Locate an Auto Repair Shop in Yellow Springs, Ohio

...light yellow '70 Chevrolet Impala Custom Coupe, black vinyl top, 350 engine, five-slot Rally Wheels. Some rust around the rear wheel opening on the driver's side. Interior original and excellent. Talked to the guy as I was leaving (he was on his way in) and said he recently bought it in Blairsville, PA for $1,200 (down from asking price of $1,475). It was the seller's grandmother's car, and he added the Rally Wheels when he got home. Said it drove the three hours back this way, excellently. Those were good cars overall and I was reminded how ubiquitous they were then, like Camrys today. What a choice then, though...two coupe rooflines available, a post four-door sedan, a 4-door hardtop, convertible, and station wagon models (called "Kingswood")--plus probably a choice of sixteen colors (seriously). I miss those days.

Over the last 60 days I have documented some thoughts on my new Elantra. I strongly believe that some of these items can be easily addressed o rimplemented and would stregthen the product quality. Do not construe this list to mean that I hate my Elantra. I dont, but would like to see many of these items addressed. Computer - There are a number of car behaviors that should be directly programmable by the consumer without having to involve the dealer. These include: Door unlock on park, door lock on drive, TPMS swing/trigger point, rear defogger ON time. This ability is either being blocked by default settings or has been left out of the system. All Hyundai cars should work the same as the Sonata and allow the driver to make changes. We should not have to pay the dealer for these changes and believe me dealers are charging - TPMS monitoring could be better. I’d like to be able to see the condition of each tire. This should not be costly to do as the engine computer is already polling the devices. You can display the condition as part of the trip computer options - The owner should be able to set the minimum TPMS PSI for tires - The owner should be able to change the auto door locking settings - The owner should be able to change the rear defroster timer setting Interior - The Window lock, door lock, side mirror buttons are not lit. All of the other buttons are lit - The Trunk is not adequately lit and it is impossible to see the back of the trunk at night - The glove box is not lit and it’s difficult to access it a night - The voice and phone buttons on the steering wheel are too dim. The red call end button almost impossible to see at night - The sunroof button’s up and down action feels cheap and flimsy like it will break very rapidly. Usage requires a delicate and light touch. A higher quality button (or multiple buttons) would be better - The Steering wheel gets super cold in winter and is hard to hold until the car has warmed. Core material must not be designed for cold conditions as it retains the cold very well. I suggest you add the wheel heater that you offer on the Kia Optima - Take a look at some of the dashboard plastic. The plastic around the steering wheel attracts skin oils (fingerprints) and when cleaned shows cleaning residue. It also easily scratches - The plastic on some of the steering wheel parts (lower part of horn) have sharp edges and are irritating when brushed against. Any surface that is regularly touched should have no sharp edges - Carpet under passenger seat is cut open so that a serial number is viewable. Problem is that now there is an entry point for dirt to collect under the carpet. Also the carpet may curl over time at this cut point exposing the frame below. I have never seen a car delivered with such a quality issue   Exterior - How is it that the door jams can get so dirty from rain and snow when the doors are closed? This is an indicator that water is not being channeled away but is instead being washed over these areas. It also indicates that road spray is finding its way into these areas and should not be. This is a major rust/finish risk to the body from water that stands in these areas - Supply covers for the door strikers for a cleaner look. These can’t cost more than a penny each and you already have a part number for them (81353-3M000) - When doors are opened while raining water falls down into car, on jam and seats. Snow as well. Water does not appear to be channeled around the door very well. I don’t like having water fall inside the car when it can be prevented - Door edge guard pieces should run the length of the door (top to bottom) and not in small segments where Hyundai thinks most impacts will occur. It’s a choppy look that detracts from the style. How much more could 20 inches of the material really cost at the factory level - After 20 minutes the rear defroster could not remove a lightly iced window. It needs to be more powerful - It is nearly impossible to find a high quality 14” wiper for the front windshield as this size wiper is generally for rear window wipers where the clearing quality does not have to be as good. Hyundai should have used a single wiper approach. There is also a cleaning gap between the 28” drive wiper and the 14” passenger wiper. A 15” blade would solve the problem but over extends the window by about ¼ inch on the left. I suggest that you shift the driver wiper to the right so it can accept a smaller blade allowing the passenger blade to at least 16 inches (the minimal size for a front wiper) - The quick turn signal feature only flashes the light 3 times. This is too short for most typical situations. Five flashes would be better and safer. - The stock blades on the new car is not very good and smears better than they clean Rear Camera - Use a better CCD as the picture quality that is graining/blurry at night. Suspect it uses a CCD that is not for nighttime viewing - Publish the distances (feet) for each color range (red,yellow,green) on the rear camera in the owners manual   Stereo - The volume on the Navigation system can only be set as high as 35 on a scale of 100. Needs to go higher - XM signal gets lost more often than a similar Sirius equipped car. Suggest switching USA/Canada production lines to Sirius radio for better coverage - On the non-navigation cars, the "Up/Down" button does not work with XM and when I press it, automatically changes the channel to the "XM Preview" channel Navigation - $200 map updates? Are you kidding me? After spending $2K on the tech package. - Owner should be able to turn off the GPS warning screen permanently - Owner should have a separate screen on/off button where the navigation screen remains off regardless of the other buttons being pressed - Navigation screen brightness should have an option to be tied to the dash board dimming system - Traffic needs to overlay on the navigation screen without that big blue box of details. I just want to be able to see the map and have all traffic issues overlaid. A voice warning would be ideal as I approach an area with a traffic issue Phone - System does not fully implement the Bluetooth/Control features of the iPhone and the newest model the 4S. This is one of the most popular phones in the world. - Calling by name should be as smooth as the iPhone through the navigation system. There should be no need to say “Call Name”. I should be able to say “Call John Smith at Home” and have it work. Every voice dial phone on the planet functions this way. The Hyundai voice dial through the navigation system does not work that way. - System should have an immediate pass-through mode so that I can use the features of the phone directly while the audio passes through the sound system I want to be able to talk directly to Apple’s new SIRI control without having to touch the phone

