I didn't know that Ford was bringing back the Taurus --> http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=8246852&page=1

I drove Matt's Taurus wagon years ago at the end of his life when he didn't need the car anymore. And after he died, it was a link to him for me for a couple of years. The car was replete with tassels hanging from the rear window and leather sex equipment hanging from the rear view mirror! I didn't change a thing when I drove it, lol! I still have some of the items from his car -- sort of little mementos.

It was a piece of crap car, engine-wise -- but it drove really nice when when you had good tires on it.

Went to my sister's significant other's house yesterday for Father's Day. It is WAY out in the country, lord...I felt like I was driving forever!

He lives in a pretty old house that will be very nice once my sister and he do some renovation. It was his mom's house, so it needs so paint, etc. Evidently, she had shag carpeting throughout -- covering up a very nice wood floor. So, some of the work to be done is just cosmetic.

The other sister and her significant other couldn't make it.










Some of you remember that I drove a Saturn for years before I bought my current Subaru...I gave the Saturn to my nephew...who proceeded to treat it the way a young person treats a car...Poor, poor Saturn -- now sitting on my sister's significant other's farm, a couple of accidents later...

Ikea

O and I went to Ikea today, mostly just to get out of town for a bit. Neither of us bought anything.

We both know he's going to be moving as soon as he finds an apartment, but we are still doing couple-like things (like visiting Ikea). I did ask him today for a timeline for when he'd be moving. For my own emotional health, I don't want things to drag out for too long.

This is something we saw at Ikea. It is a toy beaver. Doesn't it look EVIL to you, lol!?

It looks like it should be a character in a fairy tale: Once upon a time, there was an Evil Beaver who lived near the bridge...


The Evil Beaver will eat you if you cross his bridge...

Gasoline Leak

In other news, yesterday I took the car into the shop because I was getting a strong smell of gas from the vents. This only happened when it got below freezing, so I figured the car was just not burning the gas properly.

Turns out one of the gas lines had a leak. That's a potentially dangerous issue, so I'm glad I took the car in!

I didn't get too much done today except to wash and wax my car for the first time this year -- I used to wash and wax it a lot more often, but not so much anymore. The car looks good, but I made one mistake.

I had some spray stuff for the tires, and I thought that maybe I would be able to use it on the floor mats. Just now when O and I went out, we noticed the strong smell of vomit in the car! It turns out that the spray stuff smells like vomit as it dries, lol! I guess when you spray it on the tires outside, you don't notice it, but it was not so pleasant cooped up in the car!

One of the reasons we went out was to pick up a couple of bottles of "2 buck Chuck" from Trader Joe's. Of course, it's not 2 bucks anymore --- more like $3 something. It's not bad "daily" wine.

I still have a few roses blooming. This is Melody Parfumée, which smells pretty good and was a welcome change to the mats in the car!

I spent the day catching up...running errands and such.

A few days ago, I mentioned to O that I had been thinking about replacing the battery on the Subi because the car had been turning over a bit slow lately.

I keep a pretty close ear to my cars, so usually I can tell when something sounds or acts differently than usual.

Anyways, today I came out of store (doing a bit of early Christmas shopping), and when I tried to start the car, it first turned over but wouldn't crank. Then on the 2nd try, it wouldn't even turn over. Finally the 3rd time that I turned the key, it cranked.

So I drove straight to the auto parts store and bought a new battery! It's cranking wonderfully now!

I mentioned some early Christmas shopping. Because I'm leaving the job...and because of the looming recession (I'm worried I should be using the "D" word now...), I'm cutting back on Christmas shopping this year.

Sigh, my car is getting old!

I used to trade my cars every 6/7 years. Even though the Subi is now 6 years old, the current plan is to hold onto it for a while. I'd love to replace it with a more energy efficient vehicle, and I'm sort of waiting to see what sorts of cars start getting released over the next few years.

I see that Honda will start making small numbers of a fuel cell electric car.

They are only releasing it in California because there are some hydrogen fuel stations there. I wonder why that is -- why are their hydrogen fueling stations there?

The Japanese automaker will produce about 200 of them over the next three years. Honda would not say how many will make it to the U.S., but those that do will be leased only in Southern California.

The FCX Clarity converts compressed hydrogen gas into water in a process that releases a stream of electricity that powers the car. Fuel cell cars are "zero emission" vehicles, releasing only water vapor exhaust. It gets about 79 miles per "gallon equivalent" in city driving and 68 on the highway, according to Honda. (Electric cars are more efficient at lower speeds.)

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/autos/0806/gallery.honda_fcx_clarity/index.html

Remember the fender-bender, and how the guy at fault didn't have coverage? Well today, I get a call from his insurance company saying that there was coverage after all -- I can only assume that this was not out of the goodness of their heart -- I figure that one or more of the 4 people involved have gotten lawyers.

Anyways, looks like I'm going to get a little something for my bumper damage. I have an appointment next week to see one of their adjusters, where I should get a small check for the damage.

I think it's time for a spot of eye candy --

A friend sent me this link.

Here's a car that I'd like to have! All electric, 220 miles per charge and looks good too!

The catch? Base price of $98K!



Tesla Motors

I had suspected this was starting to be the case -- that some American-made cars were approaching the same level of reliability as Japanese makes.

But I just can't get over that '75 Chevy Monza P.O.S. that I had in college -- I can't let it go just yet, lol!

Before the Subie, I did own a Saturn, which I was pleased with, so maybe I'd go back to Saturn next time I buy a car. But any other GM car? I can't see it yet.

