Echo... A car not worthy of repeating with a story that is.

I’ve been perusing a book that I picked up at a garage sale recently.  It’s about Mythology, and I’ve found it quite an interesting read.  Today, while I was out picking up household supplies at Target, I spotted a Toyota Echo in the parking lot and took it as a sign from the gods.

I believe our last foray into mythology involved the VW Phaeton, which was quite a while ago, making this a bit overdue.  So, the Toyota Echo:  The car, as you can see, looks like a pregnant skateboard.  Toyota made these little buggers from 2000-2005.  They replaced the Tercel (which is what the profiled Paseo convertible was based on), and were themselves replaced by the Toyota Yaris, and to a certain extent, the Scion brand lineup.

The Echo was supposed to appeal to young buyers, but it was a bit of a failure on that front.  Sure, it was priced well, with a base 2 door model MSRP of about $10,500,  and it had the reputation of the Toyota name to back it up, but it was just not that great.  While having a central gauge cluster is a quirky thing that works for cars like the Mini, it’s not something the Echo can pull off, and it was panned for its poor design.  Aesthetically, the Echo doesn’t have a lot going for it. At a time when design preferences were shifting toward low and wide, with high belt lines, big rims, and reduced greenhouses, the Echo presents as tall and narrow with tons of glass greenhouse space making it feel top heavy with its handling despite its relatively low weight of just over 2,000 lbs.  It featured teeny tiny space-saver-spare-type wheels and tires that only contributed to its lack of looks and feeling of body roll while cornering.  Not to mention that the tall profile of the vehicle meant it was susceptible to cross winds at highway speeds.  Just an overall “bleh” car, really.  It was mildly peppy given its light weight and 1.5L inline 4 cylinder that made 108 HP and 105 lb-ft of torque, though that feeling could easily go away with a strong headwind.

It’s surprising then, to realize that somewhere, somebody saw fit to name this little heap after a beautiful mountain nymph from Greek mythology.  Echo (the nymph, not the Toyota), was what’s called an Oread, which is just a fancy way of saying mountain nymph.  Word has it, Echo had a fantastic set of pipes and loved to hear herself speak just as others loved to hear the sound of her voice.  She rammed around out with a rather loose crowd and while her other Oread buddies were busy fooling around with Ruler of the sky, president and CEO of Mount Olympus, and god who never could manage to keep it in his pants, Zeus, Echo would distract Zeus’s jealous and all around vengeful bitch-kitty wife, Hera by telling her long winded stories.

It wasn’t long before Hera got wise to what was going on and decided to take out her wrath on Echo instead of on her no-good, cheatin’ hubby, Zeus.  She cursed Echo so that her voice would only work to parrot the sounds that came from the mouths of others, making Echo seem like a complete nincompoop to anybody who made her acquaintance.
This predicament double-super-sucked for Echo because it wasn’t long after this happened that she feel in love with a certain self-absorbed pretty boy named Narcissus.  Of course, Echo could never tell him how she felt about him, much less try to seduce with some slick pick up line, so she resorted to following him through the woods at a distance all stalker-like while he hunted.

While traipsing through the woods, one is apt to come upon a stream or pond here and there.  It just happened that Narcissus found such a body of water and leaned over to drink from it, whereupon he spotted his reflection.  It was love at first sight, and while Narcissus may have been a good looking fellow, he wasn’t particularly blessed with smarts, so it was quite a while he stayed at the pond staring at his handsome reflection, thinking he was flirting with some hot guy.  It didn’t help that every pick up line he tried on the reflective Narcissus was parroted back to him by a certain obsessed, love-lorn mountain nymph stalker who was stationed nearby.  The guy actually carried on what must have been an incredibly shallow conversation with his reflection for quite some time before it finally occurred to him that his love could never be, as he had fallen in love with a reflection of himself….  Yeah, I just hate it when that happens, don’t you?

Realizing he could never run off and start a hot, steamy affair with himself, Narcissus did as mythological types were wont to do back in the day and completely overreacted.  He whipped out his hunting knife and killed himself right next to the pond.  Because Narcissus was part nymph himself, his blood droplets became the seeds from which a new kind of flower sprang: the Narcissus, a plant whose blossoms bend down as if to behold their own reflections in a puddle of water or pond below.

You can imagine how poorly Echo handled this unfortunate chain of events.  She ran off through the woods, crying and weeping, which doesn’t seem so bad, but then again, that’s not the worst of it.  Somewhere along the way in her travels, she had managed to catch the eye of the god Pan.  Echo was a little busy running through the woods bawling her eyes out, and wasn’t particularly receptive to Pan’s advances.  Pan doesn’t take rejection well at all, and probably said something along the lines of “I’ll give you something to cry about!“.  So, Pan did what he does best; he started a panic (the word is named for him, after all).  This particular panic whipped up Pan’s shepherd followers into a frenzy.  They caught up with Echo and tore her limb from limb and scattered her pieces around the earth, much like you might find pieces of a Toyota Echo scattered around an auto scrap yard (gotta bring it back to the automotives here and there).  ….So, you know, that sucked for Echo.  But it wasn’t all bad… I mean, it’s pretty bad overall, but at least there was some slight uptick at the end.  It just so happens that the earth is governed by the goddess Gaia, who, unlike Zeus and his awful wife, Hera, is actually a pretty nice god.  Gaia gathered up the pieces of Echo and managed to salvage and restore Echo’s voice so that she can resonate throughout the world as an echo of the sounds of others.

