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#1843 of 3244 by rea98d Mar 18, 2003 (5:36 pm)
Regarding the '82 she's holding up pretty good. I got her last summer with 41,000 miles on her, and have put about 20,000 more on her since then (I drive a lot). I had to replace quite a bit of stuff on her when I first got her, because the PO only drove about 2,000 miles a year, and idled everywhere she went. Also, I don't think she had ever heard the words "tune up" in her entire life. But she runs good now, and I don't hesitate to take her out on long highway trips. In fact, other than the gratuitous gasoline consumption, she's perfect for long trips. Seats are split seats, but flat like the bench seats, with fold-down arm rests. As for the spare tire, I hadn't really noticed its placement was all that bad, but the trunk is definately deep! You could hide Jimmy Hoffa in there and no one would ever find him. (Uh, oops. SHouldn't have said that. I never made a comment about Jimmy Hoffa. Never mind). But the car is holding up well enough, and I continue to drive her. When I bought her, she was extremely low mileage for an '82. When I end up getting rid of her, she'll probably be extremely high mileage. I tend to do that to cars.
#1844 of 3244 An Associated Press article read today: by dinu Mar 19, 2003 (8:58 am)
FYI:   Today, March 19, 2003, in The Arizona Republic newspaper there is an Associated Press article titled "Luxury cars, SUVs crack under crash-test pressure" by Dee-Ann Durbin. Bumper crash tests were made by the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety. Does anyone know if they have a internet website? A Google search should determine this.   The luxury sedans cited in the article are noted below in order, according to the degree of damage in these bumper crash tests:   2003 Infiniti Q45 - $1,445   2003 Cadillac CTS - $1,172   2003 Lincoln Town Car - $1,147   2002 Acura RL - $1,103   There was also one midsize SUV noted and two small SUVs noted in the article. If anyone is interested in knowing what the article said about these vehicles post a request for this info here and I'll put it in this discussion grouop today or tomorrow.   Here's a quote from the article relative to the Lincoln Town Car:   In a statement, Lincoln manufacturer Ford Motor Co. said its bumpers meet or exceed government safety standards. It also said the institute's tests "may not be representative of he type of damage that occurs in real-world situations."
#1845 of 3244 dinu: My first car was a '39 Chev with real steel chrome plated bumpers. by kinley Mar 19, 2003 (9:25 am)
When someone scratched my bumper while backing into a parking place, the scratch was accepted because that's what bumpers are there for, to protect the main body of the car. Today, if you back into another's bumper while parallel parking and the bumper gets scratched, it's an insurance Property Damage claim. Another cause of high insurance premiums. Bumpers should be protective rather than decorative.
#1846 of 3244 Re: Kinley's #1840 post & his #1845 by dinu Mar 19, 2003 (9:58 am)
You're right about "bumpers should be protective rather than decorative" Property Damage claims today.   Am interested in you being "amateur orchestra conductor". I don't play a musical instrument but even at 69 it's not too late to learn! Beethoven's 4th piano concerto is now playing in the background on KBAQ our classical music station here. Kinley, you can listen in too while working on the computer. The URL address is: www.kbaq.org   Yes, Poulenc's choral works are lovely...I especially like his "Gloria". Try his concerto for two painos and his Concert champetre for harpsicord and orchestra (the later written for Wanda Landowska) if you don't know them.   Thanks for the info on music & automobiles. Am wondering what sound system the GM and the TC have. The Toyota Avalon XLS 4dr sedan w/bucket seats has a JBL 7 speaker system including subwoofer and 6 disc in-dash CD changer. But the Avalon doesn't have any audio controls on its steering wheel as the GM Ultimate and TC Executive do.   BTW The interior specs of the Avalon XLS are nearly equal to the TC and better in some aspects. We don't know as yet how low we can get the bottom line on the Executive TC that would include the cash incentives that end this month. Will have to take another spin in it and seek out thier rock-bottom "bottom line". Right now we are leaning in favor of the Avalon XLS V6 (with bucket seats, Package #5, Vehicle Skid Control, and carpet/cargo mat set) at an invoice total of $29,094. The MSRP is $33,249 and Edmund's TMV price is $29,269. No incentives or rebates on this car but the one we saw on a lot had a $1200 discount on it.   The wife and I like bucket seats rather than the bench type. I don't believe that the GM or Executive TC offer the choice of bucket seats, do they? Will have to check the Edmunds site.
