anyway, we're taking the Civic as one of the cars to drive the 700 miles round trip and we're going to see:
A. How does it drive compared to a normal gasoline engine
B. How hard is it to find natural gas filling stations (supposedly California has more than any other state
C. How much does it cost to operate compared to natural gas

Some of you may already know about the "Phill" home fueling station for the GX. It basically hooks into your home natural gas line, allowing you to fill up at home. But I guess it takes a while (8 hours) to fill a complete empty tank because the natural gas has to be presurized before it can go into the car (the natural gas tanks at official filling stations are already pressurized, so they don't take that long).

A recent article said that, after you pay for the car and the natural gas home filling station ($4,500, I believe -- plus you get major tax credits on that purchase), the cost of putting natural gas in a Civic GX equates to about $1 a gallon.

Pretty interesting. I'll let you know how it goes.

danf1

I want your job. How terrible is it to go to Skip Barber school every year? I have to go to state title seminars annually. I'll gladly trade my experience for yours. Think about it, you can learn a whole new facet of the automobile industry which could give you many things to write about in your columns. Drop me an e-mail and we can work out the details.

editor_karl

So I'm at the local coin op car wash Sunday, washing the Ford GT, and this guy comes up and says, "Wow, you have a car like this and you wash it yourself?!"

My response was, "Of course, that's half the fun."

But it made me realize that, probably, the majority of GT owners, and other luxury/premium car owners, really don't wash their own cars. It seems obvious to me now, but I never thought about it until that moment. I've always washed my own cars, and I found it a bit depressing to think that few people out there with a car over, say, $40,000 probably ever washes it themselves.

To me, washing a vehicle (this goes for motorcycles, too) really is part of the fun, because you never fully appreciate a vehicle until you wash it -- yourself! The action requires you to get very familiar with the car (or motorcycle), at least, it does if you wash it properly.

This was the first time I had carefully washed my GT since buying it (I sprayed it off quickly after getting back from Laguna Seca a few weeks ago, just to keep the bugs from melding with the paint). As much as I liked the car's lines and curves before, I have a whole new appreciation for it now. It's sad to think that many owners of vehicles, especially performance vehicles built with a real passion for design, will never get that familiar with their cars

But is my theory correct? How many of you out there wash your own cars? And what kind of cars are you washing?

This could be my next editorial piece.

editor_karl

Think about it, you can learn a whole new facet of the automobile industry which could give you many things to write about in your columns. Drop me an e-mail and we can work out the details.

Hmmm, tempting.

qbrozen

See, now, I don't find it fun to wash my own cars, but the problem is I don't trust letting someone else DRIVE the car, even if its only 20 feet onto the track that will pull it through the wash. So my response to that person would have been "if you had this, would you really let a stranger get in the driver seat??"

danf1

I wash my CTS carefully. It is black and must be done well. My Envoy will get washed whenever it rains hard enough. I don't own a ladder tall enough to get to the roof of that thing. My motorcycles get meticulous hand scrubbings any time that I have a few hours to kill and can't go for a ride.

editor_karl

See, now, I don't find it fun to wash my own cars, but the problem is I don't trust letting someone else DRIVE the car, even if its only 20 feet onto the track that will pull it through the wash. So my response to that person would have been "if you had this, would you really let a stranger get in the driver seat??"

That's a great point as well. I keep wondering what I'm going to do if I'm ever in a situation with the GT and there's a valet. Actually, I don't wonder what I'm going to do at that exact moment "Uh, no, you won't be driving/parking this car."

I just wonder how much of a pain it will be to find a parking space myself. I guess it will depend on the event.

kyfdx

$12.95.. no tipping.. and the wheels look like I spent an hour cleaning them...

Also, I've watched the guy drive 20 feet.. He's never broken 5 mph, that I can tell....

regards,
kyfdx

stever

I try to wash my van and wagon myself once a year; never pay to have it done. In good years I'll touch up the rock dings and then clay them, wash and wax.

C'mon Karl, you really should be joining the Zaino cult with a GT. :-)

Steve, Host

hammen2

...the GTO through an automatic wash. Only take the Aurora and the Envoy through about once a month in the winter (and yep, I've been known to be outside hand-washing our cars on rare above-freezing days in winter, as long as it's sunny out).

