Buddha
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Car buying advice desired!
geoffkait
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Have you considered a Wienermobile?

Lamont Sanford
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Toyota or Lexis. One made in Japan.

BTW, some New Mexico State Trooper asked me in Vaughn if I seen an oriental man walking aimlessly in the desert heat on the highway. Of course, I did see the guy. But for the hell of it I told the trooper, "Uh, no?" On the way back I saw the same gentleman on the side of the road. He had fashioned his Hawaiian shirt into a turban for his head. He was completely fried by the heat. I pulled over and told him the troopers were looking for him, to not move from that spot, and then drove off.

BTW, great story on your Dodge. That reminds me. My little sister still owes me a check for Mom.

Kal Rubinson
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Toyota or Lexis. One made in Japan.

Yeah. Those are spelled Lexus. Lexis is made by Coby.

Lamont Sanford
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Every time I misspell Lexus I get slammed by some jackass..

Buddha
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Have you considered a Wienermobile?

If only I'd asked last week. Now it's too late.

Tragic damage to an American icon.

Lamont Sanford
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I would have went freakin' ballistic of a wiener car drove into my house. What would the neighbors say? There is no coming back from shit like that.

Monty
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I have a friend who just bought a Ford Fusion and he took me for a ride in it. I was quite impressed and it was very inexpensive. I could easily be happy in one, 'cept I need a truck with a V8 or diesel.

Monkey Mouse
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If you want to spend up to $40k, I would suggest a pre owned, 2 year old certified MB E350 or BMW 5 series - serious cars that are less expensive than new, reliable, and have a warranty. Lexus is fine, the IS series is a good value, but the ES is essentially a Camry with some niceties for $15k more.

Lamont Sanford
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I've always wondered how much of a Lexus was something else underneath. Wouldn't it make sense to just get a fully loaded Camry? We've owned three Toyotas over the last 15 years. We still use two of them. The other one is still driven around by some teenager in town. That one has over 230k miles on it.

smejias
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For abbreviated, reliable, and fun, how's about a Honda Fit or a Toyota Yaris or a Scion?
The money saved can be spent on hi-fi.

Buddha
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That Scion box type car is way cool, I do have a propenstity toward liking it!

I tried a Fit and it just isn't quite the Sierras in winter long distance hauler I'd like it to be. Although, I drove one from Vegas to Reno last summer and did manage to get my first damn speeding ticket in years - but it was working as hard as it could at the time. It felt like that old ad for the VW Bug showing a guy getting a speeding ticket and the caption said, "And they said it couldn't be done."

I am actually checking out Scions at lunch! 158 horsepower for that box one. AS long as it can get me from point A to point B, I guess.

I'm prone to 'the fever.' I look at one car and think, "Well, that next one is only such and such more; and then the one above that is only so much more...."

Slippery shopping slope, man.

I'm at the age where I should be keeping the top three buttons of my shirt undone and wearing one of those gold bone chains while I drive a Corvette, but I can't afford the right shirts, jewelry, or car.

Guess I'll settle for an old rage Against the Machine T-shirt and a Scion.

j_j
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Quote:
That Scion box type car is way cool, I do have a propenstity toward liking it!

I tried a Fit and it just isn't quite the Sierras in winter long distance hauler I'd like it to be. Although, I drove one from Vegas to Reno last summer and did manage to get my first damn speeding ticket in years - but it was working as hard as it could at the time. It felt like that old ad for the VW Bug showing a guy getting a speeding ticket and the caption said, "And they said it couldn't be done."

I am actually checking out Scions at lunch! 158 horsepower for that box one. AS long as it can get me from point A to point B, I guess.

I'm prone to 'the fever.' I look at one car and think, "Well, that next one is only such and such more; and then the one above that is only so much more...."

Slippery shopping slope, man.

I'm at the age where I should be keeping the top three buttons of my shirt undone and wearing one of those gold bone chains while I drive a Corvette, but I can't afford the right shirts, jewelry, or car.

Guess I'll settle for an old rage Against the Machine T-shirt and a Scion.

Well, let's see. Mazda, Hundai, Honda, VW, Ford, who else makes cars?

Lamont Sanford
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Studebaker

j_j
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Studebaker

You mean Panterra?

Back after they merged with Packard, my first memory of my dad's first car was the straight-8 packard clipper.

Torque yes.
Revs? Um, no.

gkc
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Buddha, be sure to drive a Honda Civic, outfitted to your liking. 20 grand or so, leaving you the other 20 grand to buy low-cost gold producers (like AUY, NXG, GG, KGC, and the like), which will probably (while taking a crooked path) double over the next 15 months. Then you'll have the Honda for free. Or, you can gross out on expensive loudspeakers.

