RE: GM Number One in J.D. Power Initial Quality Study
The supplier to GM of the tailgate cables did not crimp the the cable ends correctly and they were also incorrectly tested and certified during their production. The improper crimp could have caused cable pullout with corrosion weakening over time as moisture etc could collect in the loose crimp voids and compromise the assembly.
Only a few had failed but GM recalled the trucks that had them installed as the possible failure would only get worse with aging. It cost the supplier dearly and if I remember correctly, either it finally bankrupted them or they were dropped as a supplier. Was around 10 years ago.
Causing a recall due to production errors is a cardinal sin! Certifying discrepantly manufactured components as meeting specifications is a double sin!
RE: GM Number One in J.D. Power Initial Quality Study
GM light truck platforms are and will mainly still be built in Flint MI, Ft Wayne IN, and Arlington TX. The Avalanche trucks and some Suburbans/full size SUVs were built in Silao, Mexico due to the other 3 assembly line capacity limits having been reached. The Avalanche was discontinued after the 2013 year production and the Silao, Mexico assembly line then began the conversion to produce 1500 pickups mainly for the Mexican and Central American market and also provide some additional 1500 pickup backup build capacity for the Southern USA when needed. With the other 3 plants still working at capacity on the 2013 models, GM wasn't able to convert them over to the 2014 models until the end of the 2013 model year production run. The Silao plant however had been in retool mode for the 2014 1500 model year pickup build and was the only assembly line ready to actually build the 2014 model year 1500's to date and that's why the GM shootout trucks were built in Silao, Mexico.
The whole story and the plan of action has been on the Internet for over a year now! GM is spending 928 million on the 3 American plant retooling and 300 million to convert the Silao, Mexico plant for 1500 production. 120 million goes to the San Luis Potosi, Mexico plant for the Aveo/Sonic based new Trax crossover vehicle which will launch at the Paris Motor Show in September and will go on sale in 140 countries early next year.
RE: Questions for you money gurus
JALLEN4,
Not true but I can't speak for everyones particular case or qualifications! We were both born long before 1955 and we have the yearly tax filings and scanned check copies to show how much we have had to pay by April 15th every year. One of the problems is that the tax laws keep changing every year and we pay our CPA accountants dearly to take all the deduction we are entitled to. The IRS sure seems to be happy with our returns as we were audited/questioned once and no problems found. So it must be accurate!
RE: GM Number One in J.D. Power Initial Quality Study
So obvious and far from a surprise! Real quality begins with the first quality part started with and doesn't end until the very last quality part is added.
Very different from the sequense of starting with a low and/or lesser quality pig and dressing it up with eye catching glitz and glamour coverups and then advertising that it's the finest prime pork thru and thru.
So few consumers actually know or care about the total items they purchase or what is them they can't see or understand and then later complain about the constant costly repairs, component failures, and the very low resale value when sold or traded in. Self-inflicted and deservedly so.
RE: Questions for you money gurus
Sea Dog,
How you prepared yourself for your retirement life during your working years is and was your doing. Living off of depending on CD interst income to supplement a retirement pension is insane for probably close to 95% of retirees as you'd need $1,000,000 in CD's at 3% just to receive $30,000 per year in before taxed money. Then, remember that once you pass the max you are allowed to earn over your pension's stated amount, your actual pension received above that amount will be severely reduced. $30,000/per year taken in interest accrued is way above most retirees Social Security Pension supplemented income allowable amount. Any rental income or other income as denoted is also applied to the allowable amount as we know so well. Doesn't take that much and your S.S. Pension is about reduced to be paying for a lunch at McDonalds a couple times a month. This mainly applies for the most part to those on S.S. retirement between 62 and 70 years of age as the rules change for those above 70 years old.
RE: Questions for you money gurus
Doesn't matter if interest rates paid go above 3% or not as it's a "feel good" numerical value. Interest rate's paid usually is always aligned very closely with inflation rates meaning the cost of living, eating, clothes, entertainment, etc, you name it, rises with the increase in interest rates paid on CD's etc. There's no magic get rich vehicle using CD's. It's simply trading dollars beyond about 1% or 2% actually earned. Then remember that interest earned is taxable! An old but true saying back in the mid 1960's that came out of Flint and Detroit was that when their union contract was ratified giving a 5% raise, the cost of a loaf of bread also jumped up 5% or more. In actuality, no real gain and because you now pay more in income taxes, it ended up being a loss! You have to look at the whole picture and it's full details rather than the "feel good" numbers!