Given all that, you might expect something more grand from this particular Toyota that is the namesake of Echo… or maybe even expect Toyota to pick a name that might bode well for its buyers.  After all, it’s not like Echo led a charmed life.  In fact, the god’s pretty much had it in for her, so the name is kind of a curse if you think about it.  At the very least, you’d think the Echo, from its name and the fact that it was trying to target young car buyers might feature a really slick sound system, at least.  You’d be wrong on all counts.  These cars were not well appointed.  In fact, I’m not even sure a person could buy a Toyota Echo with power windows.  And talk about cheap!  A base MSRP of just over 10 grand?  Just what are they trying to say about Echo?  Well, whatever.  The Echo is no more, having been replaced by the Yaris.  There are still many on the road, but don’t count on them ever becoming a desirable classic.  In that way, they probably do share the same fate as the mythological Echo, in that eventually, they will all likely be torn down, crushed up, and/or shredded in scrap yards, recycled  and reassembled into echoes of their former selves as newer model cars not named after tragic mythological figures.

Tire terror!

Today's blog post was going to feature an interesting vehicle, but the whole thing got sidelined by some asshole who dumped a bunch of used tires in the alley by my driveway, then tossed a couple more on my neighbor across the alley's driveway as well.  Since tires are automotive, we're going to slide this little adventure in as its own post.

Chances are this is the work of some unlicensed, fly by night auto repair business being run by some unsavory "mechanic" whose work is likely less than acceptable, and who probably has a long line of displeased "customers" who can attest to the shitty work he or she does on vehicles... Of course, it could also be the work of a legitimate tire or auto repair business who just doesn't want to pay to have their waste hauled away.  Either way, I wish a pox on the individual who dumped these tires.  This just follows in the not-so-grand tradition that seems to be prevalent here in Northside of foisting ones burden off on somebody else to deal with rather than taking responsibility for one's self.  It's a tired, and shitty tradition whose welcome was worn out a long time ago.

My neighborhood has enough issues without having to deal with crap like this on top of it all.  Just a few days ago, there was a triple shooting just blocks from my house where a 17 year old kid, a pregnant lady, and a toddler were shot (all expected to survive, BTW).  The suspect ran and despite the fact that a search helicopter and K9 cop was brought in to try to track him, he wasn't found.  Compared to the type of garbage that goes around shooting toddlers, used tires don't seem so bad, but having to contend with both or really even either makes me bristle.

What to do if you find your property has been used as a dumping ground for tires in Minneapolis?  Well, you can't just leave them out by the trash because regular garbage pick up wont haul them away.  Here's how you handle it.  Call Minneapolis 311.  They'll put you in touch with the transfer station who can give you a free voucher to bring the waste there yourself and have them dispose of it (proper like, you know, not just dumping it in somebody's driveway -though I promise you, if I knew who dumped these tires, I'd track down their address and pile them high on that person's front stoop).

You'll have to load up the tires yourself.  I know from experience that my Mustang can only haul 4 tires total from when I have my snow tires swapped in for my summer tires, so I borrowed a sedan to fit all 6.  I gathered the ones that had been foisted on my neighbor across the alley because they're nice people who have an adorable little 2-3 year old girl,  and are probably worried enough about their neighborhood in the wake of the toddler shooting a couple days ago that they don't need to have to deal with this crap on top of it all.

Away to the transfer station you go.  It's down in 3rd precinct just off Hiawatha.

In through the weigh station we go.

Drive through this building and around the corner.

Behold, the dedicated tire dumpster.

Time to unload the tires.

Once that's done, we leave.  Adios, tires.

The drive home can be spent cursing and berating the inconsiderate jackass who dumped the tires and made you have to spend about an hour of your day dealing with their mess.

Hyundai Veloster: a car at the forefront of quirky automotive appeal.

For today, I thought we’d look at something all shiny and new… and also matte and new.  Besides, it's time to show some love for Hyundai.... after all, they did give me my iPad, which I use pretty much everyday, besides which, they deserve it, the way they've transformed their line to have real appeal.  ..And because I’ve skipped some days of blogging with my extended weekend, I’ll pull up three specimens to look at.  Say hello to the quirky Hyundai Veloster.

This first one is a run of the mill Veloster I spotted at the grocery store parking lot.  Before we delve into the differences in Veloster models, let’s talk a bit about the car as a whole.  I’m afraid that I am a bit on the older end of the buyer demographic that Hyundai was shooting for with the Veloster.  This car is the first product to roll out of Hyundai’s “Premium Youth Lab” program.  It’s a kind of sub-brand that sets its sights on the young generation of drivers/buyers.  Hyundai figures that young buyers will find the 3 door plus hatchback configuration charming and interesting, and they may be right.  I find it so, but I’m nearly five years past the end of my twenties, so who knows what the young whippersnappers think of it.

