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May 3, 2010
What’s Your Favorite Cheap But Life-Changing Tool?
By Sam Barer
Sound Classics
Sometimes it just plain amazes me how such an inexpensive tool can totally change my life. Today I’ve discovered a new best friend: the helping hands.
The love affair started with my last trip to Harbor Freight Tools (aka the store chock-to-the-ceiling with nifty tools and supplies priced so low you’ll buy things you’ll only use once). After filling my basket with a $2 rubber mallet, $4 set of cutoff wheels, $1 package of foam paint brushes, and $2 bag of fine steel wool, I noticed the end-cap rack filled with magnified helping hands units for a price equal to a McDonald’s milkshake. Although I had never used one, I’ve been told for years that it’s a must-have for any DYIer, so it was a no-brainer impulse buy.
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April 20, 2010
Heaven, Hell or Hyundai
By Sam Barer
Sound Classics
I wrote here a few months ago about my wife’s decision to replace her 1998 Olds Intrigue. I detailed my grand plan to give her the 2006 Toyota Avalon while I procured myself a slightly used Mercedes S550 as a new daily driver.
The interesting thing about the Mercedes S550 is that, without expensive and rarely-equipped options, it offers fewer bells and whistles than a minivan of half the price. Consequently, it was near impossible to find one with adaptive laser-guided cruise control and a back-up camera, at least one with a reasonable number of miles that wasn’t being sold by a dealer at a typical narcotics kingpin’s profit margin. I did finally find a low-mileds 2008 S600 (the model with all the bells and whistles as standard, powered by the fire-breathing bi-turbo V12 and usually purchased new by professional athletes and CEOs) offered at a sell-it-today price of $72,000, but getting it to my door and licensing it would have put it at $80,000. Still, at nine in the morning on one beautiful day I had the deal ready to go.
It’s funny how spouses have the ability to bring us back to ground-level. My wife reminded me that no matter how far under-value I could buy the S600, I was making a poor financial decision. She also pointed to the other cars in the garage and asked if I really needed another expensive car for myself. This was the point when I again got to swallow hard and use my signature line “you’re right, I’m wrong, I’m sorry, I’ll change!”
It had taken me months to get to nearly buying the S600, but thanks to my wife’s decisive nature, by 5pm that night she was at Titus-Will Hyundai signing for a brand new 2010 Genesis 4.6 Sedan–for her! A Hyundai? On my property? What the hell?
March 5, 2010
Top Ten Automotive Things About Which I Disagree With Most Other Automotive Journalists
By Sam Barer
Sound Classics
If you read the major car publications it’s easy to get the feeling that all automotive journalists agree on everything. When journalists sing universal praise, throw jeers or are notoriously silent, it’s hard for readers to disregard.
There are plenty of conspiracy theories that blame editors beholden to advertisers scaring writers into not even trying to say something good about one car or bad about another. Personally, I buy more into the explanation of groupthink, as it’s easy to be confident in your opinion when others have come to the same conclusion time and time again.
I, however, being totally independent (not to mention subtle-as-a-chainsaw) have no problem saying where I differ from the rest. So here is my list of Top Ten Automotive Things About Which I Disagree With My Colleagues.
10) Chrysler 300C: I’ve owned plenty of Chryslers in my time, so maybe this is why I approached the 300C with a more critical eye. Consequently, I never liked the 300C (and its lesser variations) as much as the rest of the automotive journalists.
Everyone else saw a good-looking car with ample power from the “Hemi V8″. I saw past the nice styling and focused on a huge car with sub-Honda Accord-sized leg and knee room (courtesy of typically ultra-thick, but not very comfortable front seats). As nice as the Hemi (sans hemispherical combustion chambers) was, it couldn’t overcome the totally numb steering and spongy braking that made the car feel cumbersome. Plus, as someone who lived through Chrysler ownership, there was always the certainty that the 300C would be just like Chrysler’s other vehicles — engineered at low cost to ensure high failures, which would only be made worse by one of the most poorly trained dealer service networks in America.
