RX in NC

Congrats.... Now, let's hope that all three of you can grab some much-needed sleep. You'll have to learn to get it whenever you can. I'm betting that you'll be doing a lot less posting and a lot more napping for awhile. A very wise decision indeed....

You might want to check snobbyassedclothing.com....

I believe the RX series is simply too small to serve as primary transportation for a family of four or more. Take into consideration the "stuff" you'll be hauling around on a daily basis in addition to the headcount. By the time you realize what it takes to handle your sports equipment, baby/toddler gear, groceries, office equipment, pets, luggage, etc. etc. etc., you'll wish you had gone with something more practical for the purpose you're looking to fill. We've had numerous SUVs in our household since 1985. The RX series is definitely the smallest we've owned and is my wife's current primary vehicle. 90% of the time now, she's the sole occupant and still finds it too small on occasion to haul everything she needs to carry with her depending on what she's doing and where she's going. I refer to it as "her rolling shoebox" and drive it as little as I possibly can because at 6-foot-7, I'm way way way too tall to fit into that thing....

Hydrogen power IS the future of all ground transportation, period. It's not a question of if, it's a question of when. Many hurdles must be solved first. Technology, cost, fuel delivery infrastructure, and the capability to provide service are still significant barriers that must be overcome. But it will happen - just not as soon as the planet needs it to. Some say that common hydrogen vehicles are still 15 years away. I believe we'll see them become the dominant form of ground transportation within 10 years, and less if we're lucky (and if oil prices continues to spiral upwards in the years ahead, which they very well may do)....

Glad to learn that you've initiated a strict child discipline process before the placenta has even popped. Nothing beats starting off your childraising years in complete control.... Tell your wife that you've requested Celine Dion playing in the delivery room. That should send her into immediate convulsions and the baby should follow shortly thereafter....

I jumped back in with an almost identical options play for June. Decided to bump up my investment amount a bit on this play but don't expect quite the level of return provided on my May options play. But with gas continuing to spiral up almost every day, one never knows.... Have to fight to keep the greed demons at bay - my instincts tell me to double down on my investment but my head has prevailed thus far.... These plays on oil are wicked fun but wicked dangerous as well. As long as I keep them in play for no more than four weeks at a time and continue to respect Options Expiration Friday every month, I think I'll be okay for awhile. I've never watched my charts as closely and as constantly as I have these past few weeks....

This is a common problem and probably has nothing to do with the work you had done on your radio. Your moonroof drains are clogged with debris. Locate them where the moonroof seals against its gasket (there are usually four, one in each corner) and blow them out with compressed air....

nc211, No worries, I realize you're not directing your speculator venom at guys like me. Hey, I'm just taking advantage of what is essentially a two-pronged problem - speculation and gouging. And I'm just small potatoes compared to the greedheads you're talking about. Four weeks ago I jumped into this particular play with a $19,000 investment. If my charts hold up through tomorrow afternoon just before the market closes, I expect to net between $68,000 and $72,000. A lot can happen between now and then of course, but no-brainer plays like this one only come around a few times a year and you have to jump on them when they do. The great thing is that if my charts keep going up at a similar pace early next week, I'll simply repeat the same play for the June options market. I don't think it will be quite as lucrative as May has been, but with these potential profit margins it is certainly worth another shot next month as long as I recognize that I may have to sell my positions much earlier in the game if the June trends begin to fall back.... This has been magnificent fun as long as I can continue to manage to keep my greed tendencies firmly in check. My options experience (and success) over the past 4 years has been primarily in playing technology, not oil, and oil is a far, far more volatile and dangerous ball game right now. So my eyes will be glued to my 21-minute charts with my fingers ready to pull the trigger on my keyboard at the slightest indication of trouble in the oil market....

I think back a couple of months ago when some of the oil analysts were saying that U.S. average gas prices would peak around Memorial Day at about $3.40 a gallon. I thought they were way off then and obviously that has turned out to be the case. So I decided to employ the ever-increasing price of crude (and therefore gas) as part of my options strategy during April and May and as it turns out, I was very fortunate indeed. May 16th is Options Expiration Friday for this month and if my charts stay on the course they've been setting over the past four weeks, I'm set for a huge payday. But ever the fiscal conservative, I'll sell my positions by late Thursday (if not before) and won't run the risk of heading into Friday with my positions still in play when the jitters could very well strike the oil industry speculators and crush those who hang on too long. No sense trying to stay in the game for every last dollar and then wind up losing everything and more by being greedy....

Sorry, I assumed you were a guy. My bad....