Land can be a huge winner long term or even a loss and you better have a very smart and ethical property and taxation lawyer to keep you out of trouble with the likes of the IRS. They're watching and have all your required land ownership documents. Homes and/or land and other investments also so NEVER try to pull a fast one. BTW, the lawyer sure won't be FREE either! Land investments as said are usually long term gains and those gains are taxable also and don't forget to deduct the land taxes paid yearly while owned from the gain or the free paid to a "broker" or title insurance etc.
So much determines what land values will be in the future as we've had one parcel multiply by more than 22 times it's purchased price in less than 10 years and one that has been stagnet of 21 years now. Even saw one waterfront parcel go from $912 a front foot of shoreline when purchased to over $10,000 a front foot and still rising. Good desired land is very easy and quick to sell but how well do you know what or which land will be the big winners in the near or distant future? A crystal ball won't help not will a palm reader! We own/owned lots of land that basically nobody but the family knows about as it's in a trust as is so much of our assets. Keeps us very private and that's our choice. What kind of trust is a personal choice and nobody elses to know as when you croak, it will be revealed and you won't be around to worry or care about it!
Life is full of constant choices daily. We all get to make our own!
RE: Best engine of the year (again)
Nope, not really other than they should tax them at least $300 extra a year. $100 is way to little as they still take up space on the roads and don't contribute their fair share in gas taxes. $500 sounds even better!
RE: Top tier gasoline.
There's not only "top tier" in gasoline but also in Diesel fuel. Back in the 1990's one brand of diesel fuel started offering some additives added to their #2 refined vehicle diesel fuel in the Midwest area. It was called the "The No. 1 of diesel fuel" (not to be confused with refinery #1 diesel grade). The additives were to increase cetane rating, reduce the gelling temp level, and added an injector cleaner, and a much finer filtering which removed more of the impurities. The cost per gallon was the same as other plain diesel but users soon learned that this fuel did give better mileage and the stations were constantly busy at these additive diesel pumps compared to the plain diesel stations.
By 2005 a few other station brands were now doing the same in the Midwest area but the common name of " The No. 1 of diesel fuel" had become confused in people's minds with refinery No. 1 grade (quite different) so most brand fuel stations renamed it "Premium Diesel" here in the Midwest. We've very seldom seen the Premium Diesel name used in other areas of the country and when we ask about it the station's employees usually say "what!". Yes, you can tell the difference in MPGs when using premium diesel and it's all we used when it's avaliable when refueling where we are. Many of the RV haulers in northern Indiana insist on only using the the premium diesel brands and I've been told that by several.
It's one of the reasons we carry our 106 gal aux diesel bed tank (100 gal usable) when pulling the 5th wheel as we fill it at home and with our 34 additional gallons in the vehicle tank, we can go all the way to Florida from Michigan (over 1400 miles) and still have roughly 25 gallons left without refueling along the way. Done it so many times! Lets us pick and choose what fuel and at what price before we need to refil. Also a big plus as the farther south you go in Florida the higher diesel and gas prices usually are as they add a local county tax on fuel and sales taxes to rip off the visitors. Not only rips the visitors but also the florida residents as my Bro in the WPB area complains about constantly and he's far from poorby any stretch but doesn't like being robbed!
Yes, we only use a top tier gasoline also in our gas vehicles also and the difference is real and verifyable. Couldn't agree more with silvercorvette's thread post subject.
RE: Aerobed or Sleep #??
Depends what you really want and how much you are willing to pay for real controllable comfort.
All our RV's have the OEM mattress taken out immediately and replaced with an Aerobed inflatable mattress that has dual side controls to the built in pump so we each can control our own inflation levels. Yes, they do sit on a hard surface that's covered with an old blanket or in the TC, a layer of Astrofoil and it's not a bit of an issue for the air mattress poking and the Astrofoil adds lots of insulation. Over the top of the Aerobed inflatable is an electric heated mattress pad with dual controls so each controls their desired temp level. On top of that is a 2-1/2" memory foam which is covered with another flexible mattress pad and the bottom sheet is the final layer to sleep on. This stackup protects the air mattress from everything but humans doing jumping jacks on the bed with high heels on. Our Siberian Husky's toenails hasn't even hurt the air mattress and all 3 we have had (one at a time) since using the inflatable mattresses will curl up on the bedspread and sleep. We keep our dog very clean!
