Tag: automobiles

Straight’nin’ the curve, / Flat’nin’ the hills / Someday the moutain might get ’em, …

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

Today, we have thee automobile related “Observations on the News”, all connected (somewhat) with a Dukes of Hazzard theme. So put on some Waylon Jennings, and read on…

  • The Los Angeles Times is reporting how car-designer George Barris is in hot water for the cars he displays on his website and other media. Barris, famous for the Munster Coach and the Batmobile, is accused of implying his involvement with cars he never really designed. How does the General Lee play into this? At a recent ceremony commemorating Barris’ six-decade car-customizing career, the General was on display. The problem, of course, is that Barris didn’t design the General. Credits for “Dukes of Hazzard” list Ken Fritz, Tom Sarmento, Rich Sephton, A.J. Thrasher, Andre Veluzat and Renaud Veluzat as car builders. Barris is credited for “car modifications.” There were more egregious cases, such as the K.I.T.T. car, the Monkeymobile, or the “Back to the Future” DeLorian.
  • So how much is a General Lee worth? The Ventura County Star (CNN) provides one answer: $9,900,000. That’s how much actor John Schneider’s General Lee sold for on eBay Motors. Quite a lot of money for a modified 1969 Dodge Charger.

    Update 5/10/2007: Alas, it looks like that bid is a hoax.

  • Of course, what was the General known for (other than the horn?). Jumping. More than 300 General Lees were said to have been jumped, crunched and crashed in the filming of the “Dukes” series. Luckily, after 55 days, you may not need a General Lee to transition the 580 overpass. The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that the state is releasing a contract to repair and reopen the collapsed section of I-580 within 50 days. Nine construction companies have been given the weekend to prepare proposals to do the work, which Caltrans Director Will Kempton said should cost less than $20 million. The firms must repair the collapsed freeway by June 29 or face $200,000 a day in penalties from the state. But should they finish the work ahead of schedule, they’ll earn a $200,000-a-day bonus for each day they were ahead of the deadline. This worked well for rebuilding the I-10.

All together now… “yee-haw”!

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Perhaps They Should Resurrect The Edsel…

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

Back in October, I thought about writing* about how Ford was discontinuing the Taurus nameplate. The model, whose popularity had once rivalled the Camry, had been reduced to a rental-only vehicle, with pitiful sales. I remember when we had a Ford Taurus (actually, a 1992 Mercury Sable). Had the transmission fall out on the freeway. At that moment, we decided it was going. Was never quite quiet after we drove to hot springs near Mammoth. Ford just never kept up the product.

So, in October, Ford discontinued the nameplate, after 21 years and sales of nearly 7 million.

Guess what. According to anonymous Ford officials, Ford will rename its slow-selling Five Hundred model the Taurus. Why? The Five Hundred isn’t selling, and the they believe the name changes are confusing consumers (my opinion in four words: “It’s the quality, stupid” or “It’s the stupid quality”). The Five Hundred, built on Volvo architecture, sold moderately well in 2005, its first full year on the market, but sales nose-dived last year from almost 108,000 to about 84,000. It will get a new, more powerful engine and some cosmetic updates for the 2008 model year, when the name change likely is to take place.

In other Ford news, Alan Mulally, former Boeing executive who became Ford Motor CEO in September, has agreed to spend a day as a salesman in a yet-to-be determined Ford dealership. This should be quite interesting. I wonder what he’ll learn… both about reputation, and what really sells cars!

* Actually, I remember writing the post, but I can’t find it. CRS strikes again!

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Such Purty Words

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

From a Los Angeles Times article on the new Nissan Versa and Chevy Aveo:

And both repel the attentions of the opposite sex like Gortex repels water. These cars have the erotic charge of abstinence-based education, the epicurean frisson of room-temperature tofu.

Wow. Such purty words. And they keep it up:

And both are fairly representative of the suddenly sexy class of wee-compact overachievers that includes the charismatic Toyota Yaris and Honda Fit. Collectively, these cars offer considerable personal growth opportunities without the stale cookies of a 12-step meeting.