Gone now is the Hyundai Tiburon, which used to compete with the Toyota Celica (gone too, since 2006 or so).  The Tiburon was removed from the lineup in 2008, with the Genesis Coupe replacing it.  The Genesis coupe was meant to fill the Tiburon void and stretch also to compete with baby 6 cylinder Mustangs, though I really don’t see a lot of cross over between those buyers.  So, where they replaced one car with another, they managed to leave a void that needed to be filled with a second vehicle to get the young buyers that Hyundai wanted flocking to its showrooms.  Enter the Veloster with its asymmetrically configured doors (2 on the passenger side and one on the driver’s side with a hatch in back to round things out nice and even).

True to its target market’s preferences, a Veloster can be ordered absolutely dripping with technology.  Hyundai has their own version of OnStar, the in vehicle telematics system that offers crash notification, diagnostics, and remote control of the vehicle, called BlueLink.  A base Veloster carries a starting price of $17,600, with the next trim step up to the Veloster “Re:Mix” starting at $20,050.  That upgrade gets you a body kit, fog lights, “Re:Mix” badges, 18” alloy wheels, proximity key entry, driver’s side auto-up power window, a 450 watt sound system, leather wrapped steering wheel, and Re:Mix floor mats that the base Veloster doesn‘t offer standard.   For an extra $2,500, Hyundai will give buyers the “ultimate” package, which features all the goodies you can get for the interior of the car plus a panoramic roof, backup sensors, automatic headlights, a 115V outlet, and nav system with reverse camera.  I’d recommend this package if for no other reason than to get those reverse sensors.  Look at how high the belt line is on this car and how small the rear glass is.  You’ll need those sensors and that reverse camera to keep from backing over kids or small creatures.  They really ought to just be standard for at least as long as aesthetics dictate stylistic inclusion of high belt lines and chopped down glass in automobiles.  Of course, there are also options for Bluetooth and Navigation along with Sirius satellite enabled stereo arrays… But check out this gleaming little beast.

This Veloster was at the auto show this year, and while it’s exterior styling may be the most noticeable thing about it (that’s a vinyl cling wrap, not paint, by the way), what it’s got going on inside is pretty cool too.  This one had a custom in-dash mounted iPad, custom speakers and sound system, and a DJ station along with Macbook pro operating software that pops up out of the back.  All accented with white  and orange illumination effects to go with the orange stitching and orange brake calipers.  Well, it’s a show car, clearly, but it’s not such a stretch from the ever evolving technologies that are more and more becoming integrated with automobiles.

You may notice a difference in the front fascia of the yellow Veloster as opposed to the shiny chrome one.  That’s because the yellow Veloster is the Re:Mix model.  It, like the base model, comes with a 1.6L 4 cylinder engine that’s good for 138 HP and should net high 20’s MPG in the city and high 30’s on the highway.  The shiny chrome vinyl wrapped Veloster is a turbo variant that uses that same 1.6L 4 cylinder along with a twin scroll turbocharger to give you 201 HP and mid 20s MPG for city driving along with mid to low 30’s for highway at a starting price of $22,100.  I prefer both the looks and performance of the Turbo, so if I was shopping Velosters, that’s what I’d choose…though I don’t know if you can get the Chrome vinyl wrap from the factory. I’d still like it.  Besides, look how shiny!!!

Oooooh!

Aaaaah!

Of course, what you’ve probably seen every now and then out on the roads is one of these little Velosters with a Matte paint job.  I think these are fantastic, and can be ordered with this paint from the factory.  My Hypothetical Veloster would definitely have the Matte paint, even though upkeep of matte paint jobs is more difficult than gloss, and even at the $1,000 premium over regular paint.  Then again, Hyundai’s website does indicate that it charges an extra $200 for a color called “Elite White” that, near as I can tell, is just plain old white.  Since when is it cool to pay extra so your car can look like a fleet vehicle?  To each their own, I guess.

Hyundai’s website is fun to play around with, and I used it to build my own hypothetical Veloster turbo with Matte paint at a cost of $24,145 when I finished picking options I wanted.  Not too bad for a brand new little car that’s just brimming with quirkiness and personality.  It may be a bit compromised on practicality, but it makes up for it with charisma.  I give the Veloster turbo an enthusiastic thumbs up.

Big Ol' Galoot on 6 wheels: The Monroe Upfitted GMC Topkick

It’s been a busy week, and I’ve neglected my blog a bit.  I missed a post earlier in the week and did a headlight restoration workshop to make up for it.  Then I went and missed another post right afterward!  To make up for that, I’m presenting a vehicle big enough to fill its spot AND the parking space left bare by the vehicle that was missing from yesterday.

As I was driving along the parkway, taking the scenic route to my sister’s abode, a looming form caught my eye.  I immediately set my course for it and turned into the Wirth Chalet parking lot for the Theo Wirth Golf course to gain a closer view of the mountain on wheels that had erupted from the lot’s automotive topography of luxury sedans and sporty toys.  Imposing isn't the word for the towering four-wheeled thing I found.  This hulking vehicle that cast its shadow over the lot was tremendously intimidating, and, considering that it was being used to tote a golf bag or two to the Chalet; ridiculously over-sized.

This Elephantine personal vehicle we see today is, by my estimation, a Monroe Truck Equipment upfitted GMC Topkick.  I say it’s an estimation, because that’s what the thing looks like to me, but since it is devoid of any badges, I don’t have confirmation on that beyond what my own eyes can recognize.

