Drew Dowdell

You've still got a month to take a shot. However, Please submit entries to [email protected]

If you can find a toaster oven in your price range with the convection option, go for it. Learn to use the convection part, cooks like a toaster oven but at microwave speeds. Edit: If you like that one on Costco.com and don't have a membership. Send me the money, I'll buy it for you and have it shipped.

GMT, remember, with the Fleetwood, you'll have $400 a month to do preventative shop visits to MAKE SURE the car never strands her. Comparatively speaking, once you're done with the shakedown, the Fleetwood should end up being the most reliable car your family has ever owned.

Unless you start dumping over $400 into the FWB every month in repairs, your wife doesn't have a leg to stand on with regard to new car reliability. Even a new car can break down. Remember how Avanti recommended a G6 or Malibu (one of the Epsilons) to friends of his and it broke down on the way home from the dealer? There might be a few teething issues for the FWB, but again, not over $400 a month for 12 months worth. Find a reputable, local, mechanic not at a dealership who will take the time to get to know you and know the car. Take the car there for everything. He'll be able to give you a heads up if he sees any mechanical trouble down the road. Buy a good set of Michelins, have them rotated regularly and they'll last you 80k miles. There isn't a single thing on this car that cannot be repaired or serviced by Joe's Gas -n- Garage. After you've paid off the loan for the car, simply consider any repairs and maintenance as your monthly car payment. You'll find that some months you'll have no payment at all. PUT THAT MONEY AWAY FOR A RAINY DAY. If money is tight right now, how is tying yourself to a car loan for the next 36 months going to help your situation? If your wife continues to fuss about it. You can sell her this way; "Honey, just think. Once the Fleetwood is paid off, we'll be able to afford an even nicer car for you the next time around. Remember that Enclave you liked?". or "I'm trying to save money for the kids' education. THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!"

Furthermore.... you have a Fleetwood and an Aura.... yet you're driving the Aura every day? Srsly?

Be careful with the tires. Check your lease. I believe all 4 tires have to match... you can't go buy a set of just two. PepBoys frequently has very cheap deals on tires. But I think your best route is to switch off the hanooks from the G6 and buy something nice for that car.

Get out of the car-payment finance cycle.... especially if you have something as great as a Fleetwood Brougham to cruise around in. What will feel better in the long run? A new car that you're likely going to have to compromise on in some way... or an extra $400 a month in your pocket. If your wallet gets too thick... don't worry, the Cadillac has very soft seats. Edit: If it takes going to a therapist for 12 months to get over the used car stigma, it'll still be cheaper for you in the long run.

Not dying in a runaway crash - advantage Buick.

I agree, it's poor labeling. It looks like the designer of the 2000 Florida Ballots went on to a successful design career at Toyota. However, even as complicated as it looks, it's still just a PNRDL automatic shifter. The shifts come at the same exact points as they would on any other car... you just get to wiggle the stick from side to side to get that expensive "Mercedes" feeling. "S" is for the "Sport Mode" so desperately needed in an ES350. "D" is directly to the right of that. I made this pic to show where everything is.

SMK, two vehicles don't have to cost the same amounts to be able to compete.

What does it do to the refinement?

?

