Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

abacomike · July 2018

One of my friends sent me this as an email. Thought you posters would enjoy a chuckle!

A couple went to the hospital to have their baby delivered. Upon their arrival the doctor said that the hospital was testing an amazing new high-tech machine that would transfer a portion of the mother's labor pain to the baby's father He asked if they were interested. Both said they were very much in favor of it
The doctor set the pain transfer to 10% for starters, explaining that even 10% was probably more pain than the father had ever experienced before But as the labor progressed, the husband felt fine and asked the doctor to go ahead and kick it up a notch. The doctor then adjusted the machine to 20% pain transfer The husband was still feeling fine. The doctor then checked the husband's blood pressure and was amazed at how well he was doing.
At this point they decided to try for 50%. The husband continued to feel quite well. Since the pain transfer was obviously helping the wife considerably the husband encouraged the doctor to transfer ALL the pain to him.

The wife subsequently delivered a healthy baby with virtually no pain and the husband continued to experience no pain. She and her husband were ecstatic.

When they got home they found the mailman dead on the porch.

xwesx · July 2018

tbirdmarco said:
Re: Autoline Tesla 3 Teardown

Hahah! Love it. "A lot of crow being eaten around here." Basic conclusion of these guys seems to be that this is a magnificently designed, performing, and driving car, but one that suffers from the worst fit and finish in the industry (by a fair margin). I dunno. For me, I think the F/F issues would drive me nuts after a time.

berri · July 2018

In the Midwest, crops like corn give off a lot of moisture creating high humidity. It is always something.

jmonroe · July 2018

driver100 said:

jmonroe said:

xwesx said:

driver100 said:

jmonroe said:
Thanks all for the anniversary wishes. We had a great dinner at a nice restaurant that we don't go to very often AND like my post above alluded to... a new car for Mrs. j may not be too far off now. It's gotta be a car god thing.

jmonroe
Did you order the Bourbon Chicken when you were at Denny's?
Hahhahahahah! There were some great posts here this morning. This one takes the cake!
If you say so because the cake has to be better than Bourbon Chicken. I think even @driver100 gave up on that dish.

jmonroe
I did....it was good and then they changed it....made it cheaper somehow!

Could have been imported bourbon from China. That'll do it.

jmonroe

cdnpinhead · July 2018

ab348 said:
I thought you didn't have much humidity in Arizona?

It's all relative (intended), but in July through September or so there's a significant shot of moisture that comes up from the south and is therefore called a monsoon. What it means is that the humidity goes from 5 - 15% to 40% plus, sometimes 70%. The key is dew point, and it goes up to 55 - 65 degrees during the monsoon, and often above 70. That means that it doesn't become much less hot overnight, such that the lowest temperature is 93 degrees at 6:30 am, after which it goes up again. Today it was 109. Often it's 104 at 11 pm.

It's such a wonderful place.

stickguy · July 2018

sounds great to me. My wife would hate it though.

stickguy · July 2018

pet peeve (car division) time. Car companies have to stop putting the bun warmer buttons on the console. Way too easy to accidentally hit one. Sunday was out, and even though the AC was on, started to feel real warm. Rather than having a heart attack, I realized I had once again leaned my knee on the button, and had the seat heaters on high. Took a while for that to cool off! The button is right exactly where my leg is when it leans against the console, and I need a little cushion under my thigh, and if that slides too far, triggers the button.

They should really move the button to the dash someplace. Our RDX has on the rear part of the console. My wife seems to turn that on by mistake all the time when reaching for the cup holder.

benjaminh · July 2018

stickguy said:
pet peeve (car division) time. Car companies have to stop putting the bun warmer buttons on the console. Way too easy to accidentally hit one. Sunday was out, and even though the AC was on, started to feel real warm. Rather than having a heart attack, I realized I had once again leaned my knee on the button, and had the seat heaters on high. Took a while for that to cool off! The button is right exactly where my leg is when it leans against the console, and I need a little cushion under my thigh, and if that slides too far, triggers the button.