I assume you have a cool-season grass such as tall fescue. If so, you're probably past the ideal window for late-winter application of fertilizer, even up there in the Great White North. What are your absolute maximum summer temperatures, and how much rainfall do you typically receive during the summer months? Without knowing your climate, it's hard to give you the best advice for maintaining and improving a fescue lawn. But the single best thing you can ever do for your lawn is to aerate it. I do it myself every autumn, usually in late September, before planting my fall grass seed. Aeration establishes little microclimates in your turf and allows both air and water to penetrate deeper into the roots which is what grass plants require in order to thrive and improve year over year. Assuming you have fescue, don't mow it below 3 inches, and 3.5 inches is actually better. Fescue needs a high crown in order to survive during the hot summer months. I bag my front lawn and mulch my back lawn. Bagging the grass provides for a cleaner look, but a fine mulch (assuming you're not cutting more than about a third of the height of the grass off at any time you mow) helps provide nutrients as well as moisture. I mulch the back lawn because our dogs live there and I never use fertilizer or chemicals on the back lawn as a result. The rule of thumb for fertilizing fescue in our neck of the woods is to use three relatively light applications each year - the first in mid-February (our late winter), the second in late September (right after the new grass seed is applied over the just-aerated lawn), and the last in late November (to provide the new seedlings with enough nutrition to allow them to develop deep roots during the winter). Most homeowners over-fertilize - your grass will actually be healthier if you under-fertilize, so be stingy on using it, and stick with a product that promotes root growth over top growth. The key to long-term fescue survival and improvement is strong and healthy roots, not rapidly-growing top growth (which is a sign of overfertilization). The biggest problem with fescue is that it is such a water hog. Our fescue lawn is more than 15 years old and since we tend to go into severe drought status each summer through autumn and sometimes even into winter, last October I began to convert our lawn from fescue to a heat-tolerant and drought-tolerant bluegrass hybrid called "Thermal Blue", developed by the Scotts Corporation. It spreads on rhizomes and is therefore very aggressive, it requires only about one-third of the water that fescue needs, and after two or three years it should no longer need to be seeded each autumn because the turf will be so thick. It is the only cool-season grass that sends out rhizomes and therefore spreads itself without having to be seeded after two to three years. You fertilize it and mow it and aerate it just like fescue, and it can be planted right into your fescue lawn without having to kill off your fescue first because the "Thermal Blue" is so aggressive that it will eventually take over and choke out your fescue. You may be too far north to plant "Thermal Blue", but if I were you, I would certainly look into it. After slaving over fescue since I was a kid in the 1960s, this "Thermal Blue" bluegrass hybrid is the only way to go if your climate permits it. And you only need a small amount of seed, usually about one-fifth of what you would need to plant fescue. So if you typically put out 25 pounds of fescue seed, count on ordering about 5 to 6 pounds of "Thermal Blue" seed. Hard to believe I know, but it's true. My source for "Thermal Blue" seed is Green Velvet Sod Farms in Bellbrook, Ohio. Phone (800) 342-0571. Website www.greenvelvet.com. Check it out - this may be your answer as well....

Marry a young female insurance broker who can get rock-bottom corporate discounts for immediate family members and your car insurance woes are behind you. And if she looks like Jessica Alba yet cooks like Rachael Ray, you're set for life....

It depends on your situation. We're with State Farm (vehicles and house and personal property), squeaky clean driving records, and we also charge every purchase we can to our State Farm Visa cards since we earn "State Farm dollars" that can be applied to our insurance premiums twice a year. Bottom line - our car insurance is usually free or almost free every year. It's a great program, but you should never use it as an excuse to max out your credit card. The credit card account rule in our household since the late 1970s has always been this very simple requirement - when the Visa bill arrives each month, it will ALWAYS be paid in full by the due date, no exceptions period. I don't pay interest of any kind to anyone, and my wife has to play by those rules as well or else suffer the consequences. Don't ask what those consequences are - if I told you, I'd have to kill you....

