G. David Felt

Happy Post Father's day to all the dads out there. Mine was great with my kids. In regards to auto's, Plymouth I see no lose in the auto line not being around. AMC, I miss as they were the first true CUV company of off road auto's that stood out. Quirky and cool before everyone wanted one today.

Which brings me back to Acura. JD Powers and Bloomberg reviews have not been kind to the Acura CUV's and if @smk4565 is right that a successful auto line has to have X amount of CUVs. One has to wonder why Acura does not see money in building an Acura version of the CR-V and the Pilot to add to the family. ?

Baby Yoda

The 4x4 posts while having the 4x6 screwed into them are for tenting. This allows us to have from heavy clear plastic early in the year when frost is still possible over the starts planted to protect them to using the lite weight cloth coverings to keep insects out but allow rain to fall on the plants. At this stage except for the lettuce as this helps keep it very clean, the rest of the veggie plants are established enough to grow with out tenting needed. Here is how it looked earlier this year after we had already gone from clear heavy plastic to just tenting against the sun. The posts will also be used as I will secure some lattice work for the squash plants to grow up on and let the squash hang and grow big, but clean. Planning to secure lattice this weekend if it does not rain. It will look like this. Lattice also allows the plant while growing and keeping the veggies clean to spread out easier so it does not mildew here where we tend to get plenty of drizzle.

Good Video if your into gardening and want organic beds.

If you look at the screen, they actually have an SL class of auto that pulls before and after with the various classes according to their web site.

Toyota

Pandemic projects. So in my 12th week of working from home. Actually loving it saving 2hrs a day in NOT having to commute to the office. As such I have gotten back to my enjoyment of wood and projects. I figure @A Horse With No Name who is a kindred spirit would enjoy my wood projects. So during this time, I hit a mental road block on a project and remember my math teacher who always said there is a solution, just go do something different and come back and you will find the solution. So I did just that, went out to my shed, used scrap wood, screws and stain to create a small table for my BBW area. My other recent project was a bit bigger, the wife wanted an easier time gardening, so I figure why not build her a decent raised bed. The last raised bed was a 2ft high plastic bed, $400 from Costco. 3ft x 10ft x 2ft high. I thought I could do this better with natural wood. So off to searching the web and then Home Depot and here is my raised bed I built for the wife out of 4"x6"x10ft timbers. This ended up giving me a 5ft wide by 10ft long 30" tall raised bed for gardening. You can see the Costco plastic bed with Garlic growing, planted early winter to the left. Stacking it into the ground. 3/8th rebar, 3ft long. 2ft into the ground, 1ft of wood. Drilled hole and then pounded the bar in. Finished bed with liner installed. Bed filled with Black Gold compost / dirt. Great way to grow healthy veggies. So the wife is on an organic kick, all things nature, no chemicals and as such I was researching various ways to make this last even longer then the estimated 15 to 20 years or so. As such a coworker introduced me to a Japanese technic of making the wood water and fire resistant. The technic is called Shou Sugi Ban. This is taking a torch to the outside and charring it and then wire brushing it down to have a harder wood surface. This take the softer carbon parts of the wood and harden it. My coworkers veggi bed, in the future any more beds I build will have this done on the inside and outside first before liner and dirt is put in. My Shou Sugi Ban veggi bed now that I have done the technic on it. More info if your interested in the Shou Sugi Ban technic here on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=shou+sugi+ban+technique Cool table project done here on this same technic.

@ocnblu @William Maley Thanks guys for keeping grounded, Yes My own FooBar as this week had a major product launch and it has been so crazy, I got lost in two different trains of thought. Will still be interesting to see how this Hyundai pickup sells here in the US. I also wish the Mazda truck would come here as I think it would sell and I know some folks that still have their 80's Mazda B2000 pickups that they love. Thanks again guys, Glad it is Friday! Need a FooBar emoji so I could vote myself that.

Hummer

Where, I have not seen one in decades. Searching used car and you cannot find them for sale. From 1980 to 1990 there are ZERO SL for sale. For 1990 to 2000 there is only 103 available auto's of the SL class and price is pretty low. Guess they DO NOT hold value long term.

Will be interesting to see how it sells. A Isuzu based truck with Hyundai style at what price point will be the interesting part.

Green

Daywalker

All the press release from GM says these new electric delivery / people transportation vans will be on the newest EV platform. GM Fact Sheet_EV Architecture 030320.pdf

Tartarus

I posted this in the Random forum.

Funny that the Acura RDX along with the Mazda CX-5 are both on the DO NOT BUY list by JD Powers and Associate 2020 review.