They should really move the button to the dash someplace. Our RDX has on the rear part of the console. My wife seems to turn that on by mistake all the time when reaching for the cup holder.

A TLX will solve your problem.

fintail · July 2018

And the best part is that a car claimed to cost 35K but actually offered at ~55K is profitable. Wow, only a 50% markup needed for profit.

xwesx said:

Hahah! Love it. "A lot of crow being eaten around here." Basic conclusion of these guys seems to be that this is a magnificently designed, performing, and driving car, but one that suffers from the worst fit and finish in the industry (by a fair margin). I dunno. For me, I think the F/F issues would drive me nuts after a time.

imidazol97 · July 2018

berri said:
Ima - tell him to get to know some of those general officers at Wright Pat, might be able to hitch a ride on one their jets into Andrews

I don't think his company gets that kind of service from the U. S. Air Force.

henryn · July 2018

andres3 said:

I'd use the reasonable and prudent law enforcement standard, and in many cases, it isn't reasonable or prudent for cars to impede traffic at the same exact speed across all lanes; even if it is a dozen simultaneous violators.

@andres3, your posts do not make any sense. And that seems to be getting worse. If there are more cars on the road than the road can handle, what choice does anyone have about the speed at which they are traveling????

andres3 · July 2018

henryn said:

andres3 said:

I'd use the reasonable and prudent law enforcement standard, and in many cases, it isn't reasonable or prudent for cars to impede traffic at the same exact speed across all lanes; even if it is a dozen simultaneous violators.
@andres3, your posts do not make any sense. And that seems to be getting worse. If there are more cars on the road than the road can handle, what choice does anyone have about the speed at which they are traveling????

That's just it, that's rarely the case. The real case is you have a few bad apples creating bottlenecks of congestion, that then spirals out of control.

While you can't always control the speed due to obstructions in front of you, you can avoid entering the passing lanes without an ability to pass. If you find yourself unable or unwilling to pass, you should again move right except to pass. As I said, bumper to bumper stop and go traffic is an exception as everything has broken down at that point.

I often see the right lane become the defacto passing lane due to impeders in the passing lane.

suydam · July 2018

The right lane is for the poor folks who have to either merge into the heavy traffic or exit it. It would be very dangerous to try to use that as a passing lane.

andres3 · July 2018

suydam said:
The right lane is for the poor folks who have to either merge into the heavy traffic or exit it. It would be very dangerous to try to use that as a passing lane.

not every entrance ramp/merge is congested though, and I'm talking about dedicated right lanes, not short merging right entrance lanes.

It's an observation.

tjc78 · July 2018

stickguy said:

pet peeve (car division) time. Car companies have to stop putting the bun warmer buttons on the console. Way too easy to accidentally hit one. Sunday was out, and even though the AC was on, started to feel real warm. Rather than having a heart attack, I realized I had once again leaned my knee on the button, and had the seat heaters on high. Took a while for that to cool off! The button is right exactly where my leg is when it leans against the console, and I need a little cushion under my thigh, and if that slides too far, triggers the button. They should really move the button to the dash someplace. Our RDX has on the rear part of the console. My wife seems to turn that on by mistake all the time when reaching for the cup holder.

Yeah they are in a bad place in the Elantra. I do it too.

driver100 · July 2018

henryn said:

andres3 said:

I'd use the reasonable and prudent law enforcement standard, and in many cases, it isn't reasonable or prudent for cars to impede traffic at the same exact speed across all lanes; even if it is a dozen simultaneous violators.
@andres3, your posts do not make any sense. And that seems to be getting worse. If there are more cars on the road than the road can handle, what choice does anyone have about the speed at which they are traveling????

