16 March 2019

New Vehicle?

We've had a couple interesting encounters this week, both driven by our experience with our 2014 Yamaha Super Tenere.
If you come here often you know we had a problem with the bike. Just before we arrived here in Gilbert, Arizona, our son reported the bike wouldn't start. On 27 December we had the bike towed to the dealership/Service Center where we bought it. Staring New Year's Day in the face, we figured it might take a while for them to get around to fixing it. But after two weeks, when we still hadn't heard from them, we gave them a call.
"You need to come and see this."
(Our experience there is described in an earlier post here. See below.)
The intake valves had carbon caked onto their stems.

They were confused as to how to proceed.
Their confusion sent me scrambling online to do some research.
I don't much like what I've found.Turns out, all gasoline direct-fuel injected engines are susceptible to this problem.
That includes our car... a 2014 Taurus SHO.

The Yamaha has 30,000 miles on it. This is the earliest stage most people report beginning to have a problem with intake valves coking up with carbon.
Our Taurus has 30K miles on it. (VERY low mileage for a '14 model year car.) But the fix for intake valve problems on the Taurus?
Remove and replace the cylinder heads... obviously NOT under warranty.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

So I thought, "Why not trade it for a new Taurus SHO?"
Ford, in their infinite wisdom, has decided to focus on SUV's and will not make the Taurus in '20 so if we want one, we MUST buy it now.
There's a car nearly like ours at a local dealership. We went to try to negotiate a deal.

They want $46,000 for the new car. They want to give us $18,000 for our (like new) '14 model.
I won't repeat what I told them they could do with their offer.

I used to be able to fix most things ailing my car.
No longer.
Cars and motorcycles are now computers with engines and wheels.
And some of this technology is gonna bite us in the butt and require BIG BUCKS to fix when things go wrong.

We got the Yamaha back yesterday.
They STILL didn't fix everything that ails the bike, but it runs fine and we simply wanted to get it out from under their roof.
Total bill? $4200.00.
But they gave us a break on the parts and I paid $2400.00 to drive it away.
I'm angry, frustrated, and confused about the future.
How do we avoid this happening again in 30K miles?

Hyundai and Kia's 100,000 mile warranty looks mighty attractive right now!

13 March 2019

Typing Paper

"Grab that restaurant coupon for me son",  I said.
"Where is it?", was his response.
"It's on that sheet of typing paper" I replied, pointing to it.

He had no idea what I was talking about.
I forgot... they call it "keyboarding" now, don't they?
Is it now "keyboarding paper"?

09 March 2019

The Playboy Bunny

I learned early on the truth that "Faint heart ne'er won Fair Lady". 
She lived in my apartment complex. I had seen her coming and going from the parking lot. I heard she had formerly worked as a "Bunny" at the local Playboy Club.
She was petite, blonde, shapely, and confident.
I asked her out. She accepted.

On our way to dinner I asked, "My boss wants me to drop by the (Dog) Pound to verify he locked the kennel. Do you mind if we stop by?"
"No, not at all" was her response.

I parked in the lot, left the car running, and checked the lock... it was secure. But while I was there I figured I might as well walk around the kennel to check on the dogs and insure everything was okay. Doing so took me out of sight of the car. Walking down one side of the cages, then around the backside of the building I came to the gate that lead back to the parking lot. This gate was made of wood slats and was abeam where I had parked my car.
I peaked between the slats to surreptitiously get a glimpse of this gorgeous woman-
And got a glimpse of this beauty with the index finger of her right hand buried almost to the second knuckle up her right nostril.
Shocked, I waited to see what she would do with what she found there. I have this "thing" about booger eaters... had she stuck her finger in her mouth I would have feigned illness and taken her home. She picked up her purse, removed a tissue, and wiped her finger thoroughly.
Beauty. Confidence. Class.
And decent hygiene.

As I recall we had a fine, enjoyable dinner.