Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous

benjaminh · September 2021

Good news for my state.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/27/business/energy-environment/ford-battery-electric-vehicles.html?searchResultPosition=1

"Ford Will Build 4 Factories in a Big Electric Vehicle Push
The automaker and a supplier will spend $11.4 billion on three battery factories and a truck plant, creating 11,000 jobs....

"The two plants in Kentucky will be in Glendale, about 50 miles south of Louisville, and are expected to create 5,000 jobs, at a cost of $5.8 billion. The batteries made there will be used at North American plants that will produce Ford and Lincoln electric vehicles. Ford already employs about 13,000 people at two truck and S.U.V. plants in the Louisville area.

“We have enormous demand for our electric vehicles now, and this is going to help us accelerate,” Ford’s chief executive, Jim Farley, said in an interview. “This is going to give us a million units of supply just for Ford.”

explorerx4 · September 2021

The extra cost paint colors are usually of a higher quality than the no cost choices.

benjaminh · September 2021

A nice feature of Subarus is that they have standard steering responsive headlights.

laurasdada · September 2021

jmonroe1 said:

@roadburner said:

I've been monitoring a G42 2 Series Forum and the chip shortage is affecting HUD availability as well as SXM tuners. The cars are delivered as "SXM ready" which means the customer will have to add the tuner later at extra cost. Too bad the chip debacle doesn't affect sunroof availability instead...

What’s the problem? Are you afraid the the roof will leak and the music will get out?

jmonroe

Just install a Realistic cassette player under dash, as I did in my '71 Saab 99. Of course that was in '76, but I'm sure, like me, you still have hundreds of cassettes.

stickguy · September 2021

Reminds me a going high tech audio in HS and putting an FM converter in my Duster to upgrade the AM radio.

roadburner · September 2021

@jmonroe1 said:

@roadburner said:
I've been monitoring a G42 2 Series Forum and the chip shortage is affecting HUD availability as well as SXM tuners. The cars are delivered as "SXM ready" which means the customer will have to add the tuner later at extra cost. Too bad the chip debacle doesn't affect sunroof availability instead...

What’s the problem? Are you afraid the the roof will leak and the music will get out?

jmonroe

I never use them. My wife and I never open them on the three cars we own that have them. I also don’t want extra weight added to the highest point on the car.

kyfdx · September 2021

My new ‘77 got a Pioneer Supertuner with 8-track, and a graphic equalizer/amp mounted under the glovebox. Plus 4 new speakers.

Came stock with an AM/FM mono radio with a single speaker. 🙂

benjaminh · September 2021

More on Ford's huge investment in battery factories in KY and TN.

https://www.autonews.com/video/first-shift-ford-plans-transformative-ev-campuses-ky-tenn

https://www.wardsauto.com/industry-news/record-ford-investment-will-build-pickup-battery-plants

"....Vertical integration is a key element of Blue Oval City. The microchip shortage has taught Ford the importance of having domestic sources for key materials, Drake says, adding local suppliers are also critical to holding down the cost of battery packs. “We can’t have materials coming from thousands of miles away,” she says. Ford expects BEVs to account for about 40% of the company’s production by 2030....

Ford’s $7 billion portion of the $11.4 billion investment is the largest manufacturing investment in the company’s 118-year history. SK Innovation is putting up the other $4.4 billion.

Part of Ford’s $30 billion-plus investment in electric vehicles through 2025, the investment supports the company’s longer-term goal to create a sustainable American manufacturing ecosystem, and to accelerate its progress toward achieving carbon neutrality, backed by science-based targets in line with the Paris Climate Agreement.

The sites selected are close to other Ford operations such as the Kentucky Truck plant near Louisville, says Bob Holycross, Ford vice president-sustainable engineering. He adds the site selections will help Ford minimize operating costs critical to building an affordable BEV...

