Leaderboard

1) My take on how I roll with salespeople (and how I think others should roll): If the item or service can wait, and you push me, I won't be buying from you. If you do not push me, but seek to inform me, I will be buying from you. * * as for the $ 1,400 stimulus payment, I went out and bought a 3 over 3 (cushions, that is) sleeper sofa to put in the room where the desktop computer / printer are. (I'm also giving a token amount to humanitarian causes ... i.e. disaster relief.) The salesman was polite, patient, and mild mannered, so I filed his business card away that he gave me when I had gone in prior to the pandemic. When I went back in after a year of pandemic, the price quote had only gone up about $15. Done deal. I will post a photo when the ordered sleeper sofa arrives. 2) Advice given to me by a professional on handling administrative matters: If you get an e-mail, text, or other communication that gets you riled up, do NOT answer it that day. Sleep on it and address it the next day.

Exactly. Everyone likes what they like. For example, I personally like cars from 50s even though they are way before my time, just like their swoopy aerodynamic (or what they thought aerodynamic at that time) shape. It just balthasar and David making comments about how badly designed old Ferraris or Lamborghinis are while adoring some over chromed bricks seems a bit funny to me. But as they say, whatever floats your boat.

In case you lost count; we're in the 4th month.

I wonder if Madoff will ponzi scheme his way in acquiring a coin for the Ferryman

You called it legendary, yet you find most Ferraris 'meh'

Should be posted in the Vaccine thread.

Very cool Read on a modern take from Hyundai on their legendary Pony car. Hyundai Pony Heritage Becomes Design Studio Centerpiece (thetruthaboutcars.com)

Seems Hyundai has an amazing Van but it will not be coming to the US. Diesel or V6 gas are the engine options. Hyundai Staria specs revealed, but the stunning van isn't coming here | Autoblog Quote: Hyundai promises two engine options for global markets. Europe will enjoy a 2.2-liter turbo-diesel engine that produces 175 horsepower and 318 pound-feet of torque. They’ll also have the choice of a six-speed manual or eight-speed automatic transmission, making us all the more jealous. Other markets will have the option of a 3.5-liter V6 instead of the diesel. This engine makes 268 horsepower and 244 pound-feet of torque. I will say that the dash reminds me of what we are seeing in EVs today. Looks nice in executive trim.

I love uncovering tiny signs of Year 1. I know at one time everything was brand new, but sometimes you still forget.

I stand corrected. I guess one can... It is more accurate to say: Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder. If you look for beauty, you will find it. And by contrast, if you look for ugliness and faults, you will find that too... It all depends on what you want to find.

Exactly. And what's even more perplexing is how some of the most self-righteous people who play the "holier than thou" card, and should know better, are either swayed by it, choose to look the other way, or are wolves themselves. Without getting into politics, I have no clue how people could stand to watch more than 3 minutes of "The Apprentice," where any douche bag with pearly whites can show up to be a "project manager." It didn't look like many of those contestants were schooled in engineering, construction, finance, IT, and the hard sciences that would even allow them to put parameters around a project. That's because most of the folks who ate that sh!+ up ("The Apprentice") wouldn't even think of asking something like that.

True. But we (our modern society) seem to WANT to be seduced by these wolves in sheep's clothing. Our morals and scruples seem to have been loosened over the years. And when we do that, we beget more and more wolves in sheep's clothing until the wolves our brazen enough to not even disguise themselves as sheep. Look at the last President... Money...the root of all evil.

Lucky folk, though. It was a blessing for them if not for his other victims. I found it more appalling when back in the day, news media, journalists, analysts, bankers, politicians, etc...revered this thief and swore by him.

I knew about him and what he did when it was hot off the press. But today, I read a little blurb about him. I was disgusted to learn that he looked down his nose at prospective very wealthy clients who wanted to invest somewhat more moderate sums with him and that, unless they invested more, he would not take them on as clients. Those were the conditions he put forth. Madoff is an appropriate surname for this dude: he MADE OFF, all right. Good riddance.

Quoted for truth......

• cleaned both valve covers to 90% outside, 100% inside. Need to fire my sandblaster cab back up to take care of the last bit. • cleaned up 3 intake brackets (2 wire looms, a PCV hose bracket) and shot them with self-etch primer. • shampooed the carpet- came out really good. • got hardware for the intake ready for paint (have to keep them in correct order- a few different length bolts).

Strong disagree with your comparison to plywood prices.

Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, truly proving the saying of common sense is not so common. Let me break this down for you then. The post is about economies of scale not working for EVs when prices are going up. I point out that it is hard to lower prices when costs are going up due to greed of companies. We have shortages of chips, basic supplies to go into making so many components and as those costs go up, they are passed along to the customer. As such, it is understandable that especially now with the backlog of ships still needing to get through another example the sueze cannel after the container ship blocked it for over a week that cost are going up. That does not mean long term economy of scale will not still work to lower costs. Right now, greed has played a major role in so many things being more expensive than they need to be. I pointed out how the ripple effect of the greed of the unregulated power industry in Texas has driven up the costs of items across the board. Your freedom to agree with me or not. I just pointed out why costs are increasing. This is the same for ICE auto's, prices are continuing to go up due to shortages and material costs going up. So no difference between ICE or EV.

Hate to say this but a simple surgury answered your question.

IBIZWAX is sold in a box package at Costco which also had soap for washing, the waterless wash/wax spray that I use to do an initial cleaning of the auto, their Everything Wax, Sheen spray for the inside of the auto and then the Headlight and metal polish cleaning material. Inside Costco it is $49.99 As such, I found it convenient to buy and use and been happy with the results. I am sure the online product offer if you want it delivered to your home to be good too I am sure. See below for both instore details and online that Costco offers. IBIZ World Class Detailing Products | Car Detailer Products| Wax Direct Online from Costco, they have an alternative box'd package of auto detailing for $59.99 Meguiar's Gold Class Car Detailing Kit (costco.com)

So some believe James Bond is only a code name given to that agent, as such, a future James Bond could be Black or Asian. ? So then if they go with a Woman, does the name get changed to Jamie Bond???????????? ?

