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Post  Iago Sat Aug 15, 2015 2:25 pm

O.K., here is the new Focus ST.  I ended up with a new 2014, which cost me about $5000 less than the equivalent new 2015, and the differences are pretty minor.  A few cosmetic ones, such as a slightly different front bumper area (and I have to admit that the 2015 does look a touch better) but none of them really make much of a difference.  I think that the tuning is a bit different in the 2015, based off of the lessons that Ford learned from the Fiesta ST, and so torque steer and understeer are tamed a bit in the newer one.  I still have less than 200 miles on it, and while I have not yet really wrung it out, one or two stomps on the gas pedal from a stop have shown that you need a mightily firm grip on the wheel unless you want to meet oncoming traffic in more ways than one.  

But it does indeed handle quite nicely.  Like the Fiesta ST, one of the fun things about it is how much you can play without ever breaking any traffic laws.  Just hitting the corners in our development at speed instead of slowing down is a riot -- between the suspension and the summer rubber, the thing stays glued to the road.  (By the way, that was one other change: the 2015 comes standard with so-called "all-season" tires, though you can get summer tires as an option.  The 2014 comes with them standard.)  Consider me a firm hot hatch convert.  Muscle or pony cars may be more fun stomping on it off the line, but a well-designed hot hatch like this is more fun practically speaking during more driving circumstances.  And yes, if I was spending the money, I would take the 2016 CTS-V in a heartbeat, and equally yes, in a fantasy world I would still opt for an Aston Martin or a Bentley.  But in the real world of affordable cars, I would take a good hot hatch over anything else.  

The full leather Recaros, which are available with the ST3 package like mine has, are truly awesome.  I am sure that the standard partial leather versions (which are similar to the Recaros used in the Fiesta ST) are quite nice, but the full leather ones are comfortable and gorgeous.  The bolstering is perfect; they really hold you in place during cornering, but are still comfortable without making you feel confined.

The gearbox is solid, with short but precise throws and a solid clutch.  I have actually not even driven a stick in over ten years, so it has taken some relearning, but the gearbox works fine for normal, smoother driving, and is of course a blast when you go crazy.  The suspension would not be for everyone, but it is firm without being a tooth-rattler.  Not much roll during cornering, and you can feel the road quite clearly, but it is never too much.  I have kept off of pretty nasty roads, of course, but I generally avoid them anyway regardless of car.  

Drawbacks?  None noticed so far, other than the fact that it is not a Focus RS.  The interior is certainly nothing fancy, though it is a step up from the Fiesta ST, of course.  It would never really compete with a Golf GTI or Golf R, which have some of the nicest interiors in that class.  But this car is substantially more powerful than the equivalent GTI, and the RS will be more powerful than the R, so Ford is winning where it counts.  But there is certainly nothing wrong with the interior.  Those Recaros tend to draw your eye away from any deficiencies.  It does have some of the silly but fun amenities like our 2012 Focus did, such as a colour palatte button that lets you change the colour of the interior accent lighting.  Pretty much a useless toy, but I find that I keep adjusting it to suit my mood.  And the moon roof is nice, even if I will not use it too much.  

We shall see what happens when the RS rolls out next year.  I will have low miles on this, so I will be in a good position for a trade, but on the other hand I may just decide that I am content.  

At the dealer:

New to Iago ride Front%20no%20plates

Rear view at home:

New to Iago ride Rear%20no%20plates%20two

The roof line:

New to Iago ride Roof

Closeup showing the metal flake in the tricoat Tangerine Scream paint (hard to get it to show up in a picture!):

New to Iago ride Paint
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Post  Iago Sat Aug 15, 2015 2:30 pm

More exterior shots. The ST logo on the front grill:

New to Iago ride Logo

The wheels. Bit confused here, because one of the few upgrades that this car does not have is the rado grey painted wheels with the red calipers, and yet this car still has the red calipers:

New to Iago ride Wheel

The headlights. This one does have the HID cornering headlights:

New to Iago ride Headlight

Partial interior shot, but here are the ST kickplates:

New to Iago ride Kick%20plates
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Post  Iago Sat Aug 15, 2015 2:35 pm

Moving on to the interior. Here is my best try at showing the full front area. I did order new floor mats for it (3D Max Spiders, both front and back.) I am debating getting one of the Boosted Designs dead pedal plates as well. (Only $35 bucks, so I should probably do it.)