I prefer the 5-speed manual transmission -- my 2001 Civic still gets 36 MPG on the open road, and 31 around town.

If you spend more than 20 large on ANY bucket o' bolts, you will be disappointed. So spend less. Concerning automobiles, unlike well-selected stereo gear, you do NOT get what you pay for beyond the basic 15-20 grand or so...

Good luck.

tom collins
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i somewhat agree with clifton, but think that over about $25,000, it becomes more a matter of how much driving matters to you. like audio, the improvements become incremental with the amount of money spent. i personally like the VW products because i think that they give you a character in the driving and fit and finish that the japanese brands lack. it is not to say that those are not fine cars because they are, just bland. i also know that the reliability rep for vw is not quite what it once was, but still very good. also for 20-25,000 there are many of the so-called "near luxery" cars available 2 to 3 years old with good service records and reasonable milage. if ever here was a time to buy, now would be it. good luck.

Lamont Sanford
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What the hell is Clifton doing here?

j_j
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Buddha, be sure to drive a Honda Civic, outfitted to your liking. 20 grand or so, leaving you the other 20 grand to buy low-cost gold producers (like AUY, NXG, GG, KGC, and the like), which will probably (while taking a crooked path) double over the next 15 months.

Yech.

Honda Civics have some of the worst road-noise isolation of any car I've test-driven in the last 10 years.

And I presume that those of us into audio do not like really noisy cars, at least from the road-noise and wind-noise fronts, eh?

Buddha, check out the Mazda 3 sport edition.

j_j
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What the hell is Clifton doing here?

Who is clifton and why should we care that he's here?

tom collins
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maybe clifton will answer that one if he is so inclined.

KBK
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Quote:

Quote:
What the hell is Clifton doing here?

Who is clifton and why should we care that he's here?

Clifton is a straight shooter (with a reasonable viewpoint) who doesn't generally put up with bullshit. He left for a while. He's back for a moment.

Buddha
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Quote:

Quote:
What the hell is Clifton doing here?

Who is clifton and why should we care that he's here?

Clifton is a killer great guy.

Who is 'we?' Have you gone to the royal first person plural on us?

KBK
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I was also gonna say that 'he's ducked more bullets than your granny's seen peckers'..but that might be considered too rude for the forum.

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I was also gonna say that 'he's ducked more bullets than your granny's seen peckers'..but that might be considered too rude for the forum.

Heh, he's not the only one to feel like that then...

gkc
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You shouldn't care, i_i (or is it j_j?? I can't tell -- does that matter?). Of course, the obvious needs to be said. Who are you, and why should we care?

gkc
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"Yech" to you. I didn't tell Buddha to buy a Civic. I merely suggested that he drive one and decide for himself. Which Buddha is most capable of doing on his own, without your filtering. If there is too much noise, then I am sure Buddha will hear it without your prompting.

Hopefully, you recommend options that you have had good personal experiences with. All in all (that is, considering service requirements, reliability, drivability, and initial cost outlay), the Honda Civic is one of the best cars I have ever owned.

I used to be "into" expensive racing-type machines. I have owned a Ferrari, 2 Porsches, and 2 Lotuses, back in the days when I was young and foolish and enjoyed SCCA racing on weekends.

Compared to the Honda, they were all too expensive, too fussy... and too noisy.

gkc
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Tom, I have had mixed experiences with VW -- mostly positive. It is true that you MUST have a reliable dealer/service support -- they are NOT all the same.

I had a 1984 Scirocco that I enjoyed the hell out of. It was very reliable, cheap to drive and own, and a lot of fun. I also had a 1968 Beetle convertible. That, too, was a joy to own. I had a 1992 Jetta before I bought the Honda, and I had a few problems with reliability (clutch and brakes, mostly -- that thing went through brakes like I used to go through titties).

Still, Buddha probably should check out all these $15,000 - $25,000 (I'll give you the extra 5 grand at the high end) models and, if possible, get some satisfaction and save 10-20 large.

And, now that I have you here, how are the tunes lately??

KBK
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(clutch and brakes, mostly -- that thing went through brakes like I used to go through titties).

I just can't resist: You mean hard to soft, and then nothing left over?

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You shouldn't care, i_i (or is it j_j?? I can't tell -- does that matter?). Of course, the obvious needs to be said. Who are you, and why should we care?

Same as you, just somebody. You could click on my profile, like I probably should have clicked on yours, but the fact that your presence was remarkable was what interested me.