OnStar Stolen Vehicle Slowdown Helps Recover Carjacked Vehicle, Prevents High-Speed Chase Law Enforcement Officials Credit Service with Fast and Safe Recovery of 2009 Chevrolet Tahoe Detroit, Mich. – GM and OnStar announce the use of OnStar’s Stolen Vehicle Slowdown (SVS) service to help safely recover a 2009 Chevrolet Tahoe that was carjacked at gunpoint from a subscriber in Visalia, California. This is the first time that SVS has been activated to help a subscriber in a carjacking situation. At approximately 3:18 a.m. PDT on Sunday, Oct. 18, Lindsay, California resident Jose Ruiz and his cousin were carjacked by a lone assailant wielding a shotgun. The perpetrator ordered the two men out of the vehicle, robbed them of personal belongings and sped off in the Tahoe. Ruiz was able to flag down a police officer to report the incident. He notified them that his vehicle was equipped with OnStar, and requested that the Visalia officers leverage the service to help recover his vehicle. Once OnStar advisors verified that the Tahoe had been stolen and that the subscriber had requested assistance, they were able to quickly locate the Tahoe and alert the Visalia officers of its location. They were also then able to initiate OnStar’s newest stolen vehicle recovery service, Remote Ignition Block, to ensure that if the suspect stopped the vehicle before the officers were able to locate it visually, he wouldn’t be able to restart it. Once officers had the vehicle in sight, they requested that Stolen Vehicle Slowdown be initiated. Once the vehicle had been safely slowed to a stop, the suspect then attempted to escape on foot, but was quickly apprehended by officers without incident. Less than 16 minutes after OnStar was first contacted, Ruiz’ Tahoe was safely recovered. “While this was the first time that we’ve used the Stolen Vehicle Slowdown service, we have used OnStar in several other cases to help locate and recover stolen vehicles. It’s a valuable tool for our agency,” shared Visalia Police Department Sergeant Steven Phillips. “In this case, it helped us not only safely recover a vehicle for a local citizen, but also prevented a dangerous high-speed chase and allowed us to quickly apprehend a suspect. It’s a win for everyone.” While obviously thrilled to have his vehicle back, Ruiz was even more pleased that no lives were lost and no one was injured in the incident. “As soon as he took my car, the first thing I thought of was to call OnStar because I knew they could get it back,” Ruiz recalled. “It was a frightening situation, but I know it could have been a lot worse. I’m very grateful that OnStar was there for me.” Since launch in October of 2008, OnStar’s Stolen Vehicle Slowdown service has been deployed 38 times in a wide variety of situations, including rental vehicles, thefts from dealers and on stationary vehicles in order to prevent a high-speed chase from potentially starting. In 2008, 334 people were killed in the U.S. in crashes that resulted from police pursuits, according to the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration. Stolen Vehicle Slowdown helps take high speed pursuits out of the equation, and reduces the chance that a subscriber’s stolen vehicle will be crashed during a chase. “This situation allowed us to leverage our full suite of Stolen Vehicle Assistance services – Vehicle Location, RIB and SVS,” said OnStar President Walt Dorfstatter. “This is the perfect illustration of how our services come together for the benefit of our subscribers and the community.” How Stolen Vehicle Slowdown Works Once an OnStar subscriber has reported a stolen vehicle to law enforcement, he or she can call OnStar and request Stolen Vehicle Assistance. An OnStar Advisor will use advanced Global Positioning Satellite technology to pinpoint the exact location of the stolen vehicle which will be provided only to law enforcement. Once law enforcement officials have the stolen vehicle in a clear line of sight to know conditions are safe, they can request that the OnStar Advisor remotely slow it down. OnStar will then send a signal to the vehicle’s engine, reducing engine power and gradually slowing the vehicle to idle speed while all other vehicle systems, including power steering and brakes, remain fully operational. OnStar has offered Stolen Vehicle Assistance services with GPS location since 1996. It now receives approximately 500 Stolen Vehicle Assistance requests from subscribers each month, and has helped in nearly 40,000 requests over the past twelve years. OnStar’s suite of services also includes Automatic Crash Response, Emergency Services, Remote Door Unlock, Roadside Assistance, Crisis Assist, OnStar Turn-by-Turn Navigation, Hands Free Calling and OnStar Vehicle Diagnostics. OnStar’s Stolen Vehicle Slowdown was put into production in October of 2008 and is exclusively on GM vehicles in the U.S. and Canada. The service is included in the OnStar subscription that comes standard for one year on eligible Model Year 2009 and newer OnStar-equipped vehicles. Subscribers who prefer not to have the Stolen Vehicle Slowdown capability on their vehicle may contact OnStar to opt out of the service at any time. The rest of their OnStar services will remain active and unaffected. For more information regarding OnStar’s services, please visit www.onstar.com.

Na. Put in the BAS-II Ecotec Turbo. Same HP and Torque curve of the 3.6, half the weight.

If he was in D, he just needed to push it up.

Well then it's not entirely the floormat's fault. Even flipping it into neutral would have stopped the acceleration. I doubt the brakes were cooked when they got the car. If they were cooked by the end of this incident it's likely because he didn't flip it into neutral...otherwise we'd be hearing about a recall of Lexus brakes.

Only the gas pedal was stuck... not the brake. I'll amend my statement to include what I thought was bleedin obvious. "Flick the car into neutral and let the rev limiter do it's job.... and then press the brake."

Srsly? I've never had a car that did that.

Flick it into neutral and let the rev limiter do it's job.

On my Cadillac, even though it was key start, if you flicked the key to start, the computer would take over and finish the start sequence. You couldn't "understart" the car... for lack of a better word. edit: wow! my grammar suffers when I'm distracted

Paging SMK.... PAGING SMK..... Push button start is one of the items on his "must have" list for a car to be any good.

In looks, that's about as much Firebird as those Towncars they transform into "S600s" are Mercedes Benz.

I have a book full of his photography.