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Boon, MI Car Consumer Discussions

Re: Converting to Veg Oil [Mr_Shiftright]

by boaz47 on Sat Oct 04 09:28:58 PDT 2008

Great fuel mileage would only be a short term solution because you are still using foreign oil. Unless that isn't a problem. As China hits the ground running and embraces the auto like the rest of the major countries future use of a non renewable fuel becomes more of a problem. It is just this reason hybrids have been accepted far faster than our return to diesels. As a side note I did find it interesting that as we in California have mandated cleaner diesels for our heavy duty equipment our companies are allowed to sell their old equipment to China and third world countries. If those vehicles polluted the air in our state with a higher grade of diesel you have to wonder at the logic of selling them to other countries with a lower grade of diesel. I noticed the results of this when I was in Kenya in 2006. All that aside it would still take a small diesel in commuter or city car priced like an Korean car to get me to buy one now. If we had a EV option then a diesel wouldn't be necessary for me. But then if you sign on to T. Boon Pickens sight you will see he has a different solution that includes CNG which is also cleaner than diesel without as many filters.

Barney Frank at the top CROOKED Politician list

by gagrice on Fri Oct 03 18:20:39 PDT 2008

WASHINGTON — Unqualified home buyers were not the only ones who benefited from Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank’s efforts to deregulate Fannie Mae throughout the 1990s. So did Frank’s partner, a Fannie Mae executive at the forefront of the agency’s push to relax lending restrictions. Now that Fannie Mae is at the epicenter of a financial meltdown that threatens the U.S. economy, some are raising new questions about Frank's relationship with Herb Moses, who was Fannie’s assistant director for product initiatives. Moses worked at the government-sponsored enterprise from 1991 to 1998, while Frank was on the House Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over Fannie. Both Frank and Moses assured the Wall Street Journal in 1992 that they took pains to avoid any conflicts of interest. Critics, however, remain skeptical. "It’s absolutely a conflict," said Dan Gainor, vice president of the Business & Media Institute. "He was voting on Fannie Mae at a time when he was involved with a Fannie Mae executive. How is that not germane? "If this had been his ex-wife and he was Republican, I would bet every penny I have - or at least what’s not in the stock market - that this would be considered germane," added Gainor, a T. Boone Pickens Fellow. "But everybody wants to avoid it because he’s gay. It’s the quintessential double standard." A top GOP House aide agreed. "C’mon, he writes housing and banking laws and his boyfriend is a top exec at a firm that stands to gain from those laws?" the aide told FOX News. "No media ever takes note? Imagine what would happen if Frank’s political affiliation was R instead of D? Imagine what the media would say if [GOP former] Chairman [Mike] Oxley’s wife or [GOP presidential nominee John] McCain’s wife was a top exec at Fannie for a decade while they wrote the nation’s housing and banking laws." http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,432501,00.html

Re: 2009 Jetta TDI gets the Nu Wurld Rekerd [alltorque]

by ruking1 on Fri Oct 03 12:01:38 PDT 2008

Indeed, half seriously, I have said (on more than one occasion) the Jetta TDI is a fuel guzzler (@ 44-62 mpg) . The glazed looks can be truly indicative that the American (gasser) buying public is narcotized to believe in fuel crisis, while fully made to believe or conned or even willingly embracing the 27 mpg and defacto 22 mpg current (gasser) metrics.!!?? Again it gets back to what I have been saying: it is hard to do differently when there are no real (higher mpg) choices!! For example one OEM (VW) that does diesel is really not much of a choice. (no disrespect to VW intended) On the other hand, Prius is seen as a savior of the western world (as WE know it) when it gets 45 mpg. This EVEN after they adjusted the EPA standards because the Prius owners complained about it not getting 60 city 50 mpg highway. We are either biased or math challenged. It will be interesting and instructive to see what the year end fuel consumption winds up being, and compare it to the last 5 years! Really was it worth the so called per gal pain and "700 Billion dollar bail out" and endless T Boone Pickens commercials stating the common sense obvious, 1 M times?

Re: Elatra SE Vs. Sonata GLS [vijayamaravadi]

by backy on Mon Sep 29 09:23:48 PDT 2008

What I would prefer is irrelevant. It's your money and will be your car. But I will tell you I was quite tempted to jump on a Sonata GLS AT + mats last week when I found out I could get one for just under $14,700 + T&L. But I decided to get a used BMW instead, since I always wanted one, it had all the safety gear I wanted, and was a lot more car than the Sonata for about $2500 less. I do like the Elantra SE due to its more compact exterior size (easier to park and fit in the garage) and more nimble handling, its cool 5-spoke alloys, and some of its other features including telescopic wheel, audio controls on the leather wheel, trip computer, more comfy center armrest, folding mirrors (a real boon in tight parking spaces), fog lamps, and as you noted higher FE. Many of these features are available on the Sonata GLS too, but not on the base unit. The Sonata has its advantages too, of course: more roomy interior and trunk, timing chain vs. belt, more power, bodyside moldings, and USB port to name a few. Tough choice! P.S. since the Bluetooth is dealer-installed, you can put it in at any time, or as you said go with a portable nav unit with Bluetooth that would cost about the same as Hyundai's Bluetooth-only option.

Re: here we go again? [kernick]

by gagrice on Mon Sep 22 14:17:58 PDT 2008

T-Boone and Palin are right. We have to get a gas pipeline built through Canada to the markets on the East Coast and Midwest. Natural gas will become the fuel for the foreseeable future. Solar has yet to make a 1% dent. Wind shows promise except for the NIMBY's on the East Coast and West Coast. If Nuclear is shoved aside by the Dems then Coal will expand past its current 50%. We have 1000s of years worth of coal that will get used as oil supplies diminish. With the current price of diesel coal to diesel is doable. The investors want to make sure that oil does not tank again and leave them holding a bucket of high priced diesel.

I will admit

by boaz47 on Sun Sep 21 19:25:07 PDT 2008

to be a bit of a gadget person myself but maybe one of the biggest boons to driving I have found is GPS and Computer maps. I simply don't buy paper maps anymore. I got my last Thompson map in 2004. But either my computer and Streets and trips from Microsoft or my GPS gets me to any spot in the US I want to go. It isn't perfect but if I know where I want to go the car tells me where I am and how to get there. Believe it or not two of my bicycles have computers on them to tell me how fast and far I am going and how long it took me. Maybe overkill I know but it seems to be the wave of the future. Some will simply give me a blank look and ask why? Why a car GPS or why a bike computer? Simple, instant information and ease of use. look at what we are doing in this forum. We aren't putting to pen and paper our thought and mailing them to each other we are doing it by computer is what could be if we wanted, real time. My refrigerator frost free, my oven is self cleaning. My phone is wireless. My TV is remote as is my DVD/CD player and every house I know has a microwave. We as a nation seem to want easy to use things. I don't eve flip a switch to turn on a porch light. Some have suggested Americans are lazy if they don't drive a manual. I believe we are lazy if we drive when we can walk or ride a bike so the transmission doesn't count as exercise.