ShadowDog

I consider them both to be the same amount of effort. I ended up using the wax system instead because the product was always handy in a bottle, I had plenty of buffer pads, and the buffer did all the major work on the large surfaces while hand-cleaning took care of the nooks and crannies. Three steps: Prewax cleaner (fantastic results if done right); then the sealer for the added protection before finally putting on the wax coats. After that, if the sealer remains in good condition, all I ever had to do was wash and wax. I'd check the paint over after drying to see if there was any remaining debris and it would remain clean for 1/4 to 1/2 of the year, depending upon air quality where I drove.

The first full year working with my brother only a mile from my home has provided the greatest benefit I could hope for, more time with my wife and our two boys. I even drive/bike/walk home for lunch. Living close to my mother allows my eldest son (2 years old) to enjoy a couple hours outside with his grandmother almost every day while my wife can be free to care for our 6-month old. All the loving hands a family needs are all walking/driving distance. Having a need for a life outside the home, my wife accepted an offer by her former employer to come in two days a week to help them out. I stay at home those two days to be with my sons. This will likely change in April, when I may be needed more at my job; however, we'll see what happens.

Thanks for the kind words guys. I'm trying to find all the positives in this holiday season; thankfully, my wife and kids bring me that joy. Man, my mother-in-law could suck the life out of a corpse. LOL Dinner was good; that is, what I could cram down my throat just as our 6-month old woke up with teething pains. The joys of parenting will get better, I know. It truly is a Merry Christmas none-the-less. I hope you all are having a great holiday!

I miss my Christmas. The wife and our boys and I are at the in-laws in Calgary for the holidays and it's the same stress for the same reasons. How I would love to be at home, sitting with my wife next to the lit tree, sipping warm cider and watching one of many of my favorite traditional Christmas shows... nope, instead we end up here, keeping each other from snapping at her OCD suffering, eccentric, over-bearing mother. We remind each other that it's Christmas; that we're happy to be here for every one else in the family. On a good note, my brother just had a baby boy on the 23rd, the same birth date as my eldest sister. My wife celebrated her birthday today, the 24th. The future holiday weeks are going to be extremely fun in our family. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and have and excellent start to the new year!

I forgot to mention how well this made me laugh, you know, coming from you that is. Perfect.

Great scene. It's just so easy to be creative in a door-ding moment to imagine that outcome being the case. The attempted 'high speed' head on was the icing.

I'm of the opinion that there are two types of belief structures within any religion. The first is to take what one will of the written text of your holy book of choice for the simple kindness and love for your fellow friends, neighbors and enemies; the people, such as yourself, I can really respect. The second is of blind faith in the written text and executing it as the laws of humans with absolutely no moment of thought on its validity in society of any time, past, present or future; contradictions be damned, the law is the law... oy! I seriously question the sanity of those in the latter category.

Well, that will certainly be appealing to the new-age hippie crowd and some of the yuppies, too. Catchy... annoying, but catchy.

That truck'll get it done nicely. Enjoy the season! We had a '95 1-Ton flat-deck last year that was excellent to get around in. This year it was replaced with a '05 quad-cab flat deck. With a full hopper of sand in the bin, the guys say it feels like an ice breaker in the snow. You take your foot off the gas and the thing just keeps pushing. It was decided that plowing would start without the sand to make things easier on the axle and transmission. Around here, people live off the highway and deeper in the bush. They choose to commute some 50+ kms to work each day, so they have plows attached to things like 4-Runners, Land Cruisers, Range Rovers, etc.; and drive them the whole way each day. What a good way to destroy a piddly vehicle. Get a cheap, full-frame pickup and blast a path down the "driveway", switch vehicles at the bottom and go to work! That would be my answer.

The mentality of the bible thumping, hardcore religious folks always makes me wonder how it could possibly be that we are all still walking this planet. Their ancient minded, backwards thinking, dim-witted approach to this world should have got us all killed in stupid wars by now. ... but this is about what a show does to make a person gay, so I just say how those God-fearin' folk never cease to amaze me with how much farther back they can take human intelligence. I long for the day they take themselves so far back that I can scare them away with a flashlight.

