Drew Dowdell

It's a different size class. The V90 is E-Class sized. The V60 is C-Class sized. Though those are external measurements. Both are roomier than their Benz counterparts. It's probably "notice". The XC90 is one of their best sellers. I see a bunch of them around. The $100k ones are rare though, but aside from fancier wheel's there is nothing externally that differentiates them from the $60k ones.

Did you know that the Secret Service can't yell "GET DOWN!!" at the President anymore in the event of an attack? They have to yell, "DONALD, DUCK!"

I absolutely hated the C3 I had as a rental in South of France two years ago. It was manual transmission and not a diesel. Absolutely gutless and arduous to drive, especially in the mountains. No gear was ever the right gear. The interior was plasticy and felt very cheaply built. I was extra salty about it because I had reserved an Insignia, but they gave that away right before I got there and a C3 was a substantial downgrade. National/Enterprise ended up refunding $750+ dollars because I kicked up such a fuss. Sure I got most of my money back, but I still would have liked to have had a comfortable car for driving through the French Alps instead of that shitbox.

Nice! A bit older than the years I aim for, but still nice.

fall

Oh also, he has a name! I have always always always named my vehicles with female names (when they got anthropomorphized names, not all did).... I've had Eva, Victoria, Debbie, Ernestine, and Norma. But none of the female names I was mulling over seemed to fit... it just doesn't feel like a female vehicle. So in the end, I decided I liked Gus. He's named after Gus Kenworthy, the hot, out, Olympic Gold winning skier. You know.. Avalanche... snow skiing... that's the connection.

There's a Suburban on Albert's side of the family with 120k miles on it. I don't remember the exact year, but it's the same generation as my truck. That Suburban had to have the brake lines done a couple years ago and it was prohibitively expensive. The kicker was that they're south west of DC and don't get much snow, so salt isn't used often and yet those lines still went. That's the situation I'm trying to avoid. I've bought a bunch of accessories for it. I bought a shorty antenna to replace the whip one. I got a center console organizer. I bought rubber cupholder inserts for all 4 spots. I found a NOS bag for the tonneau covers from a 2004 because for some reason GM stopped including the bag and instead supplied a strap system (which I have). I bought a trailer receiver cover. I've ordered a better magnetic phone mount that is super thin and will be barely noticeable. I have 3 road trip scheduled in it over the next three weekends. I have to head to north of philly to help my grandmother move into assisted living next weekend, then I have a vacation in the western maryland mountains, and then back to see my grandmother again. I am so happy with this truck, it's been great. Also, my dad did a thing too. His 1993 F-150 with 500k miles finally toasted the engine. He's keeping it and putting a new engine in it. But in the meantime, he bought a 2017 F250 Superduty CrewCab with the 8ft bed and the 6.7 TD. Bought it from Texas so it's completely rust free. 75k miles.

How's the torque from the twin-turbo?

There's a place I'm looking at near work that it's their specialty and it's all they do. They'll do a descaling and then rust proof it. It's $596 and includes underbody and all body insides. They include annual checkups and touchups for 7 years/unlimited miles. One thing I know is an issue with this generation is the brake lines rusting out, so I want them to pay special attention to that. http://www.rustrepairinc.com/ I only had time to get some video last night. I'll take some more pictures this weekend. We're expecting thunderstorms this afternoon, so I doubt I'll be taking any pics today.

Today's the day!!

Have you ever seen an aftermarket system that can still do the car brand logo on bootup like the OEM systems do?

Yeah, those are my favorite also

These are the headlight clusters I'm considering....

Not at this time. In unrelated news, after over a decade with Android (I was on the original G1 phone), I jumped ship to Apple and bought an iPhone 11 Pro in June. My Pixel XL battery could no longer hold a charge. The current Pixel 4XL got terrible reviews, particularly around battery life and I couldn't wait any longer for the 5 to come out in October. So my iPhone 11 should work with the inbuilt system for playing music. I pretty much only use Apple Music now and that works well in my Buick's system. So in light of the fact that I need to do all the fluids, undercoating, and possibly tires, a sound system is pretty low on the priority list. The other reason I'm not going to do it soon is that I don't like any of the head units that are out there. Nearly all of them light up like you're throwing some sort of disco party. I don't like that. I want something that looks as close to the stock system as possible.

Oh and what’s everyone’s opinion on rust proofing undercoating?

Neither, I will mostly keep it stock. I may swap out the grille, headlights, and tail lights for something more modern. I’ll keep it subtle and tasteful though. but, because it’s been sitting so long, I have to change a lot of the fluids out. I’ll be doing an oil change, coolant change, brake fluid change, diff oil change, and possibly tires if they’re dry rotted. So that will need to be addressed first...

I see them all the time. They have taunted me so!

@ocnblu Got it. 3G is the first two digits of the VIN. 3 is country code Mexico and G is for GM. So it was a Mexican built GM and there were only two of those on the list, the Avalanche and the EXT. While I wouldn't have said no to an EXT, an Avalanche popped up that I couldn't NOT buy. So, I have bought what is likely the lowest mileage 2013 Avalanche in the country. All the paperwork and loan has been finalized, I just have to pick it up on Wednesday. It's a Blue Topaz 2013 LTZ Black Diamond with only 12,800 miles on the clock. I paid $32,990 and Carvana gave me $8,100 for the Cruze. It checks all my boxes for heated/cooled seats, heated steering wheel, remote start. The only thing is doesn't have that I would have liked is a sunroof, but for such a museum piece, I will survive without it.

I’m going to keep you all hanging until one of you gets it or I pick it up on Wednesday. But there are plenty of clues in this thread and you all know me well enough to figure it out.

3G+15?

Nope. It’s definitely on the bulleted list that @David posted earlier. It’s one of those 7. 3G can be decoded to tell you exactly what I got. This might be too much of a clue, so if you get it, just hold on to it for now. I want to see if @balthazar can get this one from the clues given.

Waaaaay overthinking it. This will however handle the mototote to carry my motorcycle (when I buy that). The clue 3G is actually very simple.

Also wrong train, wrong track. Its not a Durango

Wrong train, wrong track..... however somehow in the right station.

I wonder if @balthazar will understand that most recent clue.