trinacriabob

I'm at over 70,000 miles on my Michelin Defenders. ... rotated every 5,000 to 6,000 miles, and just front to back. I'd say 85% of those miles were on interstates, and all of it was conservative driving. They are 80,000 mile tires, but the tread life warranty ends at 5 years. I'm not complaining.

I didn't know of a polio booster but the CDC site says there is such a thing, though it doesn't surprise me ... even for adults who have been vaccinated. It is addressed by the very last sentence under "Adults." https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/polio/public/index.html It seems I have read about an uptick in polio and tuberculosis in the greater NYC area. - - - - - My car also needs tires and my Michelins have lasted an incredibly long time. I'm waiting because I want another set of Michelin Defenders. I'm hoping this will be the last set of tires I will be buying for this car.

@David Wow. I've never been to Hawai'i. I don't know if and when I'll get there. And I don't know how I'd mix it up if there - Oahu, Hawai'i (big island), Maui, and/or Kauai? One wants to see the famous things we've all seen about Oahu. But I'm also interested in the topography and vegetation of Kauai, which looks stunning. I can name all the state's islands, but I don't know much about the other islands. - - - - - Oh, yeah, what I originally came on here to randomly pontificate: Life is too short for cheap hot dogs.

Spotted on August 17 After fasting and getting my blood drawn at a nearby suburban medical complex, I always head here for a donut and a cup of coffe. I walked out and saw this ... and reached for my phone camera. This was the downsized base Buick Regal coupe, after the first generation of GM colonnades (1973-1977). The wheel covers and simpler trim indicated it was not the more finished Limited, which would have had plump seats and more chrome trim outside. The engine badging says 3.8 liter, and this would have been the first year for the much improved "even firing" crankshaft modification that GM kept supplying in this V6 for almost another 10 years. The paint might be faded but the body is in great shape. It was air conditioned, but had manual windows and no gauge package. The owner walked out of the bakery shortly afterwards and said it was her father's car, it was garaged, and had a little over 50,000 miles. She was really nice and liked talking about her car. People know when you're not a "creeper" because you obviously know the car they are driving and its details fairly well. As she drove off, she honked and waved.

Seen on the evening of August 15 upon entering an Italian restaurant with a mean Monday night dinner special. GM's Saturn brand turned out to be better than a lot of us expected A vehicle you don't see very much. As it "matured," Saturn put clean looking and tasteful front fascias on their vehicles Of the 2 seaters with which a few GM divisions responded to the Mazda Miata, this was the most attractive one. However, I wouldn't own one. For most of its current owners, it's a hobby car and almost never a daily driver.

Seen on August 15 during a lunchtime trip to the supermarket. Parked further out on the lot, the driver was not around. This appears to be a 1980 to 1984 Buick LeSabre "Collector's Edition" and most likely powered by the 5.0 liter V8 engine designed by Olds, so this person will hopefully keep it for a long time. A little "photo essay" for something worth a second look Side view - a very long full-size GM vehicle Interesting mix of vertical grille and canted headlamps and the confident, roadworthy look of an American boulevardier Unmistakable Buick Motor Division front fascia treatment The lack of a CMSL puts its model year at 1984 at the very latest. Check out that vinyl top that has no body defects at its edges. Collector's Edition - worth keeping around Wire wheel covers in excellent shape, while Hankook tires are not an OEM brand. Old school GM dashboard with brushed silver bezels and shared with Electra/Park Avenue at the same time they were RWD, and also with Riviera for 2 years of its production.. I would expect to have the Collector's Edition have the top of the line (leather) seating option for what Buick made available that year. Some people may hate and have hated these full size B-O-P cars. While I can do without the leather seating, these big GM cars were somewhat of a treat to ride in every now and then.