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"Yech" to you. I didn't tell Buddha to buy a Civic. I merely suggested that he drive one and decide for himself. Which Buddha is most capable of doing on his own, without your filtering.

So, you can give him advice, but I shouldn't.

Right. I get it. Plain as day.

Did you try the Mazda 3, btw?

gkc
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But I have a name. You can click on it. It is the only name I have ever had. Which is an important part of the larger point, when one asks, "Who"?

What's yours?

gkc
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Mazda? Yech. Too noisy.

Monty
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Hiya Clifton! Good to see ya around.

I still think the Ford Fusion is an exceptional car at a great price. Worth a test drive anyway.

Now, about those gold plays, Clifton. I think China is loading up on commodities, not because their economy is on fire, but because we are monetizing our debt and they are smart enough to keep from getting completely stuck with depreciating dollar assets. The fact that they are commodity poor in general doesn't hurt either. So, rather than a pure play on gold mining companies, I like the diversified commodity companies like FCX who get it on both ends of the situation.

KBK
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Allright you two, stop it.

JJ, like Clifton, and I as well..all have assholes.

OK?

j_j
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What's yours?

And you can click on it.

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Mazda? Yech. Too noisy.

Hm, which Mazda? I did reject some of the other Mazda's.

gkc
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Monty, last December I bought FCX on a stink-bid, 7,000 shares at an average price of 16.135 (the bid was in at 16.15 -- which is a good example of how they panic when they decide to panic...).

I still own it. I also bought AUY at 3.72, GG at 18 even, and KGC at 8.22. These were trading plays, when I bought them, but I never found an excuse to sell them, so I am still in these, also. My primary guides were positive divergences in the RSI and MACD readings. But my "scenario" thinking was simply that these great, low-cost producers were being priced by the margin clerks at $400 gold. And, at the bottom, gold was still $700.

I was also able to back up the truck on IVN at $1.75-$1.90 (50,000 shares), NG at 61 CENTS, and NAK at $2.10. Since these are not yet producers, I sold them to complete the trades. IVN was my biggest winner, since I was able to scale out at $6.66, $7.82, and $8.92. NG went out at $3.26 and NAK went out at $7.52. So, gold gave me a good year, to say the least. Gold has treated me very well since I started to go back in during 1999.

Gold is real money. Paper is the better medium of exchange, if you want to buy TV sets and cars, but gold is the basis for paper, and "official" paper has no basis. The world markets have deemed it so.

Many are puzzled at why, when inflation is low and deflation threatens, gold (the premiere inflation hedge) is at $950. The answer is simple. Interest rates for holding paper hover around zero, there is an unlimited supply of it, and gold is scarce and historical. When it comes to the relative value of money, and defining what it is, post-structuralists need not apply. At certain times in history, value becomes finite, not merely relative. This is one of those times.

Happy tunes.

gkc
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Ken, you left out the part where everything locks up and you skid off the shoulder.

At that point, whether anything is left over is irrelevant. She's out the door, and not even a tow truck is gonna help...

gkc
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J_J, I apologize. My first click came up dry, and I assumed too much. Then I went back, after your admonition, to your web page. You DO have "...a local habitation and a name." Believe me, in this age of internet anonymity, that is becoming increasingly rare.

Forgive me.

Now, to your work (awkwardly put, in the third person, but turgid prose is better than no name).

You write (or "he says") that you are ("he is" -- good GOD, man, get a better translator for your thoughts...) interested, of late, in "Perceptual Coding." I give the phrase the capitals it deserves.

And I quote: "Perceptual coding, as compared to source coding, pays primary attention to the intended reciever (sic) or destination of the signal, rather than the source or some model of the signal."

Does this mean that I am more important, when it comes to sonic judgments, than what (in modeled "reality") comes out of the speakers?

YESSSSS! Tolja, all. Hey! J_J! Where you been??!! You could have saved us all at least 200 zillion bushels of megashits!!! Objectivists? Subjectivists? Irrelevant! No contest! At last, SCIENCE IS ON MY SIDE!!!

Objectivists, EAT MY DUNG! J_J has put (again, rather badly, but who cares about style, right??) science on my side. The "receiver" is more important than the, er, "thrower." Scientific proof! At last!!! Hot damn, and hallelujah!

Damn your ass, J_J!! Next time you're in LA, I am going to wine you and dine you 'til your ass hits the bottom of the crapper!!! You want Kobe beef?? You GOT it!!! A 1974 Petrus?? I got 2 bottles left, and one of 'em is YOURS!!

Uh, oh. Cancel the above. I just read the demurer. "This destination is usually the human being."

