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Vehicles
Planes, Trains and AutomobilesMonday, January 31, 2005
How to kill yourself in 4 easy steps
Step 1: Drive 10 hours straight to New York City on a Friday.
Step 2: Spend all day on your feet Saturday roaming around the city.
Step 3: Drive 10 hours home on Sunday.
Step 4: Go to work on Monday and load 1500 boxes into semi trailers.
Oy is my back sore! It was a really really really fun weekend and worth the pain. I got to go on a little road trip with the love of my life. We saw some beautiful areas of the country while on the road. We got to spend another weekend in our favorite city!
We saw some wonderful pieces of art at the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) and then some really stupid pieces that I don’t know why they would be in a museum. I’m sorry folks but painting a canvas blue and calling it “untitled” is not art. It’s laziness! I’m not an artist and I know I have zero artistic talent so if I see something that I could do in 5 minutes then I refuse to consider it art.
Anyways, I’m tired as heck as I’m sure my car is! Poor thing got a major beating this weekend. It must have run over hundreds of potholes, been running at high speeds for hours and put more than 1200 miles on it in. Other than the crappy seats with no lumbar support the car (2004 Chevy Malibu LS) gave a wonderful ride.
on 01/31/2005 at 07:04 PM
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
2004 Chevrolet Malibu Recalls
Well I got another recall letter from Chevy the other day. This is the second recall letter I have received but it contains 2 different recall notices. So, my Chevy Malibu LS has had 3 recalls since I bought it in February. Here is each of them in order.
quote:
April 2004
Reason For This Recall: General Motors has decided that certain 2004 model year Chevrolet Malibu vehicles fail to conform to Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 208, Occupant Crash Protection. The air bag warning labels on the driver and passenger sun visors do not have everything required by the Safety Standard.What Will Be Done: A new air bag warning label will be installed on both sun visors, over the current air bag warning labels. Since the new labels can be easily installed, and to reduce your inconvenience, the labels and installation instructions are being sent with this letter. If you desire, however, you may take the labels to your Chevrolet dealer for installation. This service will be performed for you at no charge.
June 2004
Reason For This Recall: General Motors has decided that two defects, which relate to motor vehicle safety, exist in certain 2004 model year Chevrolet Malibu vehicles equipped with anti-lock brake system (ABS). On these vehicles, the ABS controller may calculate a higher than actual vehicle speed if there is an erratic rear-wheel speed sensor signal. This can cause ABS activation where it is not needed or cause needed ABS activation to be extended during braking as the vehicle speed drops to about 3 mph. A four-wheel ABS activation could occur for a maximum of 1.25 seconds on a level surface or for up to 2.5 seconds in the vehicle is on a grade, resulting in increased stopping distances of up to 11.4 ft. If this condition occurs where stopping distance is limited, a crash could occur.Some customers may experience illumination of the ABS warning lamp on the instrument panel. This can occur when the system detects erratic speed signals and it means that the ABS is disabled. The brake system will perform normally in non-ABS mode until the vehicle is restarted and the ABS lamp is off.
In addition, a Malibu was tested recently in a government 38.8 mph side impact test. Analysis of the results indicated that during a side impact the outboard anchorage of the driver’s safety belt could disconnect because of contact between the seat trim and the anchorage connector when the seat is adjusted to its lowest position. If this were to occur, the driver will no longer be properly restrained, increasing the risk of injury.
What Will Be Done: To prevent the possibility of these conditions occurring, your Chevrolet dealer will reprogram the ABS controller and install a retainer in the front safety belt connectors. This service will be performed for you at no charge.
That first recall was just plain silly. I can’t believe they actually had to send out replacement visor stickers. I should have taken pictures to show the difference because the only thing that changed was like 2-3 lines of text.
However, this new recall is rather worrying. I haven’t had any ABS problems but I do normally have my seat set to the lowest position. So for now until I can get into the dealer to get it fixed I’ve moved my seat just to play it safe. Although I doubt I’ll be getting in a side impact accident anytime soon I’d rather be safe than sorry.
So just a recap… These notices are for the ‘04 Chevy Malibu and you should contact your dealer ASAP about getting the repairs done.
Thursday, February 05, 2004
I bought my first car!
Well unfortunately the "family" car that I was driving, 1995 Oldsmobile Achieva, decided to go awol on me. Started up last Tuesday and just as I was scraping ice off the windshield it died. After about an hour of playing with it, the car finally started but was running on only 2 or 3 cylinders. This has become a regular occurrence over the last 2-3 years so it was no surprise it happened really.I had originally planned on buying a new car after graduation but it became clear that I had to buy a new car now. So I spend rest of last week reading up on different cars and visiting several car lots. I narrowed it down to the Oldsmobile Alero and the Chevrolet Malibu. The Alero was nice but it just didn't click with me. It felt too much like a grandma car I guess. Being young and hip I just didn't feel comfortable in it. So I went with the Malibu.
General Motors did a complete overhaul of the Malibu for 2004. It's may be called a Malibu but it's nothing like previous years. It's based on their new Epsilon platform. It's the same platform being used for the Opel Vectra and Saab 9-3. It's been modified by Chevrolet to be more "American" but it still has a hint of European influence.
I like the look a lot. It's much more sophisticated than anything I've seem from Chevy before. I went with the Galaxy Silver metallic exterior which is what is shown on the Chevrolet website. Well technically I didn't have a choice since the dealer I went with only had the one Malibu on the lot. However I wanted the silver so it worked out perfectly.
The interior is a bit disappointing but it's still nice. You see the outside and you think upscale but you look inside and it's pretty low-key. The cloth seats are nice but plain, the dash is minimal and layout is pretty sparse. Then again I like it clean and simple since to me throwing on tons of fancy trim and other stuff is just a waste to me. The car has some nice features like a telescopic steering wheel which lets you adjust how far back or forward the wheel is. Plus the car comes with adjustable electronic pedals. Basically you can move the pedals back and forth about 2-3 inches. Between the wheel and pedals even a rather long legged driver such as myself can be very comfortable in the car.
There's a 200 horsepower V6 connected to a four speed automatic transmission. It provides plenty of power for the package and acceleration is quick and responsive. Shifting is very smooth and my only complaint is that I wish GM would get out of the 4 speed auto rut them seem to be in and put out a 5 speed model at least as an option.
I could go on and on but I won't. All in all I'm happy with the car. It has four wheels, an engine that runs, and doesn't look like trash. That's all I ask for in a car. So here are two pictures of it.
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