Robert Hall

Anecdotally, the last time I was at a rental lot (Hertz #1 Club Gold, San Jose airport) a couple months ago, the selection seemed to tilt heavily in favor of Hyundai, Kia and Toyota....a couple years ago the same garage area seemed to have a lot of more Ford and Chrysler products.

Definitely looks evolved from the G35 and G37 on the outside. Bland and generic inside. As far as entry level goes, Europe has the Q30 hatchback (FWD on the Merc A-class platform). I assume the US will get it or a sedan derivative...

At the time of that incident (4 years ago), this guy was 40...he had a small stroke and got shingles from the experience. I ran into him about a month ago (I'm on a gig w/ a different client in the same office tower), he's still with the same company, got a 'battlefield promotion' from that incident and no longer does death march projects. He's lost a lot of weight, after his second in-cube heart attack in a two-year period. When I worked a major bank, in a 6 month period 3 guys in my department of 25 people had heart attacks...1 fatal (was 32), and two recovered and got 'battlefield promotions'. I quit shortly after that, got tired of 65-76 hr weeks and driving nearly 60 miles a day round trip. Corporate life can really take it's toll. I'm taking daily 500mg of a prescription anti-depressant so I can sleep...

True dat. A few years ago on a death march project, the lead developer was downing at least 4-5 Monster drinks every morning and working 90-100 hrs a week...one day about 7 weeks in, he started bleeding from his nose and mouth in a meeting then passed out...ended getting carried out of the conference room on a stretcher by an ambulance team...

Oddly, I never had those issues w/ 8....I upgraded to 10 from 8 on my current Toshiba laptop. Overall, I much prefer 10..it's way more stable (I used to have to take the battery out periodically to get Windows 8 to boot). The start menu is sort of back and much easier to use in normal mode (without the Metro tiles).

I haven't had those issues, but persistent issues I've had w/ Win 10 include the volume icon and wifi icon dissapearing from the dockbar...Windows 10 did a huge update yesterday for me, w restarts it took about 45 min to install.

Got a bit of nice cool weather here..was 75 a couple days ago, then 59 high yesterday and today's forecast is about the same..

I do like where the new LaCrosse looks to be going...and like the Avenir concept. I think the 'quiet luxury' angle is a good way to differentiate themselves from Cadillac and the more 'flashy performance luxury' approach that the Germans focus on.

He posted a pic of the car and a pic of the engine in an engine compartment of the same color. This guy presents himself on FB as a automotive know-it-all, but I think he's just another asshole. Supposedly has a large collection of vintage cars and is an heir to the Meijer store chain... I suppose a dealer could install a NOS or crate engine in a new car for one of their owners, but would a 3800 even fit in a Epsilon II?

There is a guy on a FB page claiming he bought a new '14 Regal w/ the 3800V6...I thought the current Regals were 4cyl only, and that the 3800 went out of production in '08. He claims it was special order and that it was a China option (he's in Michigan and claims he was able to get it built because his family owns a bunch of Buick dealerships..) Sounds like total BS, but is it plausible?

Americans

Happy birthday!

The complete failure of the A/C system made it undrivable, power window failures( one window twice in a year), steering column tilt failure, multiple engine sensors, stability control computer, random stalling, radiator, etc. My sister is much happier w the Trax. I've driven it a couple times, neat little car. Got to get her dead Mercedes hauled away soon, they are clogging the front and back carports. Trying to get rid of the detritus of life tying us down to Az so we can escape in 2016....

The DTS was nice before it started the downward spiral into being a money pit. Just no point in spending more money on an old car when something was failing every month.

It is a Jeep, so of course there are small leaks. Rear main seal has leaked for at least a decade. I have a couple quarts in the back, will have to check the spec. I was using the same oil in the DTS, it was going through a quart a month or so.

Why do you use such thick oil? 20w50 is THICK stuff. Actually, I didn't even know they made a high mileage oil in that thick of a viscocity. That may not be the exact viscosity, that's what came up when I googled it...I remember the brand and that it was a high mileage blend (Jeep 4.0L w 162k miles)

Kind of reminds me of a couple magazine articles I read back around 1979-80...Car Craft or Hot Rod put a then-new and trendy GM V6 (don't recall if it was the Chevy or Buick one) into a '67-68 Camaro and applied various aftermarket parts of the day to it... In a similar vein, a blogger somewhere is/was building a Fox Mustang w/ the new 2.3 Ecoboost engine..

I shudder to think how much stuff I have spread between two houses and four storage units, in 3 states... A friend of mine in Denver keeps a spreadsheet of everything he and his wife has..he says it's for insurance purposes, but I think it's just part of his OCD (though he prefers to spell it in alphabetic order--CDO)

Hankook

I get my oil changed every 3-5k miles at my regular shop, they put in Castrol GTX 20W50 high mileage oil..

The dealer franchise system is an antiquated artifact of the past. The traditional automakers are applying pressure to force out an innovative upstart...nothing new...

The GX seems to fill that niche, it's 7 passenger.

Saw a very clean '80s vintage Porsche 911 Carerra Turbo-look cabrio, in yellow w/ the black centered Fuchs wheels. Top down on a sunny Saturday morning.

Kinda looks like the '17 LaCrosse in disguise

I realized we were still posting in the November thread (though really months have little meaning). Saw a very clean bronze '69 Olds 88 convertible today, top down. And did a double take when I saw a gray Pontiac Torrent in a parking lot..forgot that vehicle even existed. Looked like a 1st gen Equinox.