Continue reading after the jump!
March 3, 2010
Close Bike Encounters Of The Car Scratching Kind
By Sam Barer
Sound Classics
It’s your fault, really. Here I was trying to do a CarDomain story for y’all and in the process of doing so I did serious harm to one of my garage-dwelling babies.
Let me step back. My 1986 Dodge 600ES Turbo Convertible‘s quarter-century-old radiator has been corroded for at least a decade. I decided its easy replacement with basic hand tools would make a nice story, so I began the process by snapping this “before” picture…but I noticed my daughter’s pink and purple bicycle was in the shot. Find out what happens below the jump…
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February 16, 2010
Survivor 1965 Mustang Fastback Survives A Sound Classics Test Drive
By Sam Barer
Sound Classics
You have to love sunny weekend days. These are the moments one realizes how many fantastic collector cars are hiding in and around any town.
Case and point, on my way home after delivering pictures to the owner of a Lamborghini featured in a previous Sound Classics test drive, I notice a wonderful Rangoon Red 1965 Ford Mustang Fastback peeking out from a garage. A “For Sale” sign in the window is just visible enough to catch my eye. With a heavy foot to the brakes I dart onto the side street for a little car-crazy window-shopping. (A lack of garage space and a “no-more-cars ultimatum” from my wife mean nothing comes home with me until another goes.)
Opening the door to the house is the owner, a red-blooded American hot-rodder who purchased the Mustang with the intent of retro-modding it. After buying and doing some detective work, he realized how darn original the Mustang was and didn’t have the heart to change it. Hence, he decided to sell after enjoying it for the summer and look for another less factory-correct car to hot-rod.
You have to respect a hot rodder who appreciates the integrity of original survivor cars! Continue reading after the jump!
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January 25, 2010
Chevy’s “Modern” Pickup For 1937
By Sam Barer
Sound Classics
For over ninety years, America has had a love affair with their pickup trucks. Anyone who couldn’t find one when they needed it understands why.
The so-called “era of the modern pickup truck” began when Chevrolet released its more powerful, better designed 1937 models, which added new three-quarter and one-ton vehicles to the line with half-ton and ton-and-a-half offerings. On this rainy day I am driving to see Glenn and Arlis Haley’s 1937 Chevy half-ton pickup truck, appropriately it’s in Chevy’s current half-ton paradigm-shifter, the Avalanche.
Original classic trucks are as rare as a prime-time television drama not about police, lawyers or doctors. Most early trucks sustained abuse serving work duties and found their way to junkyards. Of the survivors, many were converted to hot rods.
You’re unlikely to find a more original example than the Haley’s ‘37. The truck is a Northwest native, originally purchased by a Puyallup man at Sunset Chevrolet in Sumner. It was repainted only once, by Sunset Chevrolet in 1967 in its original blue color. When the owner died in 1978, the truck was willed to an Olympia-area farmer, who owned it until this past April, when the Haleys purchased it.
Continue reading after the jump!
January 7, 2010
Just A Few Wires And A Fuse Away From Sweet Music In The Ferrari
By Sam Barer
Sound Classics
When I bought the Infamous Craigslist 1976 Ferrari Dino 308 GT4 last year I noticed its stereo didn’t work. Now that it’s back on the road and I’ve been driving it a bit, I decided to do a little digging into what might be the source of the issue.
Before you make some knee-jerk comment like “the Ferrari’s V8 should be enough music”, when you’re stuck in traffic or on a long trip even a supercar’s engine doesn’t cut it.
Diagnosing classic radio issues is so easy that an ADD-riddled journalist can do it. If you can hook-up a home stereo, you can generally get a car stereo working, because the same issues apply: one power wire (which usually goes to the fuse box) and one ground wire, plus a positive and ground running to each speaker. There’s also a big cable that goes to the antenna (and sometimes a wire to connect if the antenna goes up when the stereo is turned on). That’s it! Basically, the only catch is to make sure you unhook the battery cable so a live circuit doesn’t give you Don King hair.
