Leaderboard

I Think Dfelt said it best in the links he has above. But I think some of the biggest is simply not beating the car down, and simply changing the oil often. My neighbor has a 16 Chevy Trax with the 1.4 turbo. The car is now a bit over 115k. She has not needed to resolve anything but basic service stuff (Fluids, tires, brakes) so far. The car gets an synthetic oil change every 3 months, regardless of mileage. I got to take it for a quick test drive before we got our 20 Trax. It still runs great with no issues. If I keep my turbo cars (most likely) I just have to make sure they get extra love....and not abused to keep them in good running shape....

Yeah, I've been twice..once to Rome, Naples, Pompeii, Florence and the Amalfi Coast. Spent a week in Rome and a few days around the other areas. Second trip was up north to Milan--from there went to Venice, Turin (the Italian National Motor Museum was great), Lake Maggiore and Lake Como... I want to go back and see Pisa, Cincq Terre and the Italian Riviera..thinking that could be a French Riviera trip also.

I have been in Italy. Except highways, driving that RAM will be like driving semi in NYC

Cadillac is going to get killed on this by auto reviewers and by @smk4565. The first review I have read of the 2020 CT4-V and while the reviewer likes the auto, he clearly points out it is not the ATS-V, but that is OK as a Blackwing is on it's way. Yet he then points out that this is using a Turbo 4 from the Chevrolet Silverado 1500. Honestly, I understand why Cadillac is doing this, but they are going to get hit for it in the press until the Blackwing arrives and it better kill the old ATS-V. https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/reviews/2020-cadillac-ct4-4dr-sdn-v-series-preview/ Diesel Gate is alive and well as the German Courts have ruled VW MUST BUY BACK 60,000 Diesel auto's in Germany giving current value of the auto based on Mileage and then crush them. This will add on billions more the the $33 billion VW has paid out worldwide to date. Diesel is dead. https://www.autoblog.com/2020/05/26/vw-diesel-buy-back-germany/

@Robert Hall Great pictures! We have been at Amalfi Coast 2 years ago, it is beautiful. I was considering renting a car just so I could drive on those roads but the parking in those villages is basically non-existent, so didn't want to bother. I loved Rome, would like to go back and I would like to see the north of Italy. I guess due to FCA there is surprising amount Jeeps, mostly some Grand Cherokees and a lot of Renegades.

Heh-heh...with some of those narrow mountain/coastal roads there is no room for more than a narrow path... and in the ancient cities some streets narrow down to little more than an alley. I drove this road along the Amalfi Coast, actually scraped mirrors w/ a passing car in one small village...saw traffic stopped so a tour bus could negotiate a tight turn. Driving in Italy is adventure, i really want to go back...

You mean destroying beautiful old buildings to make wide roads so people could drive their big ugly crossovers? Sure ...

I do not see a problem with the Turbo engines as long as you follow their scheduled maintenance in the owners book. This is the biggest problem in that many owners ignore basic maintenance with a Turbo engine that can easily eat through the protective elements of the synthetic oil and then with bad habits of stomping on the engine it burns rings or other problems. Turbo motors have higher maintenance than non turbo motors. I remember my brother inlaw who bought a buick Regal GX with the supercharged motor and he had it blown at 75 or 80 thousand miles and complained that Americans cannot build auto's to last. I asked him if he did the required maintenance on the car as the supercharged motor has specific needs to be done according to the scheduled owner manual and he said no, you just drive the auto and occasionally get the oil changed. This is the attitude that many have and why they went with Asian auto's who had basic do nothing NA motors. Yet this same man bought Acura's and thinks they were the world till just recently. He traded his wife's car and his in for a pair of RDX's with Turbo motors. Her RDX has had water leaks and electrical glitches. His has had nothing but problems with the Turbo motor. Less than 15,000 miles and two Turbo's later still having issues. I told him to use the lemon law and have ACURA take them back. His response was maybe, I will look at Honda as I hear they are good auto's. I cracked up laughing and told him same company, different name. He did not believe me till I proved it to him. Now he is looking at Toyota. Go Figure, Lemmings wanting no responsibility. Pathetic. Here is some good info for you. Pro's and Con's of buying a turbo auto. https://www.samarins.com/check/turbo-car.html Another review between turbo 4 or NA V6 https://www.autobytel.com/car-ownership/advice/v6-engine-vs-4-cylinder-turbo-engine-which-is-best-133466/ I personally would go NA V6 even though you loose a bit of Torque. I think it is smoother.

Impossible that Ram was photographed in Italy; “the streets there are way too narrow for a full-size truck”. I’ve read that claim dozens of times- it must be true.

Better late than never. Here are some sightings from 4 days in Eastern Sicily in early February ... when things were still "normal" there. By order of comic relief: 1. a Subaru doubling as a police car (they have different types of law enforcement and carabinieri is one of the different departments). A Subaru?!? 2. They have gone nuts with these weird pastel enamel colors on small cars over there, like this pale blue-green on Fiats, Renaults, Citroens, etc. This one is in front of a funeral home. You can also see that people have been spending more money on their cars over there. 3. This made for the best laugh. It must have belonged to the guy who worked inside the gas station and ran the credit card. I can't believe they sell these in Sicily. I don't see a big V8 under the hood and I wouldn't assume an automatic transmission is a given. It's fun to spot cars that are out of the ordinary from what you'd expect in a far-away place.

