Overview

I've had my Fiat 500 for 10 years now, no plans to replace it. I like the stick shift; not sure I'll ever own another stick shift car with the push to hybrids and electrics and stuff. People think its small and its overall dimensions back that up, but it actually has more head room than a Camery. Thanks to the pandemic I still haven't cracked 80,000 miles yet. I do enjoy driving it around the city.

Well, that was an interesting experience. A different negotiation than I am used to. Will be interesting to see how it works out at the end of the lease. *back to crickets*

So my son has decided that he is going to lease a truck. He's asked me to help him negotiate a good lease. I'm a pretty good negotiator. A part of my career was spent in sales, which helps alot. But I've never leased a vehicle. Doing alot of research on it. Learning alot. Interested to hear what some of the folks here have to say about negotiating a lease.

Sadly, this is the norm for people of colour, or what ever makes them that little bit different. I agree that racism in all forms needs to be eradicated. I am here actually to make such a post in the religion thread. Join me over there, if you dare.

Got pulled over for speeding once. I'm white and my wife is black. I was just annoyed, she was terrified. Ashamedly, I realized then the racial difference. It's difficult to understand (to feel) the fear of authority. I got a ticket and moved along. But the look of terror in my wife's eyes when we got pulled over still makes me cry. Intellectually, I can understand, but I'll never feel the fear. Racism (in all forms) needs to be eradicated.

My old car had been paid off for quite a while. It was pretty darn nice. But it was time. She was 13 years old and I had put 137k on her. 3 out of 4 door lock actuators were shot, needed 2 new tire pressure sensors, and the tires weren't going to pass inspection come August. So I said f* it, can't be bothered with $900 in maintenance, let's drop $20 grand. That's reasonable, right? I'm a mess.

Everyone I know who has a CX-5 likes it. It's probably one of the only crossovers out there worth a damn style-wise too. I just paid my car off 10 months early so I'm pretty happy about that. Probably just going to hang on to it now that it's paid off. No one really makes anything that I like/want at the moment anyway.

Well, I just traded in my 300hp sports car for a grocery getter. Part of me is horribly sad. But part of me likes my mid-size SUV. It'll be helpful on trips with the dogs....oh and with my family too. Mazda CX-5

Had to poop REALLY bad.

This one happened about 45 minutes ago. My heart rate is still up and I'm still pissed. It's snowing pretty good today, on top of a good layer of ice overnight. My employer closed the office early today so folks could drive home in the day light. I'm on a farirly heavily used east-to-west running state route in a rural county. 2 lanes, 55 mph speed limit. Traffic is light given the weather. Plows have not cleared this stretch yet but it was obviously salted some time during the day. There are two stripes of bare road showing from everyone's tire tracks. Outside of those two wide stripes of bare road is 4-6" of heavy, slushy snow. I'm doing 60mph. Probably too fast for the conditions. Butt there is noone in front of me as far as I can see. A big work pick up truck comes up from behind and swings out to pass. With 4-6" of slush between the lanes this is pretty stupid. And of course, halfway through his pass a car coming the other way crests a small hill in front of us. He cuts the pass short, and re-enters our lane maybe 10' in front of me. In the process he threw up a solid wall of slush onto my windshield, completely blinding me. I have no idea if he needed to brake or not because all I can see is brown slush. I reach for the wipers and jam on the brakes pretty hard. 60mph and can't see a thing is a really ***** scary combination. My Jeep starts to fishtail and I hear the rumble strips under my tires, so either I'm onto the shoulder, or crossed the center of the road. I don't know which. I still can't see. By now I am mother ***** this guy at the top of my lungs. He must have re-entered the lane slowly because that wall of slush was 3-4 seconds long. He tiptoed back into the lane, spraying my windsheild with a wall of brown the whole time. I got the car slowed and the windshield clear and I was straddling the center stripe with an oncoming car 300' or so and closing. I get the Jeep back into my lane and I am still yelling obscenities at the top of my lungs. I haven't been so angry in years. Maybe decades. For a brief period of time I sped up to chase this idiot down. I din't have a plan for when I got there, but really wanted the confrontation at that point. A mile down the road and reason started taking over and I slowed down. Another mile down the road and I passed a Trooper going the other way and I yelled at him, "where the ***** were you 2 minutes ago"? Half a glass of Weller down and I'm still wound up. What was so God damned important that you risked my life to get there more quickly?

I replaced a front hub assembly today on my 4wd truck. Took me two and a half hours from beginning of setup to end of clean up. Jacked it up and cribbed the whole front end on some 6x8 hardwood timbers I got from an Amish dude. They are the left over stubs from the railroad ties he makes. Used a small electric impact for the little stuff but the 1/2 drive wouldn’t fit so I used wrenches and an eight pound hammer to break the caliper bolts and the four hub bolts. The bad shoulder made it tough to do. Getting the bolts to torque specs was painful and putting the giant 18” all terrain tire back on was like climbing a mountain so I left a 6x8 timber underneath for safety and used the jack to lower the truck so I could sort of shimmy it on. The only real problem I encountered was with the cv joint spindle nut dust cap. It hole in the new hub for it was oh so slightly bigger so the cap wouldn’t stay in. I ended up cutting a tapered Ironworkers 3/4 bull pin in just the right spot so I would pound the cap onto it with a soft mallet and stretch it a bit. Worked perfectly. The cap is as snug as it was on the old hub.......Ironworker Powers, ACTIVATE!