The GMC Topkick is the mechanical twin to the Chevy Kodiak.  Both are medium duty commercial trucks that are more often seen being used as dump trucks or shuttle buses. The president’s car, Cadillac One, uses a Kodiak/Topkick as the basis on which it exists as an armored Cadillac limousine, which is a pretty high rise in prestige for a vehicle that was designed for dump truck duty, if you think about it.  A similar Ford offering, the F-550 is the basis of the law enforcement darling, the Lenco Bearcat that was discussed in an earlier post, so a Topkick or Kodiak would have also been a suitable armored tactical vehicle if somebody wanted to base such a creation on its chassis.

Today’s Topkick is being used as somebody’s personal luxury monster truck.  It’s a dually rig that belongs on a construction site that’s been outfitted with luxury accommodations and typically, completely ridiculous entertainment systems.  This is a trend that became popular in the early and mid 2000’s, when the Hummer H2 was new and hot.  Because there are still plenty of folks who ascribe to the notion of “bigger is always better”, even a mammoth like the H2 didn’t quite fill the niche that apparently existed.  If you want to know who’s responsible for this commercial grade personal dump truck turned luxury big-rig fiasco, you can blame International.  In 2005, International introduced their RXT (Recreatoinal Extreme Truck) at the Chicago Auto Show.  It looks pretty similar to our Topkick here, and came with a 360 cu. in. diesel V8 with 300 HP, and a 40 gallon fuel tank.  The following year, Chevy followed suit and showed a Kodiak C4500 designed and outfitted with luxo accommodations to compete with the RXT.    

Monroe Truck Equipment in Monroe, Wisconsin took these commercial trucks, the Kodiak and the Topkick, and customized them into flashy, gargantuan luxury vehicles.  They add things like leather seating, metal or faux wood appliqué accenting the interior, air bladder suspensions to the LaZboy-like seats, entertainment systems, and dual exhaust stacks like a big rig truck would have  Buyers could chose between the 6.6L turbo diesel with 300 HP and 520 lb-ft of torque, or the 8.1L gas V8 with 325HP and 450 lb ft of torque.  Regardless  of which power plant is chosen, top speed is 75MPH thanks to limitations set in the vehicle‘s computer to keep the behemoth from becoming the automotive equivalent of a bull in a china shop on the roadways… All starting at $70,000 on up to over $100,000 depending on what stuff you had done to it.  The Topkick can be outfitted to accommodate several legit uses for its capability, offering packages like the  5th wheel trailer upfit, a horse trailer upfit, racing trailer upfitting, goosneck trailer upfit, and a boat trailer upfit.

Of course, today’s car wasn't doing any hard work to justify its use when I found it.  It was sitting and resting in the parking lot after performing a task that an itty bitty electric golf cart could have handled: hauling golf clubs.  I’ll be fair and admit that I have no idea how big or how many golf clubs this walloping whale on wheel’s owner totes around with him or her, though something tells me that the golf set won’t even come close to maxing out the 5,500 lb capacity for the truck box, or the 6,500 lb towing capacity.  At just over 22 feet long, almost 8 feet wide, 8 feet tall, and weighing in at 11,300 lbs, you can understand why reviewers of this truck only managed to squeeze out around 7 MPG on their test runs.  I feel guilty enough sometimes knowing that I drive a V8, and to atone, I’ll ride my bike when the weather and time permits, but I cannot imagine what type of environmental karma the driver of this Topkick has racked up over the years.

Speaking of years, it’s worth noting that the Chevy Kodiak and the GMC Topkick ceased production in 2009, so Monroe can‘t offer them new anymore.  Still, there are plenty left in the world.  If you want one, count on paying around $40,000 or so for a used one.  They obviously don’t go up in value, but the capability and utility that the vehicle can offer is of value to buyers who may have an eye for putting a vehicle like this to work rather than rumbling the streets of the suburbs with it, so it has dual appeal to folks who want to be seen in a lumbering giant of a vehicle and to people who actually have work to do with it to go along with those dual rear wheels.  The Topkick will always maintain some value on that basis long after it‘s no longer cool to be seen driving one.

Topkicks like today’s luxury personal big rig are the type of vehicle owned by somebody wanting to make a statement, and that statement is probably something along the lines of “up yours, mother nature!”  In this day and age of hybrids, and performance that outpaces displacement (cubic inches) via turbos and superchargers and manages to pull down decent MPGs while whipping up a storm of road dust and tire smoke, a rig like the luxury truck Topkick doesn’t really seem so great anymore.

While it’s probably fun for a little while to drive a truck that has you looking down on everybody around you -even folks in huge SUVs like the Hummer H2, it would seem that once the novelty wears off, one might find it embarrassing to be making such a gas guzzling, road-hogging spectacle of one’s self behind the wheel of this type of vehicle.  I don’t know who owns this one, but it’s the type of vehicle that I associate with professional athletes who come into millions of dollars when they’re quite young and start buying toys like this because they can, not because they’ve actually thought it through very much.  I’m sure this vehicle can accommodate big, tall people, but for God’s sake! You’re driving a luxury dump truck to go golfing!

