Just need to vent...

money is the only motivation trump-tim-cook-gift-white-house-apple

 

My son-in-law has been keeping an eye out for an older Toyota to buy for his daughter who'll be getting her driver's license soon.

Anyway, he spotted an older Tacoma parked with a For Sale sign so we drove over to check it out.

2003 Tacoma, AT but manual everything else (2-door access cab). 250,000 miles and wasn't near anybody's house. Walking around it, I noticed the driver's window was a few inches rolled down, that's odd...checked the door, unlocked! So looked around and the side, rear window on the passenger side was actually tapped shut, so latch must've been broken. Not a good sign....anybody who can't even get a simple window latch fixed probably didn't take care of that engine, either.

Anyway, then noticed they wanted $7,500 for the thing.....bummer...probably have better luck finding a much better older Camry or even an Avalon for that much!

 

Wow, the once-great Jaguar auto company committed suicide with their insane woke crap and, now, VW is following Mercedes-Benz with their ridiculous monthly-subscription scheme to, get this, unlock 27 hp for around $22 a month! Or you could just pay an extra $875 when you buy the car for a lifetime of sweet 27 horsies!

Oh, in 2023, Mercedes-Benz announced it would lock 60 extra horsepower behind a $90 a month subscription service.

You can't make this crap up!

Forget Netflix, Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid subscription | Auto Express

 

Jaguar -> Ford -> Tata. Tata owns Land Rover in addition to Jaguar, and Daewoo (trucks and busses). Tata continues to make petrol vehicles besides electrics although the latter is their future.

If one is in need of a vehicle from a brand that has no electric cars, here are two mostly overlapping lists:
All the biggest car manufacturers that don't make EVs in 2024 - EV Drive Time
10 Automakers That Still Don't Have An EV On Sale

 

Drove 400 miles round trip Huntsville to Montgomery to visit:

• Left 9 AM and back home, 6 PM
• Manual driving in the parking lots to and from the SuperChargers
  • $6.94+$10.09+$7.74=$24.77 :: SuperCharger fees, ~400 miles, ~$6.20/100 miles
• Tailgaters
  • Getting off at next exit
  • Too lazy to change lanes and pass ... I change lanes and they scoot on by
• "White collar" pickup trucks
  • Full Self Driving doesn't care and I just tilt the rear view mirror to reflect back at 'em
• 100 F and Dog Mode kept them happy and safe
  • Need to keep them on leash at the receiver hitch so folks won't think they are abandoned

Bob Wilson

 

It has rained so much here on the NSW South Coast (Aust) that absolutely everything is water logged, the latest victim seems to be our motorhome. I have spent the day trudging through the mud puddle that was a front lawn at our friend's place, between the house power box, the input RCD in the side bin in the motorhome and the motorhome inside RCD, then repeat .... Even tried plugging into the V2L in our EV MG4, still no win, all in the pouring rain .....

Next will be the house batteries going flat I guess .... and no sign of the rain stopping for the next 24hrs, had125mm (5 inches) over the last week and 75mm today and possibly the same tomorrow .....

T1 Terry

 

A few months ago Nashville TN had hideous amounts of horizontal driving rain - days on end. Saturated the grout between bricks, intrusion into insulation, inner drywall, bubbled inner wall paint off. Several weeks later the mold remediation inner wall repair & new paint got things back in shape - only to have downstairs fire sprinklers go off (for no reason) & now we're starting remediation all over again. As they say, when it rains it pours.
. .

 

We're at slightly less than 44 inches for the year which is about average for our usual 65 or so total.
The signs point to a normal summer and an early cool (and hopefully colorful) fall.
AND....no tropical issues..... (yet...hopefully!)