I'll take the 20-30 minutes it takes to wash a Zaino'd car over spending $12 for someone to put free swirls into my paint (not to mention the crappy "wax" and super-abrasive water and aggressive soap).

I agree that you cannot appreciate the design and lines of a car until you have washed it a few times. There's a hidden character line under the rocker panel of the GTO which I never noticed until I had to wash it... I try to wash it at least once a week (more often than I mow my lawn, to the disdain of my neighbors :-)

--Robert

qbrozen

Also, I've watched the guy drive 20 feet.. He's never broken 5 mph, that I can tell....

Ah, but do you drive a $200K car with a $10K clutch? You don't need to go fast to hurt a clutch.

Plus, after the attendant just drove that 4-cyl Corolla into the bay, wouldn't you at least have a little worry that he/she could accidentally not think about the power in something like the GT and just lose all control of the car in that 20 feet? These are the things I think about when turning my car over to someone (and i don't have anything near as fast as the GT).

ateixeira

Do it myself, in fact I do both my cars plus my wife's car. Problem is, it takes hours to finish all 3 because I have OCD.

-juice

kyfdx

Well.. except for Karl, I don't think any of you guys drive a $200K car... :surprise:

I wasn't suggesting Karl take his GT through the wash....

qbrozen

True, but it is all relative. A $35K car to me is probably just as precious as a $200K car to Mr. Moneybags.

kevm14

I enjoy hand washing my cars, though it is back breaking work (for me at least). Plus there's the bonus of finding each and every new ding/chip/scratch! Ultimate prize, indeed!

imidazol97

I always wash mine other than freezing weather in winter when they get a spray it yourself car wash mostly spraying underneath to rinse away salt.

Ican find nails in tires and other things just while washing them myself.

tayl0rd

I found this a little interesting. What do you guys think? Propaganda or truth? I think it's just propaganda, but some of the stuff they say seems sound.

elias

i almost never wash my cars... once or twice per year, by hand, at most. if that... my GTO is a few months old and i haven't washed it once, nor has the dealer. it still looks mighty clean... 5000 miles. our xc90 has not been washed since its last oil change - the dealer washes it. same with our volksy tdi passat.
in wintertime i tend to bring the cars to those self-spray places in order to spray off the top layers of salt/ice/sand. but i rarely let anything actually *touch* the vehicle. so a layer of grime builds up.
years ago i loved to wash my Z28s. maybe i will learn to like washing my GTO. i'll try it one of these days.
one reason i stopped washing the cars is that i seem to keep having 3 to 5 year old children around who can't help spraying me with the hose. it's funny but it's also a problem because i have ear problems - the slightest amount of water in the ear can result in months of ear pain, partial deafness, and incredible amounts of sickening antibiotics... "whaaaat" ? hey, the GTO exhaust doesn't sound that loud to me!

ateixeira

International Carwash Association

Pure bias, they funded the study, and surely set the parameters to put themselves on top. This is my favorite part:

Hand washes are extremely harmful to automobile finishes

LOL, that's actually funny.

Now, if they had said "no better than" or something to that effect, I might have actually kept reading. But that's just ridiculous.

Next, we'll find out the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety recommends you buy insurance from one of their clients instead of self-insuring.

The National Beef Council will do a study that says beef tastes better than chicken.

AARP will claim it's cool to be old, 70 year old are "hip".

The Union of 1-900 numbers claims telephone psychics are useful and accurate.

The National Association of Budget Managers for Juice's Money says that 99.9% of the people that donate large sums of money to juice benefit from good luck for years to come.

Send your checks or cash (no pesos) to...

-juice

1487

Did anyone see the info or pics on the new '07 Tahoe?

Karl:

what do you think about the new interior design? Seems like a dramatic improvement.

ctalk

Some pictures I found.

Interior
1
2

Exterior
1
2
3
4

Interior is an improvement, but the steering wheel is EXACTLY like Ford Fusions.

Exterior is disappointing.