“This is our moment – our biggest investment ever – to help build a better future for America,” Ford President and CEO Jim Farley says in a statement ahead of the official ceremony with local officials in Kentucky and Tennessee. “We are moving now to deliver breakthrough electric vehicles for the many, rather than the few,” he says. “It’s about creating good jobs that support American families, an ultra-efficient, carbon-neutral manufacturing system and a growing business that delivers value for communities, dealers and shareholders.”

sda · September 2021

roadburner said:

@jmonroe1 said:

@roadburner said:

I've been monitoring a G42 2 Series Forum and the chip shortage is affecting HUD availability as well as SXM tuners. The cars are delivered as "SXM ready" which means the customer will have to add the tuner later at extra cost. Too bad the chip debacle doesn't affect sunroof availability instead...

What’s the problem? Are you afraid the the roof will leak and the music will get out?

jmonroe

I never use them. My wife and I never open them on the three cars we own that have them. I also don’t want extra weight added to the highest point on the car.

For high school graduation from my parents I got a Sanyo bi-amp AM/FM auto-reverse cassette with 2 6x9 Sanyo bi-amp compatible tri-axial speakers for my Vega. It rocked ( at least compared to what was available then, 1978). I transferred the ‘system’ to my 76 Sunbird when I gave the Vega the boot.

Sorry, attached to wrong post.

oldfarmer50 · September 2021

stickguy said:
Here’s one to rival the Ohio houses. 5 garage garage and the workshop looks great. Taxes only 11k, cheap for NY!

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/3-Hunter-Hill-Rd_Ballston-Lake_NY_12019_M49272-34941

Nice area. One of my old school bus runs was down Hubbs road. Many upscale properties on Schauber Rd. and a few miles down is Lake Ridge Farm store where you can get some great apple cider donuts. If you want to fit in with the neighbors, buy a horse.

oldfarmer50 · September 2021

stickguy said:
It’s a nice area. Close to civilization and a real goo school district b

I didn’t think your kids were still young enough for the local schools but you would have a choice of either a Balston Spa or Shenendehowa schools.

stickguy · September 2021

That place is BHBS district. We are also looking in areas that feed to Shen.

My kids are old. I just care for resale purposes.

oldfarmer50 · September 2021

stickguy said:
NYC people think “upstate” begins in Rockland or Westchester. People in Albany consider themselves capital district, and upstate is north of them.

And people in the middle get offended when not called central NY.

I consider that house upstate though. Wasn’t my idea to move there, but that’s where most of the family is!

That area of NY up to and including Saratoga is considered the Capital Region. Farther north is call The North Country (duh). West of that is The Leatherstocking Region ( see James Fenimore Cooper). Central NY starts somewhere out near Utica. Beyond that are Indians wearing gingham dresses and driving pick ups to Walmart.

oldfarmer50 · September 2021

stickguy said:
charging extra for paint colors always rubbed me the wrong way.

The Ruby Red Metallic on my Ford was an extra $495 as I recall. I though that was a gimmick until I had to have a door ding repainted. Even my body shop guy was shocked by the paint price.

jmonroe1 · September 2021

@laurasdada said:
Just install a Realistic cassette player under dash, as I did in my '71 Saab 99. Of course that was in '76, but I'm sure, like me, you still have hundreds of cassettes.

If you have hundreds of cassettes you’re way ahead of me. I probably only have about 60 or 70.

Before the cassette era, I installed a Motorola reverberation unit in my new ‘66 Bonneville and added 2 speakers under the rear shelf. That was the cat’s meow back then. So much so that my late middle brother wanted to use my car on a date to impress the girl he eventually married. She still talks about that date to this day. Mrs. j wasn’t all that impressed with that thing but she did like the car. Even back then the best I could do with her was 50/50.

jmonroe

stickguy · September 2021

I’m afraid to count my CDs. Probably in the 4 figures.

jmonroe1 · September 2021

@roadburner said:

@jmonroe1 said:

@roadburner said:
I've been monitoring a G42 2 Series Forum and the chip shortage is affecting HUD availability as well as SXM tuners. The cars are delivered as "SXM ready" which means the customer will have to add the tuner later at extra cost. Too bad the chip debacle doesn't affect sunroof availability instead...

