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Diagonal, IA Car Consumer Discussions

Re: soft top glass back window problem [lordelpuz]

by ateixeira on Thu May 28 08:44:37 PDT 2009

The straps I'm referring to went from one of the top frame/braces to another, diagonally. I think you can see at least a part of them even when the top was up. They would basically pull one of the braces out of the way to let the top fold and make room for the big glass. Originally the NA models had plastic windows that you would have to fold in the middle or unzip to get down. So the straps are necessary for the later NB-style tops.

Re: Top-down Goat> [andys120]

by andre1969 on Tue May 19 16:42:56 PDT 2009

Does anyone know a good way to tell a '66 from a '67 at a glance? There's not much difference, but the '66 has a more blacked-out grille, that's divided up into little squares. The '67 has grille inserts that are chromed, and has a diagonal, diamond pattern. In back, the '66 has round backup lights in the bumper, and wide taillights that vaguely suggest an Impala, with three across, three bulbs most likely, but each of the three divided into three slim horizontal strips, for an overall 9x9 pattern. The '67 has rectangular backup lights in the bumper, and the taillights aren't as full-width, more Bel-Air like, two across, each divided into two horizontal strips, for a 2x2 pattern. I also remember a different taillight pattern, that was kind of delta-shaped, like what Dodge was doing in the late 60's, but I think that was just on a cheaper model, like maybe the '66 Tempest? Probably just one bulb on each side.

Audi A4 Windshield Wipers don't go down when off

by audi_george on Mon May 18 14:24:41 PDT 2009

I have a 2005 Audi A4 stationwagon with very low mileage.. Only about 15,000 miles but time wise it's about two weeks out of warranty when the windshield wipers began acting funny. When I turn the windshield wipers off after using them they now park about 30 - 40 degrees up from where they should park. Basically they park sort of diagonal across the wind shield. The wipers speed and cycle is smooth so I don't think it's a wiper motor problem.. Some kind of sensor problem they don't know where down is located. However I have noticed when I turn them on when they are parked in the diagonal position they take a quick dip down to normal position before beginning their normal wipe session. The speed and cycle seem normal except for when I turn them off and they park diagonal across the windshield. I can manually move the blade assembly to park them where they should be. However if it rains and I turn them on and eventually off... they always park diagonal again. Anyone else ever had this problem..? Seems to be an end sensing problem of some kind. Is there any fix short of replacing the motors.. The motors seem fine.. The problem came up all of a sudden. No prior warning etc. Thanks for help solving this mystery.

Re: Mazda2 coming to Canada! [autonomous]

by creakid1 on Sat May 09 16:04:02 PDT 2009

I already took a test drive of the made-in-Germany Fiesta in California. For the first time I actually think my boring-steering 2000 Civic w/ multi-link double-wish-bones all around is pretty good dynamically. LOL Because with only electric pwr steering & lack of multi-link rear suspension, the Fiesta/Mazda2 just can't be so great in both ride & road holding . The 1.6 engine developed by Mazda was very smooth to rev, though. I am glad I am still keeping my two other cars -- the real compact version (2600+lbs) "Mazda3's" -- that are much more lovable dynamically than my Civic -- the '90 Protege twin-cam & the '07 Focus 2.3 ST, both of which still got pure hydraulic pwr steering. Because the new Mazda3 is mid size in every way except refinement! Car & Driver still complained about its ride & quietness plus the compact-size rear leg room, while gaining all the weaknesses of a mid-size car -- 2.5's balance-shaft-wasted inferior performance/mpg to that of the BMW 3.0 6-cyl, & the bulky width/length/weight. Besides, do you still have to get the heavy motorized seat in order to tilt your seat cushion? The only detail that impressed me is the reappearance of the Euro-style diagonal driver's inside door handle since its discontinuation after the 1991 Protege. Boy, don't you hate those nerdy horizontal aft-locating door handle so typical of Japanese cars all the way from even the sporty/drifty RWD Corolla's to the Lexus?