The result is total comfort controlled by the sleeper always, light in weight, pre-warm the bed quickly, not expensive to do, and never yet had the air mattress fail or leak and one is 18 years old now. Did have one mattress get some dust under the fill flapper seal and had to deflate it and it blew the dirt/dust out and just re-inflated it and it's never seeped air since. The combo I detailed gives you the best of all worlds and acts just like a Sleep Number Bed and also gives you heat from the bottom when wanted as heat rises and makes a huge difference when it's cool or cold inside or outside and we love winter RVing. In the RV's the air pump run fine off a small inverter like 300-400 watts. All our RV's have large inverters from 1500 watts to 2500 watts in them anyway so we always have 110 AC available for about any usage.
I know you said S&B situation and what we have learned has also been done to 2 bedrooms in our main home and wouldn't go back to a real mattress or the waterbed we once had or the Sleep Number we had in our Florida place again. What give astronomical comfort in our RV's does the very same in the S&B homes. Even if the Aerobed type inflatable should fail for any reason, it's cheap, easy, and quick to replace and often still under warranty.
RE: Prius towing a travel trailer? Yes.
Thanks for the new pic of the Prius/trailer combo. It explains a lot that was not obvious in the OP's pic. Yes, I agree with the OP that the trailer IS sitting on a non WD hitch on the Prius, however, both pics posted explain a lot as what it's all about. The pic IS an optical illusion and likely staged as a person viewing only see's one side at a time.
The setup is an advertisement for Prius as is clearly evident on the non as OEM built Prius. Both pics show the narrow Prius parallel to the lines on the pavement while the 2-3 foot wider trailer is canted on an angle. Not normal to be towing like that! There's a reason for it to be this way! If it were pulled in as normal for fuel etc the trailer wheels would be over the yellow line on the pavement on both pics. Why? The Prius rear wheel width is 60 inches and the trailer wheel width is 80" to 90" or 10" to 15" per side wider.
Very evident in the OP's pic as the Prius is nearly an exact side view while the trailer front is at a 29 degree angle and should be at a 6 degree max angle which I didn't account for in my CAD overlay rendering because I failed to recognize the angular illusion created by the staged parking. That was my fault.
The trailer in the pic is about a 15' to 16' long box with approx 3 for the hitch making it about 18' plus total length. I looked up the 50's thru the 70's single axle trailers and they are all over 3000 lb weight in weight which requires a very min of 300 lbs hitch weight at 10%. Even a totally stripped out with no propane in the tank shown is still well over 2000 lbs.
I am posting the Prius specs below and the link.
Add approx 200 lbs for the driver with no passengers and no other cargo. the hitch weight, 12 gal of gas, and over 200+ or 300 lbs of weight on the ball and you are at or over the Prius GVWR. So, I went down to our Walmart and there was a bright blue Prius in the lot the same 4 door model as the OP's pic and I parked behind it. Got out with a tape measure and measured the rear bumper height from the ground and then put just my 210 lbs on the bumper and measured it again. Hmmm, 3-1/8" drop! The Prius in the pics doesn't drop a bit! Sure is not an OEM setup and what else isn't OEM on the staged advertisement Prius?
2012 Prius specs:
Specifications:
Select a style
**Common specifications shown for: All styles
**Power and Performance
**1.8L I-4 98 HP engine
**2-spd CVT transmission w/OD
176.4 " exterior length Exterior Length
3,979 lbs. GVWR Gross Vehicle Weight Rating
3,042 lbs. curb weight Curb Weight
825 lbs. payload Payload
http://www.cars.com/toyota/prius/2012/specifications/
RE: Prius towing a travel trailer? Yes.
JJ Spectre,
Don't need a hobby as I have so many. Being a retired engineer of about 4 decades, analyzing and/or deciphering pics and documents is just easy, quick, and natural to/for me.
RE: Prius towing a travel trailer? Yes.
For those who do not have CAD and want to determine for themselves:
I'll give you another way to know within an inch or two how far the crankdown jack is back/behind the center of the Pruis where the vehicle's hitch ball would have to be located.
Place a dot on each side of the trailer's max outside width point outside of the top clearance lights and measure the distance. Now draw a line straight towards the camera lenses. Next measure the distance from the closest trailer dot palallel to the trailer's side over to the drawn line to the camera lenses. You know the trailer is either 7' wide or 8' wide and by knowing these 2 measurements (the base and the height of a triangle) you can easily calculate the angle the pic is taken at and find the actual angle for both possible trailer widths. Using that same angles you know know, you can find exactly where the center of the prius bumper's point is and also the exact center of hitch ball. Also, by using the crank down jack location, the center of the trailer's coupler ball location.
Don't even need a CAD program to determine that the trailer's coupler ball couldn't be within 8" min of the ball location on the Prius using the most favorable measurements.
