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@Drew Dowdell @Robert Hall @trinacriabob @A Horse With No Name @ccap41 @surreal1272 @oldshurst442 And including all of the C&G members that are here that I do not interact with often enough or those I have forgotten their handles. Wishing each and every one of you a Merry Xmas Eve and Merry Xmas. To those that do not celebrate Xmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Holidays, Happy time off. Wishing each and every person here a restful end to the year, one of love, respect, relaxation to you and your families. Wishing all the best!

no, but this month is 18 years together.

I think you need to look deeper at this. He made his money, millions of it, by talking, so he has a natural desire to keep the conversation going. He was also incredibly disingenuous about it. It's all well and good to say we shouldn't build walls, but he was responsible for building or reinforcing most of them. This tweet is just rage bait designed to get the right wing angry at the gays, many of whom serve in the military. May is Military Appreciation month. So not only is he spreading bigotry, he's also spreading misinformation.... and he did that All. The. Time. When he got shot, he was in the process of trying to blame mass shootings on trans people. I frequently see people say that he was taken out of context, but when you go look up the entire context, what he's saying is even worse. You know what dead guy you don't have to ever explain context about? Mr. Rogers. Did you know he also kept a public list of professors who taught on subjects like feminism, LGBT issues, or even just American history that he didn't like? He posted these professors pictures and contact information on his website and turned his supporters loose on them flooding them with death threats, sending barrages of e-mail and phone calls to universities to get these professors fired, some of them even having to uproot their lives and move. Doesn't sound very in the spirit of "just keep talking" does it? Imagine having 100,000 people e-mail your boss saying you need to be fired in the worst terms possible. That's not very freedom of speechy of him. He spread Covid misinformation too, something which conservatives have been 100% wrong about on every angle of the subject for over 5 years now. His entire operation was grift. Getting people angry in order to extract money from them. Heck, his memorial service yesterday was selling Merch! His wife set up a gofundme even though they've been bringing in millions for years. So, while you feel you may have some alignment on his views, I would highly encourage you to find out what he was really about and the positions he took specifically to build the very walls he was claiming to want to pull down. But feel free to post a position he had that you agree with and I'll take a wack at it.

Oh I LOVE to engage in politics and talk politics. It is difficult for me to follow my own rule here. But there are other places on the internet for that and I would rather we keep this a friendly place. Politics can, especially of late, ruin relationships and friendships. I've left car clubs over politics and the general bad behavior associated with older white straight men of a particular political party. For a time, I considered shutting down C&G because every thread devolved into an "I love EVs"/"You're a dumb liberal if you do" fight and it really killed my love for this hobby. It has been difficult for me to return to it.

Happy Birthday @Drew Dowdell!

It's not about putting down the fork. It's about changing what that fork picks up.

Since making major changes to my diet and walking more, I’ve taken off 10 pounds in the last month. Still got a ways to go, but almost under 200lbs for the first time in 25+ years.

Not religious, but I find the orthodox church about eleven billion times more Christian than American evangelicalism. I have several man caves, a spare bedroom in my house for reading, a garage woodworking shop, my living room set up for Stereo equipment. This is why most of my time is in my wood shop, my living room with my stereo, or out hiking/on my bicycle. The more I know about humans, the more I like cats, dogs, and birds.

Different account. You're thinking of @VenSeattle. All of the accounts were new signups that got through 2 layers of spam filters. I pay for an extra layer of spam security for this site, that's why incidents like this are relatively rare compared to other sites. The first line spam firewall has blocked over 5,400 attacks over the last 7 days, and it's like that every week. So 11 getting through once every few months is still fantastic results. There's a second layer of spam filter as well. These spammers were reported to both.

Speaking of guys holding a Yorkie, here I am with Lola recently at the vet. She’s been to the groomers since then.

He was sleepy joe because we could all sleep at night and he wasn't up at 2 a.m. posting unhinged tweets. You're right about all the rest, but here's some additional context. The Chinese EVs are so cheap because there is a price war going on in China in the EV market right now. They are being sold at a loss even in their domestic market because they have so many companies producing them, they are trying to outlive each other to eventually dominate the market. The Chinese goverment also is subsidizing the purchase of EVs on the consumer end while supporting the industry with subsidies. It's the EV tax credit and battery plant subsidy we did but times 10. The Chinese want entry to the North American market for the same reason. They don't want to just sell here, they want to put the legacies out of business so they can raise prices later. They did this with the solar industry already. We once had a booming solar panel production capacity in North America, but China came in and undersold everyone and now China controls that market.

