Mr_Shiftright-20 Year Ride in Edmunds Forums!

Karen_SKaren_S Member Posts: 5,092
edited September 2017 in General
The Edmunds online community started in 1997. It was originally called TownHall and unless someone can prove otherwise, I believe it was the first online community forums solely focused on the auto industry, car buying, ownership, and maintenance. Mr_Shiftright has been behind the wheels (sometimes under the hood) for that entire time! I wish I had a count of how many questions he's answered through out the years! Even though it may be one person's question, I'm sure there are countless other lurkers that have benefited from his vast knowledge.

This topic is to honor Joe/Mr_Shiftright. Please join Edmunds and the rest of the forums staff in congratulating Joe for his years of service.

Thanks, Joe, it's been a wild ride and I couldn't have done it without your assistance and support!
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Comments

  • graphicguygraphicguy Member Posts: 13,978
    Yay....Joe! Thanks for helping out all these years. Always enjoy any post you make, and I've read!
    2024 Kia EV6 GT-Line AWD Long Range
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Thanks GG--I've certainly enjoyed your company and that of all the "regulars" here. I think I have probably learned more than I've given away!
  • 28firefighter28firefighter Member Posts: 9,625
    Congrats, Joe! Always appreciate your posts and contributions. Well deserved recognition!
    2024 Subaru WRX, 2015 Audi Q5 TDI
  • roadburnerroadburner Member Posts: 17,932
    Congrats!

    Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-2021 Sahara 4xe-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
    Wife's: 2015 X1 xDrive28i
    Son's: 2018 330i xDrive

  • qbrozenqbrozen Member Posts: 33,374
    Cool. Congrats! And thank you for your contributions to the community!

    '11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S

  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Q, RB, 28--you have all given generously of your time, too! Made my job easier I might add :)
  • ab348ab348 Member Posts: 19,802
    Hey Mr. S./Joe, congrats and thanks! I know I found this place shortly after it began though with the s/w changes over the years it is difficult to pin down the exact year. It has been a fun place to be. All the best!

    Greg

    2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6

  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    yeah, you've been here a loooonnnnng time! We need to have Bob get you a baseball cap or something. :)
  • sb55sb55 Member Posts: 635
    Congrats Mr_Shiftright.
    I think that I have been signed on since 2001 or 2002, but I am more of a lurker than poster.

    2021 Toyota Venza Limited Hybrid, 2022 Ram 2500 Laramie 6.4 Hemi, 2007 Mazda MX-5 Miata PRHT

  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Well you gave us some good feedback on your BMW and Miata, and we certainly can't question your lurker loyalty!
  • nyccarguynyccarguy Member Posts: 16,986
    Mazel-Tov Joe!  Way to go!

    2001 Prelude Type SH, 2022 Highlander XLE AWD, 2022 Wrangler Sahara 4Xe, 2023 Toyota Tacoma SR 4WD

  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Look at you NYC--over 11,000 posts...a generous contribution!
  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 57,912
    I think I date back to maybe 03 or so. You're ancient compared to me :)

    Congrats, now 20 more?
  • jpp75jpp75 Member Posts: 1,535
    Congrats @Mr_Shiftright, quite an accomplishment to stay somewhere so long. Always appreciate your contributions both seen and unseen!
  • MichaellMichaell Moderator Posts: 254,673
    @Mr_Shiftright - a pleasure to have you keeping us on the straight and narrow all these years. Now that I'm a co-moderator, I feel honored to work shoulder to shoulder with you.

    May you continue to have many years of contributions to our forums.

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  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    fintail said:

    I think I date back to maybe 03 or so. You're ancient compared to me :)

    Congrats, now 20 more?

    Wait...I'm calculating the actuarial tables.....20 more? A long shot, but possible, yes. And as a member of the Heckflosse Alumni & Heritage Association, (HAHA) thanks for the congrats!
  • jmonroejmonroe Member Posts: 8,989
    @Mr_Shiftright, I'd like to add my congrats also. I'm sure it takes a lot of patience to put up with some of the guys in here. Not me of course but you know the ones I'm talking about.

