Just a few minutes ago, I read an article on Yahoo! about the biggest car flops in the past 25 years. If you haven’t seen it yet, I’m sure you will. Yahoo! (and everyone else these days) seems to have a little issue with rerunning old stories when the run out of current news. Actually, I think I may have written about this myself already, but I think it’s worth mentioning again.
Here is my vote for the more annoying vehicle ever created on this earth – The Chevrolet SSR. I truly apologize if you have one of these vehicles, but there is something about it that just rubs me the wrong way. I think it’s the way it looks. I really couldn’t care less about what’s under the hood or what the interior looks like because I can’t get past the exterior. I dislike this vehicle so much, I would like to opportunity to crush a few of them in a car crusher. That’s that about that.
I am a little shocked and disappointed about Yahoo!’s number one flop choice, the Vector W-2. I bet not many people have ever heard of this car, but I used to have a poster of it hanging on my wall when I was a kid. I had no idea who made it or why, but I liked the fact that it went “0-60 in 3.9 seconds.” That’s all I know. I bought it from the poster section over at Ames (when they were in business) a long, long time ago. Who knew that it would eventually become a flop in something called the “internet” many years in the future. I was so naïve.
Still, I really think someone should do something about all of the remaining Chevrolet SSRs on the road out there. While they’re at it, they may as well wipe the streets clean of the PT Cruiser as well. Yee Haw.
Just when I thought I was running out of cool magazines to read, a sweet one arrived in the mail. It’s called, “BMW Magazine.”
I have been thinking pretty good thoughts about BMW ever since I got the X5. The reason they are so favorable to me is because they kind of “absorb” you into their family once you purchase a vehicle from them. I’m not quite sure what happens if you get a used Beamer from someone on the street, but when you get a new one from the dealer, the red carpet is rolled out for your entire experience.
One thing that I really liked was receiving a nice DVD box set a few months ago. BMW likes to remind you about all the cool products and accessories they offer through email, but this little box set was pretty impressive. They give you a tour of their factories and throw in a bunch of cool videos that just make you drool over more over their brand. I mean, there really is no disputing how awesome most of their vehicles are.
BMW Magazine front cover
Photos of different steering wheels in BMW Magazine
Photo of wine rack on page of BMW Magazine
BMW Welcome DVD box set
It’s almost amusing how BMW hits the market as accurately as they do. I remember all about target markets from a few classes back in grad school and I know there is a lot that goes into connecting with buyers and potential buyers. Just flipping through the pages of this magazine made me want about 20 things. It can get ugly.
As Laura was walking by the door this afternoon, I yelled, “Hey, check out what I got in the mail today. You gotta check it out…it’s for people just like me. You know, people who like those titanium watches with all the dials and stuff like that.” She chuckled and kept on walking. I even chuckled when I noticed advertisements for those exact watches on pages 7, 15, 17, 62 and 67. Man.
What’s really fun is reading about guys driving BMWs around closed course tracks. Even better than that is seeing them driving around the same model that I a drive every day. It’s kind of strange…
Faced with massive population growth, melting ice caps and the need to own an ever-increasing number of gadgets, the world needs to find sustainable solutions.
A new way of comparing ground and satellite collected data on air pollution has shown that 15 of 20 highly populated cities have air pollution levels that 5 to 10 times higher than the World Health Organization’s guidelines.
Although many Texans seem to doubt that climate change is man-made, they are still firm believers in clean energy. According to a new report released by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), Texas once again leads in wind- energy capacity and largest wind farms installed, ranking sixth in the world behind Germany…
BYD, a battery and electriccar manufacturer, is led by Wang Chuan-Fu. Wang has built BYD into a global leader but still wants to be environmentally friendly. To that end, BYD has developed a nontoxic electrolyte battery fluid. “If we’re going to help solve environmental problems, we can’t create new environmental problems with our technology.”
Mostly conceived by international architects, China’s eco-cities were intended to be models of green urban design. But the planning was done with little awareness of how local people lived, and the much-touted projects have largely been scrapped.
This is pretty cool. I just read that GM and Segway came out with a two wheeled, two person, electric car.
Back a few years ago, I had the opportunity to try out two different Segways…one with the big off-road tires and one with the regular smaller tires. They both were fun to drive around and really easy to learn.