Very interesting 2020 report by JD Powers and Associates. I know many love Mazda, but the Mazda is not well rated and in fact the CX-5 is rated at the bottom as the One CUV to avoid due to poor quality. QUOTE of the key findings in their report: Following are key findings of the 2020 study: Vehicle dependability improves—but at a slower rate: The industry average in 2020 is 134 PP100, which is an improvement of just 2 PP100 from 2019. (However, in 2019, there was an improvement of 6 PP100 from 2018.) Despite the slowing rate of improvement, 2020 marks automakers’ best performance in the history of the study. Dependability gains driven by crossovers and SUVs: Crossovers and SUVs still have slightly more problems than cars, but the gap is narrowing. On average, owners of crossovers/SUVs experience 134 PP100, compared with 127 PP100 by car owners. This 7 PP100 gap has narrowed considerably from 2019. With crossovers/SUVs now accounting for more than 50% of new vehicle sales annually, it is critical that automakers achieve the same level of quality and dependability as for cars. In-vehicle technology shows greatest improvement: Audio/Communication/Entertainment/ Navigation (ACEN) is the most improved category (by 2.3 PP100), but still accounts for more problems than any other category in the study. Owners continue to cite problems with voice recognition, Bluetooth® connectivity and navigation systems. “Many owners complain about these systems early in the ownership experience and, three years later, they’re still frustrated with them,” Sargent said. “We’re seeing improvement, but automakers still have a long way to go to before they can declare victory in this area.” Most Dependable Model: The Lexus ES is the highest-ranked model in the 2020 study. Its score of 52 PP100 is the best ever recorded in the 31-year history of the study. First all-electric model receives an award: The Nissan LEAF is the first all-electric model to receive a segment-level award, for compact car. Highest-Ranked Brands Genesis ranks highest in overall vehicle dependability among all brands, with a score of 89 PP100. This is the first year Genesis has been included in the study. Lexus ranks second with a score of 100 PP100 (an improvement of 6 PP100 year over year). Buick (103 PP100) ranks third, Porsche (104 PP100) ranks fourth and Toyota (113 PP100) ranks fifth. Cadillac shows considerable improvement with a reduction of 35 PP100 from 2019. Other above-average brands with strong improvement include Mazda (reduction of 29 PP100), Lincoln (by 28 PP100), Ford (by 20 PP100), Buick (by 15 PP100) and Volkswagen (by 15 PP100). Toyota Motor Corporation receives six segment awards for the Lexus ES, Lexus GX, Toyota 4Runner, Toyota Avalon, Toyota Sienna and Toyota Tundra. The Toyota brand receives the highest number of segment awards in the study. General Motors Company receives five segment awards: for the Buick Encore and Buick Regal, and for the Chevrolet Equinox, Chevrolet Silverado HD and Chevrolet Tahoe. The 2020 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study is based on responses from 36,555 original owners of 2017 model-year vehicles after three years of ownership. The study was fielded from July through November 2019. To learn more about the U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study, visit http://www.jdpower.com/resource/us-vehicle-dependability-study. https://www.jdpower.com/business/press-releases/2020-us-vehicle-dependability-study Worth downloading and looking at the details.

Happy Birthday @USA-1 Wishing you a great day of relaxing fun and dreams. Enjoy your special day!

Chinese ?

Hate the Predator mouth grill, aka spindle grill they call it. Over all shape is Meh at best. Agree with @balthazar that the over all design of cars is blah and not going to change much at all. I think way too lazy in comparison to actual functional style. I think CAFE blaming is the easy way out for auto companies rather than putting actual work into designing a good look. Interior says Cheap to me. Nice contrast on the red and black, but still says cheap to me and not luxury. Hard pass on this auto for me.

Spicy

Had a nerve test this morning for carpal tunnel and yup, need surgery. On the way there and back, it was an interesting normal mix of cars with lots of CUVs. What was so interesting was the Minivan segment. Those in Dodge, Chrysler, Ford or GM minivans, new or old drove with the speed limit or faster. Yet those in Asian brands of Minivans drove a good 5 to 10 under the speed limit and in the left hand lane holding up everyone else. The observation by my wife, they are all Asian and look scared to be driving, they give me a bad name. Yes my wife is Korean. Some might say this sounds racist, when in fact it is an interesting observation of a very conservative group of people that get licenses and yet do not seem to understand the law of staying right except when passing. I have yet to understand people that get on the freeway, move all the way over to the left lane and put put along below the posted speed limit in the passing lane. Driving is a privilege earned, not a right and yet we have so many terrible drivers out on the road clogging things up and right now the worst are the Asian mini van drivers. Just an observation. I did see a 70's era GMC pickup that was in pretty nice shape.

Multi-Cultural