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December 30, 2009
Mercedes Dealer’s Tactics Added To My List of Horrible Car Shopping Experiences (And I Still Need To Buy A Car!)
By Sam Barer
Sound Classics
I’m here to tell you that automotive journalists do not like to car shop. Sure, we love most things on four wheels, but I, like most of my industry-mates would rather get a prostate check by a broken-knuckled rugby player-turned-urologist than to interact with on-the-prowl car salespeople.
For me, specifically, it’s because I know way too much. I spend more time researching cars than the frequently-wrong-but-never-in-doubt people who sell them. As for the business and sales tactics side, much of my life I’ve been surrounded by dealership owners, salesmen, service managers, and attorneys who represent them. Let’s just say that I know all the tricks, which would be enough to turn most people to public transportation.
My personal log of horrible car shopping experiences is longer than Danny Bonaduce’s 12-Step “people to make amends to” list.They range from the frustrating: arranging for a test drive of a Honda S2000 over the phone with a sales manager at a Honda dealership in Houston, only to be told upon arriving twenty minutes later at that I could “drive it after I bought it”…to the surreal: having a clown-shoe car salesman at Bruce Titus Chrysler in Olympia, WA challenge me and my 2002 Corvette “to a race for pink slips” first against his (meaning the dealer’s) Crossfire SRT6 and then against his “Shelby” (meaning 2.2-liter Turbo I-powered Dodge Shelby Charger) when all I was there to do was take a test drive of a 300 to see if I liked it better than the Toyota Avalon…which I didn’t.
I can’t even remember how many times I’ve been asked “what will it take to get you into this car today?” And if I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard a car salesman make a claim about a specific vehicle that was such a blatant falsehood that any kid with a car magazine subscription or Internet access could call the bluff, I feel like I could pay cash for a Maybach.
Still, my wife’s twelve-year-old Oldsmobile is in dire need of replacement. She’s going to take the 2006 Toyota Avalon, which leaves me needing another four-door sedan. Like it or not, that means car shopping and the chance of adding to the list of dealer horror stories.
Continue reading after the jump!
December 23, 2009
It’s ALIVE! The First Drive In The Infamous Craigslist 1976 Ferrari Dino 308 GT4
By Sam Barer
Sound Classics
Never say never, folks. Since it snowed in Houston a couple weeks ago, those things you said would never happen until you-know-what froze-over are starting to happen. In that vein today I drove the Infamous Craigslist 1976 Ferrari Dino 308 GT4 for the very first time on a public street.
So let’s do a little summary from previous episodes of the calamity: I acquired the barely-running car about ten months ago for a song and figured it would take a few weeks to get it back on the road. (After all, it had less than something like 200 miles over 20 years in which two engine rebuilds were completed!) As the gaggles of small issues snowballed, my Sound Classics technical team found itself struggling to find the time to dedicate to the car. Every step along the way yielded hassles — like broken components and incorrect fixes by past mechanics…not to mention our (mostly “my”) own failed attempts to address problems.
In November the car was running, but really poorly (which is where it was when I bought it.) On the advice of a trusted friend, I called in area Ferrari expert mechanic Bill Borum to tie up the loose ends.
December 21, 2009
What Do Your Cars Say About You?
By Sam Barer
Sound Classics
We always hear the stereotypes associated with owners of specific types of cars. The British owner is supposedly one part traditionalist and another part masochist, the manual transmission user thinks he’s a racer, the 4X4er likes to think he can go anywhere, and the V8 driver doesn’t care about the environment. Of course, if a guy pulls up in a sports car he’s obviously compensating, right?
Today I was watching my computer’s screensaver–a slideshow of most of the cars I’ve owned in the last decade. I started thinking–what might my cars, past and present, say about me?
Continue reading after the jump!
