Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations

roadburner · October 26

As I've said before, If I had no choice but to drive a CUV I think that I would be reasonably content with a GLC 43 or -preferably- a GLC 63.

Michaell · October 26

laurasdada said:
The new KitchenAid DW was delivered Thursday, GE unceremoniously hauled away. The installer was focused, professional. He said he triple checked everything, should be no issues. Ran a light load the next day and miracle of miracles, it appeared to have washed the dishes! And it was almost completely dry inside.

Fingers crossed that the Covid GE fridge (compressor died after 5 months, fixed and fine since), range and nuclear oven continue to work for many more years.

Our new W/D for the basement laundry space are scheduled to be delivered between 8-10 tomorrow morning. If the daughter likes them enough, we may pull the trigger and order them as replacements for the main laundry room.

suydam · October 26

Let her look at a new Kia Sportage hybrid. Edmunds just did a comparo with it, the CR-V and the new 2026 RAV4 and it blew them out of the water.

I like our Kia Sportage PHEV. Our neighbor has the Hyundai Tucson PHEV which is also nice.
I do prefer the Chevy Blazer EV to both of them but it is a bigger vehicle. Depends on what size you are looking for. A compromise between a sedan and an SUV might be the Subaru Outback. Sits up higher but looks more like a station wagon.
And speaking of Costco, they often have coupons for certain auto brands. We got $1000 off the Blazer EV. They also have great deals on rental cars. It’s not just what’s in the warehouse. We also get our prescriptions filled there and eye exams and glasses too.

kyfdx · October 26

stickguy said:
nice pro tip there!

Also, optical department

oldfarmer50 · October 27

ab348 said:
I’m surprised how tight the rear seat seems to be.

Let her look at a new Kia Sportage hybrid. Edmunds just did a comparo with it, the CR-V and the new 2026 RAV4 and it blew them out of the water.

We recently drove a GLC back from NJ. The guy in the back seat abandoned us to ride in the back seat of a Kia Forte. It was that cramped.

oldfarmer50 · October 27

ab348 said:
Reliability is a used often as a slur towards H/K vehicles, and in the past I too would have subscribed to that feeling. But from what I gather they aren’t awful these days. The RAV is such a penalty box to drive and its interior is so cheap-feeling and noisy it seems like a worthwhile trade-off to me.

The engines are still iffy based on all the recalls (I have another one tomorrow) but they certainly load them up with tech. If I had known about all the problems Kia has with their engines I might have bought the Mitsubishi Outlander Sport I was considering despite the CVT.

stickguy · October 27

Some of the engines are definitely a weak spot. But these days GM and even Toyota have been having massive issues with engine failures.

benjaminh · October 27

snakeweasel said:
Since I am planning on retiring within 2 years She Who Must Be Obeyed and I decided that since all our vehicles are over 10 years old that it would be a good idea to get a new car before retirement. I would like a midsized sedan she wants an SUV which means we will get an SUV.

Anyway I had the great idea to go to CarMax so we can look at several makes at one location. Big mistake as my wife fell in love with this:

https://www.carmax.com/car/27949596

Anyway looks like a mid sized SUV is in our future. Any suggestions from the crew?

I like that Mercedes. But if you're planning to keep it for ten years odds are that you'll have expensive repairs in that time. Since she picked out a Mercedes it's maybe unlikely you could get her to test drive an Outback, but they are nice vehicles inside and out. It's easy to get $3k off of list on the last of the 2025s + 0.9% financing from Subaru. I've gotten the 10 year/100k 0 deductible Subaru bumper to bumper warranty for $2500 additional, and so no worries about repairs for a very long time.

venture · October 27

The dryer guy came this morning. Replaced the belt. 15 minutes. $150. I was in the wrong profession.

Michaell · October 27

venture said:
The dryer guy came this morning. Replaced the belt. 15 minutes. $150. I was in the wrong profession.

I know we generally only see the revenue side of the business, but as a small business owner, I'm sensitive to the costs, as well.

How much does he have invested in parts inventory? Maintenance and gas for the truck? Insurance? All these things to into the pricing of his time.

We're having a problem with our garbage disposal - or, more correctly, the outlet into which its plugged. Only one of the sockets work that's under the sink, and since the disposal is plugged into one and the dishwasher into the other, we can only use one at a time. It's a hassle, but not debilitating. Got a guy coming out tomorrow morning to look into it. Not sure what it will cost, but it will be worth it.

corvette · October 27

@Michaell - I'm sure you've thought of this, but is one of the outlets switched?

Michaell · October 27

corvette said:
@Michaell - I'm sure you've thought of this, but is one of the outlets switched?