In this latest war with Canada (we'd been bros since like 1813), this American is taking the Canadian's side. That's all I've got to say on it.

Talking, in general, about politics is not taboo. Talking politics where politics are not wanting to be talked about, is taboo. Nobody is going to specific group pages (Corvette, Mustang, Dallas Cowboys, Montreal Canadians, Dale Earnhardt Jr) groups and wanting to talk politics. Go to political pages that are dedicated to talking that stuff. There are sooooo many pages/sites available if you want to talk politics. Talk politics with people who want to talk politics. That seems fair, right? Personally, I don't want to be talking about the new Silverado EV's multiple trims and battery sizes and have somebody cram some political garbage into the comment section.

Damn, that is so true…. Hard not to when it comes to cars… But it’s much more relaxing to come to places that don’t talk about those “things”. I’m sadly down to a few forums that still enjoy talking about cars…….

While I'm as angry over the current state of things as anyone, I'm going to gently steer the conversation away from politics given the no-politics rule we've had in place for years. If you've got something political to talk about, it must be related to the car industry somehow.

It’s been a cold, snowy January. Highs have been in the 20s since the 1st, flurries every day. I always start my Mustang once a week, got it and the Caddy out this morning. Roads are salty so they went back in the garage…

As far as modern wagons go, I found the recent Volvo V90 quite attractive.

Call me old fashioned, but as much as I like two-tone exteriors, I don't like all those colors and stripes. Looks like a basketball shoe.

By far, the sexiest wagon since the CTS-V Wagon.

One of my sister’s friends has gone overboard with white. Both her Michigan lake house and Florida house are all white inside, walls, kitchen, white carpet, white furniture, white trim, white dog…a bit much IMO.

Over the last six years or so, I have slowly grown my Vinyl collection. This project was an effort to preserve my vinyl playing ways after the original 50 year amp gave out and I could not find a replacement anywhere on earth lol. Here's some other pics of the progress over the last week or so... After gutting it, I installed some wood slats. For the record, nothing was cut away from the cabinet itself. I steed away all the original components in case I ever come across another OEM amp for it. The only change to the cabinet itself was the paint and stain job. After that, I set did a little "switcharoo" with some old school Sony floor speakers that were put into storage due to a pair of blown passive woofers (top speakers in them were active woofers with the bottom being the passive woofers). I combined the working woofers into a single cabinet and cut out two holes on one end to install the mid and tweeter from "gutted" floor speaker cabinet. Then that was installed through the back of the console and it barely fit lol. Here's the rest of the work.

Lol you're not fitting in a Prelude.

You're right. At the time, the forum was more GM-centric and all of the car divisions were around, with Oldsmobile just having exited. The Canadians on here were just like the Americans and they themselves also had a long history with GM cars that they owned or that their families had owned. Some of these folks were interesting, and even funny. One such person was a Torontonian who had held a lot of different jobs, one of which was selling GM cars. He took us back to the Toronto that had a sizable middle class thriving there, unlike the very expensive Toronto of today. He told quite a few ribald stories, sometimes oversharing, but they made for interesting reading. He had a significant other from Brazil, so he began dividing his time between Toronto and Brazil and then participated less and less. But he made some eye opening posts! Yep, it was just normal back and forth car stuff - commenting about mostly ICE coupes and sedans that were still around - or just random daily cartoon strip stuff that was happening in our lives. During this period, I met one of the more understated Canadians on the forum when I was in Canada on vacation and he had recently picked up a babied rust-free Cutlass Supreme colonnade. That meeting was a good experience.

Same. I have no problem with a little auto related politics but most of the last few months here has been basically a bunch of “F America” nonsense with no real substance. Just trolling is all it is and at 52 years old, I have better things to do than to constantly sift through the same nonsense just to read something of actual interest.

So stop it.

While I agree with your overall position here, you have to accept your role in feeding the troll during all of this.

Today marks the two-year anniversary that I do not have a motor vehicle to my name. There's less to hassle with. But the periodic renting is also annoying. When I see a nicely kept same model year LaCrosse going by, there might be a slight wince. I think it went to a good owner, as far as I could see, and hope that they get good use out of it. Actually, you can make an adventure out of riding transit. For example, I love that cheap 7-day MTA card that works across all five boroughs of NYC. Discovering large metro areas using public transit passes can be fun, as long as it does not lean too much on the "thrillseeker" side.

