Drew Dowdell

Which post was this? I'll report it to the software vendor as a bug.

But... like zero on the inners and a huge amount left on the outers? So I shouldn't worry about the caliper sliders? I thought because it sat they might have been stiff.

The chirpers on the left front wheel started going off, but looking through the wheel spokes the pad looked fine... so I wasn't sure what was going on. I pulled the wheel and it turns out the inside pad is almost gone while the outside pad looks nearly new. That means the caliper sliders were probably stuck I think. Ordered a new set of AC Delco Gold Ceramic pads and two new AC Delco Gold rotors. They'll come on Thursday and I'll install them Sunday after I get back from DC (in the Chrysler). Gotta remember to get caliber slider lube too. This is all prep for driving the Avalanche to Miami later in July.

Bought some shocks and some rear brake shoes just because I have a feeling that the rears are toasted. I have a bunch of travel coming up (not in the Toronado) so I won't have time to get it to a frame place right now.

So Monroe gave me back the Olds and said nothing was wrong with the brakes. She drove perfectly normally the entire drive home... I do have a leaking shock and I failed inspection from a crack in the frame, so I'll have to get that checked... but brakes I'm told are fine.

She tried to kill me this morning. Driving to work and about a third of the way there the brake light on the dash comes on. I go to stop and nothing from the pedal until the very end and then the front brakes lock up. I regained control and limped her the rest of the way to work. Popped the hood once I got there and the fluid seemed high enough but the wrong color. Smelled burning brakes from the back left wheel. I had stuff I needed to do at work, so I went into the office and 3 hours later took her to the Monroe Brake up the street. Oddly, she drove perfectly fine with no brake light. Still haven't heard from them, so not sure what is going on yet.

It is HILARIOUS that you can get so easily confused by names. It's just like when you think the 3.6 liter GM makes today is the same as the 3.6 liter they made in my 2004 CTS simply because they have the same displacement (SMK - "Oh, that's such an old engine, they've been building it since 2004") even though they are not at all related or interchangeable. You've done the same thing here and that chart is drastically oversimplified. The Porsche family owned the old Porsche AG. They changed the name to Porsche SE and spun off the manufacturing business to a new Porsche AG. Of which they hold controlling interest. Porsche SE then bought a controlling interest in Volkswagen AG and simultaneously sold Porsche AG to VW AG. VW AG also owns Audi AG. Audi AG owns the Audi brand, Audi Sport GmbH (the RS cars, and curiously a separate company from Audi AG), Automobile Lamborghini SPA, and SEAT SA, each as their own companies, not divisions like the way GM and Ford are set up. However, VW AG has an operating agreement with its own subsidiary Audi AG to co-run SEAT SA. Lamborghini SPA is the sole owner of Ducati SPA even thought Uncle VW put up the cash for them. Audi Sport GmbH is the sole owner of Volkswagen R GmbH... meaning that Porsche SE owns VW AG owns Audi AG owns Audi Sport GmbH owns VW R GmbH. VW AG also owns: Bentley Ltd. 100% Volkswagen of France who in turn owns Bugatti S.A.S TRATON SE (Formerly VW Truck and Bus) which owns MAN SE and Scania AB Skoda Auto S.A.S If it seems like a shell game. It is. All of these separate companies sell time, engineering, materials, and cars to each other as if they are separate companies. For example, if you buy an RS Audi, the body and most parts are built by Audi AG, which then sells the shell to Audi Sport GmbH which adds its own parts to complete the car, then the car is sold to one of the many Audi regional holding groups to sell the car to the dealerships. If you get a VW R model, the shell is built by VW, sold to VW R (who is owned by Audi Sport GmbH who is owned by Audi AG who is owned by VW AG). VW R fits the sporty bits, and then sells the car to one of the regional VW distribution companies. Sometime when I have more time I want to try and build a flow chart of who owns who in this crazy family tree. VW Group has to be the largest employer of tax accountants in the EU.

VW didn't take over Porsche. The Porsche family took over VW and then used VW to buy Porsche from themselves for themselves..... It raised a lot of eyebrows and questions from regulators.

