Drew Dowdell
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Everything posted by Drew Dowdell
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October 2017: General Motors Co.
Drew Dowdell replied to William Maley's topic in Sales Figure Ticker
New Regal isn't even out yet and old Regal is out of production already. My Buick dealer has a single previous gen Regal in stock new There are no Cadillac sedans newer than the XTS. As of August, the XTS is the one with the most recent refresh. I've seen a number of them on the road already. -
Both daily cars are AWD. I have 90k Michelins on the Honda, but they never get past 40k. It doesn't bother me too much because I get more than 50% off my next set. The Toronado will need new tires in the spring. They're some off-brand that I bought 7 years ago and they've always been terrible. They're getting dry-rot now, so even though they have a bit of treadwear left, I'm not comfortable taking them on long trips anymore. I did 1,000 mile trip on them in Sept and it will basically remain garaged until April.
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I don't have a second set of wheels. I take the tires to Costco and have them swapped off the rims. This does two things: 1. I don't have to have a second set of rims also. 2. It keeps my tire swaps and rotations on record for warranty purposes. I keep strictly to the rotation schedule and Costco always warranties out my tires because they never make it to 50% of treadwear warranty miles before they need to be replaced. Can you do a gas burner (slightly better than electric) or a wood stove?
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I'm wondering what advantage you'd get out of it in your driving though. If you don't have the performance to need it in the first place, won't the OE brakes do?
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Long disagreement short: There are older vehicles out there that are not and will never be museum pieces, so there is no harm in in powertrain swapping them or converting them to EV. I'd have no problem pulling a tired, smogged, 500ci from a 70's Eldorado or Fleetwood and finding a way to load a P100 power unit in there. crap... I forgot. I'll need to do this soon too. We had our first fire of the season here yesterday. How time flies. Oct 31st was my 10 year anniversary and it seems like just yesterday. And yet, there are some of you here who I've known longer than that.
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A Halloween Surprise: Jeep Shows Off 2018 Wrangler: Comments
Drew Dowdell replied to William Maley's topic in Jeep
Hey, if FCA can get the $$ for it, I don't blame them for the pricing. -
Talk about cars, not about each other. First general warning.
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I haven't driven the 6-speed auto... but it's only available in the FWD base model Compass, so I think the take rate will be too low to matter. The ZF 9HP fuss is much ado about nothing. It had some early teething issues, but I've not had any even minor issues with it in a while. It shifts smooth and goes about its business without getting in the way. The problem arises when it is paired with engines having mediocre low-end torque like the 2.4 Tigershark. In that scenario, the transmission will shift more often than people are used to in a futile hunt for more torque. It's not the transmission's fault, it's just doing the best it can with the amount of torque being provided. With that, I feel that the 9HP is getting a bad reputation that it doesn't deserve. It is just like any other transmission when paired with weaksauce a engine. Given the choice between the Rogue Sport CVT or the Compass 9HP, I'll pick the 9HP every day of the week and twice on Sundays. That isn't to say that I dislike CVTs, but the Nissan CVT is another one that does best with an engine with torque.
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The ecological damage of battery mining is largely Fake News promoted by people who have an agenda against EVs. Lithium is mined from predominantly from "the deadest places on earth". From the article: Furthermore, coal generation is rapidly declining. Those who are savvy about EVs usually have other environmental concerns in mind, thus are more likely to have solar panels or where available, select renewable generation for their house. I don't have an EV, but I have already switched my house to 100% power via my electric utility.
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Fiat can be very hit or miss, I agree there. But in this case, the 6-speed manual is a good one. To be honest, it's the 2.4 liter Tigershark that would be more on my radar and that's a Hyundai / Chrysler unit. They have been slowly but surely improving the NVH on that over the years. I drove the New Compass back to back with the Rogue Sport and it easily beat the Rogue Sport in engine refinement.... I realize that a Nissan 4-cylinder isn't a really high bar.