Henryn, you mean you actually read them?

snakeweasel · July 2018

andres3 said:

I'd use the reasonable and prudent law enforcement standard, and in many cases, it isn't reasonable or prudent for cars to impede traffic at the same exact speed across all lanes; even if it is a dozen simultaneous violators.
@andres3, your posts do not make any sense. And that seems to be getting worse. If there are more cars on the road than the road can handle, what choice does anyone have about the speed at which they are traveling????
That's just it, that's rarely the case. The real case is you have a few bad apples creating bottlenecks of congestion, that then spirals out of control. While you can't always control the speed due to obstructions in front of you, you can avoid entering the passing lanes without an ability to pass. If you find yourself unable or unwilling to pass, you should again move right except to pass. As I said, bumper to bumper stop and go traffic is an exception as everything has broken down at that point. I often see the right lane become the defacto passing lane due to impeders in the passing lane.

No it's not rarely the case, it happens a couple of times a day. It's called rush hour.

sb55 · July 2018

Food talk:
Vermont is a very "foody" place. I think that the term "farm to table" was first used here and there are a lot of great local restaruants. We have very few chain restaurants, and Burlington doesn't even have a McD's. (For trivia buffs, Montpelier is the only State capital without a McD's.)
A few years ago a family from Florida rented a cottage for 2 weeks. They asked for recommendations for Italian restaurants. We told them about 4 that are really good; from a red checked tablecloth red sauce place to high end Northern Italian. When they were checking out, we asked them if they tried any of the restaurants, they said "why didn't we tell them that there was an Olive Garden?" BTW, it's 45 minutes away! They ate at an Olive Garden 5 times?!? What!

Mr_Shiftright · July 2018

Ah, the old quantity over quality syndrome.

pensfan83 · July 2018

When traveling for work I've lost count of the times I've asked for local restaurant recommendations and told they weren't real sure but there's a stretch 2 miles away with "every type of restaurant you can think of" which almost always means it's saturated with national chains.

tjc78 · July 2018

There are some people that really like Olive Garden... to me it's the equivalvent of buying Prego and frozen meatballs. I'm Italian, make my own meatballs and gravy and other Italian dishes. It really drives me crazy when people think that is good "Italian" food

We are lucky in Jersey because along with Diners everywhere we also have fantastic local Italian restaurants. Many of them are BYOB and you can be out of there for $50 with tip and leave with leftovers.

The only chain Italian that is good is Maggiano's. All their food is cooked to order and has an actual chef.

ab348 · July 2018

sb55 said:
Food talk:
Vermont is a very "foody" place. I think that the term "farm to table" was first used here and there are a lot of great local restaruants. We have very few chain restaurants, and Burlington doesn't even have a McD's. (For trivia buffs, Montpelier is the only State capital without a McD's.)
A few years ago a family from Florida rented a cottage for 2 weeks. They asked for recommendations for Italian restaurants. We told them about 4 that are really good; from a red checked tablecloth red sauce place to high end Northern Italian. When they were checking out, we asked them if they tried any of the restaurants, they said "why didn't we tell them that there was an Olive Garden?" BTW, it's 45 minutes away! They ate at an Olive Garden 5 times?!? What!

Well, technically it does not have a McD's, but there is one in South Burlington out by the interstate. Plus Burlington and environs has all of the usual suspects in the chain resto category including the dreaded Applebee's, Olive Garden, Longhorn, Chili's, Denny's, etc.

We used to visit Burlington almost annually on our summer vacations when I was a kid in the '70s.

snakeweasel · July 2018

tjc78 said:

There are some people that really like Olive Garden... to me it's the equivalvent of buying Prego and frozen meatballs. I'm Italian, make my own meatballs and gravy and other Italian dishes. It really drives me crazy when people think that is good "Italian" food We are lucky in Jersey because along with Diners everywhere we also have fantastic local Italian restaurants. Many of them are BYOB and you can be out of there for $50 with tip and leave with leftovers. The only chain Italian that is good is Maggiano's. All their food is cooked to order and has an actual chef.

Maggiano's Little Italy is good restaurant, Lettuce Entertain You strived to recreate the 30's and 40's old Italian neighborhood restaurant and hit the mark. Lettuce does strive to make their restaurants enjoyable in both food and ambiance.

graphicguy · July 2018

tjc78 said:
There are some people that really like Olive Garden... to me it's the equivalvent of buying Prego and frozen meatballs. I'm Italian, make my own meatballs and gravy and other Italian dishes. It really drives me crazy when people think that is good "Italian" food

We are lucky in Jersey because along with Diners everywhere we also have fantastic local Italian restaurants. Many of them are BYOB and you can be out of there for $50 with tip and leave with leftovers.