New to Iago ride Center

The main gauges behind the wheel:

New to Iago ride Dash%20A

The infotainment console with the ST-only auxiliary pressure gauges on top of the dash:

New to Iago ride Dash%20B

Six speed!

New to Iago ride Six%20speed
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Post  Iago Sat Aug 15, 2015 2:37 pm

The Recaros:

New to Iago ride Recaros%20A

The ST stitching:

New to Iago ride Recaros%20B

The Recaro stitching!

New to Iago ride Recaros%20C


That is all that I have for now.  Let me know if you want to see anything else.  (Looks like I never got any pictures of the engine itself!) Just do not ask for consistency with the exterior shots -- as you can see, the Tangerine Scream paint freely changes colours depending on the lighting. It looks more yellow under harsher lights, but more orange under softer lighting. Looking at it during "magic hour," it nearly turns pure orange.
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Post  Seamaster Tue Aug 18, 2015 6:04 pm

Thanks for the write up. I will comment more when I have more time. For now, I will just say nice car and congrats.
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Post  ADOR Wed Aug 19, 2015 1:07 am

Looks good.
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Post  Iago Wed Aug 19, 2015 3:44 am

Thanks. I do have an engine pic that I will post later, but keep in mind that it is a modern car with an engine cover that hides most of the toys. (On the other hand, it does have the ST logo, so it looks cool!) I will wait to post it until later today when I should also receive the new mats and possibly the dead pedal cover (yes, I did order it.)

I posted it elsewhere, but now I am getting tempted by this. Assuming that I choose to keep this car and not bother to trade it in for an RS, Ford Racing offers a full factory warranty on this Mountune mod that gets it up to 275 horsepower and 296 lb-ft of torque. And any dealer can install it -- no warranty if you do it yourself, so that would be worth the expense:

http://blog.caranddriver.com/ford-performance-upgrade-for-focus-st-brings-output-to-275-horsepower/
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Post  ADOR Wed Aug 19, 2015 2:41 pm

(I am guessing the wife doesn't read this forum, SO)

How does it do in the curves? Accelerate? Burn out?
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Post  Iago Thu Aug 20, 2015 5:14 pm

No, she does not, but she knows full well why I bought it. Actually, she is a far more dangerous driver than I am, which is one reason why that Audi S5 was more of a car than she should be driving! But the reality is at this point that I only have about 225 miles on it, so I am not going too crazy with it yet. The owner's manual says that there is no need for a break-in period, but I am not going too crazy yet anyway. But yes, from what I have done, it handles curves quite nicely. It should be prone to a bit of understeer, but I have yet to do anything aggressive enough to find out. On the other hand, one of the fun things about it is not bothering to slow down when doing normal cornering. Actually accelerating while taking the right-angle turns on the streets in our development is fun, and there is very little in the way of body roll. The summer rubber stays glued down as well. I have only done a few hard accelerations, but never timed it. It should do about a 6.1-6.3 second 0 to 60mph with premium -- the dealership had it filled with regular unleaded, and I still have half a tank in it, so I need to put a few more miles on before I can test that out. Once I have it full of higher octane, we shall see what it can do.

I did talk to the dealership about that upgrade, and the parts plus the tuner run $2149 for my year, plus labour. On the other hand, they said that they would sell it to me for $1800 and labour would be around $300, so essentially they offered free installation. They did say that it would not adversely affect my trade-in value as long as I kept the original parts for them to reinstall. On the other hand, it would not add any value, so if I did trade it in for an RS the $2100 would just evaporate. So, if I decide to keep it and never trade it in, it may be worthwhile; otherwise, I should leave it as is.

Speaking of engines, here it is. Note, like I said, that with the engine covers there is not much to see!

New to Iago ride Engine

Here are the 3DMax Spiders that I just got in the mail today:

New to Iago ride 3Dmax%20spiders

Here is the front driver's side installed. I did order the dead pedal cover from another outfit but have yet to receive it. But these at least do provide much better coverage of that area (compare to the stock mats in the picture that I posted earlier):

New to Iago ride Front%20mat

Pretty much the same idea on the passenger side, so I did not get a picture of that, but here is the best that I could do trying to get a picture of the rear one. Note how the "hump" covers the center as well as the regular mat area:

New to Iago ride Rear%20mat

If 3DMax makes mats for your specific make and model of car, I definitely recommend picking some up. $125 dollars (in my case, at least) well spent.
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Post  Iago Fri Aug 21, 2015 4:11 pm

