Leaderboard

Nice sunny Sunday. Went to the Cleveland Auto Show. Some highlights…saw thr Cybertruck. Bigger and uglier in person than in photos. I like the S650 Mustang, though still prefer the S550 styling. The Cadillac Escalade IQ is bigger in person than in photos. Love the Lyriq rear end. I love the C8 Corvette. Sat in the blue one. The red CT5 is really calling my name. There were classics on display also, took a bunch of pics of the ‘66 Toro for my sister. She wants one, she’s wanted one since it came out and she was 9. Relaxing now at Hofbrauhaus downtown. Time flies, can’t believe March 1 is coming up. (Quarterly stock grant time). And in unrelated good news, had my annual review and got a promotion to Staff Software Engineer.

Sunny Feb Sunday in CLE. My Jeep still looks great at 10 yrs old and 78k miles.

in two days, THREE year VANIVERSARY! New cars, buy or lease, are pretty unobtainable nowadays. Sales wanted me to reup the lease for 300 more bucks /mo. MSRP's through the roof, for the same thing. And weirdly, there is not much for color availability for a replacement, in other than black and white these days. No can do. Took advantage of the really cheap buyout price and now are owners. Sitting about 29,000 miles. Using as a daily driver 2 days a week now, and the Regal 3 days a week. Still enjoying this ride and its been knock on wood, no issues. Last fall I bought OEM wheels for cheap for winter rubber... but never did get the tires this year as winter has been so mild and without snow. But next winter I'll be able to get some X-Ice or Blizzaks. Love the comfortable seats. And the higher ride height is a nice welcome contrast vs the Regal. The Harmon Kardon sound is really good. Far better than the junk Bose (redundant term, I know) in the Regal. Pacifica sales were really good last year, and this vehicle will remain in the Chrysler lineup for the foreseeable future. In fact, there is a major refresh now coming out in 2025 or 2026. I can't wait to see what it may be. Some rumor renderings look good, some others don't. Part of the reason for the buyout was GM hasn't gotten their new Acadia and Traverse out yet. Painfully slow getting them to market! And the Enclave too! 3 times now and technically this is the 4th time we could have looked to get into the GM three row products. The Pacific is just easy to drive and own. Rides great, quiet. May look to replace the TourX one of these days when GM finally gets those new 3 rows to the market. Our last three vacations, we've rented Pacificas also. The front drivers pull amazing highway mpg when your doing interstate driving. Have still had interest in the plug in version.....I think they still have teething issues with them, but also..they are heavy due to the battery and you lose stow n Go as well as all wheel drive. I was interested in test driving a Sienna hybrid, but you can never find one on a lot. Plus, the Sienna interior is ghastly.

I will stand corrected as I see Ford CEO in Dec 15 2023 confirmed that they were moving forward with Google on the Qualcomm Android system in supporting the use of Android Auto and Apple Carplay system. I lumped Ford in with GM as a year earlier with the Qualcomm Announcement they said they would protect the data by not using the cell phone connectivity. I guess customers have spoken and Ford has changed back to replacing Sync in all their ICE and EV autos with the use of Android Auto and Apple Carplay. That I am very happy about. I tried to find the story I wrote about the Qualcomm Android Auto system where GM and Ford along with a few others had stated in moving to this system they would protect customers data by not allowing Android Auto / Apple Carplay and would use the software API SDK to create their own software interface. I did a quick search across the news stories but could not find that story. Yet THANK YOU, having found the news stories on Ford CEO in December 2023 stating they will stick with the ability to use it is GREAT and I am very happy for that as I think GM is making a BIG BIG BIG mistake. Yet it is a switch that they can flip back on. Hopefully Mary and team will get their act together and turn on the support for Android Auto and Apple Carplay.