    Since you're so good at what you do, stick around for another 20 years, that's when the pension really gets good.

    Thanks for being here for us.

    jmonroe

    '15 Genesis V8 with Ultimate Package and '18 Legacy Limited 6 cyl

  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Thanks to you and Mrs. jmonroe--when is her beatification for sainthood by the Pope coming up? :p
  • carnaughtcarnaught Member Posts: 3,548
    Congrats Joe (@Mr_Shiftright)! This non-gearhead has learned a ton from you, and looks forward to a ton more.
  • PF_FlyerPF_Flyer Member Posts: 9,372
    20 years is 40% of the total time that Edmunds has been in existence! Pretty sure that makes you a fixture around here. 57,000+ posts and I've likely read the vast majority of them. And I thought the Game of Thrones books had a lot of pages! ;)

    Congratulations Joe. Looking forward to many more!
  • oldfarmer50oldfarmer50 Member Posts: 23,630
    edited September 2017
    Sooo your real name is Joe? Nah, I like Shifty better. Congrats on being able to put up with us this long. :p

    2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible

  • ray80ray80 Member Posts: 1,655
    Congrats :)
  • ClairesClaires Member Posts: 1,222
    WOW, big congrats, Joe!  Here's to many more!

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  • tifightertifighter Member Posts: 3,704
    Congrats Shifty!!

    We all want to see a pic of the gold watch...

    24 Sienna Plat AWD / 23 Civic Type-R / 21 Tesla Y LR / 03 Montero Ltd

  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    oldfarmer50 said:

    Sooo your real name is Joe? Nah, I like Shifty better. Congrats on being able to put up with us this long. :p

    Shiftright is also a real person of sorts. He was a cartoon character I created for Road & Track magazine and there are lots of gearheads around the world who think he is real.

    https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009140808027&hc_ref=ARRPARKOZ_au9TzSV1FF8hWHl7MWoYMkCGTs1jvyB2oCBWjxYwUV558BNbxyEzoYRvc&fref=nf
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    tifighter said:

    Congrats Shifty!!

    We all want to see a pic of the gold watch...

    No problem.......hey, wait a minute...this thing is a FAKE! :'(

  • PF_FlyerPF_Flyer Member Posts: 9,372
    As chairman of the congratulatory committee, I'd like to extend you a laurel, and hardy handshake to mark the occasion


  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    I wish we could all be as funny as that movie :p
  • MichaellMichaell Moderator Posts: 254,673
    Mr_Shiftright said:

    I wish we could all be as funny as that movie :p

    We're not?

    Darn.... :stuck_out_tongue:

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  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    I thought it would be kinder to just spit it out than to lead you on. B)
  • explorerx4explorerx4 Member Posts: 20,077
    Mr_Shifty,
    Congrats on 20 years at Edmunds!
    Since I joined in 2003, I'm sorry to have missed 6 years of your insightful and humorous posts. Some are both :)
    2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Thank you...and some are neither! :p

    I got some very cool gifts from Edmunds, including an "audio coffee mug", a hot/cold drink holder with detachable bluetooth speaker and USB charging port and smartphone docking station.

    Now I can ride my motorcycle, enjoy a latte and listen to Spotify all at the same time. :s

  • berriberri Member Posts: 10,165
    20 - guess that qualifies as a lifer ;)
  • thebeanthebean Member Posts: 1,238
    Congrats Shifty Joe. I'm currently reading through the entire "Postwar Studebakers" board, and your knowledge leaves me in awe. Thanks for gifting all your wisdom to us Edmunds inhabitants.
    2015 Honda Accord EX, 2019 Honda HR-V EX
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481

  • berriberri Member Posts: 10,165
    C'mon Shifty - I was talking long term at a place, not criminal B)
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    thebean said:

    Congrats Shifty Joe. I'm currently reading through the entire "Postwar Studebakers" board, and your knowledge leaves me in awe. Thanks for gifting all your wisdom to us Edmunds inhabitants.

