@davesaddiction They'll have to rebrand as "Hz"

After nearly a full year of looking I finally admitted to myself I would not be getting another Echo hatchback. They're all gone, except for the ones that aren't, and the owners of those ones aren't selling.

I had a hard time deciding on a replacement, but then this Mazda came up recently and it checked all the boxes: Fun, reliable and economical. It's even a colour (but it still is not a blue Echo) It was only an hour's drive away, which was a bonus.

One owner, Krowned every year, 157K kms, no rust, Loaded base model. This thing is like a Rolls compared to the Echo!
The guy took super care of it. Even sold it to me with a full tank of gas.

It came with brand new steel wheels for snows, but as it turns out the snow tires from my Echo are an exact fit so I'll just run those until they are done and then put the next set on the new wheels. I might treat myself to some new wheels too. 4x100 should have tons of good options. The BBS my dad has on his Miata would be sharp.

Weathertech's were a nice addition by the previous owner.

See you in the spring, little Mazda!

Kitten says thanks for your time.

This is what I found on my workbench when I got home from work. From my oldest:

And in the kitchen when I got inside. From the other one:

Good to see the kids today can still appreciate a good ol' fashioned rickroll, and they were creative about it too!

So that's it then.

Edit: Best of luck @David-Tracy and Torch.

@i86hotdogs said in I Love Turo:

As a Ford engineer, and a big time fan of the Maverick, I am excited to see how the competition stacks up.

Owner requests that you do not disassemble their engine.

Got my new old truck last week!

This one had caught my eye before I'd even decided to take my 4Runner off the road. In the end, I went with my gut feeling on it and so far I'm very happy with my decision.

It's got 555k on it, so it's no spring chicken, but it has also been rust checked every year since new so the body still exists.

When I was researching it I discovered this truck has only had one owner. What I didn't discover until after I bought it was that the former owner spent 5 grand on a brand new engine in 2019 and it only has 27000kms on it! He also managed to change the oil 7 times since the new engine went in. That's the kind of surprise I can live with.

And full service records from day one. I keep good records on my cars and the records that came with this make my efforts look amateur. This truck was someone's pride and joy. I have to think they must have died because I don't know why they would trade it in after all the work they'd done on it right up until January of this year.

So far I've got new tires (on the winter wheels apparently. Guess I should have actually looked into the bags with what I thought were the winter tires. Whoops!) One day maybe I'll move the tires over to the nicer wheels.

I also ditched the class 1 trailer hitch and installed a class 4. And I spent the day today troubleshooting the 4wd. Pretty sure it only needs the pushbutton switch but either way now I have a good idea how it all works.

Now I can make use of my Father's day present!

Last shot of the fleet. It's outdated already though because I sold the Mercedes today.

We lost Tony, our cat, yesterday.

One day 3 years ago my spouse went to a roadside antique shop and Tony found and claimed her. The proprietor said that he'd been abandoned there a couple of days prior and living along a busy highway he'd surely be done in by a car or coyote in short order.

She convinced me to 'pick him up' which turned out to be me trying to catch a feral kitten and wrangle him into my car. "you gotta be fast!" was the refrain from the antique shop owner that still is an inside joke to this day. He disappeared into the rear hatch for the drive home. When I got home I gathered the family around and opened the hatch to reveal... nothing! Turns out he had driven home hiding under the driver's seat! The kids, particularly my youngest, were thrilled.

He lived outside at our house, quickly warming up to us and would spend a lot of time with me in the garage and out in the yard with the rest of the family. Sometimes he'd even be allowed into the house for a short time. I added a cat door to the garage so he could stay warm in the winter, but come and go as he pleased, which he did. He was always an adventurer and would sometimes disappear for days on end, but he'd always return 'home' to the drumstick or pork chop and neck scratches that would be waiting for him when he did. Sometimes he came home pretty beat up but I had confidence he could hold his own.

Contrary to popular belief, "Tony" was not a reference to "Tony the Tiger" but an esoteric reference to an old Kids In The Hall skit "Hotel la rut"

"I keep thinking about Tony. Where he is. Who he is with. What is he thinking? Is he thinking of me? And whether he'll ever return someday"

Yesterday morning I called out to him to see if he was around before I went to work. I hadn't seen him for a few days, but that was nothing out of the ordinary. Maybe he'll be here when I get home.

Unfortunately, I found him 4kms from my house. He'd been hit by a car along with another cat. I assume he was living his best cat life when he went. So in the end, he did return home even if I was the one who brought him there. I'm happy that I had the fortune to find him and bring him home for a second time. Otherwise I might still be wondering Where he was, and whether he'd ever return someday.

RIP Tony. You were a great cat, and I'm happy we could be part of your world.

The other day I changed my oil and then headed over to a friends house for a visit to see how his maple syrup season was going.

