Recent content by MCompact

One thing about small claims court- it was referred to as “The Gong Show” for a reason. And 99% of judges don’t know the difference between a drain plug and a spark plug. In fact, when I was on the bench the other judge in my district would take detailed notes when hearing an automotive case and...

Even more impressive:

If the “option set” you’ve described was on a car like a 1970 Boss 302, Z/28, Ram Air IV Judge or a GSX I wouldn’t complain. On anything else I’d consider it vehicular purgatory- except for the lack of a hole in the roof; the last thing I want on a sports car or sports sedan is around 60 pounds...

Since 2016 I’ve had four vehicles with relatively advanced telematics. I’ve had no issues with any of them. I’ve downloaded and installed some updates with a USB stick while others were OTA updates from the mother ship. The only “issue” such as it is has been the convoluted process for updating...

I do go by the oil life monitor on the Sahara 4xe (so far no more than 6k miles/11 months). It’s a PHEV so often the engine often doesn't run for more than a few minutes at a time- if that long.

I ran a 7.5k mile to 8k mile OCI on my tuned TGDI Mazdaspeed 3- although UOAs indicated a 10k OCI was possible. Once it was thoroughly warmed up I would beat on it like a red-headed stepchild. When I sold it after 8 years and 158k miles it was running just fine. As always, YMMV.

A shop’s worst nightmare. If that had happened at the indie shop that I use I would not blame them. I have a long history with the owner and most all of the techs. I’d hope the owner would realize that most any engine is susceptible to failure at that mileage.

The TR3A and TR6 are my favorite British sports cars.

One more- my 1973 Bavaria- owned from 1983 to 1990:

My 1995 318ti Club Sport; one of 200 built by BMW Individual and one of 89 painted Bright Red (Hellrot). I ordered it in August of 1995 and it was delivered in November. It was my HPDE instructor car from 1996-2012. It’s currently a garage queen.

Very nice!

I “accidentally” bought a 1975 2002 on eBay in 2008 but my wife loved it and it later ended up being my son’s first car so overall it was a win.

For a while KY had license plates that “featured” the twin spires logo of Churchill Downs. I took the position that I had the right to determine what companies advertised on my plate so I covered both spires with BMW Car Club of America decals.

Today's fill up of the C43: 25.7 mpg on Shell 93 (V-Power NITRO)

Yesterday we took the C43 on a 200 mile round trip. Even though the ambient temperature was around 97 degrees the engine oil temperature never exceeded 212 degrees and the ATF hovered around 180 degrees. Those temperatures didn’t vary much whether we were in an urban/suburban environment or...