Saw this one on August 5 at a shopping center parking lot, where it was parked near my car. (bonus peek-a-boo view of my car, too) It was a 2013. The owner said it was not his daily driver and it had low miles. It had the 3.6 V6. The owner said that he didn't get the fuel economy he would have expected, even on the open road. I believe these are CT4s, if I'm not mistaken. To this day, I am taken aback by how raked the profile of this Cadillac coupe is.

The new Moderna booster with broader coverage has been approved by the UK and is supposed to be available in the U.S., possibly by the end of September. Just like Costco not telling you when Michelins go on sale next,* pharmacists won't tell you when this new booster becomes available. I am planning some travel during the Thanksgiving holiday and into early December, so I am hoping the updated Moderna will be available by then. I have gotten Pfizer (1) - Pfizer (2) - Moderna (booster 1) and had a headache each time, for about a day. I'm fine with that. I get the same reaction when I get my flu shot, which I get on Labor Day weekend each year. I think I will wait for the enhanced Moderna product. As for the new Moderna booster, I will travel to a hick town to get it. That's what I had to do with the first three shots and I'm fine with that. Some hick towns have filling grubby diner food at cheap prices - good for your wallet, but bad for your cholesterol. * Michelins ought to come back on a Costco sales cycle on Monday, August 29, since they have now run Bridgestones on promotion for 2 months.

I agree here. I just saw a brand new Challenger with 392 badging at a gas station. It was that currently popular enamel gray color and the owner was really happy he was able to get one. This is going to be tricky, I think. It wouldn't be as tricky if there was a slight revamp, and it was a good one. Each Charger and Chrysler 300 has gotten a little better than the previous rendition, so there was a frame of reference for buyers. When the LaCrosse was released, it was a welcomed change from the stodgier Regal-Century platform, and buyers took the them reasonably well. If it was a brand new ground breaking model in a segment that the brand hadn't previously messed with, this could work, too. Examples across time might be the Camaro/Firebird, the Cordoba, and the Aurora. The tricky part is slotting in a model that the buyer would consider an equal (or equivalent), while introducing (forcing) the buyer to a technology for which they do not want to be an early adopter. The idea of being put into an EV Charger or Challenger equivalent in less than 2 years time for the typical wannabe Charger and Challenger buyer AT THIS TIME - since there haven't been that many on the lots for a LONG TIME - is going to be a head scratcher.

Inflation has been a weird beast lately. Most things have gone up in price, but gas has come down about $1.50 per gallon. With the previous per gallon prices, it would have seriously messed with the travel industry (mostly food and lodging), the airline industry, and all things at the market with having to fuel their transport. I'm now less reluctant to driving more. One is a big head scratcher. A year or so ago, Aldi's was selling these 4 packs of chicken sausage (feta and spinach, basil and tomato, and other varieties) I really liked for $3.19. They are now $4.59. That's a ~44% increase.

This is very sad. It contradicts a fairly recent article uploaded by another C&G member saying they would delay pulling the plug a while more. As for the numbers, 1.5 million Chargers seems like a lot, but that's over a long span of years. They sold over 500,000 Cutlasses in 1976 alone. So what happens, then, there's a vacuum in those vehicle niches until Stellantis figures out what to slot in? I was hoping for a slight refresh. They could have pulled it off and kept the Brampton, ON, Canada plant humming along a little longer and there would have still been buyers for those cars. Without a doubt. Just get rid of the gas hog models with 707 (or 797) horses to bring up CAFE numbers.

Join me in wishing @NINETY EIGHT REGENCY , a long time member and our reporter, a happy birthday! Thanks to Landis, we get to sample automotive videos and articles from past decades as well as more recent ones. Some of them now look and sound very funny to us in 2022 and, then, some of the regular presenters of these videos are quirky and entertaining. Nonetheless, all of the content is informative. Today is also the birthday of Napoleon Bonaparte and Julia Child. I always knew that. Of more contemporary personalities, it is the birthday of Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lawrence, and Melinda Gates. But most of all, this is a day I always remember because it would have been my dad's birthday. My dad always spoke his mind and his filter didn't always work, so this could be entertaining. My mom always went for the diplomatic approach and tried to keep the peace with everyone. I think I'm much more like my dad in this regard. Happy birthday, Landis!

