Drew Dowdell

Well, it was a little sooner than I expected... Today was promoted to Director of Communication for the municipality I work for. After a few decades in I.T. and Project Management, I am stepping away from those and more into a field that I enjoy. Clearly I will still be using some of those skills in my new position, but they will allow me to finally pivot away from I.T. which I've grown tired of. In the next year I will be leading a complete rebrand of the local government including a new website. In the process, we will completely revamp the way we communicate to the community. It's going to be a fun ride and with a larger (and, frankly, more competent staff) it will also allow me much more time to spend here. I don't expect this to be a long term post, but it is a great jumping off point for where I want to go next.

Yes, that center one. HondaSense is available on lower models also. It looks terrible in person.

I have to disagree with everyone who says this is blah. It is a substantial improvement over the absolute disaster of a front end the outgoing model has. I always hated the way it looked especially with that HondaSense sensor hanging out there in front looking like a JC Whitney aftermarket add-on. The interior of the outgoing model was easily best in class and in top trim would have been perfectly fine in an entry level Audi A4. Honda has always had a conservative style on the Accord. It was NEVER going to look muscled like a Charger or something funky like the Camry. That said, I think this looks almost Germanic. It's a svelte long-distance runner rather than a quarterback. It's kinda "Audi-before the SCREAM grille" in feel. Also, I think the longer hood really helps the overall proportions and is something that has been missing from FWD based cars for a long while. As mentioned, the interior of the previous car wasn't an issue, but they've updated it for this car and kept it very handsome. Here's one that will shock all of you who know my type of car.... this is the first Accord ever that, at least aesthetically, I could see myself owning. (Touring trim of course)

For the first time in a bunch of years, I am actually looking forward to the new year. Work has been quite the roller coaster for me, but I'll have some career change news to share in a week or two. Happy New Year to all.

I can't see the rear badges but it looks like an LT with the 1.5T? Those things get ridiculously good MPGs as long as she keeps it around 70 mph and not a penny more. Perversely, she'll probably get better highway MPGs in this than in her smaller, lighter, less powerful Trax. Just do the oil changes at like 20% rather than waiting for it to get to 0%

…. and to all a good night. Merry Christmas.

The new China built Encore GX has largely taken its place. The EcoSport was built in India and never sold well. Ford should probably find a way to build it on a new platform somewhere else. They were pretty wretched to drive, so it isn’t surprising that people didn’t like it. The Trailblazer and Trax are better. We swung from 40 to -3 in 18 hours

Not launching until spring.

There must be something intrinsic to the design of the Camry and Altima that prevents owners from turning on the headlights in the dark.

I know I was exaggerating, but even the Ace of Base Cobalt was 155 horsepower and 150 lb-ft of torque. We test drove an Astra when new and it was unacceptably underpowered.

It was probably the 112 hp 4-cylinder that killed that idea?

While I've never heard of it being this extreme, our 2004 CR-V needed a rear diff fluid service every 50k miles... and you felt it as it was getting close to time. Like, it would stutter the back wheels going around turns and your ability to coast was cut in half. More than likely this is people neglecting the needy Honda service schedule. Honda's maintenance schedule in 2004 was sorta ridiculous for modern times... the 2.4 liter required valve adjustments every 50k miles and checking of valve clearance every 15,000 miles (potentially leading to another adjustment). In an era where most engines have self adjusting valves that need no maintenance for 150,000 miles, that always seemed excessive to me. For comparison, the final GM pushrod V6es from that same era, the 3400, 3800, and 3900... the official valve adjustment schedule was "Don't eff with it! They're fine, they adjust themselves"

Honestly, I like this best. Let me come to the store to test drive and look at the options I want, and then I'll go home and order it from the comfort of my couch.

Well, it's based on an older Peugeot platform, so chances are slim. Plus, it would have to be built here to compete due to the EV incentive rules.

That would be perfect for Dodge! Keep everything the same except the badges.

Flooded is the term used now to distinguish a regular wet cell battery from an AGM battery.

Yea, I get there is inflation.... but what is making car batteries so flipping expensive? For a basic flooded battery, the technology hasn't really changed significantly in years, yet all regular retail is at $230 for a regular H7 flooded battery. Costco is a lot cheaper, but that's Costco. AZ, Oh-Reallys, Advance are all stupidly marked up. A flooded Interstate H7 from Costco is $147 after core while an AGM is $185 after core. Sam's (Duracell/East Penn) is similar though $4 higher. All of the standard automotive retailers range from $210 - $230 after core for flooded and $240+ for AGM and they're all manufactured by East Penn or Johnston Controls. Clearly, I'll go with the Costco Interstate AGM. I'm just observing the absurdity of these prices. I don't consider $147 to be that unreasonable these days. It's been a while since the sub-$100 car battery as is. But if Duracell/East Penn can sell to Sam's for less than $151, that's over $60/40% in markup over at AutoZone. I guess what's also bothering me is that except for the club stores, the prices of all of the retailers match to the dollar exactly when comparing like models. I know I shouldn't be shocked... but how is it not price-fixing? There are only about 4 major battery manufacturers out there. Johnston Controls (Now Clarios), Exide, Delphi, and East Penn.

Happy Birthday @riviera74 Sorry about the downtime today. We had a fiber optic cable damaged right at the server. The server is remote and it took me a while to convince support to send someone over to physically look at the server.

Doh... and Legacy

I think it is handsome and understated... bit of an Audi without the SCREAM mask grille up front. I prefer the cleaner look of the interior that doesn't look like it is out of an A380 with loads of buttons. At this point, there are only going to be three maybe four large sedans left (Accord, Altima, Camry, and Charger). I guess the Crown as well but it looks so weird. So Honda is hoping to catch a larger slice of a smaller pie. And an Accord owner, if they switch to a crossover, is more likely to go back to the Honda dealer to trade than go to Toyota or Chevy. Ford had some other issue with the Fusion... I said so when they canceled it. They were pushing 250,000 Fusions a year in the US, plus also had China and EU sales. If they can't make money on that, there was something very wrong in their accounting department.