    Thank you! I used to own quite few Studebakers. Uplander is really the authority on all types...I only know the cars I owned and some of the prewar stuff. My Dad worked for Packard, and when Studebaker bought them, he hung for a bit then bailed and went to work for Renault---had a great time there and left the sinking ship without getting his feet wet. So we had lots of Packards and Studebakers in the family at all times. We always got good deals from various dealers because Dad was a local big wheel.
  • berriberri Member Posts: 10,165
    What did he think of CEO Nance?
  • Karen_SKaren_S Member Posts: 5,092
    Mr_Shiftright said:

    thebean said:

    Congrats Shifty Joe. I'm currently reading through the entire "Postwar Studebakers" board, and your knowledge leaves me in awe. Thanks for gifting all your wisdom to us Edmunds inhabitants.

    Thank you! I used to own quite few Studebakers. Uplander is really the authority on all types...I only know the cars I owned and some of the prewar stuff. My Dad worked for Packard, and when Studebaker bought them, he hung for a bit then bailed and went to work for Renault---had a great time there and left the sinking ship without getting his feet wet. So we had lots of Packards and Studebakers in the family at all times. We always got good deals from various dealers because Dad was a local big wheel.
    Never heard about your Dad before. Very interesting!
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    berri said:

    What did he think of CEO Nance?

    Not much. As I recall, he felt that Nance really blew the Studebaker-Packard merger, in that he didn't fulfill his due diligence in examining Studebaker's finances. But I think he also knew that Packard and Studebaker were doomed anyway. His only real regret was to see such a dignified, historically significant company, with perhaps the best engineering talent in the entire automobile industry, to be treated like a pile of rubbish. That always bugged him. Even today you'll see all kinds of finger-pointing about it. Packard really was different from all the other companies. It was conservative, prideful of craftsmanship, and it honored tradition. Gee, can you think of three WORSE qualities to have in a booming postwar America?

    Packard employees really got screwed over in the S-P deal . It was awful. But Dad not only bounced back, he prospered. His gig with Renault was glamorous and for 4-5 years, one hell of a good time for him. But when the French head of North American operations was killed in a plane crash, that really hurt Renault's chances in America. That guy was a guiding light and he knew what was needed in America. But after he was gone, the company floundered here without good leadership. It became....well...very French again. Too bad. At that time, Renault was outselling VW in the USA.

    Later, even after retirement, Dad worked for the Better Business Bureau of NY and the DA's office, busting crooked repair shops in sting operations. He would dress up like a blue collar guy and called himself Louie Martinez, and he would bring rigged cars into various dens of thieves in NYC. He pretended to know nothing about cars, but of course he was a trained engineer and knew everything about cars. What was great about his stings is that he rigged them so there was absolutely no wiggle room in court. They got busted REAL GOOD. :p
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Karen_S said:

    Mr_Shiftright said:

    thebean said:

    Congrats Shifty Joe. I'm currently reading through the entire "Postwar Studebakers" board, and your knowledge leaves me in awe. Thanks for gifting all your wisdom to us Edmunds inhabitants.