Nope.

tjc78 · October 27

@Michaell

Couple a things to check -

1 - Is there a GFCI reset under there (not on the outlet, but a separate unit)
2 - Double check the breaker it is on - turn it off and back on even if it doesn't look tripped (it may be a GFCI)
3 - If the outlets aren't switched, how do you turn your GD on/off? Air Switch?
4 - You just had a ton of work done in your basement... assuming they worked in the panel, there could have been a loose wire on the neutral bar or breaker and they disrupted it.

This is the device I'm talking about. It is a standalone GFCI button (we have this on our whirlpool tub)

tjc78 · October 27

venture said:
The dryer guy came this morning. Replaced the belt. 15 minutes. $150. I was in the wrong profession.

Quite frankly... that's cheap. Not much money in any technician showing up for less than $100 service call and a 20-30% markup on parts.

andres3 · October 27

snakeweasel said:

andres3 said:

The measure of exposure matters: some studies show crashes per mile may fall as speed increases (because you spend fewer miles/time on the road for a fixed trip), which is exactly what I'm talking about above.

However, I have to concede there's some data where crashes per hour (time-based) tend to rise with speed. This creates the apparent paradox you noted. See Pei et al. (2012) and related work.

I believe this suggests that the benefit of reducing hazards by reducing your time-exposure to "incidents" is limited to your ability to not lose focus and become fatigued. Of course, you don't have to last without fatigue as long if you get to your destination sooner!!!!
Trying to keep this short, I have gone over this and I believe that they are looking at this all wrong. They seem to be looking simply by exposure to risk and not in changes to risk due to speed differences. Below is from the link:

"The results indicate that average speed plays a significant role in crash risk, despite opposing correlations with respect to distance and time exposure; the correlation between speed and crash risk is positive when distance exposure is considered, but negative when time exposure is used."

This can create a paradox as if two drivers are going down a street and one is going further and faster both can be safer than the other one by less exposure due to distance and one by time.

This fully ignores the laws of physics that state that the amount of energy excerted by an object increases exponentially with it increase in speed. i.e. a car doing 40 MPH has 4 times the energy than one doing 20 MPH. With that increase in energy the vehicle becomes harder to control.

Physics is never ignored in the real world by reasonable people, unless they have their head in the sand. Good drivers don't lose control, so your exponential kinetic energy is multiplied by zero and therefore a zero factor. (noting the true value may not be absolute zero in a post above). There is no "harder" to control for good drivers. You are either in control or you are not in control. I know I can't turn as hard as suddenly at 100 MPH as at 10 MPH. That's a known readily apparent condition. So you don't lose control. The key is understanding and having experience with how your car handles near or at the limits for both of those speeds. Knowledge is power.

Yes, it takes longer to stop, it takes more distance traveled to react, but reaction time is not a heavy factor (or at least not as heavy as the common conventional wisdom thinks) - and that explains the real world data. Heavier factors could be a combination of the fact bad drivers and/or wild animals may not give you any time to react (another any number multiplied by zero equals zero equation). Or if they do give you time not sufficient time to avoid a wreck even if you were going slower than the speed limit. Making yourself harder to hit by making yourself less available to be hit clearly has weight towards reducing safety risks.

If fast things weren't harder to hit, there's no reason a major-league pitcher would throw 100 MPH fastballs.

Looking at the quantity of crashes in the real-world ignores nothing. It's a valid way to record and analyze real-world data rather than speculate with statistical models based on absurd assumptions and presumptions.

More crashes = bad.
Less crashes = good.

jmonroe1 · October 27

Michaell said:

venture said:
The dryer guy came this morning. Replaced the belt. 15 minutes. $150. I was in the wrong profession.
I know we generally only see the revenue side of the business, but as a small business owner, I'm sensitive to the costs, as well.

How much does he have invested in parts inventory? Maintenance and gas for the truck? Insurance? All these things to into the pricing of his time.

We're having a problem with our garbage disposal - or, more correctly, the outlet into which it’s plugged. Only one of the sockets work that's under the sink, and since the disposal is plugged into one and the dishwasher into the other, we can only use one at a time. It's a hassle, but not debilitating. Got a guy coming out tomorrow morning to look into it. Not sure what it will cost, but it will be worth it.

————————————————
A disposal and dishwasher should not be on the same circuit. It’s highly unlikely that each half of the receptacle is on its own breaker but it is possible to do that and if it is done, I don’t think the code allows it.

The fix for you is a new circuit being installed with its own receptacle. Hold onto your wallet.

jmonroe

kyfdx · October 27

I don't understand how you have a disposal without a switch?

andres3 · October 27

stickguy said:
random thought on this. often times when people are driving faster on the highway it is because traffic is light. And if there aren't many other cars on the road, odds of an accident go down a lot. So as always, conditions matter.

