Drew Dowdell

This year I am taking part in https://www.facebook.com/gentlemansride to raise funds and awareness for men's health and prostate cancer on behalf of the Movember foundation. Prostate cancer affects more men than any other cancer, taking the lives of 307,000 men each year. That number is surpassed by 500,000 men dying from suicide. That's 807,000 men every year. This is a number that must change. Please reach out and give what you can; help support me on my ride by going to https://gfolk.me/DrewDowdell and donating. Thank you, Drew.

Hyundai today released images of their latest Hyundai Sonata refresh for 2024. This is a rather quick turnaround as the current Hyundai Sonata was released in 2019 as a 2020 model. This could be the last hurrah for the Sonata because it is rumored that Hyundai will ax the Sonata nameplate at the end of this run. While the current Sonata is one of the more handsome designs in the dwindling sedan market, Hyundai felt the refresh was necessary to bring the Sonata in line with their EV lineup. The visual similarities between the 2024 Sonata and the recently released Hyundai Ioniq 6 aren't by accident. While riding on the same platform, externally, the 2024 Sonata adopts the wide front-end styling of the Ioniq 6, including a full-width and seamless LED bar. Headlamps are camouflaged low into the bumper area, leaving viewers with the expectation that headlights should pop up from somewhere. The tail light bar gets a similar treatment with obvious edges in the new H-lights. The interior of the Sonata has also been refreshed with this horizontal theme similar to the Ioniq 6. A first the any Hyundai model, the panoramic curved display combines both the 12.3-inch driver cluster and a 12.3-inch infotainment unit. Hyundai must have noticed the recent pushback on all-touch controls at competitors because they left physical buttons for climate control and some entertainment functions. Similar to the drive selector in the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6, the gear selector in the Sonata has become a stalk on the steering column. This opens up the center console space to the driver. Standard and N-Line variants will be available. Powertrain details will be released later, but we expect much to carry over from the existing car. The 2024 Sonata officially debuts at the Seoul Mobility Show on March 30th and will go on sale in the U.S. later this year. View full article

Who would like a donut? This 1936 Packard 120B Convertible Coupe was simply stunning at the Packard Museum in Warren, Ohio over the weekend. It has a 232 c.i. inline 8 cylinder that makes 120 hp @ 3800 rpm and 225 lb-ft at 2,000 rpm. In spite of its size, it only weighs in at 3,535 lbs, less than a base Ford Maverick (3,550)

I think anything outside of Caprice in the Chevy line in the 70s is questionable as a luxury car. Yeah, you could option up a Monte Carlo, but it would still have the base model dash materials, base model switchgear etc.

I got a really short drive in one in a Grand Wagoneer. It's smooth with gobs of low-end torque. You don't miss the very nice 6.4 eTorque at all.

Sweep is one of two things, the account is emptied out overnight into a treasury account to earn interest at a higher rate and then put back first thing in the morning. Not usually available to us peons, but for some reason one of my credit unions offers this on an account I have there. Or it is for sales transactions: Think a retail shop that takes in daily sales. It fills up to a specific amount, and then anything excess is swept into other accounts. This is common in chain stores, so each store has an account but the profits get funneled off to Corporate.

I've never understood larger companies (several million in revenue a year at least) that put everything in a single bank. I work for a small municipality and we've got bank accounts out the wazoo.