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Picked up a new (to me) drill press. Made between 1904 & 1907, Champion Blower & Forge Co out of ocnblu's backyard- Lancaster. Probably not obvious by the pic, but it's 4.5 feet tall & weighs 180 lbs.

At this point I don't have a favoured brand, most are worth considering. Every model has its own plus and minuses and I will vote with my wallet based on needs, research, budget etc, without sentimentality or bias. Both our cars are 10 years old and have had no issues aside from wear and tear items though. We only need one car so it could be 5+ years before we buy again. Gotta question those awful performing Honda Accord Hybrids with their mid 40's mpg and 0-60 in 7.0 seconds, huge trunks and passenger areas..

WTF, one is a large midsize family car, the other a small compact.

On the Traverse, they're doing the 2.0T, but no AWD.... not sure what the logic is on that one. Still, they're only calling it an RS rather than RST. I have a Cruze RS Hatchback this week as a press car and it looks really good. They could offer sport RST packages of the Blazer and Equinox by giving them a mild turbo tune and magnride. I'm not sure what they'd do for Colorado. They already do the Trail Boss package there.

I test drove a Hyundai Elantra GT a couple months ago as Hyundai was giving $40 amazon gift cards away with any test drive and the guy I dealt with was really cool and we just BS'd the whole time but I get a call 2-3 times a week since then from their manager or whoever asking me about it.. It's always while I'm working so I never answer but good lord.. They have to have called me no less than 10 times at this point. Edit: Probably more like a month and a half ago..

I saw a stelvio last week. Meh.

I forgot to update this. After 2 calls from the sales manager, to which I responded once to tell him that the original person I met with was just fine, I got a voice mail from the "Customer Care Manager," yet a third person, to see how I was coming along with my decision. What decision??? The whole message was very scripted and she had one of those interesting gravelly voices of an older cocktail waitress in an off-Strip Vegas casino who had just gotten off a smoke break, so I hit the save button for the message. I tried to call her back because I got such a kick out of her voice, but it went into a general message box so I didn't leave a message. Then, the first salesman called me back and I had to (fictitiously) tell him that this would be an adjunct car to my primary sled and that I wasn't really on the bubble to purchase. Hopefully, they got it. But what a complete turn-off. I guess the lesson is to wait until a person can snag the updated version of this compact car for $19.95 for a day from Enterprise or Budget to go somewhere within 100 miles of home, familiarize themselves with it at their leisure, and not have to deal with all these phone calls ... about 7 in total ... and from 3 different people.

Have about 85% of the floor inside covered with sound deadening material- a roofing product called Peel & Seal. 6" wide x 25-ft, you cut it to the desired shape, heat it up with a heat gun, peel the paper backing & roll it down. It's some sort of butyl rubber / asphalt with a heavy foil on the upper side. Then all the seams were gone over with aluminum tape. This makes the car both quieter and cooler inside. Power level/ air volume is likely going to be making some heat under the floor, and I'm already a bit worried that any decent performance mufflers are just going to be too loud IMO. Need to SOMEHOW come to a decision on rear speakers, since there are NO cutouts in the rear window area for any and it's time to cut them. However, I really have never paid any attention to car sound systems; I'm clueless here. I do have a friend who used to compete in sound competitions, I think he was once clocked at something like 143 db. Hopefully he can 'dumb down' a recommendation for those who don't care to bleed from the ears when they listen to music.

Platform sharing..I'm sure the XTS can similarly be priced up much higher than other models it shares a platform with.. or a Lexus ES compared to a Camry.

I have been working 6 days a week and haven't been on the B-59 in a good 3 weeks. Damnit. I have a new centerlink (my 3rd), in the hopes I can rebuild mine- which is at a standstill. I have to get back to this car, a factory 2-tone Invicta : I've taken about the last few parts left; need to go back & get the spindles & forged wishbone A-arms- it's got a date with the crusher in June. Hmm, I should also take all the stainless- they're not making that anymore.