SAmadei

Actually, I disagree. If I was back doing the daily thing in NYC, I'd have a Smart in a heartbeat. The Smart is very roomy inside because it is not trying to be everything to everyone (I.E., a 102 inch sedan for people without legs). Only downfall with the Smart is the tranny... which I would be getting rid of when I convert it to a Hayabusa. As for the lack of trunk space, I don't see it as being that much smaller than some of the mid-size trunks out there. You can read into it what you will... but GM _HAS_ pandered to the female crowd at the expense of larger guys... making seats higher, but they can't be adjusted downward, for example. The changing of cars to suit females was a hot topic during the '80s and was very extensively written about... but you would have to read material that predates the commercialization of the Internet.

There certainly is. SUVs only rose to power because CAFE made large cars in the '80s nearly undriveable, powerwise. It makes a lot of sense to force people into driving something even bigger, less efficient and less aerodynamic. Now that CAFE will start affecting SUVs, there is nothing to move back down into. CAFE killed a relatively efficient mode of transportation and there seems to way to revive it. Now, I don't expect CAFE to kill off SUVs... but I do expect real gas prices will. Without the massive SUV sales to float profits, large trucks will stagnate and become more expensive... hurting the working people who actually need a large work truck. You use the term evolve as its been a good thing, but in actuality Frankensteining is more like it. Yeah, well, just buy whatever pablum the government and the market committees continues to pinch onto car lots. For some of us, its long been time to rebel. The US auto market is evolving to uselessness. 4 door cars that can't actually fit 4 average humans, without giving two a bloodclot. Trunks that can't fit a families' week of groceries. But they still weigh too much, paradoxically. With the economy continuing to tank and the unsustainable budget our government has placed on our backs, we are headed to 3rd world or Cuba status... Needing something smaller to park in cramped streets is, IMHO, a valid reason to buy a small car, assuming you fit and you can use it to haul what you need. Buying a Smart and living in rural south Jersey? Not a good idea... but I see more Smarts in South Jersey than I a see in NYC. But you still need to thanks millions of women for your Cruze. Without the persistence of more women buyers starting in the '70s and desiring small cars... first Vegas and Cavaliers and later Hondas and Toyotas, GM would never have finally taken the small car market seriously and gave us the Cruze. Unfortunately, those millions of women wanted those cars and expected their ill-fitting husbands and brothers to just drive in something else or walk.

Sales: 2004: 36,897 2005: 52,487 2006: 40,095 2007: 30,256 2008: 6,912 2009: 113 It looks like a 300 estate with a Dodge grill, since it WAS sold as a 300C Estate in Europe with a 300C nose. I can't find production numbers, or when that production ended... I had heard it continued longer than Magnum production did... but I can't find nothing about it. I forgot that the Magnum beat the Charger to market by like a year. I would have preferred Dodge to use the Magnum name for the sedan... and Charger on a 2 door version of the Charger we got (note, not the Challenger). I still feel the Magnum was a sports wagon, and therefore a lousy station wagon. I could never cope with the low rear section.

2011 reality is ridiculously distorted and you are guzzling the Flavor-Aid by the gallon. 1959 car dimensions reflect a time during which people bought the size car they wanted, due to having better car buying power, not hindered by federal requirements. Has the average person gotten taller or shorter since 1959? Have the average person gotten fatter or thinner since 1959? Seems to me that cars should be physically bigger just to carry the taller, fatter people around. In 2011, it seems to me that people buy a lot more easily broken, cheap Chinese crap than in 1959... you would think they would get a car for the job, instead of making multiple trips. Of course, we all know why cars have shrunk. Women. More men are willing to shove into a smaller car to please the little lady then women are willing to drive a larger car to benefit the comfort of their man. Yeah, we know who really wears the pants in most families... and so do the GM designers. Never thought I'd live to see the big car face extinction due to "poor sales"... I always figured that the government would outlaw big cars first... "for our safety". Guess the mind altering chemicals they put in our water work really well. ;-)

Agreed about the Lucerne. But disagree with the Panthers. Panthers don't feel exceptionally big to me because I always felt like I was too close to the windshield. Another reason the final B-bodies seemed so much more spacious.

Just reading that is giving me claustrophobic chills. I can't imagine 6 people in any car smaller than a '96 B-body.

I'm fine with a set of lightly contoured, wide buckets with a narrow console... but today the buckets are TOO sculptured and narrow... and the consoles are too large. IMHO, no console needs to be wider than 4". Save the wide consoles for truly wide cars...