Correct, but only for vehicle to vehicle collisions. Conditions exponentially x exponentially X EXPONENTIALLY matter though, cannot emphasize enough appropriate speed for conditions.

You can still be hit by a lighting bolt (reducing time exposure effective here), or by a landing airplane (higher speed might help you not get rear ended here), or some other "act of God" as they say. Animals are not a thing on Interstates near me, but that might be different in other areas without walled off limited access freeways and constant traffic.

Michaell · October 27

Ok I had too many things going on this morning with my earlier response. Yes, the disposal is on a switch, mounted in the cabinet under the sink.

Yes, lots of electrical work has been done. The basement has its own breaker panel in the space under the stairs, and the outside box has a master 30amp breaker clearly labeled.

It seems as if one of the outlets under the sink no longer works. I’ll let you all know what I learn tomorrow after the guy comes out.

stickguy · October 27

So there are 2 outlets under the sink? That makes sense. Though you can have an outlet that is half switched.

kyfdx · October 27

Sure seems like a GFCI has popped

andres3 · October 27

Funny to me, as my garbage disposal stopped working and I ignored it for months because plugging it into a different outlet solved the problem (always nice to have a short extension cord handy). I figured the person that told me there was a problem with the outlet would have thought to check the GFCI switch, so I didn't think to check that. I just assumed the problem was the outlet under the sink. Flash forward to like almost a year of procrastination, and I tell the guy remodeling my bathroom about it, and he checks it out, and lo and behold, it was the GFCI switch. Didn't even get billed.

P.S. We don't cook much and we definitely don't use the garbage disposal for food waste when avoidable.

jmonroe1 · October 27

Michaell said:
Ok I had too many things going on this morning with my earlier response. Yes, the disposal is on a switch, mounted in the cabinet under the sink.

Yes, lots of electrical work has been done. The basement has its own breaker panel in the space under the stairs, and the outside box has a master 30amp breaker clearly labeled.

It seems as if one of the outlets under the sink no longer works. I’ll let you all know what I learn tomorrow after the guy comes out.

————————————————
If you have a switch under the sink for your disposal, that sounds like the disposal was put in after the house was built otherwise the switch would be on the wall. This usually happens with older homes when a disposal is put in because of the work involved to install a switch on the wall (most folks don’t want to pay for the extra labor involved). But, your house is newer so it’s odd that the switch is under the sink.

FWIW, when I moved into my second hose in 1989 the switch for the disposal was mounted under the sink. I’m pretty sure that house was built in the mid 70’s when disposals were not usually common back then. I built my first house in 1969 and I didn’t want to spend what the builder wanted to install a disposal so I figured I’d do that later when I saved a few bucks. So, a few years later I installed a disposal but I went through the work of putting the switch on the wall. Needless to say, Mrs. j was used to that and really disliked the switch being under the sink and couldn’t wait until I put the switch on the wall in our second house. As it turned out that job wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be but I would have spent whatever time it took to put the switch on the wall. I’m just glad I didn’t have to pay an electrician to do it.

jmonroe

corvette · October 27

kyfdx said:
Sure seems like a GFCI has popped

It sounds like it, but a dishwasher probably shouldn't be on a GFCI. Not sure about a disposal.

kyfdx · October 27

corvette said:

kyfdx said:
Sure seems like a GFCI has popped
It sounds like it, but a dishwasher probably shouldn't be on a GFCI. Not sure about a disposal.

We had an outlet that quit working, and it took me weeks to find the GFCI it was wired into. It was on our rear covered porch.

jmonroe1 · October 27

corvette said:

kyfdx said:
Sure seems like a GFCI has popped
It sounds like it, but a dishwasher probably shouldn't be on a GFCI. Not sure about a disposal.

————————————————
Around here they want both the DW and disposal to be on a GFCI circuit. Either a GFCI breaker or a GFCI receptacle. Just make sure your fridge IS NOT GFCI protected.

jmonroe

Michaell · October 27

@kyfdx said:
Sure seems like a GFCI has popped

You’d think, but we’ve checked all the GFCI outlets and none are blinking and in need of a reset.

Michaell · October 27

@jmonroe1 said:
————————————————
If you have a switch under the sink for your disposal, that sounds like the disposal was put in after the house was built otherwise the switch would be on the wall. This usually happens with older homes when a disposal is put in because of the work involved to install a switch on the wall (most folks don’t want to pay for the extra labor involved). But, your house is newer so it’s odd that the switch is under the sink.

