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Vehicles / bikes šŸ Car Talk

Headlight on the Mini went out this weekend. Thought about replace the entire light because it's a little cloudy, but that is $800 per light. Wow.

I've decided to replace the light bulb for $90 a set. Guess I'll order those today.
 
Hey @The Terminator - I went on to Facebook Marketplace to look for some old stereo equipment near me and this gem popped up:

1976 Mercedes 280 For Sale
1706129434296.png


If only I had a bit more space in the garage...
 
WSU MUP Student said:
Hey @The Terminator - I went on to Facebook Marketplace to look for some old stereo equipment near me and this gem popped up:

1976 Mercedes 280 For Sale
View attachment 61706

If only I had a bit more space in the garage...
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W114/115s are SOOO STEAZY! '76 was the last year of that Chassis too! That would be a great classic for the weekend, that if maintained, could also be a backup daily when the regular cars are in for service! The M110 2.8l is not a bad gasoline motor, although I would recommend you hold out for a manual 240D :p

I love the old style headrests that M-B used prior to 1980 (that this car has), the whole styling of the W114/15 and the W123, I like to describe as "very Germanic, but tastefully so".
 
Last week The Girl called & said her car wasn't acting right, "jerky when stopping & engine had a noise." She recorded the noise, but it didn't sound bad. She was coming home for the weekend, so I told her to go to an oil change place & have them check the oil & look at the brakes to make sure it was safe & she can make it home - we'll deal with any repairs while she's here (they had yesterday & today off).

A friend at school told her to take it to a particular shop to see. They looked at it & told her pads, rotors, hub & bushings needed to be replaced to fix the brakes & 2 cylinders were misfiring in the engine. I told her to have them put oil in (not change) if it was low & if the car had enough brake pad to make it home safely.

I called our mechanic & made an appointment for Monday. She took her car in & low and behold, all it needed new pads & the rotors turned, plus an oil change. She picked it up & drove back to school last night.

It seems as though the guy in a college town might be trying to take advantage of young coeds with car issues - me thinks.
 
Well.. my 2015 honda accord has taken an untimely trip to the auto heaven due to getting t-boned by another driver. Although it was "low speed" (say 15-20 mph), enough damage that they are likely to total the thing. Soooo looking for EV. Any recommendations on EVs other than a damn Tesla?
 
arcplans said:
Well.. my 2015 honda accord has taken an untimely trip to the auto heaven due to getting t-boned by another driver. Although it was "low speed" (say 15-20 mph), enough damage that they are likely to total the thing. Soooo looking for EV. Any recommendations on EVs other than a damn Tesla?
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What about a PHEV?

My buddy has a Rav4 Prime and loves it. I've rode in it a few times and think it's pretty comfortable. They also have a Highlander PHEV and he gives that good reviews too but I know he prefers the Rav4 for his daily driver. IIRC, he claims the Rav4 has better visibility and fewer/smaller blind spots than the Highlander.
 
It was very difficult to make the decision to let go of my last car. I loved that car. I had so much fun with it & was what I had looked for a few years. Bittersweet.

I enjoy my new one & canā€™t wait to drive it up in the mountains this weekend.
 
Came across a few photos of cars we had in the 1980s:
1978 Ford LTD and 1982 Pontiac 6000LE - picture from summer 1984 when we moved from Spokane to Des Moines
1985 Ford Tempo (Satan's car - look at the license plate)
6000LE.jpg

Tempo.jpg
 
WSU MUP Student said:
What about a PHEV?

My buddy has a Rav4 Prime and loves it. I've rode in it a few times and think it's pretty comfortable. They also have a Highlander PHEV and he gives that good reviews too but I know he prefers the Rav4 for his daily driver. IIRC, he claims the Rav4 has better visibility and fewer/smaller blind spots than the Highlander.
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my issue is that is an unexpected 2nd car payment, as we are almost done paying off our minivan. As much as I want a PHEV, those are going for a 50K right now, 0 incentives, and still paying for gas.

Planit said:
Hyundai Ioniq 5 or 6
Rivian RT1 or RS1
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Really likening the Ioniq 6.. love the style... just heard soo many bad things about Hyundai in reddit forums, but mainly the ICEs, (especially 2011-2022), plus, Kia boys. Right now my local dealer has an SEL, advertised for 44K, plus what looks like 14k in "incentives" to move them off the lot. This is pretty much in line with the cost of a Model Y for Tesla (with incentives of course).
 
