Advice and opinions

[O'Dell]

My dad has a corvette and said the corvette forum he is on is FULL of know it all experts. Just them what the best motor oil is.

I belong to the Corvette forum. As you say there is some snipping over there [Not as bad as GlockTalk], but overall there is a lot of good info from knowledgeable members. I'm sure 80%+ would say Mobile One because that's what Chevrolet specifies for the Corvette. I just did an oil change yesterday on my AMG at my Mercedes dealer and that's all they use. Next week the Corvette gets it's annual change and you can bet it will be Mobile One too.

[wyntrout]

Nice car... but then rich movie stars drive nice cars!

How are you doing? It has been a while since we've "chatted".

It's 10:21 PM EDT and we had leftover chicken and some microwave oriental veggies by Birdseye... + the remnants of last nights celebratory French Bordeaux Supérieur and then a new bottle of Bordeaux... the $9.99 a bottle before discounts of 15-20% at Total Wine. I stock up when I get the discount coupons.

I really like Mobil 1 and have used it for 30+ years. My wife's car is over 110,000... 2001 Volvo S40 and my 2005 GMC AWD Savana has only about 68,000 miles. Mobile has several choices for vehicles of varying mileages and I use the best one for each of these two. My van has a computerized oil monitor that tells me when to change oil... usually around 5-6K depending on the type of miles. I hate waiting for it and like knowing that the oil is good for 2-3 times the mileage I generally change it, but $25 to $30 or so for 5 quarts at Wal-Mart makes the oil a really good deal. I shudder to think what a dealer would charge me for that oil.

Once in a while I use Slick 50, too. And for a long time the synthetic version, too. I've been using that stuff for 40+ years. Good oil and filters will keep your cars running for a long time. Good tires, brakes, and batteries help, too.

I put my van in the shop before the last Christmas trip for a checkup and wanted the brakes checked, figuring they surely needed replacement. The service manager and the mechanic called me to the work bay and showed me the brake pads... around 14mm thickness all around! This was with over 10 years and 61K miles. I don't like to use my brakes, but figured they had to be shot by then! I don't think I'll ever need new pads with the replacement thickness at about 3mm.

Wynn

[b4uqzme]

^^^ I just wanna know how he keeps his driveway so clean. Dang!

[O'Dell]

Hey Wyn,

Sounds like you're eating better than me. I met Vickie at the Waffle House and had a BLT and coffee. Rich movie star indeed!

Both the Corvette and Mercedes call for an oil change at 10K or one year, which ever comes first. For me it's always an annual change.

Both cars have about 30K and the pads an rotors are hardly worn on either one. I'm easy on brakes too, watching lights and traffic ahead and coasting down to a stop. It's a habit I picked up driving hybrids for 11 years - never touch the brake pedal unless absolutely necessary.

I've only had the AMG for a few months, but it's a lot of fun to drive. When you take a car the size of a Miata and shoehorn in a 5.5 liter V-8 with 416 HP you get some serious acceleration. Plus it has an upgraded suspension, brakes, cooling, wheels and tires, and transmission over the Mercedes SLK. It's about as fast as a stock Corvette, but not my modified one.

[wyntrout]

HA! I just noticed that there are two different cars. I saw the Corvette in the first one and thought I was seeing AMG in the second one, but just kind of wondered if that was right. Two silver cars, not just one. I really pay attention.

I love my AWD van with lots of space inside, but was a little disappointed to find out that GMC and Chevy dropped the 1500 series and AWD last year, so I won't be able to get another one. Mine ought to be good for another decade or so. It will be 11 years old next month... built in August and I got it in September only a month after I ordered it! I've been thinking about a Mercedes Sprinter Van... with 4WD and standup room. I started building one online and broke $60K, so that's a bit much for us, but maybe I'll get lucky in the lottery again.

Oh, it was the third go at the Costco Rotisserie chicken. I usually strip the carcass for the third meal and make a garlic alfredo penne pasta. I use a bottle of the Bertolli sauce and add about half a cup of chopped garlic to decent olive oil and sauté the garlic before adding the chicken and some more seasoning. Sometimes that turns into two meals... not bad for a $4.99 rotisserie chicken. That's our cheapest meals and easy to prepare.

We usually eat a little fancier stuff and I do all of the cooking.

Wynn

[TD2K]

I love me some Sam's club rotisserie chicken (unfortunately we don't have a costco here in Okrahoma yet). I can't buy a raw chicken and cook it for $5. We get several meals out of it too.

[wyntrout]

We used to buy Wal-Mart rotisserie chickens a long time ago, but they were so full of salt that we gagged on them and got sick of the salt. The Costco ones aren't injected full of salt solution. I don't remember trying the Sam's Club ones.