The only chain Italian that is good is Maggiano's. All their food is cooked to order and has an actual chef.

100% Italian here, too. Like you, I make my own sauce, usually with “Farmer’s Market” plum tomatoes, fresh onions, good olive oil, etc. Make my own meatballs, too. Try to make my own pasta, too (have one of those fancy-shmantzy pasta attachments for the old Kitchenaid), if I have the time.

Even some of the “mom and pop” Italian restaurants around these parts aren’t all that good.

Funny story....5-6 years ago I was doing business with a large Brazilian Aerospace company named Embraer.

They would bring a gaggle of execs to meet at our Orlando office every quarter to discuss contracts, statements of work, and bid on some of their projects. They’d be here for a week, at least. Being the good host, I’d fly down to Orlando as I was the leader for these projects at the time. We’d have dinner every evening and given they’d been to our office many times, and knew the area, I’d let them choose where I would take them for dinner.

There’s no shortage of restaurants in Orlando, especially around International Drive, where they always stayed. Some of those restaurants were quite good. What did they choose? Olive Garden. They absolutely loved that place. Fine with me as it was easy on my expense account. But, of all the places I tried to take them, they loved OLIVE GARDEN. Far be it from me to explain to them that it wasn’t real Italian food.

SEAT HEATERS......I’ve set the temp on my TLX and it controls everything else, the cabin temp, whether to heat or cool the seats, which vents to utilize, etc to keep the temp in the cabin at my preset. It does a very good job of it, too.

sb55 · July 2018

ab348 said:

Food talk: Vermont is a very "foody" place. I think that the term "farm to table" was first used here and there are a lot of great local restaruants. We have very few chain restaurants, and Burlington doesn't even have a McD's. (For trivia buffs, Montpelier is the only State capital without a McD's.) A few years ago a family from Florida rented a cottage for 2 weeks. They asked for recommendations for Italian restaurants. We told them about 4 that are really good; from a red checked tablecloth red sauce place to high end Northern Italian. When they were checking out, we asked them if they tried any of the restaurants, they said "why didn't we tell them that there was an Olive Garden?" BTW, it's 45 minutes away! They ate at an Olive Garden 5 times?!? What!
Well, technically it does not have a McD's, but there is one in South Burlington out by the interstate. Plus Burlington and environs has all of the usual suspects in the chain resto category including the dreaded Applebee's, Olive Garden, Longhorn, Chili's, Denny's, etc. We used to visit Burlington almost annually on our summer vacations when I was a kid in the '70s.

Most of the chains have move to Williston. What used to be farmland is now big box land. Walmart, Home Depot, Dicks, Best Buy, Bed Bath Beyond, etc all within 1/2 mile. So, yeah, there are chain restaurants that are out there. But, several have failed and are now local.

tjc78 · July 2018

We have the Kitchen Aid attachment too... sadly we just don't have the time to use it.

Here is my Olive Garden story...

We were traveling (in your neck of the woods) and I was with my boss (Italian) and his boss .. a self admitted foodie but the farthest thing from Italian. We were stopping for lunch after a long drive and the big boss says "I could really go for soup and salad at Olive Garden" we both immediately were like "you must be joking"... he wasn't and we went ... and it stunk!

That was a long standing joke, that he no longer was allowed to pick lunch places.

stickguy · July 2018

We kinda like the soup, salad and breadstick lunch deal. Not that I am a soup conisseur.

snakeweasel · July 2018

stickguy said:

We kinda like the soup, salad and breadstick lunch deal. Not that I am a soup conisseur.

The soup, salad and breadsticks aren't that bad. But their main dishes I would rather find someplace else but she who must be obeyed likes the place so what can I do?

ab348 · July 2018

stickguy said:
We kinda like the soup, salad and breadstick lunch deal. Not that I am a soup conisseur.

