Month: February 2024

Uncontrolled Quality?

A couple weeks ago the dryer started to let out a little squeal on start up randomly. So I ignored it. a week ago the randomness stopped and it became routine. I started shopping around for deals on laundry pairs. Last Friday the little squeal became a constant loud scream of ear splitting high pitched noise.

We were now stuck with a load of soaking wet clothes. I called our neighbor across the street to ask if I could dry a load of clothes because our dryer was making a loud squeal (I’m almost surprised she didn’t hear it.) She said, “You can of course use my dryer. But, we do have a small laundry room in the community and it is free.” “Oh,” I said, “I’ll try the on-site laundry first. Thanks.”

It was just two washers and 2 dryers and when I got there a woman was in one set, so I popped are wet clothes in and opened the Lowes app to see what I could get in a hurry (there was actually a filter for that criteria.) I could get a set of stackable Whirlpool units delivered the very next day, Saturday.

I selected the haul away service because broken laundry machinery won’t fit in the back of the Mini. They won’t let you check out until you have added the water supply hoses, the dryer power cord, plus the dryer ducting and the clamps, even though what I had on the old machines would work. Oh, and $55 for the stacking kit of 4 plastic feet, 2 metal plates and 4 screws.

The delivery, the assembly, stacking and hauling away, went great. It took them maybe 45 minutes total and we were ready to do a load. Washing was fine, but when the wet clothes went into the dryer it sounded like something didn’t get screwed down inside the machine. I put pressure on the dryer sides, then the top, I even lifted the front of the machine and the noise was diminished some, but not to an acceptable level. Checked to see if the machine was off level, it wasn’t.

I went online and registered the machines and their serial number with the manufacturer. Right after I got the registration conformation email I entered a request for warranty service. Because everything is online and artificially intelligent these days, even though it was Saturday, I had a Monday morning appointment for some service.

It took the fellow who came maybe 5 minutes to diagnose the issue of a faulty blower wheel. His comment was, “We’ve been seeing a lot of this lately.”

Does the manufacturer know that they have this problem?

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Back to Reality Edition of SORT
As of Monday, February 19, 2024 at 8:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
1973 Porsche 914 2006 Jeep Wrangler 2016 BMW 328i
An almost perfect 914 for me. Love the exterior color, the wheels & plaid seats. But, the plaid dash is a little bit too much. Back in 2006 when you looked up “off-road vehicle” in your Encyclopedia Britannica this is the photo you would have seen. With the back seats down there is nearly as much space as a small SUV, but with the handling of a sports car.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sport: 1980 MG MGB Sold for $9,600 on 2/15/24
Off-Road: 1983 Mercedes-Benz 230GE Bid to $22,000 on 2/14/24
Touring: 2012 Porsche Panamera Sold for $37,250 on 2/14/24

Time (and PHP) Marchs On

I received an email from my webhost the other day that said, “HostGator is excited to announce that we will be upgrading our servers to PHP 8.2.” They were going to start rolling it out on or about the 20th of February, but I figured why not go ahead and do it myself in my cPanel. Several clicks later my website was running the new version instead of PHP 7.3.

The only trouble was, WordPress was not happy with the change. Life of Brian was just displaying an error page. As usual, I made the leap of upgrading PHP, just like I do with every WordPress update, without backing up the database or deactivating any plugins. This time it bit me in the ass.

Step one was back into cPanel to rename my plugin directory to /plugin.old see if plain old WordPress would come up. And, phew, it did. So, the database wasn’t the problem. One of the plugins must be compatible with the new PHP. Next step was to create a new /plugin directory and add my 25 plugins back one by one and wait for the crash. It didn’t long.

The very first one I tried caused the blog to disappear and an error page to show. And unfortunately it was one of my favorites and alphabetically first, A Year Before.If you clicked that last link and can’t read German, let me ‘splain it to you. The date you are looking at the blog this widget would show a couple links that are the title of a post I created on that same particular date in the past.

The only other plugin that was problematic was one that allowed me to put widgets in columns on the sidebar. It didn’t crash the site, but it did screw up the nice way I had the ‘best of’ and ‘rest of’ displayed in the sidebar. I did make a work around, but it isn’t nearly as elegant looking as before.

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Super Bowl Hangover Edition of SORT
As of Monday, February 12, 2024 at 5:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
1980 MG
MGB		 1983 Mercedes-Benz
230GE		 2012 Porsche
Panamera
Every time I tell of buying my first Miata, I mention that I always wanted an MGB in high school, it is about time to try one. I’d like to think that I’m an Alt Version person, so instead of a Jeep Wrangler this M-B would be the perfect alternative. This is probably the ideal touring car and I didn’t think I’d ever picked one before, but I had just done it 8 weeks before.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sport: 1995 Rover Mini Cooper Sold for $26,250 on 2/8/24
Off-Road: 2003 Lexus GX470 Sold for $30,250 on 2/8/24
Touring: 2001 BMW M5 Sold for $37,000 on 2/8/24

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

The Cruelest Month Edition of SORT
As of Monday, February 5, 2024 at 5:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
1995 Rover Mini Cooper
 2003 Lexus GX470 2001 BMW M5
How can 62 HP constitute sports car? When it only has to move 1400lbs, that’s how. Im keeping this for about a year so I can sell it before the whole overlanding phase is over. The early 2000’s were the last time BMWs actually deserved ‘The Ultimate Driving Machine’ phrase.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sport: 1973 Porsche 914 Sold for $27,914 on 1/30/24
Off-Road: 1977 Toyota Land Cruiser Bid to $30,500 on 1/30/24
Touring: 2015 Land Rover Range RoverSold for $27,250 on 1/30/24

Groundhogs as Weathermen

Pennsylvania’s Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow today, predicting that there will be an early spring. Overall, the Stormfax Almanac says, Punxsutawney Phil has only been right 39% of the time going back to his first recorded prediction in 1887.

