Mowgli1647545497

Living with mine since buying it new in 05. Its my Daily Driver and only car (wife has a Saab and I have two bikes for playtime).

I love mine - this is the longest I've owned a new car ever. I am nearing the end of my ownership, but right now its more about getting my contracts and income recovered more than replacing my car. With that said here's my list of caveats/observations:

--------

I know there have been reported problems with the rear diff, but its hit and miss: mine has been launched VERY hard many times in its life and still lived to tell the tale. I did have to replace a seal on it under warranty though.

At about 80k miles it developed a vibration in the engine. Harmonic balancer I suspect, its not bad enough for me to take it in but I will soon.

Tremec T56 is still bullet proof. Still a piece of shit to shift. I've had two cars with this tranny in it (previous car was a 03 Cobra) and I still hate it/love it.

It exibits some driveline vibration at 85+mph. Nothing you can feel in the car but you see it in the mirror. Just like about every other high hp american car with IRS it seems like...

Wheel hop is a real issue. I wouldn't recommend doing alot of hard launches, because aside from the diff, the halfshafts aren't what they should be (example being the 31 spline halfshafts in the 03-04 Cobras).

The navigation sucks. Use your iphone/android.

The sound system ROCKS. Even if the equalizer options are crappy "treble-mid-bass"

MPG I average about 17-18 with very spirited driving. I can get 26-28mpg on highway if I let the cruise control drive it at about 70-80mph.

Seats are comfy but not enough lateral support. Also the under-leg support isn't long enough, I'd like it a little longer (I am 6' with a 32" inseam).

Cars DIDNT come stock with a spare tire. They shipped with Goodyear Eagle runflats. MAke sure you look into that when you buy used. There is a well for a spare under the trunk floor.

Trunk lift arms wear out about 5years. Just like the rest of GM lift arms. Crappy parts bin GM engineering showing thru. Some things about the car are Cadillac Halo approach benefit, some are GM parts bin crap.

The LS6 is a great engine. But forget upgrading it without spending big $$$

The Chrome L on my chrome "LS6" badging under teh hood on the crossbar support mysteriously disappeared on mine.

The side and rear V badges can fade over time - espexially the red portions, but they're easy to replace: hair dryer, fishing line, etc...

With the right tires the car turns and handles FANTASTIC. You WILL surprise and embarrass most other cars out there, including imports (Ms, AMGs, etc) easily thru model 2011. It took them 7 years to catch up and even now I can spank brand new Ms with drivers that don't know what they're doing. Torque wins every time. Nobody expects this car to handle. Lots of crow to serve people. Easy to show them first hand why this car set the world record lap times for production sedans around the Nurburgring. German drivers HATE that...

The tire pressure indicator on the dash will NEVER show 34psi. Its a software glitch. It will skip from 33psi to 35psi.

You CAN watch DVD movies on the dash screen with the DVD player, read up on the Caddy forums for how. I did but forgot how because I just dont bother with it.

The VERY first mod you should do is to plug in the little skip shift bypass (its just a big fat honking resistor you plug into the tranny harness). The second mod should be a CAI. The stock intake is not good.

Thats it - if you have any specific questions hit me up.

http://i.imgur.com/DPDYl.jpg

That's pure win right there.

http://i.imgur.com/xdqFV.gif

In B4 Borgen repost

RIP

Grew up watching him. Sucks. Funny man, smart, a stand-up guy.

Every time we lose one of these decent ones the % quotient of douchebags in America just ticks up a little bit more.

You more than likely dropped a few people that posed extremely high risk or had known conditions that drove prices high. They could have passed away, or changed jobs or a number of things.

 

Our insurance went up this year. It has nothing to do with "obamacare". It had to do with the people covered by our policy.

 

A black cat could have crossed your path the day your insurance premiums dropped....

That cat had an equivalent bearing to your new rates as this bill did...... Absolutely none

Dropped no-one. Added a few. Switched from Aetna to United. Three month effort-intensive, highly involved process. That we do the same every year. Alot of conversations with carriers and plan reps. We know exactly what is driving them because they tell us. There was no fluke or statistical outliers occurring.

Add to that that I consult to the CIO Council of the largest insurance company in town and have been in on some of the conversations at the strategy decision making level, and I'm sure of my data.

This bill is absolutely driving rates. Has been for the past 3 years.