The dead pedal cover came today.  Unfortunately, I cannot put it on until I figure out how to attach it to the rubber mats.  The cover itself has velcro (just the "hook" side) glued to the back, so all that you do is press it to the carpet and it stays firmly in place, but is easily removable when you want to clean up.  But the 3DMax mats ride up over the dead pedal area, and obviously velcro does not stick particularly well to rubber.  I could just glue the cover to the mats and call it a day, but that might make things tricky to clean -- when you want to clean the mats, you just take them out and hit them with a pressure washer.  The pedal cover could end up with grime behind it that would never go away.  So I may just get some adhesive-backed loop velcro pieces and stick those to the mats so that I can remove the cover when I want to.  That would not last forever, especially after a few washings, but velcro is cheap.  Now I am considering buying some ST logos and replacing the 3DMax logos on the mats, so that everything ties together in an ST way.

Here is the cover sitting where it should eventually go.  Not the best picture, but it is cloudy outside so it was tough to get enough light, and a flash would have reflected off the metal in the pedals.

New to Iago ride Dead%20pedal
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Post  ADOR Fri Aug 21, 2015 9:45 pm

I am still waiting for my floormats. The Mini only had paper mats in it. I bought some of the cheap clear 10 dollar mats and cut them to fit until they got in. I also got to order a few oil filters, etc to put up for maintenance. Mine takes synthetic oil from the factory. Does yours have something similar on the oil?
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Post  Iago Sat Aug 22, 2015 4:13 am

Yes, you definitely are more of a do-it-yourselfer than I am!  I was wavering between Weathertech, 3DMax and Findway.  The Weathertechs were nearly twice as expensive and did not look as nice, and while the Findways were cheaper than even the 3DMax, and arguably looked more natural as they use a synthetic plastic pseudo-carpet fiber surface, they looked a bit more involved to clean.  So I opted for a balance of price and looks.  I read through the entire 40+ pages of the thread about mats on the ST forums, and it seemed that the majority were happiest with the 3DMax.

I have not read through the manual for maintenance guidelines yet, but turbocharged or not it is still a Ford Ecoboost engine, so I assume that it does not need anything special for oil, but I will still probably opt for synthetics due to it being a performance car.  I did see that the manual specifies that there is no need for a break-in period or any early oil changes, and the dealer marked it as needed a change at 5,000 miles, but I will still get the first one done early (and I will be watching dates, not miles -- it may take me a year to put 5,000 miles on it!)  Again, though, I am not a do-it-yourselfer like you are, so I will just go to the dealer and have them do it.  First oil change is free from them anyway.

I was delighted to find out that one of the local stations, which is only a mile from my house, does indeed offer 93 octane fuel, and synthetic oil or not, I will absolutely be feeding it the highest octane that I can.  Plus, the station is one of my accounts, and I am happy to give the business to one of my own customers.
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Post  Seamaster Fri Aug 28, 2015 2:35 pm

A few thoughts for you:

1. Hold off on the upgrade for now. I don't mean this to be rude and I'm not insulting your driving, but get to know your car in stock form before you start upgrading. That way you will have a better feel for what the upgrade has done to your car and if any fine-tuning is needed. As you said, you haven't pushed the car yet; you might find the car at the limit is perfectly suitable for you. Or not. But give yourself time to make a decision. Besides, you still seem to be thinking about the RS, and that car is just around the corner.

2. I'm not sure what your gas is spec'd at, but 93 octane might have ethanol content. The car will be fine, but that might affect mileage (if you care, which I don't think you do; just letting you know). Either way, I agree with you. Fill it with the highest octane you can get. The car is tuned for it. I'm surprised that the dealer filled it with 87. That's poverty for an ST, even if the computer adjusts for it.

3. Since you're buying toys for your new toy, have you considered window tinting? It's not for everyone, but I love it on my vehicles and find it makes a big difference to the look and enjoyment of my cars.

4. Winter tires are a must!!!

Personally, I'd spend my money on 3 and 4 first before getting the power upgrade. I'd even look at getting better summer rubber before getting the power upgrade (I'm not sure how good the stock rubber is). Typically, most drivers benefit from better grip than more power.