Georgia’s General Beauregard Lee also did not see his shadow either, predicting that an early spring is in store for us. According to a recent analysis done by 538 for this sort of thing, General Beauregard Beau is accurate about how the winter/spring split will play out about 70% of the time.

Oregon’s Fairview Fred did see his shadow, meaning that there will be six more weeks of winter! I just made up the Fairview Fred thing, but if he was real he would have seen his shadow because we had an usual for here sunny day in February. Come back on March 19th and Fairview Fred will either be a 100% or 0% accurate.

25 Years Ago – Issue I 1999

With my love of blue cars I really wanted one of these back in 1999. But I had just paid off the 1995 Laguna Blue and had it modified to my taste, so the only way I would get one then was to to win the one there were giving away as a door prize at the Miata Club of America’s national meet in Dallas, TX. Donna and I attended that weekend Miata extravaganza and we came away with a door prize of leather seat covers for our car, but no blue 10AE Miata.

Party of the Decade

It’s the next Miata special: the first on the M2 body; and a guaranteed collector frenzy. Lev Goldfarb moves the clock ahead to Ten A.M.

A decade at the top is a long streak for anyone, but for an automobile it is almost an eternity. The Miata has been the best car of its type—and often the only car of its type—ever since it was introduced in 1989, so this year marks a very important anniversary. Now that Miata Mania is turning ten years old, Mazda wants to celebrate with a new special edition conceived purely for Miata Maniacs.

Surprising? Well, yes and no. Remember, five years ago Mazda celebrated the MX5’s fifth birthday with international events (including the Miata Homecoming at Irvine), the introduction of the M-Edition and R-Package, the California Edition in Britain, and a host of Miata-based show cars. They did not, however, release a five-year-anniversary model per se. That makes this new package the first Miata ever dolled up to celebrate a specific event. (Purists might argue that England’s 24-unit run of MxX5 Le Mans Commemorative Editions also fits this definition, but I disagree. As a private venture between Mazda’s UK importer and BBR Turbosystems, the Le Mans Edition seems more appropriately considered a tuner car, not a factory special.)

The “10th Anniversary Model”—or “Ten A.M.” to the wags—is a different kind of special edition; it’s like nothing that Mazda has sent to America before. First, it’s an international model; aside from the spec and legal changes required by various countries, each of the 7500 copies in the world will look and feel the same. Whether you’re in Japan (500 units), the United States and Canada (3150), Europe (3700), or Oceania and Asia (the rest), your 10th Anniversary Model Miata will feature unique Innocent Blue Mica paint, a sequential badge on the fender carrying the car’s build number, 15-inch polished Mazda alloys, and a color-keyed blue-gray roof and top boot.

In the interior, carbon-look inserts and chrome gauge surrounds set off the dash, while suede-like blue trim covers the seat inserts, steering wheel grips, and shift boot. The Ten A.M. also features deep-pile blue carpets, power door locks, and a top-end Bose AM-FM receiver/CD player. Even the ignition key is a unique commemorative special. Each car built will also come with a numerical owner’s certificate signed by Mazda Corporation president James E. Miller.

So far, so good; what would a Miata special edition be without lots of trinkets and eye candy? The Ten A.M., however, is going to turn out being more than that, at least for Americans and Europeans. Its other standard feature is Mazda’s close ratio six-speed manual, which up until now has been unavailable outside Japan. Better still, by using this upmarket special edition as a wedge to get the new gearbox certified in other markets, it will also make it possible to offer the six-speed in cheaper Miatas down the line. (Whether Mazda will choose to do that, of course, remains an open question….)

Developed by Japanese gearbox specialist Aisin, the new Type YL6OMD six-speed fits in the same space as the current 5-speed (Type M15MD) and is
just three-and-a-quarter pounds heavier. (Dropping one into any Miata, new or old—would be child’s play.) Though the gearbox is based on an Aisin design, both companies went on to develop its shift action and meshing rate to match or beat those of the MX5’s existing five-speed.

As soon as the Ten A.M. was revealed at the Tokyo Motor Show, Miata fans in the know noticed how similar its color treatment was to Tom Matano’s personal M1 “Gray-Haired Miata.” Though the color schemes weren’t an exact match, they were certainly close enough in concept to make people wonder. Was the much-anticipated, highly secret tenth-anniversary model staring us in the face all along? This seems to be the case cosmetically. Mechanically, on the other hand, we always expected a six-speed; we just never really thought we’d get it.

The Miata 10th Anniversary Model hadn’t been priced as this issue went to press, but start saving your nickels and dimes. It’s unlikely to be cheap.

Copyright 1999, Miata Magazine. Reprinted without permission.