Yeah, $4.99 for a cooked chicken is hard to beat. I used to buy raw ones... large ones, and stuff them with garlic and butter, salt and pepper and wrap them in heavy duty tinfoil, tented, and cook them in the oven for over 1 1/2 hours... pretty good, but heating up the house a bit with the oven. I like garlic and use a lot of garlic powder, too.

Wynn

[SlowBurn]

Equally good from Sam's BJ's or Costco. Better and cheaper than Wally or supermarkets.

[wyntrout]

I love me some Sam's club rotisserie chicken (unfortunately we don't have a costco here in Okrahoma yet). I can't buy a raw chicken and cook it for $5. We get several meals out of it too.

I guess that you don't have a Total Wine store, either. They're like a Costco or Sam's that sells beer, wine, and liquor... and accessories.

I wait until they send me 15% or sometimes 20% off coupons and then stock up on the $9.99 bottles of Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur... hard to find one of those that I don't like. I have two coolers running and like to keep them full. My first is 27-bottles and the other is 52. I have a third one that I power up when the Beaujolais Nouveau comes out the third Thursday of November. It holds 60 bottles and I fill it up and keep it full until the wine is gone from the stores then we can drink it for a few months.

That's the first wine of the season and it's not bottled for long-term storage and should be drunk before the end of Spring, and certainly before the next batch comes out. It's one of our "traditions" to find as many brands to try and stock up on the ones like.

Two of our favorites and the third cooler, which I got for about $135 out the door on clearance and my 10% off for military at Home Depot.



Our favorites are the two left ones:


These are some pictures from the year I got this third cooler. The wine stores at 55° the best temperature for storage and normal maturation. As the storage temperature rises, the aging rate increases, but not in a good way, and it's not a linear increase, but geometric or logarithmic... not sure which, but at 70° the rate is 5 or so times the rate at 55°... not good. Too much wine is stored in the kitchen and sometimes above the cooking area!

Not all vintage wine can be stored for more than 3-5 years, either. I had to drink up some wine that was 5-7 years old and the vintner's site said 3-5 years. One was bad and one was off a bit, but I "saved" the other few bottles.

I trust Costco and Total Wine to handle and transport their wines correctly... Wal-Mart and some other places... not so much. A truckload of wine sitting out in the heat can be ruined or greatly affect the taste adversely... ruined.

I'm not expert or wine snob, but I wanted to learn how to properly store and age wine... for short terms, anyhow, until I have to get more.

Wynn

[TD2K]

not even close here in the bible belt. grocery stores and convenience stores can only sell 3.2 beer, anything stronger (beer, wine, liquor) requires a liquor store and can't be sold refrigerated. And they close at 9pm weekdays, and closed on sundays, holidays, and election days.

[wyntrout]

Bummer! They had "Blue Laws" when we lived up in Maine(1986-1991), and Abilene, Texas, was dry when I got there in 1974. It took us 3 votes over the years to get that changed... mostly the military vote... but then we could go to restaurants that weren't "clubs" and have adult beverages with our dinner! And... we didn't have to leave the county or city to find a package store. We COULD buy from the base package store, though.

[berettabone]

I love a good burgundy, and yes, Sam's chickens are good.................................get one or two a month..........................with some veggies on the side, you can get a few meals out of them, and if you don't wait too long, some delicious soup.

[b4uqzme]

not even close here in the bible belt. grocery stores and convenience stores can only sell 3.2 beer, anything stronger (beer, wine, liquor) requires a liquor store and can't be sold refrigerated. And they close at 9pm weekdays, and closed on sundays, holidays, and election days.

3.2 beer. I haven't heard that in 30 years. Brings back memories. We have a friend we named 3.2 because he borrowed his older brother's ID so he could buy high beer but came back with 3.2 beer that he was already allowed to buy legally. He illegally bought beer he was legally allowed to purchase. He went on to ace his studies at MIT.

[TD2K]

3.2 beer. I haven't heard that in 30 years. Brings back memories. We have a friend we named 3.2 because he borrowed his older brother's ID so he could buy high beer but came back with 3.2 beer that he was already allowed to buy legally. He illegally bought beer he was legally allowed to purchase. He went on to ace his studies at MIT.

that's hilarious.

I'm not a beer drinker, so I wouldn't notice either. My wine, tequila, and rum have to come from the liquor store, and I better get there before 9!

[Bawanna]

Be careful with the devils kool aid. As I've mentioned before I had a bad experience with a bottle of Annie Greensprings in my youth, thought death was knocking on my door as the bed spun at 78 speed for about 3 days.
The mere smell of fermented grapes makes me throw up a little bit in my mouth.

Not much experience with tequila, don't care for it, I'm sure it's an acquired taste like Scotch or anything else.

I did go through a few truck loads of beer during and after high school, have one now and then now but not often.

I'm a regular choir boy ya know.