All of the folks on this site who have tried the Alenzas continue to rave about them (we have them on my wife's 2004 RX330 AWD). They are relatively quiet for a truck/SUV tire, they stick to the road like glue even in heavy rain, and our set still has well more than half the tread remaining at about 31,000 miles. I keep them at 36 to 37 psi yearround. For your required 235/55/18 application, the Alenzas are probably going to be hard to beat. But as you know, they are pricey.... If you really can save a couple of hundred bucks by trying the Sumitomos, seeing that you live in a mild climate they may be worth a try especially if the seller offers a 30-day trial period during which you can bring them back for a full refund if it turns out that you don't like them. The 70,000 mile treadwear warranty is even a little better than the Alenza's 65,000 mile treadwear warranty. I would google "Sumitomo tires" and begin to research them in that manner. I'm all about saving money and $200 is very significant in this case as long as the tires prove to be a good buy after you do the research.... Keep in mind that no SUV or truck will ride as quietly as a sedan. It is heavier, has a higher center of gravity, and must run a tougher, more heavy-duty tire as a result. Go with an all-season tire choice and you'll have your best shot at a quieter ride regardless of which brand of tire you wind up selecting.... Let us know what you uncover. The Alenza is the best known tire application in this particular case, but perhaps that's because no one on this site has given the Sumitomos a chance yet....

All you gearheads out there can obsess over your friggin' oil analysis until the cows come home, but here's the common sense approach for the rest of the world: 1. If you choose to run a good quality dino oil, that's great. Just be sure to select the proper weight and change your oil and filter every 5,000 to 6,000 miles. Check your fluid levels weekly and adjust accordingly. You'll be well within your vehicle's warranty requirements and you'll spend the least amount of money necessary to keep your engine relatively clean 95% of the time.... 2. If you choose to run a good quality synthetic oil, that's great too. Just be sure to select the proper weight and change your oil and filter every 7,500 to 10,000 miles. Check your fluid levels weekly and adjust accordingly. You'll spend a bit more money than the dino oil guys, but your engine will be relatively clean 99% of the time. But you may have to deal with oil leaks that wouldn't show up if you were running dino oil. And no, your synthetic oil did not cause these leaks - it is simply less viscous and is a master at finding areas within your oil system where it can escape and manifest itself on your garage floor.... I'm sure that Amsoil and some of the other "super premium" oils out there are good products, but unless you want to obsess over your vehicles or intend to keep them for 500,000 miles, you're probably spending way too much money and time on your lubrication plan. Our own personal vehicles are nothing more than transportation to us, and my days of obsessing about my vehicles are long since past. I've got far too many other more important things to worry about....

Great photos.... I hope to make it out to Vasquez Rocks someday....

I would gladly donate $1,000 to the charity of Bush's choice if he would agree to step into the boxing ring with me for just one three-minute round. Words cannot express the beating I would inflict upon that moron. Hell, put it on pay-per-view as a charity benefit, promote it for just one week in advance, and whatever charity Bush selected would enjoy its single highest fundraising day in its history....

I saw right through Bush the Moron well before the election in 2000 and did my best to warn anyone who would bother to listen. A lot of good it did this country, sad to say. I used to proclaim him the worst president in the past 100 years. But now he's lowered the bar to become the worst president this nation has ever suffered through. It will take the good ol' USA close to a decade to recover from his imbecilic reign....

That blue Vista Cruiser in the picture above is several shades darker than ours was, and ours also had a much-used luggage rack on top. Other than that, the picture looks pretty much identical to ours, especially the grill, headlights, and that ultra-cool glass in the roof. But that's not me in the back seat - I always set it up to face backwards so I could terrorize whoever was behind us. Good thing I was too young back then to know what mooning was or I wouldn't have been able to sit down for months....

Yep, it brings back some great memories of some of the crazy things I did as a kid.... I flew my kites out of the back of the Vista Cruiser on several different highway trips that summer but only got caught that one time. I remember my dad telling me that it was actually a pretty innovative thing to do, taking advantage of the windspeed like that, before he yanked off his belt and whipped my butt....

Glad you were in the truck instead of the Mazda. Although you probably would have had a better chance of completely missing the deer if you had been in the Mazda. About 10 years ago when my daughter was driving her old Honda CRX, a deer jumped completely over the hood of her car and scared her to death. She thought she hit the deer because there was "blood" all over her windshield. She drove home and I went outside to have a look at her car while she was still shaking at the kitchen table. The "blood" turned out to be deer !Removed!. My daughter wasn't the only creature involved who was scared sh*tless. We still joke about that today - no harm came to either her or the critter, and she knows she was lucky.... I doubt if your new bumper will arrive already painted to match - you'll probably have to get it painted. And yes, there may be other parts damaged underneath - you won't know until you pull the bumper and have a look. If your impact was indeed no more than 15 mph, you may get lucky here. Glad to learn that your encounter was relatively minor. Deer crashes can be devastating as you well know....

