Even Murdoch's minions cannot deny it

So a friend posted an article from the other New York paper.  

Seems basic accounting is coming in vogue again.  Buckets with holes in the bottom are bad vessels.  Having spent an unholy amount of money on cars this past year I strongly agree: cars are a drain on resources.

Honestly.  As durable goods go, cars suck.  In a year we've dealt with a transmission, bearings, brakes and head gaskets.  We had one car die and another have a heart attack.  

If only it were easier to get across the river.

Merde

So the Jetta went in for new bearings today.  Dammit.

We decided to take an emergency bike ride.  And that really helped.  We went up Minnehaha to Cedar and picked up a few things from Midwest Mountaineering.  Which was pretty cool, we ran into Kevin.  

Shannon found a nice hat and I found some gloves that will be nice when it gets colder out.  Since the car just needed further repairs, I passed on the gloves for now.

But after perusing the sporting goods store, we went to the Town Hall brewery for lunch.  I had two and a half pints of the house stout, and Shannon had the triple and a stout.  To eat, I had the 7 corners burger since we had just been to 7 corners hardware this morning.  We went there looking for locktite which we found, but I also showed Shannon which drills I liked there.  There are two Mikita and one Milwaukee drills I think would be nice.  One of the Mikita drills is pretty small, and only 2 amps, but it also weighs damn near nothing.  And the other two were much much larger, with the second handle and everything.  The burger though, was awesome.  Shannon had the pumpkin soup and brat special which rivaled the burger.

The stout was smooth without being sweet or heavy.  We'll have to go back.

On our way home, we needed to rest a bit.  Mostly, I was having trouble going in a straight line.  But as we were sitting next to someone's bronzed work boots a couple came pushing their bikes by asking for directions to the Hub.  But what they clearly needed was a patch and a pump.  

I had a pump but sadly couldn't find my patch kit anywhere.  So another rider gave us a glueless patch and we put everything back together.  And I told them where they should be going for their bicycle needs.

Changing the water pump on '91 Prelude

Who designs these things?

The advantage of the Honda over a Ford is the commitment to metric.  With 4 sockets it would be pretty straight forward to get through all of the engine.  On the Taurus especially every other bolt was metric or standard.  

Now I have changed a few water pumps on Gimpy the Wonder Taurus, but this Honda made the Taurus look easy.  The head cover had to come off, and the accessory belts.  And the timing belt. And the crankshaft pulley.  And the left engine mount.

Otherwise it was pretty easy to wiggle the pump up in between stuff and onto the block.

BUT we did it.  In one night. With no injuries past cut knuckles.  And actually, doing work with friends in good spirits is always a pleasure.

The trick is in lowering the engine by about an inch.  The pullies, dust covers and pump all fit past the fender much easier.  also a 1 1/2 inch extension might be nice. I picked one up at 7 corners after the fact because it was so dearly missed.  Tools you want to have also: 10mm socket, 10mm box end wrench, 12mm socket, 17mm deep socket, 19mm socket, razor blade, hydraulic jack, blocks, 12in extension, 1 1/2in extension, universal joint, a stout breaker bar, a torque wrench, oven, and a better or at least less cryptic shop manual than the Chilton's because damn.  The oven is to bake pizza, you'll get hungry.  I would strongly suggest buying belts to replace all the belts and radiator hoses, since almost everything needs to come apart anyway.

In for an oil change

So we dropped the car off for an oil change.  With a turbo charger those are supposed to have that changed fairly regularly... more like clock work.  And it was due.

The Tow truck set it down in the parking lot, and we waited to hear what they had to say.

While they forgot to change the oil, in three days they were able to diagnose and repair the singular whump sound the car had made.

I don't like feeling vulnerable.  I do what I can to prevent the feeling and since we just bought the car, and since we had problems within a month of the van having the head gasket go, I'm feeling a bit vulnerable.  What is frustrating is that I like driving.  It's the rest of the costs and headache I hate.  I like riding my bike, and I like fixing it too.  Which makes me even more frustrated when I lack the wherewithal to fix the car.  

ARUGH. 

The impossible has happened

Tuesday night I received a distress signal from Shannon.

What happened never happens.

by some evil miracle either:

A.) All six torx bolts holding the cv shaft to the differential loosened and fell out simultaneously

B.) Scotty put all power to the transporters and beamed them to hell.

which then allowed the shaft, which was still spinning with the wheel, to grind two holes in the side of our aluminum transmission.

Wolfninja!

So word has it we bought a new car.

And it is a newer car than the van, but not exactly "new."  Not that I wouldn't think of it as being new.  Since it is new to us.

Many things about it are new to us about the car.

like the size. compact.

Wicked cool how much space is left in the parking space with a compact car.

And then there is the driving experience...

The Gimpy the Wonder Taurus always had a smooth ride.  The van also.  But neither gripped the road like this car does.  On curves the van tried to pass itself, and Gimpy couldn't get up to a dangerous speed.

What I would like to tell the car salesmen we didn't buy cars from is this: consistency.  We dragged everything over a couple days and every one of them changed their stories in some horrible inconsistent way.  Like the guy in the Honda dealership.  His wife went from staying home with year and a half old baby and their single car, to 15 months ago he bought an Avalanche for a second vehicle because he just "needed a truck."  Now he might have shared the stories in a way that was confusing.  Perhaps when the baby was born they only had one car and now they have two, but he didn't say that.