No one promises lower prices, but the greed of the power companies there affected the core of the adhesive companies that produce what is used by the plywood companies and as such, prices and supply have jumped crazy high. If the Texas power companies bit the bullet of investing in protecting their infrastructure when this last happened, companies would not be out of power, people would not have died due to freezing and so much more. Yes I stand by my statement that the greed of the texas unregulated power companies is costing us all. If you look at the adhesive and other components that are used in production of plywood the core of them are all located in Texas. The power outages that could have been avoided if the unregulated greedy power companies had been forced to protect their generation stations and transmission for adverse weather the last time it happened and we would not be seeing such huge jumps in products from Plywood to gas. Texas Greed of the power companies has had a major ripple affect across the whole country. Everything has gone up greatly in cost due to just core basic gas costing so much more as we seem to have foot dragging to restart gas production sites in Texas, then you have the chemical companies that had to restart and now are having higher costs to get their products to market. Ripple affect is wide and big and it affects everything including building auto's.

Last night I washed all 3 auto's, SS, Escalade and Suburban. So they are all very clean, was a long but worthwhile 6hrs for a deep clean. This week is all sunshine in the greater PNW and into the mid 70's by this weekend. This morning before I had to jump on back to back calls, I used my IBIZWAX waterless wash/wax to get the auto ready for a deeper waxing on the Suburban. So looking good, now I can put the IBIZWAX wax covering on it to have it protected for the rest of spring and summer. Then onto the SS and Escalade.

Top Plywood Companies and Manufacturers in the USA and Worldwide (thomasnet.com) Hmmm, I don't see ONE company located in Texas. Not sure what power outage has to do with plywood or Tesla price increase. Care to expand?

Did anybody promise lower plywood prices though?

France has joined a growing list of European countries that are pretty much paying for you to move to an electric bike especially if you live in the city. Trade in your gas auto to be crushed and France will give you $2,991 US or $2,500 Euro's to buy your new electric bike. In many cases top of the line Electric bikes like those built by Peugeot cost $2,500 making it a no cost option to change over to an electric bike form your to quote the French Government, inefficient gas auto, reducing the need for insurance, gas, maintenance, etc. With France having free chargers all over their cities, this will help to clean up the air, reduce noise pollution and increase the healthy life style of the citizens by having them use an electric bike. As stated in the story, many families that have two auto's might still need one for long distance road trips and with e-bikes being cheaper if it is an import from outside France could make it a 2 e-bike family with a single auto for long distance road trips still making it a great deal. Another major EU country to offer $3,000 e-bike credit to trade in your old gas car (electrek.co)

This seems to be consistent across the board for everything. September last year, 1/2" x 4 x 8 sheet of plywood was $24, Then after the mess of power outage in Texas, the same wood item doubled to $48 a sheet and now Home Depot is asking $80 a sheet. EVERYTHING seems to have increased in cost due to the incompetence's of greed out of Texas.

Fords agreement with VW will have Ford for their European operations in Cologne Germany using the VW MEB EV platform. Fords first auto will be an undefined utility EV equal in size to the VW ID.4 Ford's VW-based EV will be a utility vehicle, report says (autonews.com)

There are many things. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and everyone has an opinion. '50s cars don't do it for me...before my time. 60s-70s cars I can relate to, but my sweet spot is the 80s-90s. I like all sorts of cars, from the US and abroad. I try and avoid xenophobia with cars...not partial to any particular brand or country of origin. How a car drives is irrelevant to the styling; many 60s-70s cars are horrid to drive by today's standards, many vintage exotics look gorgeous but are ergonomic/packaging nightmares.

Personally to me Mehh is most American cars from the late 60s, early 70s and 80s you guys are posting. Huge, misproportionate, land yachts full of chrome and bad taste. I don't see them as beautiful at all. Plus they drove like crap too. The only cool cars from that period are muscle and pony cars. But that's just my personal opinion

Random thought ... random palm tree ...

They did it; the Starfire, then the Toronado.

Warped phoquing people. These people are NOT Christian. Nowhere in the bible does it say that sex is bad/evil/sin... Its just says that EXTRAMARITAL sex is a sin. Marriage is a HOLY bond between a man and his wife...no funny stuff OUTSIDE of the marriage... Immoral sex has NOTHING to do sex before marriage or who is your partner. homosexual sex. Immoral sex is cheating on your spouse. Married folk SHOULD have LOTS AND LOTS of sex. Procreate. Be fruitful and multiply it says... THAT is all it says... Phoqued up folk translate that into other shyte...

News from the carb rebuilder; dey dun!

Yanked the hood and rigged a ‘disassembly light’. Committed now.

Actually they are all the same dude, shpe shifting ninja with multiple personalities...

I’ve read that early Connery closely resembled the Fleming character persona. I’ve never read the Fleming novels, but have read ones by various authors since the late 80s. Bond has had some interesting cars in the later novels, incl an ‘80s Bentley Turbo R and a Saab 900 Turbo. the 1954 version is on You Tube, I’ve watched it. Peter Lorre is the Le Chiffre character, and Jimmy not James Bond is an American.

The original was Barry Nelson in a 1954 tv adaptation of Casino Royale.

There have been so many different Mr. Bonds: Niven, Connery, Lazenby, Moore, Dalton, Brosnan, Craig ... Did I miss one?

Then it makes zero sense to compare. We' get a post from you almost once a week where some EV company or technology come out saying prices will go down.