I know what you mean. I was a victim of police profiling. They were pulling over everyone driving on the sidewalk. (Ron White).

As I have a 2010 F150 I looked into this a little, incase it happens to me. Seems to be a common problem with no real fix. Some say they replaced the canister purge valve (whatever that is), replace fuse #27, low coolant levels, air in the lines, etc. Good luck.

I’ve considered that but engine temp is spot on and the fans act normally if I’ve started the truck without the hvac powered on inside the cab. If I turn the power to hvac on the fans instantly pop on high and stay that way even if I power off the hvac. It seems to me that it has to be linked to hvac somehow or I’d have the problem with it off as well. I get what the engineers were thinking by having the fans run at high if the pressure on the a/c high line side was too high, try to cool things down quickly. That’s why I went for the a/c pressure switch. I guess I could actually have too much pressure in that line but I don’t understand how that could happen in these cold temps. Am I not thinking the right direction here? Would the condenser line have too much pressure if it was hot and running too much and not when it’s off and cold out?

Bad thermostat? Just a guess.

I have a 2012 F150 4wd. The cooling fans have been running on high continuously for a month now. Engine temp is fine and there’s plenty of coolant. If I start the truck with the hvac turned off the fans behave as they should. As soon as I turn the hvac on the fans kick on high and stay that way until I kill the ignition. I thought maybe the a/c pressure switch was failing and reading the pressure too high and kicking the fans on so I replaced the switch which did nothing. Is it possible for the pressure in the high pressure line is too high in these temps? Seems like it shouldn’t be it but what else would kick the fan on high and leave it there only when the hvac is on? A bad relay? I really need to figure this out because it sounds like I’m driving around in a jetliner.

Got caught years ago driving without my license, way back when you had 24 hours to produce it at a cop shop. I was 18 and that is only part of the story, but the only part I'm going to tell. Got caught for speeding once. It was all a frame and a trap. I was mortified. That's it, unless you count smuggling way too much booze at a derelict and non-descript border crossing in rural Quebec that is used for just such a purpose. They were not the regular cops, though.

I rarely get pulled over. I got tagged for speeding a few times when I was younger but it's been a while. And the one time was because my speedometer was broken and I should have known better lol The one that pissed me off was back in grad school. I was coming home with some chinese takeout so I could work on homework and I rolled a stop sign in our little residential neighborhood. It just so happened to be Halloween, and it just so happened that some hero-cop State Trooper who used to live in the neighborhood had gotten permission to park his squad car behind a some bushes on a resident's lawn near the stop sign so he could write people tickets all night. Real solid use of a STATE TROOPER's time, right? I made sure to ask him when he would be back, since he cared about the neighborhood so much. He didn't like that. But I never saw him again because obviously he didn't care that much. Jabroni.

I was an ASE certified mechanic for 15 years. GM & Chrysler shops. Got sick of flat rate shop favoritism. Worked at Napa for 10 years and trained in HVAC. Became an industrial mechanic since. Getting older I don't do any work on my vehicles outside bulbs and wipers. Just ain't worth the pain crawling, stopping and kneeling. Stay away from chain shops. Find someone close that specializes in your type of car. I was lucky. We have Toyota's and there's a ex Toyota guy in the next town.

Talked your way out of a ticket? Got a ticket for some bull####? Cop cut you a break? I'm sorry officer, I didn't know I couldn't do that...tell it here. Working nights in CNY years ago, I'd get pulled over at least 6 or 7 times a year by Oneida Country sheriff's when I was leaving work at 2 am. Just looking to give me that DWI. Got popped once for driving with my music too loud. Who knew noise ordinances were a thing? Rolled a stop sign leaving the bar with an expired registration and inspection. Oops! Good thing I was stone sober. Cop let me go. Pulled me over 3 weeks later to see if I got my registration and inspection (I did). And I've got about 100 more. Sometimes you win, most of the time I lost. I'm curious what I've paid in traffic fines over my 18 years behind the wheel. Not to mention what I've had to pay the DMV in NY just to keep my license with all the points I put on it.

Those were my thoughts exactly! And I get frustrated when things don't fit. Metal you can force, plastic tends to break. Then I'd lose my *****, start yelling at my car, yelling at myself, and her and I don't need that.

Taking out the glove box is a breeze. Putting it back in can be frustrating.

I replace my air filters when the air compressor won't successfully clean them anymore. Never done the cabin one though. Seems like a hassle to take out the glove box to get to it.

I recharged my AC recently and was pretty damned proud of myself. My greatest car "repair" feat to date, edging out air and cabin filter replacements.

I have one but it's really not worth it. You can't really do anything with it. I have an Actron that's far more useful.