The New Vehicle

2012 Ford Mustang V6 Premium

color: Lava Red Metallic

I got a good price after borrowing my 80 year old mother to play "bad cop" for me at the dealership. She was perfect. I'm financing, and have already made the first payment. A good mount must have a name. This one does not, yet. I must think of a name that is suitably equine.

The new V6 engine,  rated at a believable 310 horsepower, really feels like a V8. The car I drove for 20 years "only" had 210. The black 60's muscle-car like interior makes you say "oh, yeah, I forgot what these were like on the inside". The hood is long and the dash is high. It was actually quite intimidating on the first test drive, like finding myself behind the wheel of a 1969 again. Allegedly, it gets about 30 MPG highway. I haven't seen that yet. City mileage is somewhat short of 20. The back seats are mostly theoretical, but they both fold down, so I can really stuff the back with skis, luggage, or items from the garden shop. The extra cargo space is a nod to practicality.

The interior is old school muscle car black with chrome and metallic trim. There are a lot of flat surfaces compared to most modern cars, which is fine, it feels traditional, The A pillars are huge, they take getting used to, but give a sence of solidness. The electrically powered steering means no worrying about power steering fluid, and the steering feel can be changed between three options "sport", "normal", and "easy". The car does not have the center touch screen, which all new cars seem to have, and I don't feel that I need. The "premium" package puts the pony car into personal luxury car territory. it's more touring car than sports car. The leather seats are heated, fully electric, and the drivers seat has adjustable lumbar support. The sound system still has a CD player and a USB port is hidden in the center console.

Now for the things that need getting used to. No spare tire, The standard fix-a-flat kit will be useless if I bend a rim going over a new jersey pothole. The truck-like hood has a serious bulge and it's tough to find the front corners when parking. The chin spoiler is a real ground scraper. I certainly can't jump curbs and plow through snow like the big old bird that I used to drive. The live axle seems a little twitchy at first if you are used to independent rear suspensions like I am. On the whole, I'm pleased, though.

Test Drive #3

Bu the way, my car search is over, these stories have been copy/pasted from my Facebook. This is my third test drive. Due to this experience, I considered leaving off the name of the dealership, but I will leave it, although the salesman's name will be left out. It's my recommendation as a consumer that you keep away from this place. If you see it, don't ask questions, just run away.

2013 Nissan Altima 2.5s coupe
Color: Black
Hilltop Nissan, East Hanover


Photo Credit: Wikipedia

2013 was the last year for the Altima coupe, which was a real shame. This is a gorgeous car. There have been Nissans in my family for 20 years, and my mother had a 1988 240sx, a truly fun little sports car to flog around, so I'm partial to the Nissan's small coupes. The Altima was a nice little driving car. The body's simple curves are attractive. The cockpit is simple, comfortable. modern and logical, although it was a standard affair with black cloth seats, standard radio, and no center screen display. The view from inside the greenhouse is is unobstructed. The continuously-variable trans is, well, interesting. The car I drove had a 4 cylinder motor, which is OK. This model also came with a V6, which would make the car even a whole lot better, if you find one of those, buy it.

It was a nice car. It was the salesman that made me run out of the dealership screaming. I'm convinced he would have held prisoner in a hole in the basement like the guy in Silence of the Lambs until I signed a fucking contract.

As soon as I expressed my like for the car, the hard-sell began, form the salesman. With all the aggressive salesmanship, they still weren't moving the price point down to compete with the other autos I was looking at. I may have still bought this car if I wasn't consumed with thoughts of escape.