That said, I wouldn’t turn down a ride or a drive in one.  Back when I was in the car biz, the dealership I worked for did a fair amount of buying, building and selling vehicles that were essentially high powered toys like Saleen Mustangs, souped up coupes, Cobras, the Ford GT, and a slew of big luxury sedans including a Maybach back when they were flaming hot as an alternative to big Benzes.  On the less speed oriented and luxury oriented end of the spectrum, we had a lot of lift trucks on our lot that we built via a customizing firm that we contracted with.  These were typically F-250-350’s, though we went through a few F-150 lifts, too.  They were huge, barely street legal, and usually decked out with custom paint jobs and very expensive wheels and tires.  These trucks were like beacons, summoning people into the lot to gawk at them.  Though they rode very rough with those jacked up suspensions, they were a blast to drive up until you had to refill the gas tank.  I can guarantee you that the one thing I NEVER heard fall from the lips of a lift truck owner or buyer was the following: “This rig will work great for toting my golf clubs!”

So, while it was a treat to see the Wirth Chalet Topkick that day, I can’t approve of owning such a thing these days unless there is actually a necessity for towing or hauling stuff with it.  Then again, I doubt the owner of this truck cares much about my approval, or anybody else’s for that matter.  After all, this thing could squash my Mustang like a bug and drive the rest of the way home from the country club without even noticing the remnants of flattened Mustang dangling from its mud flaps.          

Corrective Procedure for Automotive Cataracts

I was rather busy yesterday and didn't get around to posting on the blog.  To make up for it today, I've got yet another of my budget car care tutorials for ya’.  You might recall the last time I did one of these, it was a matter of changing brake pads and then spiffing up the factory calipers with a bit of cherry red caliper paint.  Much in the same way that our do it yourself brake job tutorial filled both functional and aesthetic needs, so does today’s project: Headlight restoration.  It seemed appropriate, particularly following a post that featured the bright-eyed Austin-Healey Sprite.

Just a few months ago, I had LASIK surgery on my eyes, which took me from wearing contact lenses or glasses all the time to none at all.  Think of  head light restoration like LASIK, or actually, since the lenses are really clouded in this case, like cataract surgery.  We're going to improve the car's vision in terms of how well it illuminates things for the driver, and its visuality in terms of how the car looks to people who have to look at its outward appearance.  It's a little bit cosmetic and a little bit corrective, so we get to take down two birds with one stone in this case.

The word of the day is “cheap”, so, with that in mind, I ventured out to the Mecca of cheap tools and assorted stuff known as Harbor Freight Tools (source of about a dozen or more of the right angle grinders I've wrecked over the years with fiberglass work).  This is where you go when you need a tool that you know you’re going to abuse, misuse, wreck, lose, or end up loaning to a friend who’s not apt to return it.  Stuff is cheap and quality so-so, though sometimes, tools from Harbor Freight will surprise you with how long they hold up.  To the automotive section I went.  I found a genuine 3M brand headlight restoration kit for $20, but saw also that I could get the off brand (some brand called CCP) headlight lens repair kit packaged in a plastic baggie rather than slick blister pack like the 3M set (and made in the USA, no less) for $10.  If you remember the word of the day, you can probably guess which one I bought.

$10 is actually overpriced for what you get with these kits.  Basically, it’s a 3” sanding disc plate that attaches to a drill with two abrasive pads (one for each headlight), a little bottle of a mildly abrasive polishing gel, a buffing pad, and a folded up piece of paper with instructions on one side of it.  Part by part, these components don’t add up to $10 worth of stuff.  Maybe $3-$4 for the drill disc plate, and 50 cents a piece for the sanding discs and a dollar for the buffing disc plus another dollar for the itty bitty polishing compound bottle and we’re up to $5-6.  I guess they figure their instructions and the plastic baggie make up for the rest.  Oh well…

It just so happens that I have the Original Equipment Manufactured head light enclosures from my old Mustang.  I bought and installed slightly tinted replacement enclosures like what the Mustang Cobras of its time featured, so the original factory enclosures were sitting around in my basement for a few years, just waiting for a project like this to come along, I suppose.  The old lenses were super sandblasted from years of use, and actually were previously sanded down a bit with very mild grit sandpaper about a year ago, but never actually completed.  What you’re seeing as our starting point actually looked a lot worse before.  As you can tell by looking at the picture, the lenses are very cloudy from the scuffs and pitting on the outer plastic surface.  This is no good, because that surface diffuses the light that is supposed to beam through it, making the headlights less effective.  Plus, dull, sandblasted lenses make your car look crappy.  Nothing will make them stand out more than a fresh wash and wax on the car, leaving the vehicle gleaming in the sunlight only to have the overall look ruined by those dull, cloudy headlight lenses.  They need fixing, or they've just gotta go!

I also decided to give our system a spin on an old motorcycle helmet I picked up, because it's one thing to see from the outside what a kit like this can do, but perhaps another thing all together to see out from behind those restored lenses.  The plastic was scuffed and scratched and not very clear, so I figured it couldn't hurt to try this restoration kit out on it.  In fairness, I did use the same pads on this after I had used them on the headlights, so the results may differ from a scenario where fresh sanding pads are used.

Down to business.  First, gather up your drill and attach the disc plate.

You’ll also need a spray bottle of water to mist the surface with as you work.

Now we start grinding away on our headlights.  The instructions say to do this for a solid 3 minutes on each lens.  I didn't time it, but I think I met that requirement.

After stage 1 sanding is done on the first headlight, you can see a bit of a difference between it and the thus far untouched headlight enclosure (the sanded one is on the bottom and the unsanded one is on the top).