I thought about the 6 because they have put good discounts on them (because they're not selling). For me, I didn't want a 4-door & it was too big. Otherwise???
 
Doohickie said:
I'd stay away from Rivian until they learn how to properly design a car for maintenance and repair.
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I've read similar stories about Teslas. I don't think the Teslas are built using a "unibody" system but there are still significantly fewer body panels than on most other similar sized vehicles so you get the same problem with higher repair costs for body damage.
 
Doohickie said:
I wouldn't by a Tesla either. If/when I buy an EV it will be from a company that knows how to build cars.
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That my biggest issue is build quality. But their largest positive is their charging network, which blows everyone out of the water.
 
If you want to go on a very cool tour, schedule a tour of the Subaru factory in Lafayette IN.

My family did this tour last Friday and itā€™s amazing.

Greatly recommended.
 
mendelman said:
If you want to go on a very cool tour, schedule a tour of the Subaru factory in Lafayette IN.

My family did this tour last Friday and itā€™s amazing.

Greatly recommended.
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I used to spend a lot of time in auto assembly plants as part of my job. It is cool to see. I went to the Fort Flat Rock plant a few times. Very big operation. Not sure what they're doing now, but back then it was a joint venture and they built Ford Probes, Mazda 626s and MX-6s there, to the tune of 700+ per day. I was impressed by the Just-In-Time parts delivery; they received parts overnight for that day's assembly, and all the parts would be already arranged in production order (for instance, all the headliners were packaged in the order the cars were to be built). Flat Rock at that time was (and for all I know still is) more than just final assembly; they also stamped out the body part, welded them together, and painted them, all under the same roof.

My favorite plant to visit though was the old Jeep assembly plant in Toledo. The factory looked like something from a movie set for an old car factory. Sections of the factory still had the original floor which was end grain wood several inches thick and still holding up after 80 years; it had a saw-tooth roof with windows, all that. It was like touring an automotive museum. That plant has since been demolished and replaced by a modern facility.
 
Back in the early 90's I attend the Saturn Homecoming events at what was their plant in Spring Hill, TN.
It included a tour of the plant.

What was cool how they cast the block.
 
I've always been interested in the Ford Rouge Plant tour where they make the F-150. We've been to the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village across the street from the plant many many times but have never done the plant tour. I've always heard that it's really interesting. The kids are off of school all week and we're looking for activities so maybe we'll add that to our considerations.

When I was a kid, my dad was a plant manager at a parts supplier that made filler necks (the part where the gas goes from the pump to the tank) and I'd occasionally go to work with him in the summer if he knew he was only going to be in the office a few hours. It was fun seeing all the different machinery. Once in a while we'd go visit the "Dodge City" factory a few blocks away. I forget what vehicles they were assembling there back in the late '80s and early '90s but the factory was enormous (roughly a square mile) and it was really cool to see an actual assembly line in action.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
When I was a kid, my dad was a plant manager at a parts supplier that made filler necks (the part where the gas goes from the pump to the tank)
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One of the companies I worked for in the mid-90s made the fuel tanks... I wonder if the company I worked for bought parts from the company your dad worked for.
 
Doohickie said:
One of the companies I worked for in the mid-90s made the fuel tanks... I wonder if the company I worked for bought parts from the company your dad worked for.
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Probably.

I know a lot of the companies that made the different components of the fuel systems all cooperated and did a lot of work together... something about making sure that they were all using the same exact types of metal since there could be problems with reactions between the fuel and different metals or metals coming into contact with different metals from other components. I don't think it was a risk of explosion, but more so a risk of corrosion or stuff leaching into the fuel and ruining that, which could then cause more problems further up the chain.
 
JNA said:
Back in the early 90's I attend the Saturn Homecoming events at what was their plant in Spring Hill, TN.
It included a tour of the plant.