Nuff said!
RE: Prius towing a travel trailer? Yes.
I'm not buying it either as the Prius would have needed a hitch extention to reach the ball of the trailer as as shown in the photo. I outlined the photo's vehicle, trailer, and crank down jack in an AutoCad 3D transparency overlay on my engineering computer and then rotated into sky view and WALLA! The trailer's hitch ball would be 8" to 12" behind where a normal WD hitch ball would be located. Next I suppose the OP will claim the trailer wasn't on a WD hitch which only means an approx 16" hitch extension would be required. DUH! The distance of the trailer's crank jack to the Prius was the first indication that something isn't in proper perspectives. It's no secret where the crank down holes in the hitch coupling is located and anyone can measure distances by using it as a start point!
Also, did anyone else notice that there are no drivers or passengers in the other vehicles supposedly waitin in line at a fuel station? Give me a break!
In my opinion, nice optical illusion try OP, but NO cigar! The trailer was parked behind the Prius and NOT attached!
RE: #1 College Football Punter 2013
RobertRyan,
Football didn't start just like the game is played today nor did hardly any other sports games of today. They evolve and keep on changing over time. Even the popular name of a or the game changes but the object of the game remains the same. Even will have different "rules of play" in different areas/regions within a country. There's early American football and modern American football and there sure will be future American football!
Here is a site explaining how the early game of American football began back in 1820:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_American_football
RE: $899 EU2000i Honda did not show up.....
Yes, I cleaned it up and made it shine better than new before I repacked it. haha Can't remember if I left a little gas in it or not. I did pour the oil back in the bottle though and kind of resealed it. Rbertalotto's gonna love it and might even let it purr all night as it's soft music to sleep by! Running outside near the bedroom window of course with the exhaust blowing away. Carbon monoxide is nothing to mess with.
Enjoy your new pal, Rbertalotto!
RE: Saw these super cool RVs today
Not "close-minded" at all.
While these type vehicles (so called RV's by some) can transverse more obstacles than the properly setup 4X4 trucks with an RV on it we drive today, they still have many manylimitations. Deep water, too high of a boulder, too deep mud, too steep for them to climb, and gobs more. All they can do is a little more rugged outbacking than many of the "offroad" capable trucks in production today at many times the expense and cost. Still no comparison to a track driven vehicle. If these are your choice then get one as you are only getting older by the day!
BTW, as a poster stated, these are for 3rd world booney travel and hardly needed for nearly all of North America.
Hint! The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence until you get there...
RE: #1 College Football Punter 2013
RobertRyan,
American football started many decades before 1865. American football began in 1820 between classes within a college and later between colleges.
Quote from wikipedia:
"A Harvard tradition known as: Each school played its own variety of football. Princeton students played a game called "ballown" as early as 1820 "Bloody Monday" began in 1827, which consisted of a mass ballgame between the freshman and sophomore classes. Dartmouth played its own version called "Old division football", the rules of which were first published in 1871, though the game dates to at least the 1830s. All of these games, and others, shared certain commonalities. They remained largely "mob" style games, with huge numbers of players attempting to advance the ball into a goal area, often by any means necessary. Rules were simple, violence and injury were common. The violence of these mob-style games led to widespread protests and a decision to abandon them. Yale, under pressure from the city of New Haven, banned the play of all forms of football in 1860, while Harvard followed suit in 1861."
"Rules standardization (1873–1880)
On October 20, 1873, representatives from Yale, Columbia, Princeton, and Rutgers met at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City to codify the first set of intercollegiate football rules. Before this meeting, each school had its own set of rules and games were usually played using the home team's own particular code. At this meeting, a list of rules, based more on soccer than on rugby, was drawn up for intercollegiate football games."
The game has changed constantly over the last 193 years and is still changing today and will in the future! Football has always been a game of advancing the ball whatever the shape or structure toward a goal by carrying it, passing it, and/or kicking it. Soccer is not moving the ball by carrying it.
RE: Saw these super cool RVs today
I know some people would give their right arm to have an RV like those and happy for them but I wouldn't part with even 50 bucks for one.
They're ugly and don't enthuse me at all. In our 50 years this year of RVing with so many different types of RVs, we have yet to find a place we want to go or be that a good 4 wheel drive truck couldn't get to even while carrying a small light or meduim TC. No, roads are not needed let alone a designated CG. We have boondocked in outback areas a lot over the years so it's not that we don't have any experience in it. All our RV's are and have been self-contained. Just my feelings...