It helps if you have a vice you can set up in your work area to hold this stuff still while you work with it.  Also, try to do this in an area where you can clean up easily afterward, because that sanding disc is going to fling stuff everywhere.  So now, we buff with the foam buffing pad and the polishing gel.

Now both lenses have been done, and the helmet as well.  I don’t think they look as good as I’d like them to, though, and decide to add my own next step.

I happened to have some rubbing compound sitting around and tried it out on the helmet.

Then I applied rubbing compound to the headlight lenses, too.  I just used the buffing pad that came with my kit to work it in.

Here’s the difference.  The bottom headlight was buffed with rubbing compound in addition to the stuff from the kit. The top headlight is just the finish that the kit leaves us with.

Now, they've both been gone over with the rubbing compound and a foam buffer pad on the drill plate.

Here’s the helmet at the best stage I could work it up to with what I had.  For helmets, I would recommend either replacing the faceplate lens or buying a better and perhaps more expensive kit than the one I used, because I still found the view to be quite cloudy from behind the lens.

And here’s a side by side of what we started with vs. what we ended with.  I think it's a significant improvement, though certainly not perfect.  For $10, it's not bad.  I can't help but wonder if the 3M kit would have been better.  Because I don't have the car that these lenses go with any longer, $10 is about all I am willing to spend on it, though.

 Hey, if anybody wants these OEM headlight enclosures (they should fit 1999-2004 Mustangs), drop me a message.  I'll part with them for $25 each or $40 for both plus shipping if you're not in the MPLS area to pick them up.

Bug-eye Sprite

Today’s car is a friendly little spirit that seems to smile and say hi every time it’s looked at.  Say hello to the first generation Austin Healey Sprite.  These particular Sprites were sold from 1958-1961 and their bright-eyed headlight array translated into the nickname of “Bug-eye Sprite” in the US, or “Frog-eye” in the UK.  Originally, designers intended to have the headlamps recline down when not in use, but cost got in the way, and good thing, too, because the look of these little cars is iconic.  As an added bonus, it happens to be one of the cars featured in my auction score vintage foreign car collision book!

Sprites were made at the same factory where MGs were made, and eventually, MG got in on the game and made their own version of the Sprite called the Midget.  The term is not pejorative when applied to automobiles, as they do not prefer to be called “little cars”… And besides; the Sprite and the Midget were vehicles whose buyers reveled in the diminutive size of these featherweight little rockets on wheels.

A 1960 Austin Healey Bug-eye Sprite featured a 943cc (not even one Liter) inline 4 cylinder engine that generated 43 HP and 52 lb-ft of torque.  That doesn’t seem like much -and certainly, if these cars were still being made today, that HP could easily be doubled or even tripled without adding an engine that’s too much larger than the 943cc 4 banger it‘s got.  Then again, considering that a 1960 Sprite was only around 11 ½ feet long, 4’5” wide, a little under 4’ tall, and weighed in at 1,477 lbs, one didn’t really need a lot of power to fling this car around.

Later generations of the Sprite, the Mk II, III, and IV featured far less adorable styling, but did get power increases via new carburetors and eventually new engines, maxing out at the 1966-1971 Mk IV that featured a 1.3L inline 4 cylinder with 65HP.  They also got disc brakes in front, whereas the Bug-eyes were stuck with drums all around. That’s not surprising though, when one considers that the Sprite was dreamt up to be an inexpensive little toy for motor enthusiasts to whip around with at their leisure -in other words, good, cheap fun.  Of course there were going to be cost saving measures in its production.

The entire front of the car’s body, the hood, front fascia, and fenders are all separate pieces that are joined together to make one piece that flips up for access to the engine compartment.  It’s nice in terms of how easy it is to access stuff once the hood is up, but heaven forbid you get in an accident and need to replace it.  It’s essentially 4 body panels in one, so gaps between panels that might otherwise spare one body panel from feeling the brunt of a force exerted on another have been instead fitted and seamed together to pass on that impact.  This means it’s more likely that you’ll have to order more than one body panel for repairs in an accident where the damage might have otherwise been isolated to just a fender or the lower valance.

Wanna know how much it would cost today to order those parts from Victoria British  (supplier of many a replacement part on my own MG)?  The front lower valance (the chin under the smiley grille) costs $389.95.  The front fender pieces are $529.95 for each side.  Apparently, neither Victoria British nor Moss Motors wants to sell you a hood (bonnet), and actually, nobody I found online had one for sale either.  Which brings us to a decent, lightweight, and rust free option: fiberglass.  You can buy an entire front end: hood, fenders, and valance built all in one piece and constructed of fiberglass for $630-$645 plus shipping on a website for Perform Resources, or you could buy a fiberglass bonnet from a company called Speedwell Engineering for $1,495 with a “crafting fee” of $100, and a freight fee of $300.  I’m leaning toward the first one with my hypothetical Sprite.  How about you?

Lest we forget the back end of the Sprite, which I sadly do not have pictures of for you, let’s talk about the trunk (boot).  Um, well, there kind of isn’t one… at least not one that’s easy to access.  There is, however, a cavernous region located behind the driver and passenger seats where you can shove stuff and hope that you’ll be able to retrieve it later, so it kind of counts.  All in the name of cost savings, I suppose.  If I was a buyer for a Sprite back in 1960 or so, I probably wouldn’t mind paying a few bucks more to get a trunk lid.