FWIW, when I moved into my second hose in 1989 the switch for the disposal was mounted under the sink. I’m pretty sure that house was built in the mid 70’s when disposals were not usually common back then. I built my first house in 1969 and I didn’t want to spend what the builder wanted to install a disposal so I figured I’d do that later when I saved a few bucks. So, a few years later I installed a disposal but I went through the work of putting the switch on the wall. Needless to say, Mrs. j was used to that and really disliked the switch being under the sink and couldn’t wait until I put the switch on the wall in our second house. As it turned out that job wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be but I would have spent whatever time it took to put the switch on the wall. I’m just glad I didn’t have to pay an electrician to do it.

jmonroe

Nope, the sink is on an island and there is no wall to mount the switch to - ergo, under the sink.

jmonroe1 · October 27

Michaell said:

@jmonroe1 said:

————————————————

If you have a switch under the sink for your disposal, that sounds like the disposal was put in after the house was built otherwise the switch would be on the wall. This usually happens with older homes when a disposal is put in because of the work involved to install a switch on the wall (most folks don’t want to pay for the extra labor involved). But, your house is newer so it’s odd that the switch is under the sink.

FWIW, when I moved into my second hose in 1989 the switch for the disposal was mounted under the sink. I’m pretty sure that house was built in the mid 70’s when disposals were not usually common back then. I built my first house in 1969 and I didn’t want to spend what the builder wanted to install a disposal so I figured I’d do that later when I saved a few bucks. So, a few years later I installed a disposal but I went through the work of putting the switch on the wall. Needless to say, Mrs. j was used to that and really disliked the switch being under the sink and couldn’t wait until I put the switch on the wall in our second house. As it turned out that job wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be but I would have spent whatever time it took to put the switch on the wall. I’m just glad I didn’t have to pay an electrician to do it.

jmonroe

Nope, the sink is on an island and there is no wall to mount the switch to - ergo, under the sink.

————————————————
That would have been a good place for an air-switch but doing that now could be a little painfully expensive if you have to hire to get that done. But, hey, with all you’ve spent so far, what’s another 4 or 5 hundred bucks?

jmonroe

corvette · October 27

kyfdx said:
We had an outlet that quit working, and it took me weeks to find the GFCI it was wired into. It was on our rear covered porch.

My parents' house is pretty similar. The back porch has a standard outlet which I know is GFCI protected, but darn if I could tell you where the GFCI outlet that is upstream of it is located. Unless it's a kitchen or garage where you can easily put your eyes on the GFCIs that respond to the downstream outlets, I'm a big fan of just putting in a GFCI outlet in every box where they're required to be protected. Fortunately, that's very easy to retrofit.

My house was built in the 1950s and all of the original wiring is ungrounded, so I've installed GFCIs almost everywhere other than the lighting, refrigerator circuit, and microwave circuit (the latter two were added later and are grounded). Code compliant (or at least it was when I did it), and much cheaper than rewiring the entire house.

Fun story: when I bought the house, it had 100 amp service connected to a Federal Pacific "stab lock" breaker panel, which are notorious for catching fire. I refused to spend the night there until it was replaced. I also upgraded to 200 amp service, which is very much overkill given the size of my house (the electrician even discouraged it), but it wasn't that much more than redoing the smaller sized service. Now that I have an EV charger, I'm grateful I made the upgrade, as something pulling 48 amps on a 60 amp breaker plus other normal household loads would definitely strain a smaller service.

tjc78 · October 27

@jmonroe1 said:
————————————————
That would have been a good place for an air-switch but doing that now could be a little painfully expensive if you have to hire to get that done. But, hey, with all you’ve spent so far, what’s another 4 or 5 hundred bucks?

jmonroe

I’m happy mine is under the sink, I don’t want another hole in the granite… looks cleaner without it IMO.

corvette · October 27

My house had a disposal when I moved in. It made nearly the entire under sink cabinet unusable, and my cabinet space is sparse to begin with. The first time I had to have a plumber out for something else, I had them remove the disposal.

jmonroe1 · October 27

corvette said:
My house had a disposal when I moved in. It made nearly the entire under sink cabinet unusable, and my cabinet space is sparse to begin with. The first time I had to have a plumber out for something else, I had them remove the disposal.

————————————————
There is no way I could live without a disposal. Ours is a 1 HP job that chops up almost everything. If it comes off the table it goes down the disposal. Paper napkins and all. Never once has it jammed. I can’t tell you the last time our kitchen garbage can smelled. Plus, hauling it to the curb weighs a lot less too.

jmonroe

xwesx · October 27

Oh, that's scary! I'd be curious to see what the inside of the waste pipe looks like!

xwesx · October 27

Definite aside/rabbit hole here, but here goes!