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Just to clear things up, the new Compass does not have a CVT. All transmissions are fully geared. The base 6-speed automatic is an older design but used in a huge number of vehicles from all brands (Ford, Alfa, Volvo, Opel, Saab, Hyundai, Jaguar, and others) There is the 9-speed auto from ZF that is shared with the Jeep Cherokee, Chrysler 200, Land Rover Evoque, a few Acuras, etc. Then there is the 6-speed manual that @ocnblu has. It is a Fiat Powertrain unit and I found it to be a nicely smooth shifting transmission when I drove it. In other markets, there is a diesel available which is paired to a 7-speed DCT. No CVTs at all.
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Your most recent premium subscription expired in 2015. If you have Premium Subscriber under you name instead of just Members. Then your subscription is active. Thank you for being a multi-year subscriber. Anyone who wants up subscribe can click the store tab at the top of the page. Thanks all for the feedback. I'll start some test deals posts this week.
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Would different terms for the subscription be more appealing? Monthly, every 6 months, etc?
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Any other input? @regfootball @Cubical-aka-Moltar @lengnert @Paolino @FAPTurbo @NINETY EIGHT REGENCY @ocnblu @smk4565 @balthazar @daves87rs @riviera74
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Lol that old compass was terrible. I have a Quick Drive review of the new one coming.
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Yeah, except for one ad unit that I shut off last week that I need to replace and bring back, I don't intent to increase the overall number of ads on the site. I may move them around a bit. I don't want to do pop-ups or page overs (the ones that take over the whole screen and you can't see anything). A friend of mine runs a very popular travel related website and a good 50% of his content is just the deals that he posts which he gets a kickback from. Now, I don't see us getting anywhere near that level of deals vs. news, but he makes incredibly good money doing it Has a staff and a flat in Manhattan) ... so if I can just get to a fraction of what he's getting out of it, then I'd be more than happy.
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My cat is on there too... but most of those, the ones not tagged with Ad, are actually links back to CheersandGears... so that must be some thread on the site somewhere.
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Erm... those are based on your browsing history. But thanks for your input on the rest.
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What didn't you understand?
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Erm... you can buy a Suburban today...
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Two questions for the community - 1. Would you like/not mind/dislike/hate an an article stream where I posted coupon codes and other automotive related deals? These would be targeted specials and C&G would get a kickback if you used the coupon code. Those of you who are premium subscribers would still see the deals even though you are exempted from other advertising. 2. How would you feel about me installing an AdBlock detector? I know many of you use Adblock, as does an increasing amount of our guest traffic. Our falling ad revenues reflect that (whitelist us maybe? I don't run intrusive ads). If ads do bother you a lot, would you consider purchasing a subscription. If not, can you tell me why or what I can do to make the subscription better?
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These have always been an attractive little package and they sell well.. I wonder how Kia will advance it without ruining the original sauce.
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I still maintain that most of what has been holding back EV/PHEV sales is lack of choice and until very recently, lack of range. It's no surprise that the most successful EVs are also the ones with the best range and multiple configurations. I still can't get a pure EV with AWD unless I go to Tesla. Most of the german PHEVs have too short a range to bother with them, they just aren't cost effective. The Volt has better range, but limited utility being a smallish 4-seater. I'm an American damnit! I want it all... a roomy AWD pure EV that can go 250+ miles between charges and looks good doing it.... oh, and leases for no more than $450 a month. Is that so much to ask? Bake that recipe, and they'll fly off the lots.
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The Bolt EV also did not go on national sale until late August / Early September.
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Mercedes to BMW to Audi translator GL(x) = X(x) = Q(x) (xx)A = 1 or 2 = 3 (xx)C = 3 or 4 = 5 (xx)E = 5 or 6 = 5 (overlap) (xx)S = 7 (future) = 7 (also 8 in future) German to English translator: Coupe = Sedan or SUV