Regardless, as before, nice car. I'm glad you're enjoying. Black would have been nice, but I'm glad you went for the bolder tangerine colour. Life is too short not to have fun.
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Post  Iago Sat Aug 29, 2015 2:14 pm

You forget that you are talking to someone who is typing this message on a laptop with 32GB of RAM, twin 980m cards in SLi (which nothing I have thrown at them yet has even made them break a sweat) and an Extreme Edition processor.  I do not do moderation very well.  That is one reason why I have avoided going down the "car for me" path at all, and have been content with Eve's hand-me-downs.  So yes, I still have the RS on my brain, and if I can manage to let that go, the upgrade package will go a long ways towards keeping me content in the current model.  But no, I was not planning on doing anything right now, especially since we just bought two cars!!!  I would do nothing anyway until they make the final details about the RS available.  (I mentioned this on the other thread, but they do also offer a Quaife differential, though I am not sure how much installation would cost for that.)

Either way, yes, winter tires are at the top of my list.  Since AutoNation is an almost absurdly large company, I want to talk to their service center and see what they think about getting a second set of rims & tires.  Once they are mounted & balanced, I could just swap the whole wheels out myself, and in the long run it would probably be cheaper than swapping tires (and balancing them) twice a year.  I would just need to borrow a torque wrench to make sure that I do it right.  They may well be able to track down a used set of rims for me.  Thoughts on that?

I do not think that I would want tinting, but I am probably going to add these:

http://www.weathertech.com/ford/2014/focus/side-window-deflectors/

The local station has ethanol-free 93 octane, so I am covered.  And yes, I was disappointed that they dealer cheaped out, but that is probably their standard for all vehicles.  Hard to complain about free gas.  

Like I said, the colour keeps growing on me.  I like it the least when it looks the most yellow under bright daylight conditions, and I like it the best when it looks more orange.  But either way, it stands out in a crowd!
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Post  Iago Sat Aug 29, 2015 2:21 pm

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Post  Seamaster Mon Aug 31, 2015 5:28 pm

I'm a big fan of mounting winter tires on dedicated rims, and I have all of my winter tires mounted separately. Once they are balanced, you're right that it's a simple case of swapping the wheels. I still have them done at a shop, since it only costs $20 to $40 to do the swap, and saves me time. Sometimes I've had it done for free when having other service work done.

I don't know how bad your roads get in the winter, but the cold up here can wreak havoc on the tarmac, causing cracks and potholes to show up. I'd rather run the risk of damaging a cheaper rim than an expensive alloy. Plus, if you go with steel wheels, the added weight is actually a good thing in the snow.

I considered side-window deflectors for one of my cars, but decided against. I didn't care for how the deflectors took away from the streamlined look of the car.

Funny story on tinting: One of the project managers I used to work with got around to getting himself a Lamborghini. The car had an electric-blue paint job and 20-inch black wheels. I told him the only thing it needed was tinted windows to complete the look. He replied that he didn't want tinting because then people wouldn't know it was him driving around.
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Post  Iago Fri Sep 04, 2015 3:35 am

The nice thing about swapping wheels at home would be not having to haul the wheels around in the car. I do need to get a rubber mat for the cargo area, but that was no rush because at this point I am not hauling anything in it. I can probably talk the mechanic at our Pepsi plant into letting me use his shop jack to swap the tires out there myself. Plus, he of course would have a torque wrench, which I do not. I only live about five miles away, so that would not be too much driving around with them.

Oh, and by the way, the tires are 235/40R18 Goodyears. They seem to do the job quite well. I could not find much information about them online (does anyone review tires?) I have never had the car on a track, of course, but they certainly appear sticky enough for hooning around on the roads.

New to Iago ride Tires

Speaking of tracks, since we are leaving on vacation, I will miss the shot at an unlimited speed run. We have an airport in Osceola with a 5000 foot runway (the longest one in the area, short of heading down the the Twin Cities.) They participate in an annual Wheels & Wings event, and there is a "radar run" where you can see just how fast you can go:

http://www.wheelswings.com/radar-run.html

Oh, well, there is always next year. Maybe by then I will have a few more horsepower under the hood -- or possibly an RS?

I would normally agree about the window deflectors, but in this case I think that they add to the look of the car. The Focus is fairly streamlined, but it does have some contours and shape to it.
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Post  Seamaster Tue Sep 08, 2015 10:23 am

You can find tire reviews, if you do a search on the Internet. Also check out Tire Rack -- they offer some professional and user reviews. Other best bet is check the FoSt forums. Do you know what model of Goodyears?

You can get bags to carry around mounted tires and rims. I find they work well at protecting a car's interior. There are cheap plastic ones that tire places and your dealer will give out for free, or you can opt for more expensive vinyl bags (about $20 per), which you can find at most automotive stores.