So, what do to if you find that you have been sucked in by the Sprite’s charisma and charm?  Well you can buy one.  My July issue of Hemmings that I grabbed off the desk doesn’t seem to have any listed.  Online, Hemmings has a listing for a 1959 that runs and looks good for $7,500.  There’s another little red 1960 Bug-eye for sale right here in Minneapolis for $9,750.  There’s a real fixer upper looking vintage racer Sprite listed for $6,000 (I don’t think they’re going to get that for it unless somebody famous raced that particular car and the seller can prove it), and a few others ranging from $8,000-$12,500.  There’s also some guy who claims to have the best Bug-eye Sprite on the market who’s asking $22,500 due to how much money he sunk into restoring it and keeping all the parts original -good luck with that, guy.  A search of completed listings on my Ebay Motors App shows four Bug-eyes that sold for $10,450, $4,995, $16,500, and $8,500.  It really varies, I suppose.  Of course, there was a story on the news a short while ago about a toddler who was playing with her dad’s smart phone and inadvertently purchased a fixer-upper Austin Healey Sprite (though it wasn’t a Bug-eye) for something like $225.  Who knew these cars made such good baby toys?  The news story indicated that the little girl’s father did follow through and pay for his kid’s eBay pick, and plans on restoring the little Sprite in time for his kid’s 16th birthday.  He’s probably just relieved that his daughter doesn’t have more expensive taste in project cars, or he may have had to dish out the cash for a Ferrari or something.  That Sprite will be a nice treat for her when she gets her license, though.  Hopefully, she‘ll get in on the restoration so we end up with one more gear-head gal in the world.      

The Obscure Dodge Mirada

It’s not often that I come across a vehicle I can’t name.  A few days ago I spotted this Dodge parked along a street in Iowa, but I couldn’t identify the model.  Naturally, I pulled over and got out of my own car to ogle.

Turns out, this is a Dodge Mirada.  Part of the reason I couldn’t identify it was because the Mirada was only made from the time I was two years old to the time I was five, 1980-1983.  It was the smaller replacement of a model called the Dodge Magnum (not to be confused with the Magnum wagon from the mid and late 2000’s.  It shared its platform with a car called the Chrysler Cordoba, and according to a reader who was kind enough to let me know I had some info wrong on this vehicle, was based on the Dodge Aspen/Plymouth Volare chassis -thanks for that input, astute reader -I'm not a car expert, but I do like to have my info as close to right as I can have it.  For a brief span when I was in high school, my brother had a brown Cordoba 2 door.  The Cordoba had no redeeming qualities as far as I’m concerned, but the one my brother had was in good shape for its age, so perhaps that could count.  It was misery to drive and be seen in that vehicle, and I was relieved when we sold it.  Despite the relation to the Cordoba, the Mirada is a car that I don’t mind looking at.  It’s not particularly beautiful or by any means great, but next to its sibling, the Cordoba, it practically gleams.

The Mirada, like the Chevy Monte Carlo, the Mercury Cougar, and the Buick Riviera, was a personal luxury car, the popularity of which waxes and wanes every other decade or so, which accounts for when automakers bring back and take away these name plates.  The Mirada name has not been brought back ever, and is relegated to just the one short span of years.

There were 3 trim levels that a Mirada could be had in: Base, “S” with remote adjustable mirrors, side stripes, and bucket seats, and the CMX which featured a vinyl fake convertible top (not just some landau top -which was available) that was actually designed to look like a convertible top -which it was not.  What we have to look at today is a CMX.

There were 3 power plant options available: the 3.7L slant 6 engine with 90HP and 160 lb ft of torque, a 5.2L V8 with 150HP and 240 lb ft of torque, and a 5.9L V8 with 185HP and 275 lb ft of torque.  A Mirada buyer would opt for a “sport handling” package that had a firmer ride, heavier anti roll bars, and wider wheels.   The base price for a Mirada was around $6,300, and adding a V8 would up the cost by only $230.  You could also get some slick options like a factory installed 40 channel CB radio, an 8 track tape player, or the cutting edge of car stereos for 1980, the tape cassette deck.  Sound quality wouldn’t have been too bad, either, because one of the things Dodge did to try to make their Mirada appealing to personal luxury car buyers was to line the vehicle with extra sound proofing so that nothing would interfere with its occupant’s tunes cranking out of the 8 track.

Miradas have the potential to be somewhat collectible based on their obscurity, though don’t count on them to ever be worth a fortune.  If you decide you want one, look for a solid, rust free example, and don’t pay for than a few grand for it when you find it.  The one we see here today isn’t in the best shape, but it doesn’t look like it has rust problems either (rare for a 30+ year old car in the Midwest).  If this car was offered for sale in solid running condition in small town Iowa where I found it, I’d say a fair price would be around $3,000.

Focus your attention on the SVT Focus

Those of you who read yesterday’s post about the Pontiac Solstice will know that I started off with a roadster and ended up singing the praises of the coupe even though I didn't have one to show you.  Well, lookey here at what I found!

For some reason, I thought the one I’d seen by the police station was blue when in fact, it’s silver -a brain fart on my part, evidently.  I’m probably on some kind of watch list now for being seen pulling into the police station parking lot to take photos of cars, so I hope you find this sighting of a Solstice GPX coupe worth it.