Heading home my car started running on 3 cylinders. That's a weird thing to happen from changing the oil. Drove it home and diagnosing the problem was a bad coil was straightforward. I replaced the coil the next day once the parts store was open.

I figured while I was at it I'd take a peek at the plugs. I know they were brand new. I mean I changed them when I got the car and that was only... um.. 130 000 kms ago. Oh. I guess you're supposed to change those occasionally .

I guess Toyota once again lives up to it's reputation of taking abuse. I measured one of the old plugs and it's gapped at .07. Spec is .043.

Kitten says don't forget to change your plugs!

Thanks for reading.

i

I just learned an old friend died while out mountain biking on the weekend. I hadn't spoken with him in a few years, but we used to ride together quite a bit back in the day, and a chain of events that was initiated by a day of riding at Dagmar with him led to connecting my spouse and I.

I was actually out riding with a friend who also used to live in Toronto when this happened and we were reminiscing about riding those very same trails. They are NOT the type of trails you'd expect any risk of dying on. Must have been a freak accident.

Last time we spoke I'd alerted him to a super mint E30 M3 on BAT, which was his dream car. He stayed in until 70k and ultimately didn't get it.

Rest in peace, Jake. You were one of the good ones.

Cyclist who died in Don Valley identified

Be careful out there.

Finally got around to a job I've not been looking forward to- replacing the front brake hoses on my spouse's 740.

The hose was toast and the result was intermittent locking of the front caliper. Not an ideal scenario!

My gut feeling was to use heat to get it apart but decided to try without and that was a mistake. I got it to move just a crack, enough for a leak to start and then promptly rounded the nut (yes, I was using a flare wrench) I tried cutting the hose off to use a socket on the fitting only to discover every single 14mm deep socket I had was just a hair too short. And since the brake fluid was flowing freely now going back to heat was off the table.

Anyhow. I got it off. There were vise-grips involved and I'm not proud of myself, but proud enough I guess since it's fixed. I guess the fitting on the hard line is now 'vise grip size' but I don't expect I'll need to touch it for a long time if ever. Pictured is the side that was trouble. I went with my instincts on the other side and heated up the fitting with a propane torch. It was still tough to get off, but it came off without issue and I'm pleased.

While I was at it I changed the brake fluid too. I've had the car for 3 years and not done that yet. Should have! What a huge difference in braking now that it's not filled with syrup.

I also put on a new and badly needed new belly pan. Merry Christmas, Volvo!

My children are helpful.

Lots more stuff coming up in the near future on this one. Just waiting for the boat from Sweden to get here with the rest of my parts.

Thanks for reading! Here is a snowy kitten for your time.

@MUSASHI66 back bacon. I'm a Canadian. It's made from loin instead of belly so its basically the complete opposite of belly bacon except that it is cured. I like both!

@MUSASHI66 What do you mean by your last flank steak? There are only 2 on each cow! I love flank steak.

I just finished dinner on account of my son's baseball game. I made grilled back bacon sandwiches on sourdough buns that my spouse made. Quick and tasty!

@Gabriella They are definitely not common where I am. There is a tesla I've seen in 'town'. That's it.

@Manwich ha. I've seen people riding 2-stroke powered bikes in the city. You're most likely right. If you have one that goes 80 though you might raise some eyebrows!

@Mazda616 I don't have any. My spouse has a bunch. I know in the past she's put a picture on the wall for a long time, to make sure she still likes looking at it every day before she commits.

@zipfuel I was considering a lexus CT200h and they were going for 12-18 last year. Now they are going for 18-25!

@ash78 ^Hoser.

@Manwich said in Filled up the Fit with gas yesterday…:

@BicycleBuck said in Filled up the Fit with gas yesterday…:

@Manwich

We are about to see the rise of the electric bike.

Thinking about getting one for myself. That might be the way to get a BEV with the range I want

That thing isn't legal in ontario though. 500W and I think 32kms/hr is the max.

@Manwich said in Filled up the Fit with gas yesterday…:

@ibRAD

Well your Echo is probably more than paying for itself now. Imagine how it would be if you didn’t have the Echo…

I got it for 600 bucks. it paid for itself in a few months! (or a year if you include the money I put into it to make it roadworthy)

@Manwich said in Filled up the Fit with gas yesterday…:

@FourMalibus said in Filled up the Fit with gas yesterday…:

@Manwich
You need to make a deal with UppU. Only he can make it happen!

I am seriously thinking my next car needs to at least be a hybrid. Gas for something that gets ~40mpg isn't too bad.

Incidentally my Fit averages around 40 MPG (based on US gallons)

I just don’t like the idea of spending $300+ per month on fuel

I got my echo to stop paying through the nose driving my 4runner to work... and now it costs the same as it did when I used to drive my 4runner to work.