Simple. They are lame. Sorry, but I'm glad that the widdle-bitty people who are scared of driving the big vehicles stay in small cars. Its safer than the alternative. I love watching these folks take 5 minutes to back out of a parking space when they have 25 foot of nothing behind them. I have always promoted that if you can't park it or drive it, you shouldn't have bought it. I love out-parallel parking NYers who can't fit their short CUV in a spot... and then I would drop the Caprice stawag into the hole. When between real work gigs, I tend to do delivery gigs. I drive the longest full size vans out there... giant turning radius. Typically, I end up in beach towns... where I have to back into a spot barely bigger than the van, while people are milling about the parking lot willy-nilly. I have to make U-turns in tiny alley-ways and poorly designed parking lots. Many times, at night... with drunk pedestrians all over. And you have to do this stuff reasonably quickly... traffic is coming and going when you are sitting sideways in the alleyway... I recently have finally topped out the highest GVWR truck I can drive... 25999 lbs. I've driven the same size truck before, but in a lighter configuration. First drive out, I had to take it on the worse causeway in NJ... where the truck fits in the lane by about 4 inches. Had to back in into 3 different bays and nailed every approach and put the truck within 3 inches of my goal. I even impressed myself. LOL. Am I special? Not at all. Just careful, knowledgeable of the vehicle and reasonably confidant. Its just a shame that people's fears have led to a dearth of large-car product... because I find the Lucerne to be on the small side, and a total compromise. When I drive, I don't want to have to drive a truck for leisure due to my size or because I need to move some stuff between houses. I own one table saw... and need it at all three houses sometimes... putting it in the Bonneville is a disaster. Climbing up into and driving a big truck is WORK... and I already work enough. I find big cars to be lots of fun on twisty roads... You simply drive different... with the tires complaining the whole time. I always laugh when some guy is tearing up a twisty road or the freeway in their customized BMW... and I creep up behind them... in an old station wagon or a van with a payload approaching its max. Only thing I hate is when I have to brake hard and three pallets loaded with whatever slide forward. I have no problem sticking to the bench seat. For me, sitting in a seat designed for a little tiny rear end is very uncomfortable when it only fits 1.25 ass cheeks. Those soft interior parts are nice, too... as they creak and whine as I crush them into oblivion... slowly pushing the center console into the passenger's seat area and the inner door panel into the door itself. If I stretch while seated or try to dig in my pocket for my wallet... CRACK... that the seat back adjustment delimiter yielding and bending. If I test drive your little car, it will never be the same. ;-) If you are seated behind me, neither will you. I was watching some people recently and I couldn't believe there are people shoving 6-8 riders into Civics. That must be a lot of fun to drive... and comfortable, to boot. So in the end, I don't get it... why would someone what to essentially have a clown car. We aren't all living in NYC or Tokyo... so why be so sparingly with the space? It has little to do with weight... the heaviest cars are not the biggest. Want to "get it", Satty? Lets go for a long drive together. I'll bring my table saw. You'll get it.

I use the Brita pitcher, which has lasted me 3 years and counting. Somewhere we have one...haven't seen it since the move, I just like the taste of spring water better, and I won't use tap water in my Keurig because even filtered water will leave hard water deposits over time (the water here and where I used to live is hard). I've tried the Pur and the Brita... they don't work for me... try filter too slow and don't filter enough. Good at getting rid of chlorine, fluoride, some metals... but something is always left that tastes funny to me. My mother and sister swear by them. So I explained that if they filter so great, we should be able to filter a glass of soda back into pure water.... So we took a dying filter and filtered a glass of Coke or diet Coke... I forget which. What I got was a glass of brown fluid that was distinctly NOT Coke anymore. It seemed to take the carbonation and sweetener out and a few other ingredients, but not all. I was really disappointed it could not filter the coloring out. OTOH, I have finally found a FANTASTIC filtering system... but I forget the name. My aunt has it due to my uncle's health problems... and it cost them a lot of money... and the supplies are also crazy pricey... but I could not complain about the end result when I tried it. Clean, clean, tasteless water. You could even adjust the settings and PH you wanted. Probably the most technical household toy I ever saw concerning water.

Fixed the turn signal cancel feature on a friend's Ford van... also fixed the cigarette lighter. Then I finally got my transmission! Local 4T65e with 54K miles for $450 + $50 core. I'm loving the low mileage. Of course doing the 214 pound dead lift to move it around is a real PITA... now I'm putting a wheel dolly to use as a tranny cart. I think I can start doing the swap in a couple weeks. Bad news... while checking out the tranny, it looks like my ABS brake lines have gotten as bad as Northstar's LSS ones. I'm debating replacing them all since I will have most of the stuff near them removed.

What the hell is a Hannaford? Technically, I can beat $1 a gallon, but not in the crystal clear jugs. Anything I buy for less usually tastes funny to me. If you can stomach it, fine. I can't live with the government's additives. At the other house, I have three real wells... one has the cleanest water I have ever had... but I don't have it pumping right now. I'm very picky about water... and later when some comprehensive impurity tests came out, it turned out the brands I like were all highly ranked, purity-wise. Otherwise, I have to drink something flavored. Thats one of the reasons people drank so much beer in the colonial days... as the water was so dreadful, beer was at least strong enough to take your mind off the foulness. As far as stocking up... if everything goes to hell, I'm going to drive up to Dave's for supplies. ;-)

I buy all my water by the gallon at the dollar store... $1. Can't beat it with a stick... clear container and no taste, just like its supposed to be.