We have a Canadian rip-off version of Olive Garden, a chain called East Side Mario's, that does the same thing at lunchtime.

28firefighter · July 2018

Add me to the pile of folks who can't stand Olive Garden. I just don't see the point.

When I was used to travel every week, if the yelp reviews of local places didn't give me the warm and fuzzies, I'd suffer through the chain restaurants for the sake of keeping my GI tract healthy

houdini1 · July 2018

Olive Garden is always packed around here, but holds no appeal for my wife and me. We do, however, like Red Lobster, which is owned by the same company. Real sea food folks (coastal areas) will probably laugh at me but we really like their daily fresh fish menu. We usually order the grilled Tilapia.

stickguy · July 2018

We used to do chains more when taking the kids out. Now, we rarely go to one. Local places of some kind usually. Bar/restaurants, Thai, Indian, Greek, pizza. So many good options!

oldfarmer50 · July 2018

Question for Ford guys.

I've been daydreaming about getting a used Ford Fusion one of these days and something in the 2015 vintage attracts me.

On trim levels they have S, SE and Titanium. I'm familiar with all levels from work and they seem somewhat similar except for different audio systems.

However, in car listings I notice the Titanium trim is $3-5k more expensive than the others. Does this trim level have that much more equipment to justify the price difference or is it just that the upper trim level is more popular?

ab348 · July 2018

Last year around this time when I was looking at buying a CPO used car you might recall I quite liked the Fusion. What I discovered that most of the ones I found on lots were ex-fleet vehicles and were SE trim levels with option packages that added the 2.0 Ecoboost engine, 18" alloys, leather seats, etc. There were a few Titanium trims available that had all that stuff as standard, along with a Sony-branded stereo and different/nicer leather seats, probably other things too. I think the Titaniums were all AWD too.

tjc78 · July 2018

stickguy said:
We used to do chains more when taking the kids out. Now, we rarely go to one. Local places of some kind usually. Bar/restaurants, Thai, Indian, Greek, pizza. So many good options!

I love our food scene here... so many choices. Heck, Collingswood alone is fantastic.

thebean · July 2018

Any of you folks who complain about winter in the north need to come down here to North Texas and soak up some of this.

I'll take cold any day.

qbrozen · July 2018

I much prefer the cold. Its the snow that really puts a damper on things.

snakeweasel · July 2018

thebean said:

Any of you folks who complain about winter in the north need to come down here to North Texas and soak up some of this. I'll take cold any day.

Oh look at all that sunshine you'll have to shovel.

driver100 · July 2018

stickguy said:
We kinda like the soup, salad and breadstick lunch deal. Not that I am a soup conisseur.

I have given up on restaurant soups.....loaded with salt. Bread is also loaded with salts. If I eat those things I won't fit into my horizontal striped T-shirts.

driver100 · July 2018

houdini1 said:
Olive Garden is always packed around here, but holds no appeal for my wife and me. We do, however, like Red Lobster, which is owned by the same company. Real sea food folks (coastal areas) will probably laugh at me but we really like their daily fresh fish menu. We usually order the grilled Tilapia.

Red Lobster is struggling. At one time they were the place to go for seafood. They aren't attracting the younger crowd. But, the big problem is seafood is sold in almost all restaurants these days, and it can be shipped all over....fresh. Don't get Tilapia at Denny's though....that could cause major problems.

28firefighter · July 2018

I can't do Red Lobster for the reason @houdini1 mentioned. After having the freshly caught and prepared stuff, the frozen stuff just doesn't taste the same.

Actually, I rarely eat cooked fish out anymore - my favorite thing to do is go to the fisherman's terminal and buy it right off the boat and then prep it and cook it at home. Lately I've been messing around with different types of salmon and rub concoctions and cook them on a Cedar Plank on the grill.