What was cool how they cast the block.
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I grew up 15 minutes from Saturn and about 20 minutes from a large Nissan plant. Once Saturn opened, we pretty much had an annual school trip to the plant for something. It was always an interesting field trip, better than our annual visit to the water treatment plant. About half the kids I graduated high school with were transplants from Michigan.

arcplans said:
just heard soo many bad things about Hyundai in reddit forums, but mainly the ICEs, (especially 2011-2022), plus, Kia boys.
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I now live 25 minutes from Kia and and an hour to Hyundai. I've got a 2008 Elantra that is ugly, but runs pretty well. I've heard that some of the same things you have about that range. I'm hoping to hold a year or two and look at some of the Subaru or Mazda PHEV that are in the works.
 
Kid bought a used 2001 Camry. It's not bad until she takes it across town and leaves the lights on killing the battery at 11pm. My kid should not be allowed to have a car.
 
DVD said:
Kid bought a used 2001 Camry. It's not bad until she takes it across town and leaves the lights on killing the battery at 11pm. My kid should not be allowed to have a car.
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Better than the 1992 Ford Ranger my son picked up for a few hundred. Looks every bit worth less than that.
 
Doohickie said:
I'd stay away from Rivian until they learn how to properly design a car for maintenance and repair.
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That's my whole beef with the upstart EV companies. You are basically buying from a software company that also does electric motors, wrapped in something shaped like a vehicle.

I still think the smartest move for Tesla would've been to stay out of the actual car business, and instead focused on developing charging network technology and battery technology that could be lucratively licensed to existing car companies. Let's Telsa focus on what they're actually best at, and let's the car companies focus on what they're best at.
 
So how much of a deal are used cars these days? Sure they are a little cheaper but they also have less life left in them.
 
Don't know, but you can't find a decent car for the kid for less than $2,500 and even then I question the car's life.
 
DVD said:
Kid bought a used 2001 Camry. It's not bad until she takes it across town and leaves the lights on killing the battery at 11pm. My kid should not be allowed to have a car.
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Have you gotten her a AAA membership card now?
 
Suburb Repairman said:
That's my whole beef with the upstart EV companies. You are basically buying from a software company that also does electric motors, wrapped in something shaped like a vehicle.

I still think the smartest move for Tesla would've been to stay out of the actual car business, and instead focused on developing charging network technology and battery technology that could be lucratively licensed to existing car companies. Let's Telsa focus on what they're actually best at, and let's the car companies focus on what they're best at.
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Exactly this, 123%.
 
DVD said:
Don't know, but you can't find a decent car for the kid for less than $2,500 and even then I question the car's life.
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I have two vehicles right now that are probably valued at $2-3K each. They run reasonably well, have been paid off for long time, and I don't think I'll get anything for them selling them. I'm going to just drive them into the ground and stay out of the Mayor's way because he thinks I should be driving a nicer car with my salary.
 
Got a safety recall notice for the fuel pump impeller. "May have a improperly molded impeller"
"The replacement part needed are not currently available but ... are expected in the fall of 2024."

Who has a Honda and received this ?
 
I like the look of the new 2024 Hyundai Santa Fe Calligraphy, but they aren't doing the hybrid in the Santa Fe for 2024. Sucks the 2023 was an all electric up to 30 miles, which would have covered my wife's commute back and forth to work everyday. We had a Santa Fe before the Honda Odyssey and we liked it. Looking like our best bet is going to be a hybrid Grand Highlander.

1708552879185.png
 
I've said it before but it was a huge mistake by the manufacturers to not offer most of their models with PHEV. You don't change a 100 years of ICE culture overnight. Transition is key and most missed the boat. The charging infrastructure has a lot of catching up to do and battery life still has to improve for many, many people to get on the EV train.
 
DVD said:
Not a fan of the E Mustang/Gelding.
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I'm tempted to jump on one, because I've got a lease ending in May on the ICE Mazda crossover I have now, and there are a ton of incentives on the Mach Es at the moment. However, IMO the GT is the only trim that actually looks good, though, and they're still $45+k even with incentives. The attempt to brand these as a Mustang by Ford always felt super cynical, but my commute is so short these days that an EV makes a lot of sense.
 
I can't say there's anything wrong with the Gelding (Mach-E). It's just not a Mustang. Maybe Ford should have called it the Mustang III so we can just put it in line with other failed Mustang ideas.
 
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