Shit. I KNEW there had to be a catch...

j_j
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Uh, oh. Cancel the above. I just read the demurer. "This destination is usually the human being."

Shit. I KNEW there had to be a catch...

I'm in Westlake Village right now, fyi.

But I'm kinda busy this weekend.

I'm confused, though, what's wrong with human beings?

KBK
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Quote:
Uh, oh. Cancel the above. I just read the demurer. "This destination is usually the human being."

Shit. I KNEW there had to be a catch...

I'm in Westlake Village right now, fyi.

But I'm kinda busy this weekend.

I'm confused, though, what's wrong with human beings?

Clifton has a sense of humor. Nothing wrong with human beings.

He, as I and many others, are very tired of the way that some relegate the human component of the electronic meditation and mediation as being part of the dung aspect of electronic design. Many electronic oscilloscope knob twiddlers seem to fail to understand that the ultimate destination is that of a human being. In the case of High-end audio, the destination is a person with evolved tastes and capacities with regard to decoding signals.

For a case in point, you don't put an idiot with no listening experience on the headphone end of a post WWII submarine sonar/listening station. That's how you sink an entire submarine.

So, to be a bit more rude for once, all who think that golden ears (trained and above average in the first place, ie a stellar example) do not exist, you can go on that post WWII sub, run the sonar/listening station with any old set of ears and we will then sink your asses.

The end.

gkc
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As SAS noted, the "catch" is in your need to use the qualifier, "usually." Listening to music is a cognitive process, as well as a (partially measurable) throwing and catching from machine to machine. No machine can measure or otherwise quantify cognitive processing.

"Usually" a human being. Indeed. Who else is going to process and evaluate all the abstractions? This reminds me very much of Swift's satire directed towards the Royal Society, in A Tale of a Tub, wherein scientists are busily at work trying to turn excrement back into food. Now, I hope I don't have to explain that one to you, j_j...

Perhaps even more importantly, who is going to pay for all this shit? Mr. Oscilloscope? The ONLY "catcher" who matters in this battery is a human being, and preferably one with a brain and heart hook-up that loves music.

Rock on.

ncdrawl
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Clifton is a killer great guy.

leave out killer and great, and I agree with you.

Clifton is an ex Commissioned Officer with the Corps(ie didnt do any real work, relied on the backs and mettle of enlisted men to work for him ) who likes to brag about how much his hifi system costs and who feels that there is no value whatsoever in the measurement of audio equipment for design/evaluation purposes. I personally find him annoying at times, but hey, what I do I know? I am mindless dog assassin.

j_j
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As SAS noted, the "catch" is in your need to use the qualifier, "usually."

Typical disputatious behavior, I see.

"usually" indicates that some people put music to other uses.

The rest of your "I want to pick a fight" is based on a quibble to a quilbble to an excluded middle via a straw man of your own offering.

G'day, occifer. Us grunts gots your number.

(n.b. I was never in the military, but I surely know both sides of the command structure.)

rvance
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Don't you want driving to be FUN? Your budget leaves a lot of room for practical, family sized fun, Bude.

Mustang GT- Car and Driver loved it over the more powerful Chevy Camaro and Dodge Challenger.

Volkswagen GTI- a refined and poised C & D Ten Bester.

Mazdaspeed 3- 264 hp, 280 ft/lbs of giant killing fun.

Try something fun- you'll like it.

j_j
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Mazdaspeed 3- 264 hp, 280 ft/lbs of giant killing fun.

Even the upgraded engine Mazda 3 w/o "mazdaspeed" is a serious little sleeper.

Buddha
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Thanks for the idears!

I'll go check the Mazda. I wasn't on my original list!

Went and drove a JKW Cooper and liked it alot. It's the elasder right now.

Hyundai wasn't so fun, and the Nissan line didn't seem to get good until the higher end Maximas.

I still think life by bicycle may be how I end up for a while.

Lamont Sanford
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Nothing wrong with a bike. Just make sure it is a Schwinn Cruiser. That will keep you in shape. Rock solid bike. One speed. Big tires. I have a few other types of cruisers that I rebuilt. Got the tires lined and no flats from those super sharp grass burrs. With one speed you have to make it home one way or the other. That's why they're sitting in the back yard doing nothing for so long that the tires naturally went flat. I wash them down with the garden hose once in while.

KBK
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I find that the only time that North Americans really mange to get into good and stable shape and health, is when they dump the cars out of their lives. Or is that just me? I prefer my bicycle, if I can get away with it.

Too bad - I love speed.

RGibran
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You can pick up a used one of these at a reasonable price, and like audio, start tweakin'

RG

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