Recent content by gearheadgrrrl

Agreed- When VW finally OK'd 20% biodiesel they warned of it polluting the oil. Haven't heard of any actual occurrences yet, but worth watching for.

Common problem, it's easy to overfill the oil. Shutting off the car resets the oil level warning. If the car has sat for a year there could be some water condensed in the oil pan causing the high readings, and water in oil is not a good thing! Might want to change the oil fi you haven't already...

I'm still amazed how so many people run out of gas in a big city where there's gas stations every few blocks.

Common problem on 2015s, had it happen to mine. Dealer did oil change on my stop saled 2015 in April 2017 when I bought it and put in specified quantity of oil up to the bead on the dipstick that VW says is proper oil level. 5 months later with 200 miles on the odometer I take the car on the...

Good point... Nice weather tomorrow so plotting out a road trip. Option one is 100 miles east, 150 miles northwest, and 100 miles south back to home in southwest Minnesota. No shortage of stations with diesel on the route, Teslas not viable here due to distance from dealerships. Probably 300...

Last car because the automakers products are becoming increasingly throwaway.

Maybe the last car I'll ever buy- The Golf 8 GTI and R are tempting, but VW's blocking indy tech and owner access through VCDS is a deal breaker.

Sorry, TSLA evangelists tend to lose interest here- Unlike many forums we treat them with respect as we honestly discuss the pros and cons of EVs. Now what can we do to fix those brake lights?

I haven't driven a Tesla because there's none available to drive and nearest dealer is 180 miles away. TSLA's attitude is that I'm supposed to buy the car to test drive it and then try to return it if I don't like it... That works with "Evangelist" fans but not with me. Bough my last vehicle 2...

You sure sound like a TSLA fan... I live just a bit north of you in southwest Minnesota and electric cars are not real useful here- Charging infrastructure is pretty thin and cold weather range decrease is a factor too. TSLA are totally useless because the nearest service facility is 180 miles...

Turbobrick240 is right, I'm a retired trucker and have followed the road wear research for years. The data is good- Way back in the 50s the Feds actually ran test trucks for years to gauge road wear and MN DOT has been doing similar research at the MNRoad lab since. The scientists agree on the...

As a city council member and water system operator I'm familiar with infrastructure too... But I'm not afraid to read the research in the field and in fact I'd never have gotten our failed water system replaced without reading the research. If you want to stay uninformed that's your problem, but...

Massive pickups are an endangered species, period- Driving through the high growth areas of the south last week I noted that even in the exurbs lot widths are trending down to 50 to 60 feet. Even found a whole development of thousand or square foot or so new houses on what looked to be 30 foot...

It's not hard to price road wear from vehicles, but it's much more difficult to accurately price any pollution improvements from EVs.

The problem with the EV subsidies is that most all of us pay for them with our taxes but few of us can afford a new EV or have charging available so we can use an EV.