I have a few stories that I share with customers, and what I try to do is keep the important details always the same.  Maybe I am more accustomed to seeing a customer more than once?

Learning to drive a stick has been getting easier as I deconstructed the way I was used to driving and inserted my control of the shifting.  I'm still rough; I dumped the clutch with my Grandmother riding shotgun.  But really like driving the car.  Did I mention Frenchie still fits in the trunk of the compact car?

BWAHAHAHAHA  

Rar is Toyota and the Honda didn't leave us feeling civil

So the salesman at the toyota dealer was nicer than the guy at the Nissan dealer.  And the guy at the Honda dealership had conflicting stories (which is it: did you buy an Avalanche as a second car or do you only have one car?!?!?).  Interesting how when a sale is drawn out over a few days how a story can change.

The Toyota was very nice.  But it didn't have the tachometer, and only had the 4 speed transmission.  And we really were looking for 5 speeds.

We test drove an '06 Civic which was awesome.  accept for a few things

1. why was the car in every 6k miles according to Carfax.  but didn't mention the sale to a dealership?

2. why was the battery replaced at 50k miles?  Why was the entire right tail lamp replaced when it was traded in?  

3. why was there a tic-tac-toe game scratched into the hood?!?

But this is not what killed the sale.

First off, the sticker price on this Civic was a little high.  Not by too much, but enough to give pause.  Second, why didn't the salesman change the pitch when we mentioned that the price was a bit high.

So why not a jetta.

We know the current owner.  We know the quality of maintenance it has received.  And the price is well below what the car is actually worth to a dealership.

All I have to do is  be a quick study for a standard transmission.

How Yar is Toyota

To quote Kathrine Hepburn “Oh she certainly was yar.”

We sat in a sedan of the Yaris, and it was spacious. But not exactly what we were looking for. But then we sat in the three door hatchback.

I don’t want to rave about features...

well...

sorta...

the back seat moved forward, back, and folded up flat. perfect for a French bike to ride on.

Something else that the Yaris had that I have never seen in a car is bolts holding the cover for the spare in place. Maybe to keep the road noise down? Something certainly did.

The car was pretty nimble, more so than the Versa. It accelerated a lot better, and gets better gas milage.

The salesman was also much nicer.

Zoidberg

To be clear, we really liked the Versa.  But something that really seems to have pissed off the guy at the dealership is this:

We don't rush decisions.

The car did most of what we want in a car, however, we haven't test driven any other cars yet.  How could we tell if we like chocolate more than vanilla if we never tried the vanilla.  What about Neapolitan? 

So it was the end of the day.  So we drove two cars and seemed to like on more than the other.

But what really killed the sale was when he said "So you like the car and the price, why am I not filling out the paperwork."

wa wah.

Clearly we wanted to think about the decision.  The car is going to cost almost as much as a year of college and he wanted us to buy without thinking.  

Even if the car was a steal there needs to be some time to think.  The sandwich heavy portfolio doesn't always win.

First Impressions

This past weekend we made our first steps onto the dealerships.

It was pretty much what was expected.  For one, it was pouring down rain intermittently. I can only imagine that people at dealerships in the rain are serious about buying a car.  

The Toyotas we saw didn't excite us.

We haven't made it to a Honda one yet.

At Brother Yam's suggestion we test drove a Versa.  It was pretty nice.  The S model was missing an arm rest.  Which threw me off.  I like to rest my elbow on an armrest while driving.  The 1.8V4 was quiet and sitting idling eerily quiet.  Entering 35 though I had to stomp on the gas to get up to 75mph, but the tach never past 5000.  rpm at speed was between 2500-3000 which is what we were used to in the van, keep in mind the van had a 3.4v6.  The 5 speed automatic seemed to run pretty much in the 2000s even on side roads.  

Something that impressed me was the turning radius: 8 parking spaces.  roughly a circle twenty some feet on the outside.  I think it was Volvo that introduced the idea in a concept car during the late 90s but they put triangular windows in the A column.  Which the Versa had at the base of the A column.  not a lot of added visibility but something a little different.

We also test drove a used Versa.  Still had the 1.8 liter engine, but a different transmission.  The CVT was weird because it just kept going.  No hesitation as the gears changed because there wasn't a gear to change.  Pickup was much better in the used SL than the brand spanking new S.  I liked the feel of the leather steering wheel, the armrest in the front and back seat.  The leg room in the back seat was comparable to AirMalta.  The ride in the back seat was pretty nice overall.  The salesman didn't know if the glass was UV or not, but since it wasn't mentioned on the DOT label in the corner: I don't think it was.  What I didn't like, and this is a big issue for me was the lack of key for the SL.  Instead it is a prox card.  So by approaching the car and touching the handle the doors unlock.  

If you watch Top Gear perhaps you remember when Jeremy bought the Ford GT.  It had a similar system of keyless operation.  And was plagued with bugs.

Now imagine a car for less than 10% the cost of his car with a key fob that will not let you lock the doors and walk away if a key fob is still in the car.  Say we are going some place and want to leave Shannon's purse in the car.  ah Ah AHH.  Car unlocks itself.  And since a key fob it in the car, all a thief has to do is turn a knob on the dash.

The SL is not for us.  Maybe they have an S with an armrest somewhere.

Today we storm the Fords on Robert.