One of the first things people always wonder about is safety when it comes to Segways. They ask, “How does it stay standing up?” Well, I suppose that’s one of the secrets that Segway has been developing over the years. I did notice that this new electric car has “safety wheels” on the front and on the back. Traveling at 35MPH with two people on board, I think it’s better to have a few extra safety features.
This was an unexpected little scene that occurred on our way back from Costco this afternoon.
While driving down 91 south, towards Hartford (in the HOV lane – luckily) today, we saw some signs lit up warning us of an accident further south, near Interstate 84. I didn’t really think anything of it, because the signs actually said the accident was on 84 west, not 91. When we rounded a bend in the highway, I asked Laura if she saw smoke. She said yes and this is what we saw when we were forced to stop by a police officer.
Car fire on 91 south, near Hartford, CT – March 25, 2009 – Photo 1
Car fire on 91 south, near Hartford, CT – March 25, 2009 – Photo 2
Car fire on 91 south, near Hartford, CT – March 25, 2009 – Photo 3
Car fire on 91 south, near Hartford, CT – March 25, 2009 – Photo 4
Car fire on 91 south, near Hartford, CT – March 25, 2009 – Photo 5
Car fire on 91 south, near Hartford, CT – March 25, 2009 – Photo 6
It wasn’t bad until the fire department started spraying the car. When they did that, the smoke got all white and came near us. I turned off the car vent, but some smoke still got in to give me a headache. Burning rubber and plastic really smells.
While I was sitting there taking pictures, I noticed the guy in back of us doing the same thing. It was a race to get back to see who could post it on their blog faster.
Today was the day that Laura and I chose to cruise up to Costco to spend hundreds of dollars. We haven’t been there since the beginning of February and knew this one was going to be a whopper. Shopping at Whole Foods and paying $80 for one bag of groceries was getting a little old.
On the way up, I told Laura that I was going to get gas before we went in, because after we do our shopping, I am in no mood to get gas. Luckily, today the weather was beautiful and getting out of the car to pump the fuel turned out to be fun…as the following picture shows.
Jay at Costco gas pump
I think Laura described me as “herbolicious.”
Half way through pumping the gas, I noticed the “Members Only” sign and just had to get a picture of it. Remember those “Members Only” jackets? How cool were they? Not really, I guess. Nevertheless, I felt it was necessary to have my picture taken next to the members only sign.
Also, if you notice, the gas is $2.06. That’s a far cry from the $2.49 I payed at a local station last week. Go Costco.
Yesterday, I was out cruising around when a funny thing happened. The gas warning light came on.
I knew I was running low and that I needed to fill up. It’s not so strange that the gas light went on…that’s happened a million times to me. I really hate to stop for gas. The strange thing is that a warning “type” light went on in the instrument panel on the dash. For a while, I didn’t know what it was and why it turned on. Today, I made an effort to reset it and discovered a few things in the process.
Average fuel consumption indicator lamp – 2008 BMW X5 3.0si
The light that turned on was actually the “Cruising Range” indicator lamp. I am guessing that the minute the low fuel lamp comes on in these cars, the cruising range light comes on telling the driver how many more miles they are able to drive on the fuel left in the fuel tank. I think that’s pretty nifty.
When I was buying this car, the sales guy kept telling me, “Jay, there is so much engineering in this thing, you can’t even imagine.” It’s weird, because I keep discovering things that just make sense. It’s a very intuitive vehicle.
While I was sitting in the parking lot of Whole Foods in Glastonbury this afternoon, I read all about the computer displays in the instrument panel on page 73 of the owner’s manual. There are a few options you can check out by clicking the “BC” button on the turn signal lever.
If you take a look at the photos above, you will see photos of the cruising range, average speed and average fuel consumption (not necessarily in that order) indicator lamps on the instrument panel. A while back, I discovered a few of these features in the i-Drive system, but this is like a little short-cut to the simple views.
I know this post doesn’t really make sense or good reading to many of you who might be looking at this, but I did get some response from the last post I wrote about the various features that BMW offers in their newer models. I’m just writing for the interested. Tomorrow, I will probably be back to lawn care.
This is a very exciting day for our family. Let me be the first person to broadcast this message worldwide – my nephew, Connor, won 3rd place in the Pinewood Derby. Isn’t that just cool?
You know, I used to be in the Cub Scouts too. I don’t think I can remember too much of it at this point in my life, but I do remember participating in the Pinewood Derby a few times. I can clearly recall not winning any races, but if there is any really exciting activity that Cub Scouts do, the derby is it. Well, besides camping up at Camp Siwanoy in Wingdale, NY. That camp closed, by the way. You can read about it here.
