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Mr_Shiftright-20 Year Ride in Edmunds Forums!

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Comments

  • PF_FlyerPF_Flyer Member Posts: 9,372
    explorerx4 said:

    Edmunds hosts in the background? I thought the hosts are everything. Some anonymous IT person probably going to delete this post. :)

    The host bazooka was mothballed years ago since we finally got everyone trained ;)


    57,000 posts...let's say 2 minutes per, just for grins... that's about 80 days... around the forums in 80 days. Who should play Joe??? QUIET ON THE SET!!
  • 0patience0patience Member Posts: 1,712
    Congratulations old friend.
    And good to see that things are still going well here.
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Hey, there's a blast from the past. Nice to see you here, too!
  • benjaminhbenjaminh Member Posts: 6,538
    edited September 2017
    Congrats! I've enjoyed your insights and your humor for c. 16 years. Thanks.
    2018 Acura TLX 2.4 Tech 4WS (mine), 2024 Subaru Outback (wife's), 2018 Honda CR-V EX (offspring)
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Another veteran checks in! Band of Gearheads.
  • isellhondasisellhondas Member Posts: 20,342
    edited September 2017
    Joe, you have been a huge asset to this community and have been a great source of information for me. I do believe I've been around since the beginning and I have learned so much from you.

    I have to say that I consider you not only a great moderator but as a trusted friend as well!

    I also realize that had it not been for you I probably would have been booted years ago!
  • isellhondasisellhondas Member Posts: 20,342
    Mr_Shiftright said:

    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
    Very interesting background on your dad!

    When I was very young we had a neighbor who was all set to buy a new VW Beetle. Someone suggested that they look at a Renault Dauphine. They ended up with the Renault but they traded it in a new VW about four or five years later for whatever reasons.

  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    edited September 2017
    isellhondas said:

    Joe, you have been a huge asset to this community and have been a great source of information for me. I do believe I've been around since the beginning and I have learned so much from you.

    I have to say that I consider you not only a great moderator but as a trusted friend as well!

    I also realize that had it not been for you I probably would have been booted years ago!

    Look at you--almost 20,000 posts and you've shared a lot of experience about the auto biz. Yes, you've been with us for as long as I can remember....we need some sort of Pantheon of the Gods for you long-timers. :p

    We all bought Renaults after Dad became a Grand Frommage with them, and we had very good luck with the cars. Of course, have complete access to the entire parts bin and all the TSBs and "secret" fixes really helped a LOT. I remember we even installed special tuning equipment sent over from France, that you couldn't buy here. We spec'd out my brothers R8 as a "Gordini" (similar to what Abarth did for Fiat). Great little car until a Buick Roadmaster turned it into a micro-car. WAAA! I really liked that car. We also got special jetting for the carb on the Dauphine we owned and on the highway we could hit 40 mpg or a little better. Not bad for 1960! We could run away from VW Beetles.
  • isellhondasisellhondas Member Posts: 20,342
    edited September 2017
    I think the best alternative to a VW Beetle would have been a PV 544 Volvo. They were only a couple hundred dollars more at the time and they were SO much better than either a Beetle of a Renault!

    20 years here! Just another reminder or my advancing age. Kinda like our last high school reunion last October!
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    I've never gone to a reunion. I figure if I wanted to be in touch with someone I would have done it by now! :p
  • isellhondasisellhondas Member Posts: 20,342
    I've never missed one and I never left the dance floor at any of them. a lot of people feel like you about reunions. I have four or five people I stay in contact with from Kindergarten!
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    edited September 2017
    That's nice that you enjoy them. Yeah, I've kept in touch with friends from childhood and high school, so maybe that's why a reunion never appealed to me. I did hear from my high school buddy who DID go---and he said: "You remember X? He's STILL a jerk!" High schools in NYC weren't so much American Graffiti as Saving Private Ryan. It was a contentious environment. I think if you were a sports star it would have been a lot better.

    As soon as I was financially able, my tires spun on the pavement on my way out of New York. I just had to see the Wild West. I figured NY would always be there. It's a great great city but it wears you down and makes you hard IMO. Best left to the young and ambitious as a place to live. A good place to test your talents, though, because you'll be competing with the very best.
  • roadburnerroadburner Member Posts: 18,314
    edited September 2017
    I went to my first couple of high school reunions, but that's it. I try to hit all of my law school reunions because we were a smaller close-knit group that tended to get along well.

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

  • berriberri Member Posts: 10,165
    I've not been to any reunions, primarily due to scheduling conflicts. They seem to start out with lots of hyperbole and exaggeration, but people tell me by the 50th it is very different. No more BS, much more relaxed.
  • isellhondasisellhondas Member Posts: 20,342
    At the 10 year reunion, the jerks were still jerks. Some were strutting around passing out business cards and crowing about how well they were doing. It was held on the Queen Mary, Two guys got into a fist fight.

    Every reunion got more and more mellow. I know I have never been hugged more times both by gals and guys than any time in my life. Sadly, we have lost more than a few out of our class of 500 plus. At first it was drugs, car accidents and Vietnam. Now, it's cancer, heart attacks and strokes.