So, everyone seems to know that Princess Juliana international airport on the Dutch island of St. Maarten in the Caribbean is the place to watch large aircraft buzz over you on the beach as they land at this airport, just across the roadway and fence. It turns out some Greek islands, such as Skiathos (Sporades chain) and Corfu, also have close margins for landings and take-off. This one - recently occurring at Skiathos, a beautiful, greener, and less known island of Greece compared to Santorini and Mykonos - takes the cake. Caught on camera: Viral video shows Wizz Air plane landing close to beach at Skiathos Airport in Greece - ABC7 Los Angeles Another "tight" airport is Cristiano Ronaldo (soccer player) Airport on the Portuguese island of Madeira - not part of the Azores chain. On pylons next to the ocean.

Just an FYI about jumbo aircraft and who operates them in these changing times. I was contemplating some travel in the future and looking at Google Flights. Of ALL European carriers with scheduled commercial flights to international locations, and especially the U.S. The Airbus 380 is only operated by British Airways* - they are now flying them to quite a few U.S. cities, such as MIA, ORD (Chicago), SFO, BOS, and IAD (Washington DC) The Boeing 747 (8i) is only operated by Lufthansa - they bought almost 20 of them and use them a lot - - - - - * Other Europeans, namely Lufthansa and Air France, have (had) Airbus 380s. It just remains to be seen whether they will return to service or are parked somewhere warm and dry waiting to be sold. If you want to experience flying on an A380 or B747-8i, it will be easier to do so on Asian (Singapore, Korean, Cathay Pacific) and Oceanic (Qantas) carriers. - - - - - It's good fun to hunt and peck (not that slow, actually) on Google Flights and dream ...

Wishing the python hunters in South Florida productivity and success ...

An oldie but a goodie. Was thinking about it and then looked for it. "Got on board a westbound 747" etc. etc. Then, he's shown performing it some 40 years later in Germany. The ensemble of German locals accompanying him is doing a great job. He sounds exactly the same, which is not always the case with musical artists.

Good morning ...

@ccap41 Congrats on your soon to be completed degree. That landscape used to be very different. You would just get a BSBA, BBA, or BS Acc. with an accounting concentration (120 cr. hours), go to work for a firm where you got the right experience, and then take the CPA exam. Different states then started phasing in the 150 cr. hour requirement (semesters, not quarters) and it was sort of muddy. In some places, I believe, you got the regular undergrad. in accounting but they weren't very specific about what the next 30 cr. hours should contain and in some places it had to be in business and/or accounting. I wondered if it was to thin the ranks. The reality is that, for those extra 30 cr. hours, you could get a M.Acc., which might be more practical and aligned with what you studied before. I have a cousin who went to UF who did BS + M.Acc. in succession, so he had 5 years of accounting education. Either way, they are now wanting 150 cr. hours to sit for the CPA exam, with a stipulated number of cr. hours in specific accounting subjects. Sure, for some jobs you need a CPA or it helps, but It can also go to waste in jobs like auditing and accounting policy inside a corporation when you were attracted to it because you like to do exacting work - like working with numbers and data. For people who graduated a while back, just the BS with a CPA followed by a law degree usually leads to a lot more money, if that's how you run the show and that's what you value, than BS Accounting with an MBA (other than accounting) and a CPA. These people often ended up in the exact same jobs that BS + CPA got. In big cities, a lot of people would add the MBA later, since great schools were offering them at night, weekend, hybrid, etc. What few classes I had in Business Law were like pulling teeth. My attention span can get short when I see no numbers, graphs, formulae, tables, and information I can easily retain. Even though I can retain quirky information fairly very well, too.