From what I can gather, the Pinewood Derby is all set up these days. They have computerized racing stats, electronic finish lines and all that sort of stuff. When I was racing in the Pinewood Derby, we had some old man yelling “Winner” at the prettiest car that went by. Not really, but you get the picture.
Has it really been that long? As I sit here, I keep trying to think of what my Pinewood Derby cars look like. I have no idea. The only thing I remember is that my father drilled a hole in the back of one of them, put some BBs in the hole and then stuck an ear plug in there to seal it up. The car may have been too heavy for the regulations, but that was the right idea.
If I had it to do all over again, I would have a serious car. I’m telling you, a serious car.
Did I ever get to wash the car yesterday? No, I didn’t. We had to drive to Foxwoods in a dirty car. Oh well.
I did, however, get to use my new water spicket setup this morning. After I finished up some work and since the sun was shining, I thought it would be a good idea to get out there and wash up the car. It needed it bad. There was sand, salt and grime all over it. I think the car was almost at the point of someone drawing “wash me” on the back window…again.
Now, there really is no story here, besides the fact that I washed the car and got to use the new spicket that I installed in the garage (next post). I simply wanted to take some pictures. Mind you, these gallery photos are working correctly now. You can click on the thumbnail, then click again on the medium sized picture to see the full sized one. This is going to come in handy when I post detailed photos.
Valentine’s day was here. I wanted to wash the car and have it nice and clean, so my lady and I could drive down to Foxwoods in style. It was pretty dirty and needed a good wash.
On my way back from tennis yesterday morning, I dreaded the idea of going downstairs, turning the water valve to “on” and then going back outside to hook up the hose on the water spigot at the front of the house. I think the part I hate the most is hooking up the hose outside and then having to unhook it to put it back in the garage. The reason I would have to go downstairs to turn the valve on is because of freezing in the winter. No valve downstairs, frozen and broken water spigot upstairs come spring.
I had a great idea. Why not install a water spigot inside the garage? This way, I can keep a hose hooked up all the time and not have to worry about the spigot freezing over the winter. I could use the spigots that are outside for watering and things like that over the summer, but for washing the car and things like that, I could use the inside one. I thought it would be very handy.
Since the area I wanted the spigot located in the garage was right on the other side of the washing machine hookups down in the basement, I figured it would be a pretty easy job. Somehow, I would just tap into the cold water feed for the washing machine. I really look forward to these types of projects because I have to get imaginative. I enjoy standing in the pluming aisle at Home Depot trying to figure things out. I really do.
Before I left for the Depot to get all the parts, I decided to drill a hole through the 2×10 that the floor was resting on. This 2×10 is up in the ceiling of the laundry room and down towards knee level in the garage. I would drill a 7/8 inch hole to see what I would find.
I drilled the hole from the basement and saw daylight. Lucky me. I went upstairs to the garage and saw a hole right where I wanted the spigot to be. Really lucky me. I started getting my thoughts together and made a little list. Then, I hopped in the car and drove over to Home Depot.
I am not going to give you the list of parts I bought here because I forget what they are. Hopefully you can see them in the pictures I will show you. As I post the pics, I will probably remember what they were. Take a look at the finished product.
Water hose splitter and on-off switch on cold water laundry feed
125 psi hose going through 2×10 from laundry room to the garage upstairs
Let me do a little explaining. I know the proper way to do this is with copper piping. I may change that some day. For this application, I used hose. Since I am aware that this is not a permanent thing, I put an on/off valve down near the splitter in the laundry room. I saw the hose in the store and couldn’t pass it up. When I am not using the spigot, I can just go downstairs to turn the valve off.
Also, the reason the spigot is mounted to 2×4s is because I wanted it really solid on the wall. I am probably going to tug on the hose as I pull it outside and I didn’t feel like having the spigot tear off the wall. It’s not the prettiest thing, but you should try to give it a wiggle. Nope. I know there is a 2×10 on the other side of the sheetrock, but the hole I drilled was a bit too big and the mounting screws weren’t sitting right.
After everything was all set up, I hooked up a nice brand new no-kink garden hose I bought last autumn to the spigot in the garage. I went downstairs to turn on the easily accessible on/off valve and then came back upstairs to drag the hose out into the driveway. I turned the spigot on and…well, that’s for the next post.