Test Drive #2

2012 Ford Mustang V6 Deluxe with Pony Package
Color Lava Red.
Fette Ford, Clifton NJ


Photo Credit: IzumoCars
This isn't the gorgeous all-new 2015 Mustang which would be my dream car. The 2015 isn't quite available yet and it's priced slightly out of the price range I plan on working with. Ford is taking orders for the 2015 now, but I can't wait a few more months for delivery.
At first impression, everything about the 2012 screams "welcome back to 1969". It's either a good thing, or a bad thing, or a little of both depending on your point of view. The truck-like hood (how long is it? I think it's a par-3.), the dash layout taken from the mustangs of the 1960's, and the any-color-as-long-as-it's black interior says "classic muscle car" I'm tempted to replace the aluminum trim on the dash with fake walnut trim just to complete the retro look. The (300 advertised HP) 3.7L DOHC Ford V6 engine is a beast.  Fred Flintstone would appreciate the solid rear axle. If you are have grown accustomed to an IRS, like I have, remember to give this a little old-school respect.  After a while I realized that the Deluxe package makes this pony even more of a personal luxury coupe than my old T-Bird. First of all, it has heated leather seats, and a leather covered steering wheel and shift knob. As far a modern luxuries go, it has everything but the in-dash TV computer screen. You can change the color of the interior lighting, and listen to your IPod via a hidden USB in the console. There are a few available performance adjustments you can make such as turning the Traction Control on or off and change the steering feel between three levels from comfort to sport. At the selling price this used car is a real bargain. The rare "Lava Red" paint is almost black. This car was really a rare find for the price. I had a black car for 20 years.

My salesman, Andrew, and the sales managers at this dealership were are professional, helpful, and low-pressure. Even if I don't get this particular vehicle, it's nice to find a dealership like this. This may sound like a commercial, but, I had a rare good car shopping experience here, and I'm going to give those involved props.

Test Drive #1

Well, my Thunderbird is finally kaput. The next few posts are my test drive reviews, copy/pasted from my facebook. The first half is the review of each post will be a short note about the car driven. The second half is about my experience with the dealership or salesman. There are new and used autos here, and each one sell for $20 grand more or less.

So, without further ado, the first car:

2015 Dodge Dart SXT
Color: GreyRalley Package

Unnamed Dealership


Photo Credit: Chrysler Auto Group

This is an extremely good looking little automobile The leather trimmed interior is smart and comfortable. The geenhouse gives a great view out of all the windows, which increases safety and will enhance sightseeing on road trips. It's a nice feeling car and fast looking. I said fast LOOKING, though. The 2.4L four-banger would benefit from a small turbo to make the car as quick as it looks. In fact, I was sure that my Mom's old Sentra can take this thing.

My salesman (who's name I forget as of this writing) didn't much impress me. It seemed that it was all the same to him if he sold a car or not. Maybe if I was looking at jeeps, he'd be more exited. He just gave me the key, said to stay in town because he didn't bother to put on a license tag, and walked back inside.

I didn't buy this, and would not recommend the dealership.

Dear reader, I've deleted a few posts. They were mostly about personal stuff that I've moved on from. I didn't think it was necessary to have all of that lingering here and dragging the rest of the blog down into the morass that I am no longer dwelling in.

An old friend brought brightness into my life this month. I've known her for thirty years, and hadn't seen her in five when she walked into my store. It was a gift to see her well and so happy to be alive. Our conversation picked up as easily and comfortably as it did on the day we met in seventh grade, which I remember like it was yesterday. I was debilitatingly shy at that age and allowed our relationship to fall off, one of my great regrets. A lot of water has passed under that bridge since those early days, but, my tender feelings for this person haven't changed much, and I'm glad.

Steampunks

Turkish Coffee

At Steampunk World's Fair this year, I spent some quality time, just hanging out by the Turkish coffee vendor. If you've never tried this ancient way of enjoying a cup. give it a try.

I need to say something about this.

Earlier this year two almost-teenage girls were charged with luring another girl into a wooded area and trying to kill her to please a character in an internet meme known as Slender Man who they thought was real. Here is a link to one of many articles about it.

http://bringmethenews.com/2014/06/04/who-is-slender-man/

People have been publicly contemplating why this could have happened. I'm not in the least bit surprised. We adults need to look at ourselves. Look at the ideas, tales, and conspiracy theories we've allowed to propagate in our supposedly grown-up world. We've filled the airwaves, cable TV and the internet with truthers, birthers, climate change deniers, young-earthers, chemtraiers, and anti-vaxers. It seems the entire republic has lost it's ability to differentiate farie tale and psudo-science from reality. And, now we wonder why two 12 year-olds thought a character in a ghost story was real? Is it really that big a leap?

Deleted this photo by mistake. Here it is again.