Talking about the Aveo:

Yet it remains determinedly nerdy. Tall sided and piled high like dorm-room laundry, the Aveo’s most notable visual feature is the big-and-proud Chevy bowtie and dual-port grille, direct from America’s heartland by way of the Korean peninsula.

My, my. Piled high like dorm-room laundry. Prose doesn’t get much better than this!

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Gives a New Meaning to “Fix Or Repair Daily”

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

C’mon I couldn’t end 2006 without a final Observation on the News. This one is truly an observation along the road, because we know all too well that’s where Fords are often found (as I can attest from my 1992 Mercury Sable).

Yesterday’s Detroit News is reporting that Ford and Microsoft are teaming up to put Microsoft technology in the form of software and computers in Ford automobiles. The goal is to bring wireless Windows connectivity into the automobile. The new technology will be called Sync, according to a report in Friday’s Wall Street Journal, which cited sources familiar with the deal. Those sources said it will use Bluetooth technology to allow wireless connections between Ford automobiles and devices like the Apple iPod or cellular telephones. Drivers would then be able to use the system for hands-free calling, as well as for music and a variety of other applications.

The mind just boggles at this announcement. Can you imagine the effect of a “blue screen of death” at the wrong time? Cars infected with viruses or worms? Drivers distracted by software that won’t work until you download an update?

Somehow, this strikes me as a bad idea. There’s a reason that cars should have specialized computers, if they have computers at all. Windows, with its gazillion lines of code, isn’t the answer for everything. We don’t (horrors) need the Internet everywhere.

Perhaps there’s a reason Toyota is taking the number 2 slot.

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Of DVD-R and CR-Vs, Of Cabbages and Kings…

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

Folks may recall my previous post about problems we were having with our DVD Recorder and the repairs on my wife’s car. Both are now resolved, reasonably happily.

The DVD Recorder Saga. A few months ago, I purchased a Toshiba D-R4 DVD Recorder at Best Buy. The goal was to move our older Samsung player into the media room, and use the DVD Recorder to offload stuff from the DirecTivo. At the same time I bought the recorder, I bought a spindle of Fuji 16x DVD-R media. Earlier this week, I tried to record on that media. Although it would record just fine, when I attempted to finalize the disk I would receive an Err-14, “DVD disc access error detected”. I tried the suggestion of Toshiba of unplugging the machine for at least 3 minutes, and trying again… still no luck. So, we started a quest for the recommended DVD-R media for the device: Either Maxell or TDK 4x DVD-R.

Resolution: At Frys, my wife picked up a spindle of Maxell 1x-8x DVD-R media. This media is working like a charm. I’ll see if I can get some more of the same. Perhaps it is just reading the manufacturer block, and rejecting it if it isn’t Maxell or TDK. The 8x media also has an opaque top (yellow), as opposed to a silvery top — this might help the reflectivity part of the equation.

The Honda CR-V Saga. This is a more involved saga. The Thursday before we left on vacation 3 weeks ago, my wife was driving to my cousin’s house to help her with her son’s Bar Mitzvah preparations. As she was getting on US 101, the “Check Engine” light came on, the engine misfired, and the car died. It wouldn’t restart right away. AAA was called, and the car was trucked to Keyes Woodland Hills Honda. They initially attempted to diagnose the problem, but every time they read the computer, they got a different result. We throught it was a computer problem. After a week of working on it, they diagnosed the problem as a valve problem, and sent the engine out to the machine shop for major rework. Time passed. More time passed. Everytime we called them, we were told the engine wasn’t back. They kept slipping the promise date. When we got back home, we were fed up, plus we felt this was an engine defect. So my wife called American Honda. They opened a case. After some more calling, the car finally got back to the dealer. The ultimate problem was a broken valve retainer, leading to the valve problems. At the dealer they started it up… and got another “Check Engine” light. This time it was an exhaust valve. We were getting pretty pissed at this point.