Amalfi Coast...never been. Ive been to Santorini. Very comparable as both civilzations are built INTO the mountain side... How does the Italian government BEGIN to demolish the mountain to build bigger roads to accommodate American cars? And then...does the government destroy what is already built there for 1998 Dodge Ram dulies? Maybe my sarcasm filter is on the fritz, but...yeah... I dont think so Tim! And then I see it has already been covered...

I disagree BIG TIME!!! For many reasons. And its not so much about "saving every little thing" but as much as "how the phoque are we gonna rebuild the infrastructure with soooooo many houses and business cramped into such a little space?" And THAT is only for a few yards squared. Multiply that by a block or two, on one street, and then duplicate that on another street and you'll get what Im talking about. If not, Ill explain further. In other words, a few thousand miles of houses and businesses need to be destroyed to make room for bigger roads...and where do these houses and businesses go? Its not as if Italy or Greece has wide open spaces like Canada or the US has. In other words, every square inch in Italy and in Greece is accounted for. And with literally THOUSANDS of years of development on every square inch in those countries, there isnt much room for huge American style cars. Remember, Italy and Greece were built with human hands and legs and were helped with horses and donkeys. Unlike in North America where the majority of its cities were created with the help of the railroad and the gasoline powered automobile... Montreal and Quebec City... You could see the difference with these two North American cities. They were founded and built like old world Europe. And things are tight for the automobile in the old parts. But as both cities grew with time and became modern with the modern times, the cities were built with the automobile in mind. Yet...because these cities are still kind of old world, both Quebec city and Montreal have not very wide streets as compared to say...Los Angeles or Las Vegas. Athens...Rome... When it comes to North America's oldest cities, Montreal, Quebec City, Boston, New York, Philadelphia...are still babies in human terms.

hour-long documentary on the Batmobile :

Seems to be a heck of a lot of very interesting automotive news today.

Tesla Y AWD as no RWD or FWD version available starts at $48,690.

It’s not going to ‘get killed’. This is standard industry practice now, widespread sharing. In fact- it’s now embraced, except, of course, at GM or Ford. Audi A6 comes with a VW passat engine. Unfortunately for audi, the passat-base is no where near the level of the Silverado. Not that you’ll ever read any “UH-OH” articles focusing on that at Audi.

I don't think turbo 4 or NA v6 on a CUV would be the deciding factor for me unless all else was equal (never really is unless it is the same car with 2 engine options) then I would likely go NA V6.

That is where the gov needs to rebuild the damn roads. Stop trying to save every little thing built eon's ago.

Yeah...there are definitely many places it couldn't go. I saw a few Tahoes in Rome when I was last there in '04. But far more Grand Cherokees and other midsize two-row SUVs like Range Rovers and Mercedes G-classes. When I drove a Mercedes A140 (1st gen A-class-- the tiny subcompact one) from Rome to Salerno via Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast there were some roads and streets where it felt too big...

The Ram has a Cummins "C" emblem on the fender, so it's a diesel inline-6 torque monster/appropriate power for such a rig as that.

The list has changed over the years, that is for sure. I grew up around dogs as both my mom and aunt raised show dogs. Lots of cool dogs out there... ? Our dogs (Lhasa Apso) is at 78

^ A few years after I got my Duramax in '06, a guy at a gas station said to me : 'That's a turbo-diesel, right?' "Yep." 'How many miles you have on it?' Then it was about 75K. 'Good luck; around 120K the turbo will likely explode.' he advised. Now it has 198,500 miles on the same turbo.

Did some work on the parking brake cabling assembly. After carefully cutting the front cable's steel jacket off, the cable is likely too short by about 4 or 6 inches. Probably most of that is that the car this assembly is from has a 8 inch shorter wheelbase. Here's a shot of the rear & intermediate cabling loosely hanging. Routing it to the underbody will take up more linear length. Also held the center sections of the exhaust up underneath, planning the routing. Looks like it'll be fine but will need a few more pieces of pipe to fabricate. Again- this universal X system is likely all for shorter wheelbase cars. You know; cars for girls. ? Finished sound deadening the package shelf tonight :

I just saw one of those blurbs on the most popular breed of dog, ranked from 1 to 99, based on registrations or something like that, and it goes like this: 1. Labrador 2. German Shepherd 3. Golden Retriever It's not surprising when you think of what dogs you see around. My three favorite breeds come in at 13, 25, and 29 on the list, respectively: Australian Shepherd, Border Collie, and Miniature Australian Shepherd. For these three breeds, you need a good dose of time and energy to keep up with them.

Diesel

Saw this clean ‘69 Cutlass in a driveway in my neighborhood this afternoon.

This Judge convertible clone is for sale for $48k...has a 428. I like the green. I like this dark red '69 LeMans convertible.

Not sure it will do much for them with everybody buying 40-60K CUV's instead of sedans these days unless it is a Model 3..