The late Don Ellis... ... View more

Bicycle road tires (small/thin ones, not big mtn bike tires) are mounted onto a rim using small tirebead tools called 'spoons' .. maybe because they LOOK like small spoons. ... View more

I agree about the 89 octane. When I'm out West and "regular" is something less than 87, I always go with the 89 or 91. And I get a couple more MPG. ... View more

Like the Maverick, the Hyundai “elCamino”, and all such USA “ marketable” offerings; the American version will NOT fit in my garage. The EU version is perfect, a two door Maverick would be great, but No! Its gotta be BIG to make it in the states. VW discontinued the Alltrac wagon, that still sells like hotcakes in Europe, here in the states a couple years ago! It was too small. Is there a study somewhere that proves the EU Buzz won’t sell here? I am fairly certain that when they stretch it to fit American egos and eating habits, it will be off my list. A Euro-version, I’d buy right now. ... View more

Last year we evaluated both engines and opted for the 2017 , the last year of the V6. Our obsevations: The econoboost 4 is a great lawnmower engine. It requires a 10 speed auto because of its severely narrow torque curve. Driving it, the computer is constantly seeking out the best gear to the point of being annoying. While on paper the V6 appears less powerful , driving it gives you a feel of more power. We drove 3 different Ecoboosts to confirm that our impressions weren't a one off. And looking at the reliability, the V6 wins hands down. Gas mileage in daily driving is very close. ... View more

Where's the thumbs down button. Snob. ... View more

I could list so many similar odd problems, I think that it should be a weekly column from readers. Some favorites: My brother's fiesta would die at random times, seemed random. He said that it started up once when he squeezed a bundle of wires under the dash. After messing with those wires way too much, we found that it was the carb float needle sticking in the bore that would cause starvation. Again my brother's 67 cougar would idle but stumble terribly much above that. A spare coil hastily connected fixed it. When I connected it all up properly, it had the problem again. Turns out it was a bad tachometer, that when I wired it up permanently I connected the tach which had some kind of short in it. Last two were on my brother's 57 ford. Straight six, running a little poorly. I noticed that some of the rockers were only moving a little compared to the others. Turns out the lifters are mushroom shaped, and the top broke off a couple of them when they were stuck in the bore and the cam pushed on the edge. Without the top hat they were shorter and barely rubbed on the cam. More some other time... ... View more

How long before the 5 year old children are trained to assemble these? Geely is controlled by the Chinese government. Lotus is dead to me. ... View more

I realize it's a quality car but the looks never worked for me. ... View more

To me Polestar is a terrible name.  What is a Pole Star?  Don't they call them strippers?  Is this like sanitation engineer being used for garbage man. ... View more

Very nice collection. Good variety of cars there. ... View more

The transmission shop that we used was very familiar with the park pawl issue and came up with their own solution: they slightly undercut the teeth on the spur and increased the angle a bit on the pawl itself. It required a bit more effort to disengage, but solved the problem well enough that the local Ford dealer sent all of their transmissions to them for the fix. Regarding the fuel gauge, ensure that the instrument cluster voltage regulator is sound. Changing it might help. ... View more

I “won” a bidding battle on BAT for a low mileage E39 ’01 BMW 530i Sport. Failing to get a pre-bid inspection, I “won” a POS used car. The seller (from Woodland Hills, CA.) took pictures just far enough away from the car that you couldn’t see the dents and scratches, or rotted rubber trim, etc. I flew to CA. to pick up the car and drive home. After complaining to BAT they refunded my buyers fee, but continue to allow this seller to post other low mileage German cars. I try to comment on this sellers sales, but I am barred from any comments that are negative, as are other commenters. I think this is BAT's “secret sauce”...let "happy talk" prevail and the bidders will come. This seller has sold over $250,000 of used cars in the past year. BAT does not have or allow any way for unhappy buyers to warn other bidders before they get taken in by the unscrupulous sellers. While I acknowledge my failure to get someone to inspect the car beforehand, the seller will not acknowledge his failure to fairly disclose the flaws in his cars. Let the bidder beware!!! ... View more

The Petrol lounge concept is ok for one or two cars that you rarely use. None of them them that I know of offer 7x24 spontaneous access. An alternative growing in popularity is a garage condo. You own it (at least the interior) identical to a residential condo. The $ math works. Large home garages have virtually no positive value on equity, they are money down the drain. Car condos are appreciating similar to other commercial buildings. I have 6 cars in a 25 x 50 size, also with a lounge/loft, half bath and 4 post lift. It costs me far less than $2400 (6 cars x $400) per month, plus I have 7 x 24 unfettered access to my cars and no worries about someone else dinging or otherwise messing with them. And in the last 4 years mine has appreciated 40%. ... View more

