pow

You mean R&T?

A SWB Lambda H4 Flex Fuel Hybrid.

That's what I'm thinking. BMW. It doesn't look like a BMW, but it appeals to the sort of people who buy BMWs. It's sporty, techy, flashy, vulgar, and anti-Jaguar, or in other words, what sells.

DCX = "foreign junk"

It's the Volvo 960. It used a single transverse fiberglass leaf spring, like the Corvette's.

No, it's even worse. The *engine* is the one with 9.5 qts of oil. I checked the tranny capacity again, and you're right, it only holds 8 qts. That means there's only about ~1 qt. of fluid in there. What I'm worried about is the excess oil (capacity is 4.6 qt) damaging the catalytic converter and the lack of lubrication in the tranny destructing itself. Tomorrow morning I'm draining the oil FROM THE ENGINE and filling up the TRANSMISSION with ATF. It should be interesting what happens.

Nah, Honda V6 transmissions suck. On an Ody forum poll, the failure rate was 33%. The car has 31K miles, and if the tranny clunked out now, it wouldn't be too unusual.

I didn't put any oil in the tranny, but I drained it twice (extracted 4 qts ATF, thinking it was oil; then drained 3 qts ATF) without replenishing it. There should be ~5 qts left (out of 12). I put ~2 qt. ATF in the engine (through the dipstick), thinking I was refilling the ATF I drained earlier.

I didn't want to jack up the car. The oil filter was in the wheelwell and the ATF drain was nearby, too.

Normally I never work on the Odyssey, but it needed an oil change and transmission fluid change, so instead of getting raped at the dealership, I thought I'd do it myself. So last night, I extracted the oil through the dipstick with my Mityvac evacuator. Then I poured in fresh oil thorugh the fill cap. This morning I drove it a while to get the ATF warmed up. I drained the ATF through the drain plug, and refilled it with a funnel into the ATF dipstick. I drove it around the block. But then I noticed some bad noises and gear slippage. I opened the owner's manual again, and lo and behold, what I thought was the engine oil dipstick was the ATF dipstick, and what I thought was the ATF dipstick was the engine oil dipstick. So now I'm 7 quarts low on ATF and have 9.5 quarts of engine oil AND 2 quarts of ATF in the crankcase. $h!. Hopefully there isn't long-term damage and Honda doesn't view C&G.

That looks about right. I'd probably have the the AURA above the Optima.

Anybody?

It doesn't matter if it's used.

I like everything except for the front fascia. Like the new XK, it's one of those cars that get better the more you look at it.

Freestyle Mazda5

New car similar to G5? New Vibe? Regrilled Astra sedan?

Not yet. It's a midsize 4-door sedan.

Good riddance. There are tons of other midsizers to buy before the Vectra.

Does food count?

What recent (within the last 10 years) midsize passenger car used transverse leaf springs similar to the Corvette's?

If I hadn't seen the spy shots, I would have found it too truck-like, as if they're going after the dying 300C craze. As a whole, I think the CTS will look fine.

That's how Camrys start at $18,270 and Accords at $18,625. But when you add automatics and destination (as with GM cars), basic LE/LX models average $21K MSRP.

The Expedition may technically be the better vehicle, but the Tahoe has a better image. For the school runs around here, Tahoe/Yukon/Suburbans outnumber Expeditions at least 4-to-1.

Hybrids have the potential to get far better MPG than any diesel. A Prius driven carefully, like in the EPA city cycle, spends half its time with the gas engine off. If you drive with haste, however, the advantages of hybrids die off, and diesels start to look more attractive.

IIHS would kill them. I can't imagine a new 1999 Jetta doing well in the IIHS side test.