What random thought I really had, based on some discussions I've had with a friend who is looking for a professional job and thinks sending out than you letters help. She is well qualified for any of the jobs she's applying for. I told her my opinion: they've already made up their mind about the candidate, and they do it quickly, after she sort of hinted at seeing this with the results of what's going on. When wrapping up college and more college, the placement office went on and on with their scripted arsenal of job hunting tools and they would always stress the thank you letters. What I saw is that there are certain candidates (graduating students) they liked and it was certain companies who were all over them like a cheap suit. Those people didn't need to send thank you letters, even though I don't know if they did or didn't.

I was looking at consumer reviews of the last few years of Dodge Chargers. Just surfing. I came to learn that these cars weigh about 4,300 pounds. I don't know if that's with a V8, or just the base V6. Two cylinders can shave off about 100 to 200 pounds, based on past cars that published weight with both 6 and 8 cylinder engines. No wonder they feel "planted."

Spotting at the very end of the month. This was a good one. I'm walking out of a place I had just eaten at and there's a car show. Most of the other cars (too garish and not stock enough) didn't interest me. I headed over to this Buick Reatta. This is a view of the rear of this convertible with about 50,000 miles on it. This is the leather interior with buckets and console as seen from the driver's window. For a 2-seater, it's nicely detailed and the dash is substantial. This is an even nicer view of the dash. The volumes are appealing and you can see that it's related to the Riviera produced by the same GM division This shows both the Reatta badging on the door and the typical alloy wheel seen on this specialty 2-seater. Being a 1990, I am thinking this is a Series I 3800 V6. In my '92, I had a series I 3800. My ignition coils on the ignition module were round. There are rectangular. I wonder why there's a difference. This is one clean engine bay. This engine is set up with a very direct connection from the air filter box to the throttle body. Here is the main under hood placard and serpentine routing diagram. It said 3.8 liters at the very left of this sticker. Here is the original sticker. It was built out in Lansing, MI. For 1990, this was a fairly high MSRP. It was about twice what a basic Regal coupe would had on its sticker. This is the owner's manual - "Premium American Motorcars" indeed. This was an interesting item the owner showed me - each Reatta came with a certificate of the people who worked on its hand assembled aspects. The Reatta name is different, but the font is cool. I have seen some of these folks around this car show before and not many of them are very friendly. It seems like a clique that regularly gets together and some of their talk is kind of crass. However, the retired gentleman who owned this car was very polite and enjoyed talking cars. We must have talked GM for about half an hour! A truly random occurrence. I really like the unique Buick Reatta, but am not sure I'd want to own one. But they're great eye candy.

Yes, I tend to agree. I hope so! It's just that, when the deep red fades, it can look like a dark orange when the flag or decal began its life as an Italian one.

I saw this last week. I was leaving the supermarket and she was going in. I noticed that she exited from this truck. Let's see ... Sticker on the left side: "I'm a girl ... Yes, this is my truck" Sticker on the right side: "Shoot like a girl ... if you can!" Flag on the rear: I seriously hope third color on the right is orange, and not red, because I sure as s**t don't want to claim her Bottom line: This gives a new meaning to "Ram tough"

Thank you, thank you! If this is the way it will play out, then that means a person might be able to look at the outgoing model and the incoming model and decide. But it might also mean that, if tapering down production, the opportunity to order the outgoing model - or find it on the lots (where distance is not an issue) - more or less the way you want it decked out might be challenging.

That dash was a little lopsided, and I thought that when they released the last Bonne, but it could be rearranged into shape, somewhat, and convey the same idea. Pontiac has always had the best dashboards of the GM stable, except when they went overboard with them ... just like they did with ribbed cladding. Thank you. I'm totally content with my current car, but understand that I will have to part ways with it sooner or later. That said, if I am going to buy something, I'd like to buy into the current base Charger platform as late as I possibly can. Sadly, my GM rewards points will be thrown to the wind. I do not believe that Chevy/Buick can't support 1 or 2 sedan lines. Perhaps it's that they can't design some smart and appealing ones that would divert customers from being potential Cam-cord buyers.