Atleast GM improved their interior. I know I cant judge the quality of an interior by looking at a picture, but from what I see its pretty damn good. Hopefully GM made it fuel efficient, because they picked a pretty bad time to come out with a new SUV.

elias

woodgrain dash/accents in a chevy SUV. ew. absurd. at a benz focus group for the a-class in USA a few years ago they miked us all for the whole thing as we walked around looking at the different a-class front-halves, comparing with other vehicles including pontiac vibe which was about to be available. i told the benz folks of the wood/luxo a-class interior: wood has no place on or in a modern automobile. also i told them: put a diesel engine in it and i'll buy - otherwise i'll buy a volksy diesel. a month later i traded our 1999 benz wagon for a volksy TDI wagon, which turned out to be 1000x more reliable than the benz.
hey, benz still isn't selling their A class in USA? what's up, benz still is not selling A class in USA. hmm. i don't think i was the typical benz customer.
i remember at the focus group most of the other owners were a bit snooty and very concerned that the a-class in USA would lower the "cachet" of M-Benz. meanwhile i kept saying "this vehicle is cool, put a diesel in it.". oh well. so much for my influence.

explorerx4

the c pillar area looks like they just lifted it from an explorer or expedition (looks good). the hood looks like it came right off my '02 explorer. i'm still a bit 'iffy' on the doors. overall, it looks more of 'a piece' than the previous generations.
the center stack controls just need a surround with the metalic trim from the vents. that's all it would take for me to say 'cadillac' to the interior.

all i can say is when my wife shows up for work with a car that isn't clean, her co workers must think we had a fight, and i get a phone call regarding the comments about how it hasn't met expecations. :confuse:

1487

I like the exterior and interior. There is only so much you can to do to the exterior of a two box SUV so I wasnt expecting anything dramatic. I think the interior is unquestionably better than any other Japanese or American SUV. Only the expensive European SUVs are better, but we have to remember this is only the Tahoe, not the Escalade. There is absolutely no comparison between this interior and that of the Armada or Durango. The efficiency is supposed to be best in class, an average of 21mpg on the lower models. I think that's on par with a V6 powered Honda Pilot.

GM didn't start working on this truck two or three months ago. People act like they knew gas was going to be $3.00 a gallon when they started redesigning these trucks four years ago. Vehicles take several years to go from drawing board to dealership lots.

redmaxx

Interior looks good! I also like the exterior, major improvement over the previous years. I don't understand why people don't like wood inside the car? I think, done right, I looks good and adds to the atmosphere of the car. I much prefer it to the old gray look that Chevy used to have. Almost looks good enough to be a Caddy!

ford624

Karl, I agree.
Getting the car clean the way you want it is good.
I probably have my cars washed at a car wash about 20% of the time.
The last time I was out of town and needed it washed, I learned something from the car wash company; they used compressed air to get the water out from behind things like door handles and stuff like that. So now I plug in my garden blower and blow off car prior to final drying.
That garden blower is good to help dry my Harley too.
Getting to know a clean car is good.
How many car washes clean and condition the things under your hood?

xmf314

I don't like the nerdy column shifter. GM should have put the shifter on the floor where the Lord intended it to be.

xmf314

http://money.cnn.com/2005/09/20/news/fortune500/gm/index.htm

kevm14

If you drop the sponge/mitt on the ground and keep using it, sure, hand washes are a problem. One thing they didn't mention (at least I didn't see it) is that the auto washes that use those rotating brushes are probably the worst of all, especially if the attendant didn't do their job thoroughly and leave some big chunks still on the paint (thinking winter here).

Big time propaganda though. Wow.

kevm14

Interior: nice.

Exterior: looks too much like that awful Uplander. I really like the current Tahoe in exterior style. I think it's just right.

imidazol97

That study sure doesn't say much for University of TExas at Arlington.

Note it sounds like they used 4 people washing one car each by any eclectic method. They then tried to extrapolate that to 25 car washes through their one selected car wash automatic.

What a joke.
Has anyone contacted UofT at Arlington at ask about their study? Department must have been hard up for money--or _maybe_ money changed hands besides in the department support paid grant money...?

ateixeira

Looks a little slab-sided, but overall not bad. It's hard to make anything that big look good. I think it needs fender flares, or something.