With the very cool garbage pickup service that is... required?... in Ohio, and our short stints there, we have a rather unconventional process for garbage: I have a five-gallon bucket in the kitchen, and I just take it out to the covered bin every night before bed. A quick rinse under the hose and good as new; no garbage bags needed! But, we are the polar opposite of @jmonroe1 in that we do not have a disposal and the only thing that goes down the drain is minimal and incidental to washing dishes that were previously drained, scraped, wiped, or similar.

When we do need bags in the house, such as for the bathroom garbage, we just use plastic shopping bags or other similar recycled bags.

jmonroe1 · October 27

xwesx said:
Oh, that's scary! I'd be curious to see what the inside of the waste pipe looks like!

————————————————
Well, if I ever have to go in there, I’ll tell you.

jmonroe

corvette · October 27

Here, they want garbage and recycling bagged before being put in the bin... I reuse grocery bags for the recycling, but (I guess) it was Costco for the win on kitchen garbage bags, because my parents brought me a giant box of them, unsolicited, a few weeks ago. Apparently they were on sale in store.

xwesx · October 27

Costco (Kirkland) garbage bags are the best!

oldfarmer50 · 4:04AM

jmonroe1 said:

corvette said:
My house had a disposal when I moved in. It made nearly the entire under sink cabinet unusable, and my cabinet space is sparse to begin with. The first time I had to have a plumber out for something else, I had them remove the disposal.
————————————————
There is no way I could live without a disposal. Ours is a 1 HP job that chops up almost everything. If it comes off the table it goes down the disposal. Paper napkins and all. Never once has it jammed. I can’t tell you the last time our kitchen garbage can smelled. Plus, hauling it to the curb weighs a lot less too.

jmonroe

I never had a disposal because we’re on septic. Never saw the need for it. The garbage goes in a plastic bag and when full the bags go in a sealed garbage can. Never had a problem with odors since I make the trip to the dump once a week.

stickguy · 5:23AM

I did not pay for one in the new house. Never used it in the old house. We have a strainer over the drain to catch stuff and I k ok it off into the carnage Pail. And my wife has a lot more space under the sink to store her collection of stuff we don’t need.

tjc78 · 5:35AM

We use the disposer a good bit, not overly aggressive but enough to justify having it.

Since we are down the hole... I'll tell a recent story on the GD.

Due to our vacation and other commitments we hadn't been down the shore for 5 weeks. Last Friday morning I drove down and had food delivered (wife was coming back from a trip and was driving down in the afternoon with my Mom and kids). Well... the fridge needed a cleanout of all the jars of pickles, peppers, olives, etc since they were old at this point. I decided to put it all down the disposer and it was at least 10 different jars of things.

It was all going good until one of the jars of olives had pits in them. OMG - that disposer screamed bloody murder for a good two minutes chopping all those pits. It wasn't jamming or anything it was just so loud.

Thankfully I was there by myself. My wife would not have been amused.

stickguy · 6:28AM

Much quicker to just dump them in the garbage!

tjc78 · 7:36AM

stickguy said:
Much quicker to just dump them in the garbage!

I normally would, but since it was all stuff with tons of liquid in it I took the easy way out.

xwesx · 9:30AM

Sounds to me like it was the noisy way out!

jmonroe1 · 10:14AM

tjc78 said:
We use the disposer a good bit, not overly aggressive but enough to justify having it.

Since we are down the hole... I'll tell a recent story on the GD.

Due to our vacation and other commitments we hadn't been down the shore for 5 weeks. Last Friday morning I drove down and had food delivered (wife was coming back from a trip and was driving down in the afternoon with my Mom and kids). Well... the fridge needed a cleanout of all the jars of pickles, peppers, olives, etc since they were old at this point. I decided to put it all down the disposer and it was at least 10 different jars of things.

It was all going good until one of the jars of olives had pits in them. OMG - that disposer screamed bloody murder for a good two minutes chopping all those pits. It wasn't jamming or anything it was just so loud.

Thankfully I was there by myself. My wife would not have been amused.

————————————————
So I’ve heard, small medium-hard items are good for cleaning any built up from soft foods. Needless to say our disposal “screams” routinely.

jmonroe

jmonroe1 · 10:21AM

tjc78 said:

stickguy said:
Much quicker to just dump them in the garbage!

I normally would, but since it was all stuff with tons of liquid in it I took the easy way out.

————————————————
We do that all the time. Like I’ve said before, “I didn’t buy a 1 HP disposal to just sit under the sink to take up space and look pretty. When you’ve got it, flaunt it”.

jmonroe

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