Drew Dowdell

My Toronado scrapes the exhaust if I don't exit the driveway at an angle. Oh well, time for a new house.

It's aged pretty well. I wish they could do the 9-5 also. That was a handsome and unique looking sedan. No, I don't think they'll do wheel hub motors. It's probably just an electric setup to the front wheels and batteries in the trunk/fuel tank area.

They still to cheap leases and cash on the hood. $1,250 cash back right now on the RAV-4 and that is a brand new model. $2,000 back on Camry. $3,000 on Tundra, $3,000 on Highlander. Over at Honda it's almost all cheap leasing or low interest financing. $169 a month for a Civic sedan. $209 for a Civic Si coupe or sedan. $249 with $1,500 down on an Accord. etc. But go to Costco, sign up for an executive membership, and get $500 off almost any car from any brand and a below MSRP price. Kia and Hyundai don't really do "deals" but they'll lease cheap and they give a lot for a trade. So like I said.. they all do it. They just take different routes to get there. Even MB is offering 2.9% interest right now across the entire lineup.

Paying MSRP for any brand is insane.

We have a high-end Lennox system, purchased through Costco. With the executive membership, I got 3% back on the already discounted price.

The XT4 feels small as my Encore inside. The Continental seems to hold its value better than the CT6 for some reason. I can't find as good of a deal on a Conti as I can on a CT6. But that CT6 wheelbase is so long that the Caddy will high-center at the top of my driveway.

The old SAAB 9-3 has risen from the dead! The platform, now owned by National Electric Vehicles Sweden (NEVS) is being used as the basis for a "new" electric vehicle. The 9-3EV has gone into production in Tianjin China in a factory that can assemble up to 50,000 units a year. Further manufacturing facilities are being set up in Trollhättan, Sweden and a new facility in Shanghai China. Back in January, Evergrande Groupe, an investor in Faraday Future, purchased a 51% stake in NEVS for $930 million. Evergrande is being tight lipped about the cars and no details have yet been released for range, power, battery size, or even On Sale dates. View full article

Yep. My A/C has a dehumidify function and my furnace has a humidify function. I do have to manually enable/disable them in the fall/spring when we switch over, but that's just done on the thermostat.

A/C can do that too... mine does.

MINI is introducing an all-electric version of the Mini-Cooper SE. The go-kart like feeling of the MINI is preserved with the battery mounted low in the vehicle floor for a lower center of gravity. Doing so means that there is no reduction in cargo volume. The battery range in the European cycle is approximately 235 KM to 270 KM (146 miles to 167 miles), however official EPA range estimates have not yet been established. Power is delivered by a 181 hp / 199 lb-ft of torque electric motor twisting the front wheels and the electric motor is smaller and lighter than the equivalent gasoline engine. Wheel slip is limited to help the Mini cooper with it unmistakable agility. Zero to 62 mph is 7.3 seconds. Top speed is limited to 93.2 mph. Energy regeneration through braking can be handled in one of two modes. The Mini can be driven in "one-pedal" mode where there is significant deceleration once the driver lifts off the accelerator pedal. This allows the car to more aggressively regenerate the battery in an urban setting. The Electric Mini gets a model specific cockpit with a digital dashboard, providing information such as charge level, driving mode, range, traffic sign detection, and more. While charging the display with give an estimate of the time charging will be finished. DC fast-charging is available and the MINI can accept 50kw charging to gain 80% range in just 35 minutes. Heating and cooling is more energy efficient as well, using a new heat-pump system the interior is heated from waste heat from the electric motor and battery and outside air before feeding it into the air conditioning system. The new heat-pump system uses 75 percent less electricity than a conventional EV heating system. Interior temperature can be controlled before departure via an app on the driver's phone. The electric Mini-Cooper goes into production in November. View full article

it came out on a day I was sick and I never circled back around to put it up. But you've essentially written the whole thing. The lower trims are now Voyager instead of Pacifica. One wonders... with the small number of sales in the minivan segment, how do they keep the cars alive. When, as in Ford's case, they were selling 250,000 Fusions a year and couldn't keep it going. That's almost as much as the whole minivan segment alone.

Not an issue here.

We (and by that I mean @smk4565) don't allow for that explanation when its Cadillac or Lincoln, so we shouldn't for Benz either.

No. Early fall.

But this setup is for the transverse FWD models... so it's limited to A-Class, CLA, GLA, GLB. They'll need to get the 9-speed auto as a hybrid (which I think they already have done) for the other GL models.

I use the Rainex brand all the time.

Around here, they've been putting them in the parking lots of the dying malls.

GLC, sure... maybe.... but the GLS is down 33% for the month. A few months of that and you'll see the YTD start to slide into double digits.

Some things are worth saving even if it costs more than a new one. I have two Kirby vacuum cleaners from the 1970s (bought one, one was given to me later) that I rather repair and keep using instead of buying new. I don't care that I can get a new vacuum from target for $75 and it will cost me $75 dollars to service the Kirby. The Kirby will outlive me if I keep up on parts and such for it. Both of them pre-date me in the first place. They'll suck the nails out of the floorboards if you let them... no modern household vacuum can do that. On my A/C, I did replace my window units with central air and got a new furnace out of it, but my window units weren't that great at keeping the house comfortable and I had to run 3 of them at the same time just to make it tolerable. Central is so much better than window units.

Everything except A-class and G-Wagon and AMG GT are down huge.

Yes and Yes.

Not by me... Pruis drivers are some of the worst of the crazies.... worse than BMW drivers.

I keep seeing Continentals around me. Since I can't get a CT6 into my driveway, I should put a Conty on my shopping list instead.