I do see your point about hauling around the tires. I simply schedule my tire swaps at the same time as I'm having an oil change or service done. I have done my own swaps, but without a hoist, I find it pretty tedious, and I seem to have enough on my plate these days. Because of that, I prefer the hassle of hauling the tires and wheels over doing the swap with a single jack.

You are quite fortunate that the Osceola Airport allows you to do runs. I live in a major city and we having nothing. Even the race track shut down . . .

I'm going to test drive a Fiesta and Focus ST this evening. The Mazdaspeed is getting older, and even though it has lower mileage, I'm feeling it might be time for something new before I'm hit with more major repair costs. I did sit in a Fiesta (with Recaros) a couple of days ago and my concerns are that it is really tiny. I don't mind a small car, but it might be too small. We'll see how it drives. I found the Recaros okay, although they did bite into my upper back a touch. The other cars I'm considering are a GTI and, the oddball of the bunch, a BRZ. The Ford dealer said they aren't expecting the Focus RS until January or February. Still no word on pricing here either. Not sure how that lines up with things on your side of the border.
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Post  Iago Tue Sep 08, 2015 5:37 pm

The leaked portion of the Ford website that Ford quickly took down listed just shy of $36,000 for a base RS. That is likely the correct price. Fully decked out will be a bit over $42,000 (not counting trinkets.) Not sure what that would translate into on your side of the border.

Absolutely nothing wrong with a BRZ/FR-S. They routinely make the "best performance cars under $30,000" lists. And they are not just highly thrashable; they demand being thrashed around:

http://jalopnik.com/what-nobody-understands-about-the-subaru-brz-1698728189

The new Mazda Miata is getting raves as well, and is under $30,000 depending on trim. Supposed to be a fantastic driving experience, and it also wants to be pushed. Bit less practical as an everyday driver, of course.

Even though the Fiesta ST that I sat in did not have the Recaros, it really did not take any more than that to decide that it was just too small for me. The smaller Recaros probably would have made it worse. However wonderful the driving experience in a Fiesta may be, I had to accept the fact that I still need to be comfortable doing it. If you go the Ford route, I think that you will be happy with the Focus ST. Sure, you have to learn to deal with a bit of torque squirreliness, but only in hard acceleration. Then you toss it into a corner, the car stays glued to the ground, and you grin like a schoolboy.
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Post  Seamaster Fri Sep 11, 2015 5:08 pm

Considering the price tag on one of the Focus STs I looked at was $37,600, I don't have high hopes for the RS!

The Fiesta was playful, but uncomfortable. After some time in the Recaros, I found myself quite hunched, as I was unable to put my shoulders all the way back. And I'm hardly a big guy, so I'm not sure how some folks are getting by. I have a theory that it might be my short height that's getting me: it's putting the widest part of my back right in the pinch zone. I'm not that wide, mind you (43 inches in the chest; 32 waist) but proportionally, me and the seat don't seem to go. Unfortunately, it was the same in the Focus -- I found the fit between the two Recaros to be the same.

In short, I found that the FiST handled slightly better, with quicker turn in and no real torque steer to worry about. But you're right that the interior felt cheap and the overall dimensions are small. At this point in my life, I found it too small, and with the uncomfortable seats, the car is a no-go at this point. Power wise, it was okay, but I found it pretty anemic under 3500 RPM. I have read that the turbo kicks in earlier than that, so maybe the dealer I was at had also cheapened out on the gas. The other thing that bothered me was the seating position: it's up too high, but that's owing to the fact that this is a compact economy car tweaked to perform. It still has compact economy car proportions.

The Focus is much nicer inside and much more comfortable. Unfortunately, the seats don't work for me and that's a shame. The power was more in line with what I'm used to, although I wasn't a huge fan of the torque steer (matter of preference; some people get a kick out of that). Nevertheless, the car has some get up and go, and I think looks nicer overall. The handling is really nice for FWD. The turn in wasn't as good as the FiST, but this is a heavier car with more power, so to be expected. It would benefit from an LSD.

I wanted to like both cars, but had to accept that there is no point in getting a car that is uncomfortable and would leave me with stiff shoulders after any sort of lengthy drive. I'm envious of those who fit the seats. But I suppose it's like shoes: No shoe is the right fit for everyone.