Interior is a huge leap forwards from the current one, which was grossly outdated. It's very clean and simple. I still prefer the Navigator's, but the ergonomics looks good.

-juice

levyrob

At first glance, it looks decent. It builds on the look of the Blazer while doing a much better job being integrated. Look at the way the front bumper cover merges with the front fender rather than being separate piece (which usually features a big gap that makes the whole front end look like a victim of poor fit and finish). The integrate front bumper is one of the things that make the Ford trucks (F-series and Expedition) look nice.

The interior even looks pretty good. The shapes are familiar, but it is appropriate looking for the vehicle, and if the materials are of acceptable quality, should be a pleasant driving environment.

In the 15 or so years that I've owned my own car, I have always hand-washed. Until last month when I took my wife's car through a touchless wash for the first time since we've owned it. I seemed to do a good job, and the kids had fun. Still, I prefer to hand wash. Like Karl says, you can appreciate the car each time you wash, but you can also inspect things like tire wear and pressure, oil level, fluid level, dings (gasp!), and the like that you'd otherwise miss if you didn't wash the car yourself. You get to immerse yourself in the car for a little while.

Rob

ateixeira

The front looks tough, sure, but it's a bit square, like someone flattened the nose.

It's fine for the demographic that tends to buy it, I'm sure they wanted something updated conservatively.

-juice

kevm14

I'm sure they wanted something updated conservatively.

Helloooooo Impala ....

ateixeira

Impala and Five Hundred for Ford. Chrysler seemed to be the one taking risks with the 300, and they're paying off.

-juice

explorerx4

if you want bling, buy the escalade, not the tahoe.
one thing that does disappoint is the third row seats. they still fold up on top of the floor.

explorerx4

i pirated this from the five hundred thread:

As of September 17, Daimler-Chrysler has produced 217,957of the LX platform cars (Chrysler 300 / Dodge Charger / Dodge Magnum) while Ford had produced 183,874 of the D3 platform cars (Ford Five Hundred / Mercury Montego / Ford Freestyle).

1487

without an IRS you cant have fold flat seats, that is one of the disadvantages of having a live axle. Most large SUVs have a live axle though, even Toyotas and Lexuses. I would say the only flaw I see with the Tahoe is the 4 speed auto. I assume that will gradually be replaced by the 6 speed once they produce enough of them. I dont think you could do much better in terms of design, this truck actually looks like it's worth $35K unlike the old one.

explorerx4

so why doesn't it have irs? ford has had it for years in the expedition and the explorer. all you have to do is put an explorer and a trailblazer ext next to each other to see the obvious advantage of irs. the domestics need more features and practicality to overcome their 'quality' reputations. toyota and lexus have a quality reputation that means more than features and practicality to many buyers. everyone knows this. the joint venture 6 speed will help in the features area.

dieselone

so why doesn't it have irs?

Same reason a Mustang doesn't have one, $$$. As soon as GM hit the panic button and dropped everything to rush the new trucks to market, the IRS, which I heard was on the drawing board, went out the window.

explorerx4

uhh... mustang/tahoe, rear seats. i'm having a tough time with the connection. :sick:

gee35coupe

They're talking about IRS. Can't have invisa-folding rear seats without IRS I guess.

dieselone

I was just making the anology that the tahoe doesn't have an IRS for the same reason a mustang doesn't have one, costs.

That wasn't intended to be a negative comment, just the facts. I've never read anything negative about the solid axle in the Mustang, and it will probably be the same with the Tahoe, now the lack of room for stow away seats may be an issue.

I think GM maybe in for a suprise when these vehicles hit the market. There will always be a market for large SUVs, but I really think those who can do with out an SUV will.

explorerx4

gee.. 'invisa-folding seats' are expected now. they are better. i know because i have them. if you really use the third row, see my previous comment on explorer and triailblazer ext.
let me put it this way, an '03 expedition with irs has the fold into the floor 3rd row and a higher towing capacity than the new tahoe. there are things i like about the new tahoe, but there are some major choices that leave me scratching my head.

the mustang can get by with a solid rear axle because nobody really cares about the rear seats and it's a proven commodity for drag racing(kind of fits with the mustang image). i know because i have one.