If you believe J.D. Power's surveys, ....

....Lincoln, Cadillac and Buick all out-scored Toyota's Toyota-branded and Honda's Honda-branded vehicles in the same 2005 J.D. Powers survey.

GM and Ford's non-luxury brands didn't do quite as well but the Ford brand and GM's Chevrolet came out above average.

See the table for the details but, as it turns out, a lot of Japanese brands -- everything from Mazda right down to Isuzu -- came off worse in the survey than the worst GM brand, Pontiac.

The nature of the problems reported has also changed markedly over the years, said John Tews, a spokesman for J.D. Power. Major problems, things that would actually make a vehicle not drivable, are rare today, he said. "Problem" now usually means a squeak, a rattle or a stuck knob or switch.

But the people at Consumer Reports don't have quite as good a view of Ford and GM products as J.D. Powers' survey.

In Consumer Reports predicted reliability ratings, brands like Toyota, Subaru and even Suzuki rank higher than Pontiac, which has average predicted reliablity in Consumer Reports' estimation.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/23/Autos/american_cars/index.htm

I need to keep this in mind...I usually keep my cars 6 - 7 years before I buy a new one.

By keeping your car for 15 years, or 225,000 miles of driving, you could save nearly $31,000, according to Consumer Reports magazine. That's compared to the cost of buying an identical model every five years, which is roughly the rate at which most car owners trade in their vehicles.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/30/autos/cr_drive_200k/index.htm?eref=rss_topstories

Got my oil changed this morning. I went to a place I had never been, just up the road from me. The place was fine. I got there early, and they had me in and out in about an hour.

The only problem is that they had parrots in the waiting room -- I have a bird phobia, lol...really, I don't like birds, at least not at close range. The parrots were screeching the entire time I was there. Two were in cages, and one was open-air.

The waiting room was not that big. I sat as far away from them as possible. Needless to say, the birds made me uncomfortable, and I kept an eye on them the entire time I was there. I also didn't particularly like the pile of bird droppings and birdseed underneath the cages -- it looked very dirty to me.

Wow, guess what I just got today?

Remember when I wrote a letter to Subaru of America because of my blown head gasket? I basically outlined that I had done the maintenance properly on the car and that it was WAY too early for a head gasket to blow...

Today, I got a check for full reimbursement for the repair, down to the penny.

I'm very pleased and happy with SOA for reimbursing me. That means to me that they know they have an issue and are at least trying to rectify it.

This means that that expense will not put a bind on me as I start my sabbatical...it was kind of a concern for me that, as I get ready to leave my job, that I would have such a big expense.

The other day I took (yet another) rock to the windshield. I barely noticed it since it wasn't that big of a spot. But, as I was driving to work the next day, I heard "Pop!" and then a small hissing/cracking sound as the crack spread like lightening across the windshield. I was shocked...thinking "What just happened?"

Anyways, got the windshield replaced today. Actually, this is the 2nd time this week -- the first one had a 6" scrape on it that the technician didn't see until after he had already started the install. But he pointed the scrape out to me, and another guy came and replaced it again today. I used Safelite -- they seemed to be efficient and do a good job.

It looks really bright and shiny...much better than my dirty car!

What a great Saturday! Sunny and it's supposed to be 73ºF!

Got the letter off to Subaru of America about that blown head gasket. I have no delusion that they will offer any real response, but it never hurts to ask...

On another front...this journal has always been just for friends and family...so it has had a fairly consistent (small) number of hits a day. Well, yesterday, I decided to get the link posted on the Richmond Va Blogs page. The guy that runs the site said that I could get the link taken off if I didn't like the additional exposure.

There has already been one effect -- I've had some responses to older posts from people that I don't recognize.

Another, unexpected, effect -- when I posted before, I always had one or two or a few people in mind for most every post -- basically, the posts replaced the e-mails that I used to send. Now, when I post, I see a more general audience in my mind's eye...I'm not really a general audience kind of guy, so I'm decided to continue to concentrate on the smaller friends and family audience when I post. I'll leave it linked on RVABlogs for the time-being, but continue to post as I've always done :)

On a final note -- I'm posting this YouTube because I don't think that people (gay or straight) see enough romantic love between gay men -- there are too many stereotypes -- this is a (kind of sappy) clip from a show on the BBC in the UK, I think.

I didn't post yesterday because I was busy and because I was still a bit shell-shocked. The verdict on the Subaru was that it had blown a head gasket...

I think that deep down I already knew this, but didn't want to admit it...I couldn't find a hose that was leaking and the spots on the carport were coming from the center of the engine.

The price at the dealer was, shall we say, shocking...it was like running the credit card again for Christmas! Ok, not quite that bad, but wow...it sealed the deal on my last day of work -- I need to stay through February now to pay this damned credit card bill! At least it happened now and not after I left work...

Anyways, I did some research online -- this is a known issue with this sized engine. Subaru dealers have been instructed to put "conditioner" into the coolant to prevent these problems. Maybe I'm just not trusting enough...but I read "conditioner" as "make it last until after the warranty has expired."

Turns out that Subaru of America extended the warranty for the head gasket on model years 2002 and prior. Unfortunately, mine is a 2003...

This is AWFULLY early for this kind of problem in a car... So, I'm composing a letter as we speak to SOA to request that they extend my warranty and reimburse me.

I don't have much hope for this...but it never hurts to ask. I'll post the letter when I get ready to send it.

The good news is that the car is running great...better than it has in a year...which I think means that the problem started a while ago...