    It was a LOT of fun but sobering too.
  • berriberri Member Posts: 10,165
    So true. I think we've lost around 15%. My class was larger than yours, so some I have no idea who they were. Although 500 is pretty big, so you may find the same. But I'm sad I lost track of some I used to know. I'm probably closer to people I knew from college, but did have some good friends in HS I keep in touch with. Ironically, I lost track of most I served with in the military. Everyone just seemed to go different ways when I discharged. Life sometimes seemed to go kind of slow at times back when you are forward looking, but looking back it just seems to have moved very, very fast. Frankly, it could slow down now!
  • tlongtlong Member Posts: 5,194
    Joe! I finally know your name!
    Thanks for all of your help here! I just discovered this thread, so belated congratulations and thanks!
    I looked and I joined in 2000, so a few years later than you. But you are clearly way more prolific than I have ever been...
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Oh, I didn't know you'd been here quite that long--an accomplishment in its own right!
  • cdnpinheadcdnpinhead Member Posts: 5,617
    edited October 2017
    I'm late to this party as well, but glad I found it. I joined in '99, when I believe there was a link from the Car Talk (Click & Clack) website -- they've long since linked up with someone else. Either way, thanks for all the helpful posts. Having read this topic from the beginning, it's clear that it's a pretty tight-knit community. I know most of the names but not all.
    '08 Acura TSX, '17 Subaru Forester
  • 0patience0patience Member Posts: 1,712
    @cdnpinhead
    Funny that you mentioned Car Talk.
    I was talking to another tech the other day about how most the automotive sites we used to frequent in the late 90s have disappeared, except a very few of them..
    Edmunds is one of a very few that are still going strong.
    The fact that there are people here, that I can remember 18 or 19 years ago, says a lot for this community.
  • guitarzanguitarzan Member Posts: 873
    edited October 2017
    Thank you for all of the information and good conversation over the years Mr. S. It is an honor knowing you!

    For sure, Edmund's would not have been as successful without you; unless of course an identical doppelganger from a parallel universe had at some point figured out how to cross over and switch places with you, probably motivated by the significant salary of a forum moderator. But for brevity, let us get past the sound physics debate over whether you are the original or a replacement that I cannot tell the difference over anyways, and just give you, the guy here and now, the greatest credit possible for the massive volume of Shifty's contributions to the forum. I hope that you will consider this fair enough.
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Indeed I do, and probably more praise than I deserve--but I'll take it! I find both newcomers and "old-timers" (ahem) inspirational--they motivate me to learn new things, to change my mind about other things, and to make sure whatever information comes in or goes out is of value to everyone. :)
  • kyfdxkyfdx Moderator Posts: 265,362
    Geez, Shifty. How is your mother getting all of these log-in credentials? ;)

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  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    #1 son, that's me! :p
  • xwesxxwesx Member Posts: 17,673
    Just fumbled and came across this topic. I'll add my appreciation, sir! Twenty years.... man, you're old! :D
    2018 Subaru Crosstrek, 2014 Audi Q7 TDI, 2013 Subaru Forester, 2013 Ford F250 Lariat D, 1976 Ford F250, 1969 Chevrolet C20, 1969 Ford Econoline 100
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    edited October 2017
    And you're not? I can tell you from personal experience, men in Alaska don't age that well. :p

    But many thanks anyway B)
  • isellhondasisellhondas Member Posts: 20,342
    I think I have managed to narrow it down that Mr. Shiftright and myself are the same age!
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Externally or internally? :p
  • thebeanthebean Member Posts: 1,266
    isellhondas said:

    I think I have managed to narrow it down that Mr. Shiftright and myself are the same age!

    What did you do, cut him in half and count the rings??
    2015 Honda Accord EX, 2019 Honda HR-V EX
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    He's probably wrong. Nobody is older than he is.
  • isellhondasisellhondas Member Posts: 20,342
    You're probably right!
  • xwesxxwesx Member Posts: 17,673
    Mr_Shiftright said:

    And you're not? I can tell you from personal experience, men in Alaska don't age that well. :p

    Hey, now! This conversation is about you! :'(

    2018 Subaru Crosstrek, 2014 Audi Q7 TDI, 2013 Subaru Forester, 2013 Ford F250 Lariat D, 1976 Ford F250, 1969 Chevrolet C20, 1969 Ford Econoline 100
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Well I lived there a year. I got creds.
  • eliaselias Member Posts: 2,209
    congratulations, Shifty, from another edmunds old-timer... we've outlasted the what-would-it-take-to-argue-about-diesel-politics thread!
    to celebrate your wisdom and propensity to shift manually, on saturday i bought a 2017 chevy cruze diesel LT stickshift for 33% below MSRP. maybe the only one delivered in USA all month? a big selling point was the heated steering wheel. and a nice bonus was the 57 mpg on the 100 mile drive back from dealership @ 75 mph.
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    That's an interesting buy--something I'd probably do to get myself a good work car. Keep us informed as you put the miles on it, would you?
  • cdnpinheadcdnpinhead Member Posts: 5,617
    +1
    '08 Acura TSX, '17 Subaru Forester
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