Some nice cars. The oversized wheels are off-putting. None-the-less, I'd drive any of them. ... View more

Polestar is to Volvo as Lincoln is to (fill in the blank). Doubtful it will establish a unique identity. Bonded aluminum is not new to automobiles. Even Jaguar has used it across its lineup for years. ... View more

Just ugly, especially that rear end. And if earlier reports are correct, you can't touch anything under the hood yourself. I'm waiting for the next step which is that you purchase a "base" model, and to get all the performance features you have to be purchased yearly via a subscription model if you want to keep them. ... View more

Right to repair is a good step but still inadequate. Take virtually any car over 10 years old and to find a replacement computer module for it anyehere but in a salvage yard is next to impossible. Yet, no third party company can engineer a replacement because the firmware/software is copyrighted and the auto manufacturers won't release it. Even a10 year old car with only 5,000 miles on it but having a control module fail will be obsolete. The manufacturers know it and like it that way. The problem is only going to get worse as cars move from discrete control circuits to Ethernet networks within the car itself. And wait until you can't buy a car with the optional features on it, but rather have to pay for optional features annually every year on a subscription basis. It's coming. ... View more

The CX-9 is a bit heavy, not packaged well, and has a third row I don't need. Mazda has long needed something in between the CX-5 and CX-9, something to compete with the Ford Edge, Santa Fe, or Honda Passport. ... View more

Unfortunately that is the Boron Steel. ... View more

Octane degradation is slow, unless the gas tank is left un-capped. 93 octane fuel MIGHT be down to 92.6 after a six-month layup. Octane boosters are relatively cheap to add if you have to do a 12 months layup. ... View more

You could leave the old struts and shocks in the trunk (probably in a better box). ... View more

Yeah I saw the film and was amazed. Even more worrisome was that they wouldn't warrant the replacement battery. What, you're new battery failed? Here's another. That will be another $20,000 please. Thanks for your business. You are important to us. ... View more

Did I miss something here ? Didn't Blll Harrah have the right idea to begin ? He created the " Jerrari ". Why not just shuffle some dollars and tech over to the other Fiat Brand Jeep, use Ferrari engines - running gear ( ala Bill Harrah ) and call it a day. Could have accomplished this one 5 accounting periods ago. ... View more

Back with my books. Make the setup as I described here, but instead of pumping for a minute, cranks until you get 1 pint of gas in the jar and time that. You should get 1 pint in 60 seconds or less. You should also measure the pressure by hooking a gauge to the line. Normal pressure is 3-5 psi. ... View more

Looks great. I bet it will sell You lost me with China. ... View more

For those of you that have concrete floors and are concerned about condensation over the winter ( who isn’t?) I have found buying a roll of vinyl flooring on sale at our local Home Depot is the ticket. They are 6’ wide and about 8’ long and are perfect to fit under most classics. The best thing about the vinyl flooring is it provides the barrier between the floor and vehicle but is also quite sturdy so you won’t be constantly tripping over the edges. The flooring is often on sale in the “ends” bin of your local store. Hope this helps? ... View more

The big automakers brought the chip shortage on themselves. Going with specialized vs. general processor chips, negotiating on the cheap and unwilling to invest with a chip foundry on capacity for themselves. Oh well car executives, you lose. Try to get a semiconductor part for any car more than 15 years old. You can't. You better hope that some circuit board you buy at salvage doesn't have the same failure mechanism that yours failed from. What a joke if it wasn't today's reality. ... View more

If you drive farther than the edge of town, overdrive transmissions are great. I put a 5 speed in my 50 year old Camaro, if it didn’t have the shift pattern on the ball you’d never  know to look at it. 75 mph at just over 2000 RPM. ... View more

…some people. Right??!! ... View more

I rented a 2020 2.3L turbo Mustang with auto trans and thought it to be a very satisfying car to drive. I had originally rented a 5.0 GT but after a few miles, it became apparent that the rear suspension on one side was loose and making noise. I returned it to the rental agency hoping to get another 5.0 because the power and sound were awesome, but all they had was the turbo 4. I was initially disappointed, but after several day of driving, I became impressed with the balance and handling, and thought it a great car. ... View more

synthetic fuels sound more realistic; long live the ice and classics. ... View more

electric Automobiles have an important Place in our Modern world However real Cars (especially inthe Racing World) are made up of Three Major Componants: Looks, Performance, and Sound ... View more