I did drive a BRZ and the car left me grinning. The seating position is perfect and the seats were comfortable. The handling is just sublime, the engine noises are real and not synthesized, and I even like the simple, basic cabin. The biggest downside is power. The car just doesn't have the power of a turbo motor or something larger like a V6 or V8 (although the linear power of a NA engine is nice and predictable). But I couldn't care less if the car would lose nearly every stoplight race. The car was fun and an absolute blast to whip around corners and through the twisties. Getting into my Mazda afterward left me feeling like I was sitting too high and in a car with too much body roll (the BRZ is that good). I will need to drive again to see how I feel about the power and if that's something I'd be content with long term. But simply put: I have never driven a car that handles and feels as good as the BRZ.
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Post  Iago Sun Sep 20, 2015 4:08 pm

The website for the RS is live now, at least in the States, and you can configure one:

http://www.ford.com/cars/focus/trim/rs/

Unless, of course, you are blocked over on the other side of the border.


The BRZ/FR-S is a lovely car, and you cannot go wrong there. Eminently tunable, too, if you want to tweak it. Torque steer like in the ST is entirely a matter of taste. I do not mind it, but I can see how others would. Presumably the AWD system in the RS will direct most of the power to the rear wheels during hard acceleration, so it probably eliminates that. But a RWD like the BRZ/FR-S is its own animal, from a driving enjoyment perspective. Same thing with the Miata.

As far as the seats go, there is a small trick, at least for me. Because of the bolstering in the Recaros, you tend to not be firmly in the seat if you just sit into it and go. I have to consciously push myself back into the seat to "set" myself properly so that both ends of my spine are fully against the back of the seat. Otherwise, I think that my lower back is not quite making firm enough contact. Once I have pushed myself back that first time, it stays that way with no effort no matter how I drive. But I have forgotten to do it a couple of times and noticed a bit later that I was a little uncomfortable.

Not sure if that is true of everyone since I have not read about anyone saying to do that, but it made the difference for me. You are skinnier than I am, so you may well have just slid into that position naturally.
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Post  Seamaster Fri Oct 09, 2015 4:23 pm

Just checking in. The last few weeks have been tiring with surgery and recoup time.

To that end, and with a very uncertain economic climate in my neck of the woods (restructuring and layoffs are all over the place, including where I work), I'm holding off on any major purchase. I think I'll revisit in the spring if things work out okay (fingers, toes, and everything else crossed).

I hope that you're still having fun with your new toy. Did you pick up winter tires and rims?
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Post  Iago Sun Oct 11, 2015 6:23 am

You rather casually dropped the "s" word in there. The problems from before, or something new?

To be fair, we should not have bought the car unless we sold the rental house first. Moment of weakness. Best not to do such things with uncertain economic times -- and surgery!

Have not picked up the rims & tires yet. I figure that I pretty safely have another month to worry about it. I keep crossing my fingers about the home sale before I drop the money, but I am just going to have to get it done regardless.
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Post  Seamaster Wed Oct 28, 2015 12:35 pm

No. Nothing new. Just following the prescribed cancer treatment. On the whole, I think things have gone well (a few complications along the way). We're just horribly tired these days.

My back is causing me grief. It had healed, but then I started getting severe sciatic pain about a month ago. I'm wondering if I have a herniated disc. With everything going on, it's hard to feel normal.

I put the winters on my cars earlier this month. We haven't had any snow yet, although temperatures have been dipping below freezing overnight. Even with no snow or ice, winter tires do a better job of gripping cold tarmac. I like to run dedicated summer (not all season) and winter tires, so it's important that I don't get caught. The summer tires are absolutely useless in any kind of snow and ice. We got a surprise dump last year and I actually had to park the one car until things warmed up enough that I could swap the tires.
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Post  Iago Mon Nov 02, 2015 3:33 am

I guess that I interpreted your statement about surgery to mean that it was for yourself. But you mean surgery for your significant other's cancer? Have you had your back checked out?

I still have not taken care of the tires yet due to the lack of the rental house sale. That just threw all of my plans out of whack. The good news is that we have a signed offer on it, and even after fees and setting aside money for taxes it will be plenty to pay off both of our cars. So yes, I will get the tires done now, but it still may not be for a few weeks and I will have to take my chances. (We will not have the sales money even that quickly, of course, but I need to take care of other bills first.) I knew that buying the car(s) prior to selling the house was a bit risky, so having to take chances on the tires was always a possibility.

The good new is, though, that I am at least still enjoying the car!
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