Things like Oysters, Lobster, and Sushi I'll eat out.

xwesx · July 2018

ab348 said:
Last year around this time when I was looking at buying a CPO used car you might recall I quite liked the Fusion. What I discovered that most of the ones I found on lots were ex-fleet vehicles and were SE trim levels with option packages that added the 2.0 Ecoboost engine, 18" alloys, leather seats, etc. There were a few Titanium trims available that had all that stuff as standard, along with a Sony-branded stereo and different/nicer leather seats, probably other things too. I think the Titaniums were all AWD too.

Yeah, I don't know about all the details, but the AWD is what will command the premium (around here, anyway!).

xwesx · July 2018

Agreed on cold vs. heat. The way I look at it, I can always add more layers, but there's only so much I can take off.

jmonroe · July 2018

thebean said:

Any of you folks who complain about winter in the north need to come down here to North Texas and soak up some of this. I'll take cold any day.

It looks like it will cool off a tad the day after my birthday. If you know a good weather guy maybe he can bump it up a day, then I could come visit you as birthday gift to myself. Don't get all spastic, I'm not going to ask you to pay my airfare (like I did with @Mike) but if you suggest it, I won't refuse.

FWIW, I prefer warm vs. cold but I have my limits and it looks like you are approaching it, so you might have to do better than airfare.

jmonroe

jmonroe · July 2018

xwesx said:
Agreed on cold vs. heat. The way I look at it, I can always add more layers, but there's only so much I can take off.

Well, living in Alaska you get your wish for preferring colder weather.

As for that "layer" thingy, I've heard that before. There are limits you know and if I had to guess, if you did one more layer removal, the Edmunds decency policy would kick in and you'd be banned in here forever.

jmonroe

imidazol97 · July 2018

snakeweasel said:

thebean said:

Any of you folks who complain about winter in the north need to come down here to North Texas and soak up some of this. I'll take cold any day.

Oh look at all that sunshine you'll have to shovel.
Ya'll do need to cut back on the electricity usage. I read a record power use was set yesterday in TX. We need
to conserve that electrical juice--there's only so much of it in the world.

imidazol97 · July 2018

driver100 said:

stickguy said:
We kinda like the soup, salad and breadstick lunch deal. Not that I am a soup conisseur.
I have given up on restaurant soups.....loaded with salt. Bread is also loaded with salts. If I eat those things I won't fit into my horizontal striped T-shirts.

I like Olive Garden for the soup and salad. I don't know that the soup is as salty as some.

My recent blood lab results had my Na at the minimum amount. So my wife is doing something right directing my choices eating out and what she prepares at home.

thebean · July 2018

jmonroe said:

thebean said:

Any of you folks who complain about winter in the north need to come down here to North Texas and soak up some of this. I'll take cold any day.

It looks like it will cool off a tad the day after my birthday. If you know a good weather guy maybe he can bump it up a day, then I could come visit you as birthday gift to myself. Don't get all spastic, I'm not going to ask you to pay my airfare (like I did with @Mike) but if you suggest it, I won't refuse.

FWIW, I prefer warm vs. cold but I have my limits and it looks like you are approaching it, so you might have to do better than airfare.

jmonroe

I asked Mrs Bean if you could visit. She chased me around the dining room table until I got tired and she caught me, and then she beat me around the head and shoulders. I guess she got onto Edmunds and read some of your posts.

cdnpinhead · July 2018

It's clear that there are a bunch of people on here who can, in fact, feel the pea through the mattress, at least in terms of Italian food. If you're situated out in flyover country the pickins are slim much of the time -- good driving conditions, but not so much in terms of eating options at the end of the day.

ab348 · July 2018

jmonroe said:
It looks like it will cool off a tad the day after my birthday. If you know a good weather guy maybe he can bump it up a day, then I could come visit you as birthday gift to myself. Don't get all spastic, I'm not going to ask you to pay my airfare (like I did with @Mike) but if you suggest it, I won't refuse.

FWIW, I prefer warm vs. cold but I have my limits and it looks like you are approaching it, so you might have to do better than airfare.

jmonroe

Is your birthday July 25th? Mine is the 26th.

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