Empty Neighborhoods Fill Rust Belt

by lemko on Mon May 04 13:36:48 PDT 2009

By DAN SEWELL and FRANK BASS CINCINNATI (AP) - Meet the forgotten housing crisis. While most attention has focused on the wave of foreclosures sweeping mostly middle-class, suburban Sunbelt neighborhoods from California to Florida, the nation's emptiest neighborhoods have remained concentrated in the same place for nearly a generation: the mostly minority, poor, urban neighborhoods of the American Rust Belt. An analysis by The Associated Press, based on data collected by the U.S. Postal Service and the Housing and Urban Development Department, shows the emptiest neighborhoods are clustered in places hit hard during the recession of the 1980s - cities such as Flint, Mich.; Columbus, Ohio; Buffalo, N.Y.; and Indianapolis. "I'd move in a heartbeat if I had somewhere to go right now," said Cindy Olejniczak of Buffalo, raking trash from the lawn of a boarded-up house to keep it from blowing in her yard. Roughly every third home in her neighborhood is vacant. Not even pizzerias will deliver to the area now. "It's almost like you wish they would just level the whole neighborhood," she said, "and start rebuilding again from scratch." Federal lawmakers have designated nearly $6 billion over the past year for local governments to do just that - buy and either rehabilitate or demolish foreclosed and abandoned homes. The AP's analysis, however, shows the money will only make a modest dent in the problem. As of March 31, there were about 4 million homes that have been empty for 90 days - a slight increase over last year's figures and about 3 percent of all U.S. homes. The federal money will be distributed based on a complicated formula that considers local rates for foreclosures, high-cost mortgages and vacancies. There won't be enough money to completely fix places such as the neighborhood in western Columbus that is the nation's emptiest. A mostly vacant apartment complex with chained-off parking areas shares a drab stretch of asphalt with a strip club, payday lender and abandoned retail stores. About 70 percent of the neighborhood's housing is empty. The number of abandoned homes scattered throughout the nation's 65,000 neighborhoods concerns federal officials because of the potential to prevent the economy from recovering. Empty housing feeds upon itself. Experts say as more houses stand vacant, property values and tax revenues drop. The drop in property values lead to fewer buyers, which lead to more vacancies. "It becomes a vicious cycle," said Jennifer Vey, a researcher with the Washington-based Brookings Institution. Vey said people have been shoved out of the Rust Belt by the collapse of the manufacturing economy for more than a generation now, and drawn to the temperate Sun Belt by more jobs and a lower cost of living. The cycle makes residents in hard-hit neighborhoods feel as abandoned as the vacant buildings that surround them. In places like Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, roughly two of every three homes are vacant or used by squatters. The area is more than 70 percent black and poor, with unemployment often around 50 percent. It's a place where simmering resentment and frustration boiled up into three days of rioting in 2001 after police fatally shot a young, unarmed black man fleeing arrest on traffic warrants. The neighborhood, which took its name from early German immigrants, is highlighted by its 19th century Italianate architecture. On a cool morning on Elm Street, people sat on front stoops, chatting amiably with each other and greeting passers-by on what at first glance looked like a thriving, friendly residential block. But a look up at windows with only darkness behind them and doors with "No Trespassing" police orders gave it a Potemkin village feel. "All those are empty," said Joe Griffin, 50, who is homeless and spends nights in a shelter and public park. In Olejniczak's Buffalo neighborhood, homes across the street and on one side have been torn down, along with the house on the diagonal corner. The house on the other side of hers is standing but boarded, its lawn a tangle of overgrown weeds, pizza boxes, liquor bottles and wrappers. It's an eyesore she got tired of looking at. So, on a recent afternoon, she grabbed a shovel, rake, broom and a box of trash bags and, with her 81-year-old mother, got to work. "I couldn't stand looking at this any more. I look out my window at it everyday," she said, nodding across to her own neatly kept home where daffodil shoots were sprouting after a long winter. In Buffalo, there are as many as 10,000 vacant, abandoned homes. Suburban sprawl, an aging population and manufacturing losses have left the city with a population under 300,000 - about half what it was during the 1950s. Things may be even worse in Flint, Mich. Jeffrey Taylor, 51, moved to a vanishing neighborhood in the late 1960s, when his father worked for General Motors. Taylor, a handyman, lives just north of a huge concrete slab once home to a 130-acre GM complex known as Chevy-in-the-Hole. At its peak, the factories employed thousands. Now, all but one of the 20 factories and buildings in the industrial valley have been closed and torn down, driving residents from his neighborhoods. City officials are thinking about bulldozing large swaths of the city. Taylor's is one of the state's emptiest neighborhoods, with nearly one in three homes vacant. "Once these shops are gone, these people start going back home, they start heading back south," Taylor said. The abandoned homes draw thieves who steal whatever metal they can to sell for scrap, so Taylor pulls vehicles into the driveway of the empty house next door to make it look occupied. Cities across the region are trying to reverse the tide, buying and either rehabilitating or bulldozing empty homes. Even with billions of federal dollars pouring into cities, civic leaders such as Steve Leeper, director of a Cincinnati development group, say fixing lead paint, asbestos, decay and other problems takes a long time. So far, his nonprofit group, backed by local businesses, has spent $84 million to rehabilitate Over-the-Rhine housing. "A 20-year vacancy is just brutal on a building," said Leeper, maneuvering past construction workers inside the dusty shell of what's planned as the future home of luxury condominiums. Already, there are a more than dozen new shops, restaurants and small businesses in Over-the-Rhine, and more than 80 percent of the first new condos have been bought, at an average price of $150,000. Sales have been strong in 2009, Leeper said, particularly among first-time home buyers who don't have the problem of trying to also sell suburban homes in the down housing market. But the renaissance hasn't been felt throughout the neighborhood, and some are skeptical. "I think the direction the city is going in isn't helping the low-income and middle people. It's pushing them out," said the Rev. Leroy Owens, who heads

Re: [gatchison]

by gohokiees on Mon Apr 20 09:52:34 PDT 2009

My 2003 SL Murano started stalling at 38k miles. I took it to my dealership that has performed all of the service since I purchased it off the lot brand new. Of course, the car would not stall for them. I have since taken it back in 3 times for them to look at it. The alternator (under warranty) and battery (my dime) have been replaced and the car still stalls intermittently. However, in the past few weeks (and at 68k miles), the car will NOT stay running unless I gun the engine immediately after starting it. It happens every time I start my car. It does not matter if the engine is cold or warmed up. I am taking it in this week b/c, in addition to the stalling issue, the driver's seat no longer adjusts on the right track. Randomly one day last week, the seat moved back when I turned off the car and then when I started it up (and gunned it!), a very weird noise came from the beneath the seat. Fortunately, I can reach the peddles enough, but it is inconvenient. No one shorter than I am can drive my car. The seat will move forward on the left track, so the seat just moves diagonally toward the gear shift, while staying fixed on the right track. And nothing is in the right track. I believe the motor burned out on the right side. Ugh!!! I will keep you posted. Of course, the warranty is over. This was my first Nissan. I had always been a Honda girl, where it was normal to run them to 200k without issues (wear&tear excluded). Is this normal for Nissan?