As discussed yesterday, the Solstice GPX has a supercharged 2.0L 4 cylinder engine with an impressive amount of horsepower per cubic inch of displacement.  Today’s featured car also has a 2.0L 4 cylinder under its hood.  It’s not quite the little terror on wheels that the Solstice GPX is, but I wouldn't have any qualms about driving it, anyway.  I present to you, a 2004 Ford Focus SVT that I spotted at a Ford dealership the other week.

I’ll try not to go off on a tangent here, but longtime readers may recall a post where I gushed over the brand new Focus ST with its 252 HP turbocharged 2.0L 4 cylinder, 6 speed manual transmission, and racing seats that had an MSRP of $27,000, wherein I was briefly distracted talking about how much German tourists love lift trucks (somewhat street legal monster trucks, and Oh, yes, German tourists do love them!) and stalled out said Focus ST while driving it.  They may also recall a post that was supposed to be about a Mercedes C230 Kompressor that had me digressing to include a Saleen n2o (Saleen’s nitrous-infused, 225 HP version of the Focus).  Well, if you don’t have the moo-lah to pony up for a brand new Focus ST, and you don’t have the time to track down the rare Saleen n2o Focus, but you want a hot hatch Ford, the Focus SVT is your car…. Just not this one -it’s overpriced at $9,788.


Here is a new Focus ST from the car show for you to see.

Back to the car at hand...

Today’s Focus SVT is a 2004 model (nearly 10 years old) with 94,000 miles on its odometer.  The asking price of nearly $10,000 is, in my opinion, unrealistic, considering the dealership probably owns it for between $3,500-$4,500 -unless they had to give way too much trade in allowance on it to make the deal work out for whatever this was traded in for.  Still, like the overpriced base model Solstice roadster from yesterday, that’s not the buyer’s problem until they end up overpaying for the darn thing.  A more realistic price on this Focus SVT with this kind of mileage would be around $6,500 or so to start, and even then I’d recommend haggling it down a bit.

I’m pretty sure I've written previously about Ford’s Special Vehicle Team (SVT), probably in a post I wrote about the Ford Contour now that I think about it.  Anyway, the SVT is a great program for squeezing performance out of the Ford lineup of vehicles.  In 2004, they put the squeeze on the Focus.  A stock 2004 Ford Focus ZX3 (the designation for the 2 door hatchback) featured a 2.0L 4 cylinder that produced 130HP.  That was plenty for propelling a little car like that around.  But where’s the fun in putt-putting around unless you can tear up the roadway, and rack up a few speeding tickets while you’re at it?  Am I right?  With that goal in mind, the SVT enhanced the little car’s handling with improved independent front and rear suspensions that included MacPherson struts and a 22mm stabilizer bar in front, and a 21mm stabilizer bar in back.  They tuned up that 2.0L to make 170 HP, and, realizing that eventually every driver would need to slow down, enhanced the braking system with the addition of discs all around instead of just at the front.  They also replaced the stock front discs with vented disc brakes to dissipate more heat and cut back on brake fading.  For 2004, this was an impressive little set up.  There’s no turbo charging or Nitrous boost like in the ST or the Saleen n2o, but in a little hatch like this, you can find plenty of trouble to get into with 170 HP.

The current US market doesn't even have a 2 door hatchback version of the Focus available (though you can get them in Europe), so we’re not totally comparing apples to apples here because those extra doors on the new Focus ST do cost money that needs to be factored into the MSRP.

So, we already know that a new ST carries a sticker price of around $27,000 for a loaded up model like the one I drove, but the bottom line starting MSRP is $24,115, according to Ford’s website.  In 2004, the SVT Focus ZX3 had a base price of just a hair under $18,000.  That evens out to be a $679.44 increase for each of the 9 years between the 2004 performance Focus offering and the present day’s performance Focus.  Factor out maybe $100 from each of those steps to account for the difference between a 2 door + hatch ZX3 and the 4 door ST, and we’re still at $579.44.  In other words, the cost of a performance-tuned Focus has gone up by about a third since 2004.  Of course, one could also say that the price of a Focus SVT has gone down by 46% since it was new if we’re going based on the inflated asking price of this used one.  Better yet if we go with a more realistic asking price of $6,500, which would mean the price dropped by about 64%.  Nice when we can make depreciation work to our advantage, eh?

Clearly, performance Focii (is that right?  I never know if it‘s appropriate to pluralize a car name like that, nor am I sure that‘s even the correct pluralization of the word Focus -oh well.) don’t hold onto their resale value the way that a Solstice GPX, and certainly the GPX coupe do.  This is due in large part to the fact that there are plenty to be had, and Ford is still making them.  Besides, the rule of thumb with cars that have the potential to be classics or collectible is this: the more impractical a car’s design is in terms of accommodating passengers and their stuff, the more valuable it tends to get as time wears on (you may have noticed that the coupe and convertible versions of older cars tend to be the ones that collectors seek out and pay top dollar for).  The Solstice can seat two, and the Solstice Coupe can seat 2 but lacks storage space for its own removable hard top panel, making it the picture of impracticality.  A Focus -even the ZX3, can seat 4 adults (5 if you really pack ’em into the back seat) and have room for hauling around your luggage.  Funny how that works out, don’t you think?