Automotive Blogs (377)

Is when everybody who isn't married or related by blood live together as one family. They usually wear jeans, plaid shirts with the sleeves rolled up and sandals. They raise chickens, garden and macrame plant holders, necklaces and bracelets for sale at the annual Renaissance festival.

New witness states that lush lawns deplete the earth of necessary water for hydration of twolegged critters even though sprinkler systems are used casually, like water grows on trees.

Astroturf and spirit guides have more in common than you realize. The lesson can be learned through regular meditation followed by some herbal tea.

Jesus christ, must everything be about Trump? I could say something completely random and someone will find a way to mention Trump. It's f*cking ridiculous. It's mind blowing. And my Facebook feed has so much pro/anti Trump crap that I'm at risk of missing the cute cat videos.

I've been putting off car maintenance for a long time. With a shopping list of things that needed to be done, I arranged car rental and the mechanic got me his corporate rate. That allowed me to get an SUV for the same price as a compact. This worked out great as the larger vehicle saved me another trip to Miami to bring up computers, TV, clothing and some household items in our never-ending relocation project.

I selected a 2019 Mazda CX-5 that has an MSRP of $35,000 with all the options.
While they state 26-28mpg combined, I was getting around 20 miles per gallon.
Keyless entry and push start ignition seems to be standard for all new cars. The CX-5 has an electric tailgate that only locks when the key fob is more than 40 feet away. The bad part is you could be inside a restaurant and the car hatch just outside is unlocked. The doors are locked but the hatch isn't! We checked it a few times to to be sure.

Lane assist. Since the steering is electronic, you can feel the steering stiffen and resist if you change lanes without signalling. It attempts to pull you back into the lane. If you drift in your lane, it will give a visual warning on the console and if you're on the highway it will beep with a visual warning. The same thing happens if you start to change lanes and the sensors detect cars coming up from behind in adjacent lanes. You can feel the steering wheel, hear and see the alert.

The steering, brakes, transmission control are 'by wire' and electro-mechanically or fully electronic and not solely connected mechanically.

Although smaller in size to other SUV's this was more car than I would want for anything long term, but nice to experience for a few days. Softer ride than I'm accustomed to, but I disliked the hard leather seat. Fully controllable electric with lumbar support, I was unable to find comfort with that.

Like a bloated body that
Bobs to the surface
Of a stagnant lake
What rusty chassis
Rest on Sandy bottoms
Do?
Keep their passengers
Buckled, while Fords and Chevy
Dissolve with time

The death of a device. My laptop died the other day. A bunch of stuff locked in a box i can't access. It's like a time capsule of sorts. Now, I try to start again on an Android. It's like having a treasure chest, locked, without the key. Now, I read googl e plus will be deleting junk. My whole past, erased, if I can't recover the images. It's a race against time! I'm losing my shit oh dear!

I do not study these cars but a Ferrari or a Lamborgini are cars that belong on a race track. It makes sense that expensive sports cars that women go nuts over belong on a race track because they are very fast cars. It really makes sense for a Ferrari or Lamborgini not to have a place on regular roads because they are very fast cars & on regular roads you cannot drive very fast or go over the speed limit. They are stupid cars also because they are very expensive & cars for the most part are depreciating assets. But what makes the car a really stupid car is that a lot of money is paid to have that car because it can go very fast, but you can not drive very fast on regular roads so in turn the car really belongs on a race track. But a lot of women go crazy over cars like Ferrari's & Lamborgini's, but the truth is that if I had a daughter I definitely would not want her to be in one of those cars since they belong on a racetrack. The truth of the matter is that very expensive sports cars divide people-for example think of the guy who like some guys thinks expensive sports cars are the greatest thing and is unaware of how stupid they are-and ends up screwing or hurting a lot of people to get the money to have one of those cars-and those cars are so expensive that some people will screw over people for money and never have enough money to get one of those cars. Think about the business owner who will pay people very little pay so that he can have one of those cars-basically people will get screwed over so that he can make a stupid decision. The moral of the story is that in today's society most people -love material things- & use people, while people are suppose to 'use material things' & -love people-. We are also not going to discuss how many women will do in appropriate things just because someone has a Lambo or a Ferarri, basically those cars divide people, they may effect other people's marirages & they are stupid decsions because very fast sports cars belong on a race track.

My first car had a steering wheel that was directly connected to universal joints that linked to the wheels. By the third car, I was driving rack and pinion for the steering system. That connected the steering wheel to a set of gears that controlled the wheels. Maybe my fourth or fifth car had power steering... a hydraulic pump that supported the steering system making it easier to turn the steering wheel, especially if you were trying to parallel park.

My current car doesn't have conventional power steering. Instead, the steering wheel connects to an electric actuator that simulates the hydraulic system. While it feels like you're turning the steering wheel connected to the tires... you're not.
It's a series of sensors, motors and actuators as an electro-mechanical system that replaces the linkages and hydraulic pump.

While we're at it. The gas pedal used to have a flexible cable that connected to the carburetor. When you pressed on the gas, it opened the throttle valve allowing gas and air into the engine. Yeah, it's gone now. The gas pedal has been changed over to a sensor with the feel of a conventional system. It now sends digital impulses to a computer that controls servos that open and close the fuel and air mixture.

Don't stop me now...
Brakes? The pedal that used to be directly linked to a hydraulic pump had been replaced and a sensor giving you the feel of brakes and it does this electronically.

For the most part, it's all been engineered to work similar to cars of yesteryear with fewer components.
Drawbacks are many. If you have a dead battery, pushing the car to get started, doesn't work. If you happen to turn off the key while driving... a word of warning... don't. There's a good chance steering could freeze making it impossible to navigate.

It is Friday, which means a new episode of The Grand Tour!

This time, Jeremy takes The Grand Tour to Sweden, where he tests a Lamborghini Urus on snow, and he also stages a race between the Urus and a Porsche 911 Turbo, to see if Lamborghini has made a fast SUV.

Back in England, May is testing the Alpine A110, while Hammond makes a touching and amazing segment to the late Scottish racing driver Jim Clark, who tragically passed away during a race on Hockenheim on April 7, 1968.

I liked this episode. I didn't think I was going to, because of the synopsis, but I was very much entertained throughout the episode.

Hammond has a particularly fun rant about horses, during the Conversation Street segment. They also explain that new companies are modernizing old cars, which makes for some truly spectacular results.

This episode will bag a solid 8 out of 10 from me!

The Grand Tour Season 3 is streaming NOW on Amazon Prime!