When I was a kid in the mid-60s we had an ultra-cool Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser station wagon, either the 1965 or 1966 model year. What a family hauler that beast was - plenty of room, plenty of power, gas was cheap, and so much glass in the roof panels that you felt like you were cruising in a fighter jet canopy! And that was well before sunroofs or moonroofs made their debut. Our Vista Cruiser was a medium metallic blue and did not have the fake wood paneling as shown in the last couple of photos above. It looked so much better without the fake wood panels.... That vehicle was perfect for the family trips we took to the beach, mountains, or wherever we were headed for vacation. I always claimed the entire third row seat at the very back because you could set it up to face the rear, making it harder for my parents way up front to see what I was up to. I remember times when I would wait for my mother to fall asleep in the front passenger seat and knowing that my father would be preoccupied with driving, I would crank down the tailgate window and actually fly small kites out of the back of the station wagon while we were rolling down the interstate at 65 mph! At the beach I had learned to use my dad's newfangled monofilament fishing line instead of regular kite string due to the strength required to keep the kites tethered and in control during strong winds. Imagine having a kite 200 feet in the air out of the back of a station wagon while your parents had no clue until a Highway Patrolman on a motorcycle pulled my dad over! By the time he stopped us I had the kite reeled in but I was still in big trouble. I remember the cop telling my dad that in more than 20 years of patrolling the highways in South Carolina he had never seen anything like that before.... Luckily I knew the long stretches of highway where there were no bridges or overpasses or power lines so that never came into play, but I still got my butt whipped and my kites confiscated on that trip.... My daughter always enjoyed hearing that story when she was a kid but I told her that if she ever tried it, she wouldn't be able to sit down for at least a week....

Actually, a 22 mpg average is quite good on these vehicles. I ran Valvoline conventional 5W-30 in my wife's previous 2000 RX300 AWD and I run the same in her current 2004 RX330 AWD. She's a very conservative driver and averaged about 20 to 20.5 mpg in the RX300 and is doing about 21 mpg in the RX330.... If your vehicle was previously running conventional oil and you've now just recently converted to synthetic, perhaps it will take awhile for the mpg to get back to where you had it. Oh, and if you're relying on your vehicle's mpg readout on the display screen, those numbers can be notoriously inaccurate. Measure your mpg the old-fashioned way and see how you're really doing....

I've had friends run regular ol' $2 copper-tipped domestic plugs for more than 100,000 miles in vehicles such as a 1998 Ford Expedition and 1992 Ford Mustang with no adverse effects. There's no question that today's plugs combined with relatively recent engine and ignition technology create a far more harmonious atmosphere for the spark plugs and they'll last much longer compared to the 1960s and 1970s as a result. My 1999 Dodge Ram 5.9-litre V8 requires a specific Champion plug that was less than $2 the last time I changed them (20,000 miles ago). Although the Owners Manual calls for new plugs every 30,000 miles, I feel sure that these regular Champion plugs could easily do 60,000 miles and maybe even 90,000 miles under careful driving conditions. But because I only put around 6,000 miles per year on my truck, I'll probably continue to change the plugs every 30,000 miles. Unless these plugs have gone up drastically in price since the last time I changed them, it's less than $20 to change all 8 of them....

I replaced the factory Denso iridium plugs in my wife's previous 2000 RX300 at 120,000 miles as called for in the Owners Manual. I had pulled the three front plugs at 90,000 miles just to look at them and was impressed at how well they were holding up. Even at 120,000 miles, the original Denso plugs looked great with only very minimal rounding of the tips. Gas mileage never dropped off and performance (I hesitate using "performance" with any RX) remained the same as it was at 60,000 or 90,000 miles. I changed the plugs primarily because I felt it would help me sell the vehicle which I knew I would do at 130,000 to 135,000 miles. There is no question in my mind that these Denso iridium plugs would have easily run 150,000 miles and probably many more. My wife currently drives a 2004 RX330 that runs these same Denso iridium plugs and if they perform as well as they did in her old RX300, I probably won't change them until at least 150,000 miles. She'll hit 70,000 miles within the week so her factory plugs are probably just now getting broken in. I probably won't even pull the three front plugs to look at them until at least 100,000 miles.... When you do change your plugs, do your research first because the three rear plugs require contortionist skills to get in and out. There are plenty of posts on this forum that you'll find helpful so take the time to search. Because of the placement of the three rear plugs, what should be a 30-minute job always turns into a 2 or 3-hour job even with the right tools. I had to borrow a neighborhood friend of mine with small hands in order to get to, remove, and replace the center rear plug - what a hassle even for him, but he finally got it done. Good thing he happened to be home the day I decided to change the plugs. Be sure your socket wrench set has plenty of extensions and universal joints - you'll need them. Good luck....