I suggest you search youtube for people who have owned and run these aftermarket EFIs for more than a year versus the warm and fuzzy videos that cover installation and first day performance. Despite their learning curves they are not set and forget. One would be much better off in this car to get a good rebuilt carb and install an aftermarket AFM ( about $160 including Bosch sensor, exhaust bung, cables and digital gauge), then tune the carb and timing. for efficient fuel burn. You will get as consistent performance and econoly as EFI for one tenth the price. ... View more

If Ford really wants to make Bronco customizable, they will release the control firmware and bus interfaces for the Bronco. But don't hold your breath. Fourth and Fifth generation low mileage Mustangs are starting to see main computer failures. Ford doesn't offer replacements for most, but no aftermarket maker can duplicate them without the code, which Ford won't release. Jags and RR's whose computer controls were designed under the same regime are also seeing failures which totally prevent the vehicle from operating. And don't expect the current US administration to force automakers to release code even when automakers no longer offer replacement parts It is happy to see otherwise perfectly good gasoline powered cars scrapped to push the electric car agenda. ... View more

That Jag looks like a drunk coming in after a hard night of barhopping. ... View more

? _ I.D.O.I.T ... View more

Nice to see nice old cars at sane prices. ... View more

I've never quite understood why Jaguar, despite significant investments from each of its owners, has never improved quality. Bonehead decisions like a two piece plastic coolant pipe underneath the supercharger that separates, requiring a full engine out to repair. And no availability of replacement electronics after only a few years after production. Seems like Jags strategy is to design and manage their vehicles to a 5 year lifetime, factor in high warranty repair costs into the initial price, and once out of warranty then treat them as disposables relative to (no) support. I agree with @MATTMERICA that Jag most likely will not be around by 2025. And I am a 3 time Jag owner. ... View more

Another wonderful Story about real Men and the Magic they did Weave Bravo ... View more

i was chrysler tech for thirty years,they had some mis-steps but no worse than other manufacturers,the german ownership destroyed chrysler,fiat helped them come back,my saying for germans is they couldnt build belly buttons for raggedy ann dolls.i still own chysler products and enjoy my charger hellcat.i am very worried anout this merger ... View more

Outsourcing everything is putting a stranglehold on getting things done. Just trying to build a computer I have to wait for CPU's video cards, etc. for months. No ETA either. Leaving it in the "benevolent" hands of a communist country is a recipe for disaster. But do we learn from current events? Not likely we will learn, happy to repeat our mistakes over and over. ... View more

So JLR is reimagined. Right. The real strategy of JLR is to design cars to be made with as cheap parts as possible regardless of reliability, market them aggressively. Build in warranty repairs for the first five years into the initial sales price, then soak the fool that tries to buy a used JLR that is more than five years old as multiple parts and systems fail. Worse yet, also eliminate electronics parts availability on any JLR more than a few years old so they have to be trashed even if they have very low mileage on them. We've seen in Texas this week what can happen with high demand on the power grid at night. Now imagine that 15% of all cars in the US are charging at night, and you have a formula for disaster. What will happen to JLR and GM sales when their entire fleet is electric and the power grid becomes overloaded and people discover they can't charge their cars overnight? A rerun of the 1980's gas crunch? Hmmm. ... View more

I wonder if anyone thinks about all the mining that has to take place to produce that batteries that power these things? Wouldn't that be just as bad, or more harmful to the environment than that "evil" "brash" "exciting" internal combustion engine? I will never be into the electric movement. ... View more

Not "very" negotiable? If you got them to move at all, which dealership and salesman sold you the car and how much did you save off of sticker? Every salesman I talk to won't budge off of sticker price. ... View more

Electric VW ? YAWN Bring back the 1983 GTI ... View more

I wonder what your take is on NIO, a Chinese EV manufacturer that's aggressively growing sales in its home market. It's share price performance is off the charts: https://trustedbrokers.com/uk/stocks/NIO/ ... View more

I'd like two of the three: Lightning and TR6.  There are other BMW's I would rather have than this one (maybe a first-series Z4?), even if I had to save a little more money first. ... View more

I use simple green on all my high end wheels and it takes the dirt off instantly without rubbing. Cheap too if you buy it in gallon concentrate. Start with fairly diluted and increase concentration just until it is easy to get dirt off.  Better than any specializer wheel cleaner I ever purchased. ... View more

I was wondering about that, too.  ... View more