Going to be a nice sunny day. Got to get out of my home office and take a walk..

Here's a pic I took Sunday at my favorite local beach on Lake Erie...been up there the last two weekends...taking a folding chair and a floppy hat, sit and listen to the waves..very relaxing...dip my toes in the lake. One of my happy places where I can shut out the drama of the world.

I thought it was a Sonic. It works for the vehicle it was put in though. It started at like 14k when it first came out. The Spark's was basically the same design that just looked newer(because it was). That's exactly what it was back then. Big tach with a small digital speedo + other information. This was my Triumph Daytona's instrument cluster (not my picture):

That sounds very smart on GM's part. That way they're only really making like 3 packs and adding them together for various uses. I'm sure other companies are doing things similarly, I just don't know about it. Thank you for the information. It's much appreciated! While I think a lot of auto enthusiasts would agree, I think the masses think the opposite. I know a lot of people who just want all black interiors. Well, I think everybody I know who's bought a vehicle recently has wanted an all black interior, for whatever reason. I'm more of a fan of dark brown leathers. I'm a sucker for that.

Some more pics.

Dad sent me spy photos of the 2026 Ford F-150 SUB testing south of Miami last week.

That's every car company out there. Toyota and Honda only exist today because of the US government getting Japan back on its feet and then later the Japanese government supporting them with currency manipulation and socialized pensions and medicine. Subaru was originally Fiji Heavy Industries which built busses, trains, heavy construction machinery, and was a major supplier of airplanes. FHI is still a major aerospace company who supplies parts for the Airbus 380 and just about every model Boeing makes or has made that starts with a 7. They also make military helicopters and both military and commercial drones. Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and VW are all here today because of the Marshall Plan and later their countries' social medicine and pension programs. Mercedes makes a lot of military and construction equipment purchased by governments. BYD (and others) is where it is because the Chinese government spent loads on battery development and incentives to its citizens to by EVs. Prior to that, BYD built their industrial might on building busses and other heavy machinery for the Chinese government and local governments all over the world. GM and Ford had major defense contracts during WWII, the 2008 bailouts, the Biden EV tax credits, the Obama cash-for-clunkers incentives, and much more. However, they famously have always had to manage their own healthcare and pensions systems which are what put them at a competitive disadvantage throughout the 80's and 90's. Stellantis's ownership timeline is too convoluted to even tackle, but Chrysler was bailed out in 1979, then they bought AMC/Jeep which had been kept afloat by the military, then they were bailed out again in 2008 by both the US and Italian governments. Fiat is/was a major equipment and bus supplier in Europe. The French government has always supported Peugeot and Citroen... the list goes on.

I got a mid-size portable one rated for 4500w. It doesn't run the whole house. It's enough to keep the downstairs fridge and freezer going, the internet up, and the phones/laptops charged. In the wintertime it can also be used to run the furnace. We lost power for 18 hours overnight this past winter when it was 11 degrees out, so getting one that will run the furnace was on my list of requirements. We get multi-hour outages several times a year, during the worst of covid we had a transformer blow a couple streets over and they couldn't get a replacement for days, so I think it was an overdue investment. While it does have a connection available to wire into the breaker box, my breaker box is not set up for it. So for me, it was just stringing orange extension cords under the garage door and out the living room window to plug into the unit in the driveway. We got power back for a short time at 11 p.m., then again at 3 a.m., I was able to power down the generator at 3. Last I looked, there were still 134k without power, over 400k at the worst of it. They're saying more bad storms tonight.

This thing looks worse than the EQS. 2 things that car companies need to get rid of is the bar of soap design and the yoke steering wheel. And I just saw Mercedes is going to steer by wire and showed a yoke style steering wheel. People don't want yokes in a car.

On mine, there is a box on the lower right marked 'PARTS CONTENT INFORMATION'.

Just not good enough at being a motor vehicle period...just hideous, shoddily built chod..

Kind of feeling like 2020 again... holding off on excess spending..though I do have some home remodeling projects I want to do in the next year... no car payments, Jeep (80k miles) and Cadillac (60k miles) running fine... will be a while before I need another vehicle (also have my sister's Equinox w/ 10k miles for around town driving). Work is going well, 5% raise for this year, got my annual and quarterly stock grants laid out for this year, company stock staying stable for now.