The interesting thing is all those negative-nannies out there bitching that the government shouldn't have given the money to the automobile companies in the first place will never even know, or care that any amount is ever paid back.

Beyond this, I'd say Toyota simply forgot that in order to retain the public perception of high-quality, they actually have to continue to deliver. What ever the reason for their mistakes, it appears they stopped putting the product as their number one priority. With their original reputation, they had the market and the profit aplenty. If they had kept on that product mission, their market would have never suffered. I feel they simply tried too hard to capture the market that the Big 3 (particularly GM) was losing and it was too much, too fast, too bad.

I share your opinion. So many different vehicles out of Korea are either vastly well appointed for best-value, or just superior in build quality and overall engineering on a variety of levels. If the world were made up of practical people, Korean cars would be selling in far greater numbers. IMHO, what holds them back is this stupid thing called, 'perception'.

This tends to be a problem only if existing seals have deteriorated. I tend to be more concerned about the carbon deposits of dino oil being left around the seals to block oil from seeping in the first place.

That was one poorly engineered canopy.

I like Mobil 1, particularly for OHV engines where so many components are so far away from where gravity tends to take oil. The 3.4L DOHC in the Monte Carlo was notorious for lifter tick at startup. Just as DF stated for his car, mine would go away after the engine warmed when started in cold weather. Synthetic oil reduced lifter tick to about two-to-three seconds and everything smoothed out. The only noticeable difference on the road was always related to cold weather starts. The oil also helped put my mind to ease with regard to the 30 second wait time after a cold start to get the oil circulating. I've been tracking the oil changes in the high mileage vehicles at work. I went from Mobil 1 on one truck to a store-brand synthetic that is made by Shell (which is basically the same as Pennzoil Platinum). So far, there has been no noticeable difference between them in that they both perform better than dino oil for cold starts and appear to have the same solid contaminant qualities at change time. A 4.4 Litre jug of Mobil 1 goes for around $43 CDN ($35 on sale) while the store-brand synthetic goes for around $30 CDN ($17 on sale at last purchase - $20 otherwise). I figured that if it's better than dino, it might as well be good in the grocery-getter or work truck. For the price of Mobil 1, I'm not exactly driving a high-dollar race car to worry that much more about subtle additional benefits.

...and fuel prices will still continue to rise. This changes nothing.

"Your message is so cryptic. I had to look it up first." "Josh, are you trying to tell me something here?" Edit - Honestly, those were right from the intraweb of inorfmassion.

Understandable, that a coupe version would have noticeable differences since it doesn't share any panel-work. To me, it's the beefiness of the rear quarter below the pillar that gives me that impression of height. In fact, and I chuckle when I say this because it really doesn't matter anyway, but that view above makes the rear tires appear smaller than the fronts.

For all the intangible necessities required for a 'stand-alone' Pontiac to exist, the first thing that makes me shake my head is that their Founder and Executive Director is, of all things, a bean-counter. In my experience, there is little operational creativity or innovative mindset that comes with a CFO behind the helm.

I'm quite surprised this will make its way in to any news report: The one headline that read 19 deaths since 2002 should be a focal point for accuracy on this particular case, showing how this problem dates back significantly before something was 'chosen' to be done about it.

Personally, I tend to think Land Rover kicks all ass.

If a small-car market didn't exist in the U.S., why should the import manufacturers be fighting the market of none? Oh, I see, there actually is a market and the only people blind to that are ones buying all the trucks and SUVs. I also forgot that the U.S. isn't the center of the universe and the Spark is also sold all across the globe. I just knew there was a reason for its existence! So some people don't like it. Good for them. GMs policy of making cars that everyone is supposed to appreciate is a complete and utter failure. Oh, that policy doesn't exist? Hmm. Just by reading here it seemed like it did. As mentioned, would it be fair if everything we didn't like about THE most popular vehicles in GMs lineup was brought onto the table to bicker over? Would there be acceptance of that at all? Not bloody likely, not here; which is why those opinions are rarely expressed. It is easy to foresee the response from those thinking any negative comment on their vehicle of choice would be like talking about yo-mamma.

I'm sure the actual road car I see in person will give me happiness; however, the body seems awfully... uh, tall to me.

Just how 'few' or 'many' the offending messy teens were would be the question to first ask?