I got an additional large cache of vintage print that I intend to sell. There's two boxes of Pontiac stuff....if I find any '64 Pontiac things, I'll save them for your consideration.

Lincoln sales are way up in the last few years. Sure the sedans are gone, but the German sedans are hanging on by a thread (in the US) also... and Tesla (Go USA!) is outselling the Germans Combined in sedan sales in their respective markets.

Any increase in trade value you get is more than off-set by the increase of the cost of the vehicle you buy to replace it. So, no, it's absolutely not worth it right now. The only way you benefit is if you're just selling and not replacing and you really get hosed if you're buying but not trading. I wasn't clairvoyant or anything when I did my transactions (the Avalanche I wanted regardless and would have paid more for it if that's what carvana priced it at) it was just good timing. For the Chrysler I just happened on a fantastic deal on an off-lease car with low mileage.... it was still experiencing Chrysler depreciation when I got it and I sold the Encore on the upswing. Pure luck.

Congrats on getting it loose! How much of the literature do you have on this car?

Yeah. My friend went to test drive the Atlas and Passport today. Each dealership had only 2 of each model in stock. The VW dealer said that they weren't taking ANY orders for the Atlas and they didn't expect replenishment until late August. That pushes a lot of people into the used market to get exactly the car they want. Couple that with the insane trade-in prices the new-wave online dealers are offering and there is a bubble forming. Carvana gave me $8,500 for a base base base model 2014 Cruze back in August, and they bought the 2013 Encore with 100k miles on it for $9,000. Back then, that was $2,500 more than any other dealer would give me on trade-in, about equal to a private party sale, so I sold it to Carvana and bought the Chrysler 300C elsewhere. Just for giggles I went and looked up what KBB says a 2013 Encore with 100k miles and the same options should be. They're now saying that it's worth $9,200 in trade and $11,200 private party.

Sedans in general do not hold their value well, however, this market has gotten so wonky that even my 2017 300C has gone up in value since I bought it in October. Trade-in is higher than what I paid. Private party is around $4k higher than what I paid. My 2013 Avalanche LTZ has increased in value enough that even though it is nearly 9 model years old, private party is over the original LS base price by $2k and $5k higher than what I paid in August and 12,000 miles ago. Trade in value is also over what I paid, but not by as much of course. I don't expect that it will ever return to the $48k sticker price it had when new... but hovering at $10k in depreciation over 9 years... well beat that with a stick. Toyota isn't the only one with good resale. BTW, the ES only comes in AWD with the 203 hp I4 engine. If you want the V6 it is FWD only. They "brag" about the ES250 AWD F-Sport 0-60 being 8.6 seconds on the website.

The ES was not a better vehicle than the Continental even by SMK standards. The ES is a Camry De Lux and nothing more, even using the same V6 the Camry gets. It doesn't come with AWD, it doesn't come with a turbo V6 and the interior is nowhere near as plush as the Continental.

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Well that's just bollocks.... that stat is based on what? Time on lot before sale? If that's the case then the Land Cruiser and Volvo V90 sell faster because they are only available by special order... meaning that it is sold before it hits the lot. The G-wagon volume is too small to be a valid sample size.

And as if on queue.....

I'm surprised my Dunkin Donuts app hasn't been blowing up

The nose is taller on the new truck as a mechanical design decision. I spoke with a GM rep pretty high up when the current trucks came out. The height of the nose was done like that for two reasons. 1. It allowed them to move more of the dirty bits forward away from the cab to improve cab interior room. It also allowed for doing this with longer/taller I-6 engines.

I think if you look at the warnings handed out, you’d have a different position

We all have our different likes and dislikes, and our vast difference of opinion, however I know I can count on all of you to join me and as a community spanning nearly 20 years in offering our thoughts and condolences to our friend @Paolino who lost his fiancé suddenly and unexpectedly yesterday. We are all thinking about you Paulie.

That’s just about your baseline level of achiness anyway

I’ll be cleaning up this thread and handing out the warnings in a few.

You're like 4 weeks late for this one....