Good morning. I think it would be funny to go into a biker bar, locate the jukebox, select "McArthur Park,""More, More, More," and "I Love the Nightlife," and GTFO.

Whine, like everybody has been here about politics? No wonder there are only like 5 people routinely around here.

In true Stellantis fashion, they should make the Compass about $55k to compete with the Land Rover Evoque so that when they don't sell they can discount then $13k like the Dodge Hornet and still not sell any. All they have to do is put the Hellcat in the Wrangler for $130,000 and then all of a sudden that $60k Wrangler with a 4-cylinder looks like a smoking deal.

He wants to start a war with Canada not realizing that most of us south of the border would fight on the Canadian side.

Both a sexy beast and an outdated dinosaur.

I'm pulling back hard on spending. My vehicles are weeks (300c) or months (Avalanche) from being paid off. The LLC that owns C&G got some new contracts recently and I'm going to be writing off every last thing I can. Both of us may be putting a lot of expensable miles on soon and we might find a cheap EV lease to take advantage of the situation and keep the miles off the ICE vehicles.

2024 was a Presidential election year, with many twists and turns, including assassination attempts and the resultant rare occurrence of a former President getting reelected, let alone one who was impeached twice and had felony convictions. The CEO of Tesla decided to endorse the former President and made a $250 million investment in the endeavor. This CEO also supports the end of the $7,500 EV tax credit not for the health of the EV market but because he believes Tesla would have a competitive advantage over other makers. Despite having obvious conflicts of interest and being the beneficiary of hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies, he is heading an unofficial “Department of Government Efficiency” and is acting like a co-President. In April, a total solar eclipse brought people out to a swath of the U.S. between Texas and Maine. In other parts of the world, strife continues in Ukraine and Gaza. The Notre Dame Cathedral reopened after a five-year restoration after being gutted with a fire. Prominent passings included producer Quincy Jones, actor David Soul of Starsky & Hutch fame, reporter Charles Osgood, country singer Toby Keith, disgraced baseball player and manager Pete Rose, actor and voice of Darth Vader James Earl Jones, comedian Richard Lewis, O.J. Simpson, actor Bob Newhart, actor Shannen Doherty, fitness guru Richard Simmons, talk show host Phil Donahue, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, and the 39th President, Jimmy Carter, who was the longest-lived President at 100. In automotive news, Chinese EVs are still being kept at bay due to the 100% tariffs signed in September, though Chinese automakers are looking to manufacture EVs in Mexico. Honda and Nissan announced a merger amid the pending Chinese onslaught. GM’s previous partnership with Honda was short-lived, with the proposed affordable EVs canceled. Volkwagen introduced the pricey ID.Buzz but struggled with an overall lack of demand and high labor costs. In October VW showed the upcoming EV Scout Traveler SUV and Terra pickup, due in 2028 and having intriguing solid axles. VW and Rivian announced a joint venture in November giving Rivian some badly needed cash and VW getting software and other technology. In its first full year on the market, the Tesla Cybertruck had its supposed reservation list of 2 million completely depleted with an estimated 2% take rate on total sales of around 40k, far less than the expected annual rate of 125k to 250k, though the the $61k single motor model may go into production in late 2025. Tesla began discounting the Cybertruck and offering free Supercharging for life for buyers of the Foundation Series models. Overall sales for Tesla are flat, despite a major refresh to the Model 3. The antics of the CEO have soured many on the brand, and competitors are selling viable alternatives, especially since the Supercharger network is being increasingly opened up to competing brands. Jaguar is reinventing itself into an exclusively EV brand with ultra luxury offerings. It introduced a new logo, had an ad that was widely derided, and unveiled a cartoonish concept coupe with no rear window. The Fisker Ocean, an EV SUV originally costing $40k to $70k, went for fire sale prices after the company filed for bankruptcy and started winding down. Desperate vehicle owners banded together to work on getting parts and continued support for their vehicles. Henrik Fisker moved on to work on a new venture dealing with food. Another troubled EV startup, Canoo, is on its deathbed. It has innovative vehicles, but the company’s executives seemed more interested in having high salaries than producing vehicles. With EVs overall not quite catching on as expected, automakers are embracing hybrids for upcoming models, though California still plans to ban light duty ICE vehicles in 2035. Governor Newsom announced