Do you know West Point?
If you ask an automotive assembly plant designer, chances are the West Point he is thinking about won’t have statues of General MacArthur or cadets in full uniform.
It will be this place.
Find Reviews by Make:
Posts By: Steven Lang
This 2009 BMW 535i has 45,000 miles and looks absolutely drop dead gorgeous. It offers nearly the same acceleration as a 550i, and far more space than the 335i, which is more sought after in the enthusiast world.
To me, if you’re a true keeper, all of this is good news. The better news? It’s a lemon!
Just Imagine What I Can Do To Your Car!
Everybody wants a deal. But precious few people are willing to change their habits to make their deal last longer.
Scott Nearing was not trying to become a pioneer.
Back when the auto industry represented the equivalent of today’s dot-com companies, Dr. Nearing was a highly successful economics professor at a program that would later be known as the Wharton School of Business.
He wrote about a wide variety of economic issues that were vigorously debated at a time when differing opinions were not often tolerated in the world of academic discourse. Benefactors, like today’s corporate sponsors and tomorrow’s Ceasers, expected their due (ck) in exchange for funding and ‘exclusives’.
Anti-war. Anti-child labor. Anti-trust and ‘anti’ everything political in the end, Dr. Nearing soon found that his sole victory in court would only yield a blacklist from academia that would last for decades.
So he bought himself some land, a pickup truck, and moved to the Green Mountains of northern Vermont.
I could definitely use some insight. Here’s my basic situation. (Read More…)
Clucky. The Freddie Krueger Of Modern Cuisine.
Last night I ate a little ‘Clucky’ chicken.
Normally I don’t touch the stuff. But I was hungry and seeing that the usual dinner food wasn’t filling me up, I decided to have one piece of fried chicken.
One thing I know now. If there is a hell, they serve nothing but fried chicken there.
Back in 1992 Toyota was at the forefront of quality engineering.
The Lexus nameplate had become the best selling import luxury brand in North America thanks to ES, LS and SC models that were easily among the most over-engineered vehicles of the time. 200k became not only an achievement for most Toyotas, but an expectation as well, and the models of that time were rolling testaments to a culture that prioritized the principles of Kaizen (continuous improvement) and Muda (the minimzation of waste) above all else.
Some mornings are surreal.
You wake up and all of a sudden, there is some theme music to your life.
Every step seems to be moving to a strange beat. The beginning credits begin rolling in. Walk out of the house and into your 11 year old Honda Insight with 190k. Turn on the key. 10 mile commute, and…
A quarter century ago, give or take a year, my brother Paul became the first in the family to drive a Toyota. A 1984 Toyota Celica-Supra. It was a true shifting of gears for the Lang Gang. Everyone up to that time had bought a GM. Mom and Dad drove Cadillacs (only one saw 100k). The eldest one had a Monte Carlo (a.k.a. Crapo) that didn’t see the road half the time. Second in line had a Regal (a.k.a. the dying diesel) that ended up stolen and trashed in the Grand Canyon. He actually felt sorry for the canyon.
Within three years both these Roger Smith specials were replaced with 1988 Celica GT’s. Great cars with no nicknames necessary. Three years later I had a Celica GT-S sitting on my driveway. Even better. Still no nicknames. By the end of the decade everyone in the family had a Toyota.
But then things changed…
Somewhere between Brigadoon and Bora Bora
Life has been good. Well, let’s just call it a nicer shade of OK with a few interesting surprises along the way.
You get out of your morning cobwebs, and walk up to your driveway knowing that the car in front of you will be your last ride ever.
I’m 27. I’m not old! You can call me Dennis.
Nearly every state offers some type of tax exemption for an older car.
My home state of Georgia is probably the greatest benefactor of the old car owner.
The volume at the last sale I went to yesterday was down be nearly a third. Apparently, the powers that be wanted to move some of their vehicles to another location and see whether that market would yield higher returns.
They could have saved themselves the tow fees and the hassle of it all. When I liquidated vehicles, it seemed like almost every major seller would try to do a ‘test’ of sorts. Chasing money. Chasing the wind, and chasing their own tail.
It’s an unbelievable pain. Or a pleasure worthy of a cold beer on a hot summer day.
Changing oil in a car can either be a 1-2-3 process that gives you an instant feeling of afternoon achievement. Or a painful and miserable endeavor that leaves stains on your clothes, oil slicks on your driveway, and cuss words on the tip of your tongue.
The question every car owner has to ask is, “Will this be worth my time?”
Baby got back!
I used to be in charge of liquidating over 10,000 vehicles a year.
Each one had a story to tell, and at times the evidence of that recent storied past was quite noxious.
I missed.
The oil drain container was placed right below the drain plug. Everything seemed to be fine.
I did a little left loosey. Got the drain plug off. A brief torrent of black fluid followed the nearest path of escape.
Straight to the floor of my driveway.
Recent Comments