What’s the problem? Are you afraid the the roof will leak and the music will get out?

jmonroe

I never use them. My wife and I never open them on the three cars we own that have them. I also don’t want extra weight added to the highest point on the car.

My last 4 cars have had the moon/sun roof and I barely use them except to let the heat out on hot Summer days. I’d rather keep them closed and enjoy the A/C without hearing the road noise. Every time I use it I just pray it closes when the car is purged of the heat.

jmonroe

breld · September 2021

In high school (late '80's for me), I inherited my brother's Chrysler Laser. He had been an early adopter of the in-dash CD player and man was I the envy of my classmates. But that thing skipped ALL the time.

When I got my 1990 Civic Si, we did not opt for the factory stereo, so it simply had a blank faceplate in the console. It was cheaper to add a cassette player after the fact - and it even had auto-reverse!

roadburner · September 2021

kyfdx said:
My new ‘77 got a Pioneer Supertuner with 8-track, and a graphic equalizer/amp mounted under the glovebox. Plus 4 new speakers.

Came stock with an AM/FM mono radio with a single speaker. 🙂

My Monte Carlo went through a couple of cassette decks(a bad Craig and a stolen Pioneer). I finally went with a Pioneer Supertuner cassette with their AD-304 amp and coaxial 6X9 speakers in the rear deck.
The Bavaria got an Alpine deck and amp with Pioneer Speakers. The current owner recently told me it still sounds good.

breld · September 2021

I'm sure you all remember the faceplates that could be removed to discourage theft. What a funny period...carrying a car stereo faceplate in your back pocket whilst walking around the mall.

roadburner · September 2021

breld said:
I'm sure you all remember the faceplates that could be removed to discourage theft. What a funny period...carrying a car stereo faceplate in your back pocket whilst walking around the mall.

I had a fake faceplate that looked like a cheap AM radio that fit over my Alpine deck.

tifighter · September 2021

breld said:
I'm sure you all remember the faceplates that could be removed to discourage theft. What a funny period...carrying a car stereo faceplate in your back pocket whilst walking around the mall.

That was an improvement. Before that, remember when the entire unit came out and you were supposed to hide it somewhere?

ab348 · September 2021

My '90 GTI had the factory VW cassette stereo. It was an early DIN unit and I remember on its face were 4 small holes that, according to the manual, you could insert a small screwdriver into that would release the unit from the dash housing. But on mine, they did nothing and you could just pull it straight out of the dash with your hand.

sda · September 2021

I remember the ‘U’ shaped tool that you inserted to release the unit. Typical VW at the time, you had to remember to turn off the radio before exiting the car as it wasn’t switched off with the ignition.

dad23 · September 2021

breld said:
I'm sure you all remember the faceplates that could be removed to discourage theft. What a funny period...carrying a car stereo faceplate in your back pocket whilst walking around the mall.

I remember getting lazy, not wanting to carry it around so I'd pop it off and throw it in the glove box!

xwesx · September 2021

dad23 said:

breld said:
I'm sure you all remember the faceplates that could be removed to discourage theft. What a funny period...carrying a car stereo faceplate in your back pocket whilst walking around the mall.
I remember getting lazy, not wanting to carry it around so I'd pop it off and throw it in the glove box!

I have one of those in my old Econoline. Same thing here... I never carried it with me; I would just stow it away somewhere in the vehicle. And then, of course, I wouldn't remember to put it on again until I was already driving down the road. :/

qbrozen · September 2021

In my CJ7, I leapfrogged them all and mounted my tape player IN the glovebox. close the door and lock it. Done.

stickguy · September 2021

Looks like Mavericks starting to be delivered. Makes it even sillier that review embargo doesn’t end for another week!

Lousy video, but he seems to like it. And good MPG!

xwesx · September 2021

Oh, on the topic of fuel economy, my son managed to get 45.1 mpg from our 2018 Crosstrek on a 120-mile drive a few days ago.

Granted, he drove from Bend to Stayton, Oregon, which is generally a decrease in elevation, but that does include driving over a significant mountain pass. To contrast, I was with my brother, who was driving a 2017 Elantra, and he was not able to equal that!

au1994 · September 2021

That’s impressive mileage for the Subaru. The mpg was one of the big positives of the Crosstrek we had for a while.