I finally found some info, but I had to pour through the NJ statutes for hours. 39:10A-1 basically covers it... but you have to have a public agency handle parts of it... which is kind of a PITA. And if the car is not safe to drive, they push for a junk title... which is not my goal right now. I was visiting Broadway Titles, but they seem to have gone off the deep end with some of the requirements they need submitted. I knew I should have acted on this before, when it was relatively "easy" to work with Broadway. I wish NJ just had Bonded Titles. I may have to investigate NY and PA's methods.

Curious if anyone has ever done, or knows someone who has performed a storage or mechanic's lien on an automobile, to get a title. Bonus points if tips are NJ specific. I need specifics because I probably need to start working on a couple of problems.

I get all my diesel from the neighbor's home heating tank. Sssh... don't tell him. Just kidding, I don't have a diesel. I steal his fuel oil to make my world famous salad dressing.

Ouch, that's ugly. I suppose if you were really needed to use the car, you could compress the spring slightly and put a couple big muffler clamps on the strut to hold the spring seat off the tire. You know, emergency stuff. While you are replacing things, you probably want to also change the strut bushings on top of the struts, assuming Mopars have them or something similar. People seem to overlook those, and well, they wear out and cause all kinds of shaking.

Did you replace them and its still making the noise? Being that the noise was associated with turning the wheel, I'm thinking something CV-related. However, unless they dry out or get contaminated, CV joints usually last a LONG time. Did you check for a loose brake pad? I've had a few brake pads make crazy noises... one once somehow got a giant pebble stuck in one of the rivet holes... no idea how that happened.

I'm shocked Camino has FIOS. The big caveat with FIOS is that VZ permanently kills your copper loop when they install it... Keeping your copper loop is important for a couple reasons. The main reason VZ is killing the loops is to eliminate DSL as competition. For others, the big deal being that 911 works during a power outage over copper, but not over the FIOS. Also, certain other devices, such as alarm circuits or some TTYs require copper. Once FIOS is installed, VZ has so far refused to every run copper to your house again... even if your house changes hands. People are virtually giving away the old TV sets now that analog broadcasting has gone away... which is somewhat crazy, since being on cable/FIOS/satellite, this doesn't matter... you still have a analog signal between the box and TV anyway. I would keep an eye on Freecycle or CL's Free stuff for "sale" and grab a free TV. You never know if you'll need it. I plucked a fairly new 36" JVC CRT with PIP this way. Yeah, I still prefer CRTs, especially when they are free, as I don't bother running any HD. I'm surprised your FIOS has been reliable enough to consider giving up the TV feed. Most of my friends using FIOS have switched back, describing it as unusable.

Interesting. I wonder if its LH thing. Other Mopars had reusable nuts. Since a lot of these kind of one-use nuts are used to make mass production easier, I wonder if the replacement nut is the same nut or a standard reusable nut. It would be nice if they had drilled things for a cotter pin.

Its a one-use nut? I've always reused the nuts without any trouble.

I've tried that. I've also tried a similar technique that can be done only if the FWD has an open diff... jacking one tire off the ground and running the car up to 25 or so... then doing it to the other tire. I'd still like to see how that works for you. Being that so much noise was created, I imagine it will make quite a bit of vibration. The car in question I'm trying to diagnose makes no noise or vibration... but still has some play... and probably dying ABS sensors. If the hubs weren't like $145 each, I'd just swap them and get it over with.

I wish there was better ways to determine if hubs need replacement. You try to hear them, but either my hearing is questionable, or new cars are too damn quiet. I try to move the wheels for play, but when you give me 17+ inches of leverage, and I can make anything move. Once I remove the tire or the rotor, I can't seem to see any play in the bearings. Now the car is getting ABS failures, so I have to assume a bearing has affected the sensor... Jeez, GM, you couldn't give us a different ABS error for each of the four corners of the car?

Eagle will forever be the only CUV for me.

No, you basically have the right plan. I've done about 4~5 hubs and I think I have a couple in my future. Of course, most of mine were GM, but it sounds like yours is installed the same way GM does it. A few thoughts... Generally, you won't need a slide hammer. If the hub doesn't come out, a few wacks with a chisel should get it started coming out. Make sure to get everything out, sometimes the old hub will have sealing rings or whatnot that will remain in the knuckle. Knocking the axle out of the hub is usually pretty easy... loosen the bolt until it reached the end of the axle... then use a piece of wood and a BF Hammer to knock it out. Some directions want you to undo the lower ball joint so the CV can be completely removed. I've never done that... I usually have enough room even if the axle threads are still partially in the hub hole. I also would put the new hub in the freezer overnight. The hub does not need to be a press fit, and some are a bit loose, but why take the chance. After you clean out the rust and muck from the knuckle, you want the hub to slide in without issue, and freezing it may shrink it those couple thousandths that make the difference between easy peasy and tool throwing rage.

Only good thing I can say about little dogs is that inside every little dog is the attitude of a big dog. I can't get beyond the yelping bark. Drives me nuts.