This seems to work very well, but it's only short term because the device seems to reset and turn back on when the engine goes off. It's easy enough to do over and over, but the buzz for the 60-90 sec can drive you nuts. I found a more permanent fix. The link is http://www.justanswer.com/honda/1bymn-causes-motorboat-noise-2005-honda-accord-h- - - ybrid.html. I think this fix is basically doing a permanent grounding from the dome light to the chasis which is the dealers' test procedure. It took me a couple hours, mostly to figure out what I was looking at. I can summarize it here and it should only take about 30 min. Start by getting to the fuse box at the driver's left leg. In order to see, there is a flexible black plastic piece that has to be removed; the end by the engine side is easy. The end at the dash requires that the lower driver's side dash be loosened. To loosen the dash, there is a single Philips screw on the left and a clip on the right that goes into a metal bracket. The clip has to be squeezed then pushed through the bracket. The rest of the dash piece can be pulled away. Once the dash is loose, the flexible black piece can be popped. There are 3 white plastic clips that I pushed with a flat screw driver and pushed down. Right above the fuse box are several wire harnesses and pin block connectors. There is a large brown and a large white pin block connector; these have to be unmounted by slipping a flat screw driver into the tab and pulling the whole block down. After these are off the mount, push them upward to see well. The very top pin connector is a "8 pin"... It's actually a 10 pin connector, but two are not used. The far left top wire (1) is green and red; THAT IS THE ONE YOU WANT. To be sure you are on the right wire, count from the green-red; there are two open slots, then 2 more on the top row. The next row goes orange, yellow, black, yellow, yellow. The black is the 6th wire and is a ground. Back to the all important green and red wire. Cut that wire free then ground the wire some place to the chasis. I first "tapped" into the wire and grounded it; the noise went away, but the dome light stays on with the switch in the "door" position. After I cut it loose, the dome light works correctly and the noise is still gone. It cost me about $10 at Radio Shack for wire and a connector to splice in. Sure is a lot better than $400 to the dealer

...yellow Lamborghini Gallardo turning right onto Robbins Street from Tabor Avenue in NE Philly.

Same here, the DC one, anyway. Escape sure did look nice. Ford also had a pair of Focus STs. Loved the electric yellow paint ($495 option available on other models) and the seats! New Escape make the old one look 100 years old. Dart also looked good in person. DC had a cut-away, sort of on its side, did you see that display as well? BRZ was cool. It was roped off but we talked them in to letting us in. The seats were great, perforated leather steering wheel cover also telescoped. Back seat was useless, though what did I expect? 2 cheap details - the fake fender vents, and the front bumper insert. If it comes in at mid 20s like they say, though, look out, they won't have enough to meet demand. Impreza was surprisingly roomy - bigger inside than a 3 series or the Lexus CT.