I’m averaging 32.2 in the Jeep so far.

tjc78 · September 2021

I had a Blaupunkt pull out stereo at one point and then upgraded to a detachable face.

I did lots of stereo upgrades in the mid-90s, so much easier to do back then.

kyfdx · September 2021

qbrozen said:
In my CJ7, I leapfrogged them all and mounted my tape player IN the glovebox. close the door and lock it. Done.

My CJ5: No radio. Also, a pair of vise grips for an accelerator pedal.

au1994 · September 2021

Stereo memory lane…didn’t do anything in my Mustang in high school. Combo of it being a convertible, me not having money and not wanting to cut the dash.

89 Beretta got the treatment though. Started out with a Kenwood head unit, JVC amp and Clarion speakers. Skipping on the Kenwood got progressively worse and it was replaced by a Clarion head unit. Even added an eq that I had gotten for free.

Alpine, Nakamichi and Blaupunkt were the really expensive brands we all lusted after.

Of course I had to have the Clifford alarm. Man those things were annoying when they went off. Which was often in a college apartment parking lot.

The Beretta was replaced by a Tacoma SR5 which had BOTH cassette and CD. Wow! I’ve been OEM since then although I did add a Bluetooth adapter to the Land Cruiser.

corvette · September 2021

@roadburner said: I also don’t want extra weight added to the highest point on the car.

Same, that’s why I didn’t get a sunroof on the Tundra.

xwesx · September 2021

au1994 said:
That’s impressive mileage for the Subaru. The mpg was one of the big positives of the Crosstrek we had for a while.

I’m averaging 32.2 in the Jeep so far.

As long as you keep it to short, local trips, you should be able to kill it with great economy on the Jeep!

Our Crosstrek is the 6-speed manual (not sure whether it is supposed to be better or worse economy than the auto), and we generally get about 35 mpg in mixed driving. Pretty darn good, to be honest, considering that I never really did any better with my Escort or my Fiesta, which were much smaller cars (space wise).

If I put the crossbars on top, those alone will rob about 3 mpg, so I try to take them off if we're not actively using.

au1994 · September 2021

xwesx said:

au1994 said:
That’s impressive mileage for the Subaru. The mpg was one of the big positives of the Crosstrek we had for a while.

I’m averaging 32.2 in the Jeep so far.
As long as you keep it to short, local trips, you should be able to kill it with great economy on the Jeep!

Our Crosstrek is the 6-speed manual (not sure whether it is supposed to be better or worse economy than the auto), and we generally get about 35 mpg in mixed driving. Pretty darn good, to be honest, considering that I never really did any better with my Escort or my Fiesta, which were much smaller cars (space wise).

If I put the crossbars on top, those alone will rob about 3 mpg, so I try to take them off if we're not actively using.

Yep! My normal loop of grocery store, cleaners, Home Depot, school and the like can all be done on electric. The ICE may kick in if I’m too hard on the accelerator going up a hill or pulling out from an intersection but thats it.

Our Crosstrek was the CVT and if I recall from shopping, it was actually a couple of MPGs better than the 6 spd. And yes, can confirm, cross rails and the cargo basket cost you about 3-4 mpgs and a lot of noise.

jmonroe1 · September 2021

@xwesx said:
I have one of those in my old Econoline. Same thing here... I never carried it with me; I would just stow it away somewhere in the vehicle. And then, of course, I wouldn't remember to put it on again until I was already driving down the road. :/

Sounds like something a dope would do.

jmonroe

ab348 · September 2021

Aside from tires, I really have spent very little on the ATS over the last 4 years of ownership. But the 4 years worth of Cadillac paying for maintenance are now over, so today this service was on me. Oil & filter, 60-point inspection, 4-wheel alignment and a brake fluid change cost me just under $400 of our worthless Canadian dollars. They also found a leaking rear axle seal, covered under warranty, but needed to order the part, so that happens Monday.

xwesx · September 2021

jmonroe1 said:

Sounds like something a dope would do.

jmonroe

Hahah; it should come as no surprise, then.

nyccarguy · September 2021

@au1994 said:
That’s impressive mileage for the Subaru. The mpg was one of the big positives of the Crosstrek we had for a while.