Resolution: The car is back, the problems are fixed, and it is running like a charm. Further, we didn’t have to pay the full over $2,200 bill: American Honda is paying half of the bill, even though the car has just under 82,000 miles and is thus out of warranty. Good for them!

So, what have we learned from this, kiddies:

  • Problems eventually do get resolved.
  • They get resolved faster if you have gf_guruilla working your case.
  • You don’t want an angry gf_guruilla. Had the car not been ready today, she would have (a) left a substantial amount of blood on the service drive of the dealership, (b) been in the showroom all Labor Day Sales weekend loudly making a scene about the “so-called service” at said dealership, and (c) filed complaints with the B.A.R., AAA, the LA County District Attorney’s Fraud Unit and whomever else she could think of. Don’t believe me? Just ask Morrie Sage about the time in 1981 when they left a screw in the engine of her new Nissan Stanza! She raised a stink in the showroom.

Yet another reason I love my wife. A grand mess, and I didn’t have to deal with it (except for paying the much-reduced bill). On top of that, she got batteries in my watches and picked up a prescription for my trip before I could even get to the drugstore!

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More Grrrrssss….

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

  • It seems the DVD-R is really finicky. It just won’t finalize the Fuji DVD-R 16x media. I’m going to have to find some 4x DVD-R media, preferably TDK or Maxell. I’m beginning to think I have an expensive DVD player, and that DVD Recording technology just isn’t there yet, at least for personal use.
  • gf_guruilla‘s car is even more of a grrrrr… After 3 weeks and a diagnosis of two bad valves , caused by a bad valve retainer (which should have been caught during initial engine assembly), they take apart the engine, supposedly fix the valves, put it back together… and get a different “Check Engine” code. The car only has about 85K miles on it. The Guruilla is in a take-no-prisoner’s mode. She’s going to yell at American Honda tomorrow, and then see if we can get the car transferred to a dealer that might know what they are doing. She’s also going to see if we can get Honda to spring for a loaner. This is ridiculous, and is really lowering my opinion of at least this Honda dealer. Next step will be the District Attorney, the Bureau of Automotive Repair, and AAA. Expect a full rant when everything is said and done.
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Take Me For A Ride With My Car-Car

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

This hasn’t been our summer for car problems. Back in June you’ll recall a number of posts about how my car (a 1999 Honda Civic DX Hatchback) was tipped on its side, resulting in sufficient damage that our insurance company totalled the car. We ended up replacing it at the beginning of July with a 2006 Toyota Matrix XR.

I think the other car was jealous.

Just before vacation, while my wife was getting on the freeway, the check engine light came on and the car died. They were able to get the car started sufficiently to get it on the tow truck, and they towed it to the closest Honda dealer (Keyes Honda, Woodland Hills). After four days of diagnosing things (because the engine computer kept giving inconsistent answers), they came up with a verdict: the car toasted a valve or piston (I don’t recall which), and they are going to have to open the head to fix it. It looks like this has happened before on CR-Vs.

This afternoon we debated whether to have the dealer repair the problem ($1400 est.), or towing it to our favorite Honda repair shop and having them do it (a diagnosis fee to Keyes+towing+$800 est.). We have more confidence in our favorite shop (experiential assurance, no EAL). However, given the diagnosis cost, towing cost, and then repair, we’re letting Keyes do it. It should be done Friday.

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So What Will My Father-in-Law Do Now?

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

According to the New York Times, Ford will be discontinuing the Lincoln Town Car after the 2007 model year. The Town Car, like the Crown Victoria and Mercury Marquis, is based on Ford’s rear-drive Panther platform architecture, which dates to the 1970’s. Ford has tried to squeeze out at least eight years between Town Car model changes; the current third-generation Town Car has changed little since 1998. Its 4.6-liter V-8 is relatively underpowered, producing just 239 horsepower, and its four-speed automatic transmission is a dinosaur.

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