--------------

Annnnnd I'm sure the court ruling will drive further rate changes (down and up) as various insurance companies exercise various degrees of kneejerk/strategy.

Insurance rates smell and act just like the relationship of oil futures to barrel price to pump price right now. There's no 1 to 1 in the day to day. But there is trending. There is corporate reaction. There is emotional bad decisions at the board levels. And there are calculated good decisions at the board level. Its all a big chaotic melee.

-------------

IMO we're only halfway there. We put in regulations to force the private industry to cover everyone. As is just and fair and not capitalistically-predatory-chic. Next I think we need a govt option in order to drive the private industry pricepoint.

Because they're sure as fuck not going to do it themselves.

Glad this held up.

Our company: IT (~$10M annual, ~100 employees) has had our healthcare coverage go up for the past five years. Just like a previous poster. The last year was the worst with a 30% increase in premiums and benefits dropping across the board. This is with aggressive annual shopping for new plans every year. didn't matter.

We just did it again this June. Goes into effect July. The result?

Our premiums went DOWN. Way down. Coverage and benefits went UP.

I draw my own conclusions.

----------

As for revolution. By all means overthrow the elected government so we can all be ruled by the modern equivalent of the Feudal System: Multinational Corporations.

The King (president) is dead. Long live the King (billionaires).

Interested in seeing it as well.

Do you own the IP to it? Or is it owned by your company? If you own the IP would you be interested in giving a class elsewhere?

Shoot me a PM.

Meh, at the very least, even if he wasn't a real bully, all true bully's now know what's gonna happen.

Yes. You're going to get slapped by a couple dozen 6yr olds. Wooo, that'll learn em.

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17q9sy7k7efougif/original.gif

This cracked me up.

Since its not LSx or JDM yo

http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/044/778/hatersgonnacat.jpg

Put a 4G63 in er and go 6s

http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/4048/fangse.jpg

Mustang peeps.....nuff said.

I think Colt is saying its not right to say this motor is a poor choice over the 6 bolt.

KerCHOW!!!

http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/4048/fangse.jpg

Yeeahh... I owned a 99 GSX and modded it up while I lived in Philly (sold it to a former member here too when I moved to Ohio in 01) - I consider myself aware of what it takes to build up a 4G. And having owned that beater '79, a 93 GT turd and an 03 Cobra (before I began pumping out kids) I'm also familiar the Fords. how many FoMoCo blocks you built up?

So yeah, I'm gonna stick with "easier ways to make that car FASTER CHEAPER with FoMoCo parts".

(Not saying my backyard swingset built mullet mobile from 30 years ago went faster, but I sure as fuck know a metric asston of Ford blocks that do seeing as unblown they're dipping into the 8s and puffed they're looking at 6s, yeah.)

Dude's just being different. That's fine.

Nothing wrong with being different.

In the 80s while still in highschool I did a swap into a 79 Foxbody fourbanger beater (2.3): Swapped in a Windsor V8 (351) from a 1965 Galaxy 500. Police C6 tranny. All done with hand tools, rental lift from UHaul, and alot of time spent under a swingset (you laugh but swingsets built in the 60s were tough sumbitchs, and yes I hung my engine from it) and several hours with a sledgehammer banging out the tranny well to fit that C6 in...

Left the 2.8 badging on the side. Ultimate sleeper.

lol that thing was so insane and I knew very little about putting together a "whole package". Dang thing had the 4banger's rear end in it (til it grenaded, lol but I had a 9" on deck ) and the original brakes (Which were about the size of teacups up front and DRUMS (yep) in the rear) and zero body stiffening. Damn thing would literally twist the front of the car when you goosed the throttle. Highschool kids are so stupid (we were blissfully ignorant of so much before the interwebz).

...then came college and a sale for beer money.

good memories

(But as to the OT - my beater would have eaten that for lunch (after the 9" went in) - couldn't stop, turn or have any safety in a crash whatsoever, but who cares? It cost me <$1000 and you play EBN OZN in the tape deck, its all good)

Not a bad plan from the guy to grab a cheap 4 cylinder mustang and swap in a reliable platform. I was hoping to see a 3rz with a R154.

Or not. SO many cheaper, easier, proven, more reliable ways to make more power than a 4G63 ever could. The transplant options are endless.

Guy is just being different for the sake of being different. Meh.

hypnotizing

and yet boner inducing

hypnoboner