that California would reintroduce EV rebates if the federal tax credit is canceled, but they may not apply to Teslas or other automakers that have exceeded a sales volume threshold. Stellantis was in turmoil with unhappy dealers, a sales drop of almost 20% over the previous year, and a threadbare lineup. Dodge began sales of the Charger Daytona EV with muscle car sounds, but the car got mixed reviews. CEO Carlos Tavares resigned near the end of the year. The Hemi V8 was scheduled to go out of production after getting replaced by the Hurricane twin turbo V6, but it’s getting a brief reprieve, as its availability, including the Hellcat, will be continued for one additional year in the ancient Durango. Honda finally announced that the Prelude will be reintroduced in the U.S., essentially as a Civic Hybrid Coupe, after earlier announcing its reintroduction in overseas markets. Meanwhile, Toyota has indicated that the Celica will be brought back to life. Vehicles not making it into 2025 include the Chevrolet Malibu and Infiniti Q50, making those brands all SUVs or trucks. The entire Jaguar range except the F-Pace is gone. Other retired models include the Mitsubishi Mirage, Mini Clubman, Ram Classic, Ford Edge, Toyota Venza, and Nissan GT-R. Here’s the 23rd annual edition of Cheers and Jeers for the best and worst things automotive in 2024: Cheers to Chevrolet for the Best New EV with the Equinox EV, which hits a sweet spot of affordability and functionality. Originally intended to supplant the Bolt as the entry-level EV at GM, the Equinox EV can be purchased for about $30k for a basic model after the $7,500 tax credit until it’s canceled. The Bolt EV is expected to be reborn later in 2025 using the EUV bodyshell and LFP batteries. Honorable mention goes to Honda for the GM Ultium-based Prologue, sized between the Equinox EV and Blazer EV. It has been a surprising sales hit, and unlike the Chevy models, offers Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. Cheers to Chevrolet for the Best EV Pickup with the Silverado EV, specifically the LT model with Premium Package, which has most of the content of the top-of-the-line RST model, including the midgate and Supercruise, but with 22 inch wheels that should give a better ride than the 24 inchers and a price under $80k that makes it eligible for the $7,500 tax credit. The Silverado EV is the best all-around EV pickup for hauling, towing, and doing truck things. Cheers to Cadillac for the Best Concept with the Sollei convertible based on the Celestiq. The Sollei isn’t particularly remarkable other than it wears the Cadillac EV design language well and has an interesting “Manila cream” color, but there were very few other interesting design concepts, as automakers do fewer of them to save on costs. Jeers to Kia for the Most Questionable Styling with the Kia K4, which replaces the Forte. Kia has mostly been on a roll with the styling of their new vehicles, EV or ICE alike, but the looks of the K4 comes across as awkward, particularly at the C-pillar. Cheers to Rivian for the Best Vehicle Introduction with the R2, which has most of the goodness of the R1S in a smaller size and a much smaller price, estimated to start at $45k when it goes on sale in 2026. The R2 will also have a smaller R3 sibling with an R3X performance variant. Jeers to Tesla for the Most Overhyped Vehicle, the Cybercab. The financial types were hoping for the affordable $25k Tesla, but instead they got a weird two-seater robo-taxi with butterfly doors and no steering wheel and still no confidence that Tesla will deliver on the promise of full self-driving. More Jeers for Tesla for Worse HR Move by firing almost the entirety of the Supercharger division, which delayed many projects and opening up the Supercharging network to other automakers, and doubtlessly caused stress and hardship for the employees. This move was made by the CEO because he was angered that the number of layoffs made by the chief of the division were too few. After a few weeks, several of the fired staff were rehired, but not the previous chief. 2025 is off to a rough start, but wishing everyone a safe and prosperous New Year.

Do me a favor. Pick up some N95s just to have. This new bird flu. The timeline of cases is eerily similar to the start of Covid. First a case in Vancouver. Now 60 cases in California. A case in Louisiana. Lions and tigers in an animal sanctuary dropping dead. It’s clearly made the jump to mammals. All 50 states have chicken farms vastly infected. It has a higher mortality rate than covid.

"...because in the desert, you can't remember your name, cause there ain't no on for to give you no pain...." I had to shed a mountain of cobwebs to decide say HI here. Been a while. Likely half a decade. Don't worry I've now got Castrol coursing through my veins. I use Valvoline for my hair. Mobil brightens the teeth right up. I take my supplement of Pennzoil for the omegas and brain health. Nothing like Quaker State for breakfast. I voted for Amsoil in the election by the way. In oil we trust. Amen.