I’m averaging 32.2 in the Jeep so far.

You guys are going to have to show me the ins and outs on how to set up the Jeep. Since my wife will be driving it, it will be up to me to configure.

mjfloyd1 · September 2021

Max regeneration while in town is helpful. You can essentially drive with one foot line a Tesla (sadly the brake lights don’t automatically come on though)

nyccarguy · September 2021

@mjfloyd1 said:
Max regeneration while in town is helpful. You can essentially drive with one foot line a Tesla (sadly the brake light don’t automatically come on though)

So that way the battery charges while driving with regenerative braking?

ronsteve · September 2021

xwesx said:
Oh, on the topic of fuel economy, my son managed to get 45.1 mpg from our 2018 Crosstrek on a 120-mile drive a few days ago.

Granted, he drove from Bend to Stayton, Oregon, which is generally a decrease in elevation, but that does include driving over a significant mountain pass. To contrast, I was with my brother, who was driving a 2017 Elantra, and he was not able to equal that!

Altitude helps too. I had a 12 Murano as a rental out in AZ, and the tank that was mostly Sedona-Flagstaff-Grand Canyon and back I averaged 28 mpg (EPA highway number was 23 or 24). Also averaged 28 mpg with a V6 Dodge Journey in New Mexico (ABQ out to Four Corners and back, closer to 2 tanks!). The modest lack of oxygen causes them to really lean out.

mjfloyd1 · September 2021

@nyccarguy said:

@mjfloyd1 said:
Max regeneration while in town is helpful. You can essentially drive with one foot line a Tesla (sadly the brake light don’t automatically come on though)

So that way the battery charges while driving with regenerative braking?

Yes

cdnpinhead · September 2021

ronsteve said:
The modest lack of oxygen causes them to really lean out.

There's no doubt that cars get better mileage at higher elevation, but it's reduced wind resistance that does it; the FI system compensates for elevation as far as combustion is concerned. I just got a two-day average of just over 40 mpg from Heber, AZ, down to Safford via the Coronado Trail. Most of the journey was above 6000 ft and some was as high as 9200. Of course when I calculate the real mileage from the gas pump data, it'll be about 7% lower, but that's still pretty good.

qbrozen · September 2021

@mjfloyd1 said:
Max regeneration while in town is helpful. You can essentially drive with one foot line a Tesla (sadly the brake lights don’t automatically come on though)

They do. I just took notice of this the other night since I could see the third brake light shining on the spare. It take a couple secs. You lift off completely and it doesn’t grab 100% right away. It starts at maybe 50% deceleration and then ramps up in a few secs. I would say maybe 2 secs into the process, the brake lights illuminate.

jmonroe1 · September 2021

@xwesx said:
Hahah; it should come as no surprise, then.

Some folks always surprise me.

jmonroe

roadburner · September 2021

mjfloyd1 said:
Max regeneration while in town is helpful. You can essentially drive with one foot line a Tesla (sadly the brake lights don’t automatically come on though)

I'm surprised it doesn't. The brake lights activated on the i3 if I completely lifted off throttle.

mjfloyd1 · September 2021

@qbrozen said:

@mjfloyd1 said:
Max regeneration while in town is helpful. You can essentially drive with one foot line a Tesla (sadly the brake lights don’t automatically come on though)

They do. I just took notice of this the other night since I could see the third brake light shining on the spare. It take a couple secs. You lift off completely and it doesn’t grab 100% right away. It starts at maybe 50% deceleration and then ramps up in a few secs. I would say maybe 2 secs into the process, the brake lights illuminate.

I had my wife drive to check it out. Brake lights only came on when she hit the brake pedal. I guess I’ll have to try and have her watch while I don’t hit the brake pedal

28firefighter · September 2021

Brake lights illuminate for me, but are on a slight delay depending on how much slow down is occurring.

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