>>>>>How about you answer to Him and stop proselytizing to Us?
>>>>>Enough already. This is not the place for it.
>>>>
>>>>What if what you thought you knew perfectly soundly wound up being flatly wrong, Mike? That is exactly what's happening here, by the way, and I can only warn about it. I can't make anybody walk in it. You (and everyone else) has to be willing to take heed to the warning and learn about the truth for yourself.
>>>
>>>yeah - so until you find out that you are STILL flatly wrong we all gotta hear some preaching. greeeeat. by the way, all I can do is sit back an laugh - no point in warning about it. You (and every...ummm ok just you) need to heed reality and learn about it for yourself.
>>
>>I've always liked Knopfler's take on this sort of dilemma: "Two men say they're Jesus; one of them must be wrong".
>
>I would amend that to "at least one of them must be wrong" <g>

Total change of topic -- guess what? This week I got an inadvertent test drive of a Mustang. Allie was here for a couple of days and on Monday afternoon I was going to treat her to a movie and dinner. As soon as I put the car in reverse there was an explosive sound from under the hood. I am not exaggerating -- it was LOUD. My first thought, as someone who knows as much about auto mechanics as a hog knows about heaven, was the engine had blown. I called my auto mechanic. I said should I try to bring it in or is it safer to have it towed? He said let's go with the tow. Glenn runs a successful independent auto repair shop and is one of the best things in the world to have, a trustworthy mechanic. It was snowing here on Monday so it was late in the afternoon before his guy came and loaded up the Jetta. Glenn called back and said it may be tomorrow morning before we can look at it.

When it got to be 10:00 Tuesday morning I lined up a rental car, since Allie had to be back at work in Milwaukee at 4. I called the nearby Enterprise rental location. Their claim to fame is free pick-up and delivery, which was exactly what I needed, and they have very competitive prices. I said I would like an economy or compact car, the cheapest thing you've got. The Enterprise guy -- who turned out to be named John and is the new location manager -- said we are a small location and don't know what we will have until the car trailer comes in. He called me back a little before noon and said how about a Mustang? It was only $10 more a day than the compact price so I said sure. Given the discussions with my darling daughters I decided it would be worth it for the comic relief alone.

So while I'm filling out the paperwork the car is pulled around front. Bright red. That was the actual color description on the little yellow tag attached to the key. Too bad they didn't have yellow or lime green <g>, but still. Allie went around the car and took pictures to send to Emily, barely containing her laughter. She took another one on the road, with me mugging for the camera and holding up a thumb. (Emily's reply to her: "When the driver's jacket and the car are the same color you have to be concerned right off the bat").

It was snowing so I never tried to blow out the carbon. I was not impressed by the car, though, and don't think I would buy one. There were some chintzy notes, like a rattling sound when the door closed instead of the solid thunk we want. While Allie was changing her clothes for work I opened the glove compartment to look at the owner's manual and then it wouldn't close again. (When I returned the car on Tuesday, saying I must be a special needs customer, it turned out a part in the mechanism that connects them was jammed). The handling was very loose and there was little acceleration when some crazy lady on the highway pushed me into a situation where I had to accelerate around a semi in the middle lane. The interior, meh. Nothing too bad but about what you would expect in a 22K car.

UPDATE: The problem with the Jetta was not a blown engine but a snapped coil spring on the front right. For those as car-dumb as me, the coil spring sits over the shock absorber. It was original with the car, 10 years and 120,000 miles ago, so its demise was attributed to old age, normal wear and tear. Glenn said it is very coiled, hence the name, so if it snaps it's going to make a heck of a noise. Bottom line, the total cost was a little over $700 between parts, labor, tow, and rental car. When that little bomb sound went off under the hood I was expecting a lot worse.