#1847 of 3244 Dinu: My music education began in the womb. by kinley Mar 19, 2003 (10:20 am)
My father was a professional opera tenor & Mom was a concert pianist. Piano was my first instrument and my teacher was of a Nazi style where I was to play "only what's written". To develop my ear, I took up the Trombone and switched to Euphonium in my Sr.year of H.S. In college I minored in Music which included a semester of "Conducting". Following college the draft got me into an Army band. Locally, there is an orchestra composed of teachers and others of which I have been known to be a guest conductor. 69?, me too until the end of the month. Side comment: 69 years is still young enough to learn an instrument. My suggestion is begin with the piano. I still play it- when no one's around.
#1848 of 3244 Re: ronslakie's #1839 and cfocfo's #1841 posts by dinu Mar 19, 2003 (10:24 am)
ronslakie:   I'm not sure I'd be getting my moneys worth on the TC Executive either. As I said in the previous post, I'll have to see what the "rock-bottom" bottom line price I can get that includes this month's cash incentives plus the wife's Honeywell discount. Right now we're leaning toward the Avalon XLS mentioned in a previous post. Does your GM have bucket or bench seats?   cfocfo:   If you want a copy of CR's take on the luxury cars tested, check it out at your library as it's the February 2003 issue and may not still be available to buy. The Avalon XLS 4dr sedan w/bucket seats is a dream drive: super comfort and quality, room equal or better than the TC, and very, very quiet. Don't know yet if the TC will win us out but it has a good chance. You're ability in your GM (and the TC too) to control the audio "without having to lean my old back off of the fine leather seats, as the controls are on the steering wheel" is what I want too but the Avalon doesn't have.
#1850 of 3244 Musical Quotes: Metropolitan Opera with James Levine conducting. by kinley Mar 19, 2003 (11:01 am)
I believe the opera was Aida and in the scene a live elephant, on stage, dropped a few "biscuts". The audience laughed, of course, the music stopped, and when there was a moment of silence, James Levine announced in a loud voice, "He's a Critic."
#1851 of 3244 Anecdotes from Oscar Levant's books by dinu Mar 19, 2003 (6:14 pm)
Good evening Burt. Liked your Aida anecdote. Speaking of critics, here's one you may not have heard: Max Reger, the composer, saw a negative critical review of one of his new works in the newspaper. He wrote to the critic, something like the following: "I'm in the smallest room in my house and I have your review before me. It will soon be BEHIND me!"   If you've read any of Oscar Levant's books I'm sure you enjoyed some of his anecdotes involving classical music. I have a couple of other good books of classical music anecdotes and have a collection of others involving Fritz Reiner, Sir Thomas Beecham and other notables. If you're interested in having the ones I've collected I can send them to you upon request.   As for my car-shipping business, I went to Costco today and picked up the literature on their car-buying program. Came home and called the 1-800 number and set up an appointment with a dealer. I'll compare their price with what my credit union can offer me through fleet pricing. According to The Costco phone rep I can't use my wife's Honeywell discount in addition to the Costco car prices. I suspected that. Of course if I would ask the dealer which program offers me the better deal they could say "this one" but it may actually be the one that affords them a higher profit. The thing I could do is to go to different dealerships of the same make, such as Buick, and try each of the three pricing avenues I have: Honeywell's, Costco's and the one from my credit union. I believe that Costco's program will bring the lowest price because of the size of Costco's buying power and larger membership.   That's all for this evening. Time to chow-down and to turn th TV on and monitor the approaching war in Iraq.
#1852 of 3244 GM has Bench seats by cfocfo Mar 19, 2003 (8:50 pm)
I wanted to take a look at a GM with bucket seats, the LSE, but I never found one in the Mercury dealership inventories to check it out.   We have the ability to seat 6 comfortably with the bench seat, but there isn't a nice center console for storage that is on some other vehicles. (The Buick Rendezvous has one of the best I've seen.)   Dinu, I think any one of the cars you are looking at will be a good purchase. It will probably come down to how much you want to spend.   Good Luck

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