    Thank you! I used to own quite few Studebakers. Uplander is really the authority on all types...I only know the cars I owned and some of the prewar stuff. My Dad worked for Packard, and when Studebaker bought them, he hung for a bit then bailed and went to work for Renault---had a great time there and left the sinking ship without getting his feet wet. So we had lots of Packards and Studebakers in the family at all times. We always got good deals from various dealers because Dad was a local big wheel.
    Never heard about your Dad before. Very interesting!
    One of his jobs was to be dispatched by the factory around the eastern half of the country and fix cars that the dealers couldn't repair. If he found a good solution to a factory defect he would send in an engineering proposal to correct the issue. Sometimes they listened to Dad and sometimes not. Packard was always cash-short. Packard represented a dying way of life in America in 1956.
  • clachnitclachnit Member Posts: 35
    Congratulations, Joe! You are such an amazing resource. There was much applause for your 20th anniversary during today's Cadillac Catch-Up meeting at the Santa Monica office! 57,000 posts to the forum?!? That's incredible.
  • berriberri Member Posts: 10,165
    Supposedly Nance wouldn't go along with the merger plans to combine those companies with AMC and try to create a Big 3 competitor because he wanted to be the CEO of it all. Don't know if it would have worked, but Chrysler was starting to get into a financial jam from over leveraging the company to bring out the Exner forward look cars, which ended up with rushing those cars out and then quality problems backfiring. Of course, deciding what brands in the new potential merger would stay and which would go would have likely been a tough slugfest I suppose. I think Nance ended his auto career running Edsel for Ford.
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    clachnit said:

    Congratulations, Joe! You are such an amazing resource. There was much applause for your 20th anniversary during today's Cadillac Catch-Up meeting at the Santa Monica office! 57,000 posts to the forum?!? That's incredible.

    Thank you. I saw the video of the presentation. It's nice for Edmunds to give a nod to the Edmunds Hosts---they work in the background most of the time, so a little kudos are very well received!

    Hey, that's 7.8 posts a day! This of course includes the "Please don't do that" posts :p
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    berri said:

    Supposedly Nance wouldn't go along with the merger plans to combine those companies with AMC and try to create a Big 3 competitor because he wanted to be the CEO of it all. Don't know if it would have worked, but Chrysler was starting to get into a financial jam from over leveraging the company to bring out the Exner forward look cars, which ended up with rushing those cars out and then quality problems backfiring. Of course, deciding what brands in the new potential merger would stay and which would go would have likely been a tough slugfest I suppose. I think Nance ended his auto career running Edsel for Ford.

    That's right...Edsel was his downfall at Ford--they forced him to resign. Actually my Dad was going to work for Lincoln-Mercury but gave it a try for a few months and didn't like it at all. VERY different from the Packard universe.

    Dad served in WW II in the Burma-China theater, a nasty part of the war that is pretty much forgotten. It was hard on U.S. and British troops who fought there. Many, like my Dad, came back as physical wrecks from malaria, stress and exhaustion. His job was to handle radio and code traffic between Burma and China. He flew "over the Hump" (the Himalayas) a number of times. Of course I didn't know him during his military career.

    He passed away quite some time ago. The gov'mint did right by him, though, with a full military funeral. It was quite moving. Some big brass hat gave a nice speech, and there was an honor guard. Just before he died he told everyone "I want to be with my buddies". And so it was!
  • berriberri Member Posts: 10,165
    The greatest generation! Funny, my dad was a Navy radio and code guy. Went in with the Marines during Okinawa. I think many from back then held a lot inside of them. I'm so glad most Americans have gotten over the Vietnam thing and now respect what our military does so bravely for our country.
  • sdasda Member Posts: 7,288
    Congrats Mr Shiftright. I appreciate and learn from your knowledge and enjoy your comments and humor. Carry on!

    2021 VW Arteon SEL 4-motion, 2018 VW Passat SE w/tech, 2016 Audi Q5 Premium Plus w/tech

  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    @sda Thank you and thanks for those 1,940 posts!

    @berri Yes, I think they were both a great generation that happened to arrive at a momentous time in history. I can't imagine what it did to my Dad's brain to go from being a young man living in Brooklyn to being sent to Egypt, India, Burma and China! You can't come back from all that and just resume your modest little life--not gonna happen!
  • explorerx4explorerx4 Member Posts: 20,077
    Edmunds hosts in the background? I thought the hosts are everything. Some anonymous IT person probably going to delete this post. :)
    2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Well I meant most of us don't work at the Home Office.
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