2010 Buick LaCrosse CXS Review

2010 Buick LaCrosse CXS

Published at CarReview.com

By Kurt Gensheimer

Blings:

  • Interior silent as a monastery
  • Incredible amount of rear legroom
  • Beautifully crafted inside and out

Dings:

  • Visibility so bad it should come with a Surgeon General warning
  • Torque steer (yes, it’s front-wheel drive)
  • Low rear door clearance devours heads

Ruling: It might be riddled with blind spots, but the new LaCrosse is also riddled with style, performance, luxury and value.

Never before has an automotive brand represented two completely polar opposite demographics as Buick does in the United States and China. In the U.S., the cache of Buick has grown as old and decrepit as it owners, whereas in China, Buick has emerged as the automotive brand representing a thirtysomething’s arrival into the material world. In China, the average Buick owner is a youthful 32. In the U.S.? More than twice as old. Read on…

DeRosa Corum Review

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2010 DeRosa Corum – Steel in the Peloton

Published at RoadBikeReview.com

From the pro peloton to local USCF races, carbon fiber is the material du jour these days. Forks, wheels, components, water bottle cages, headset spacers; they’re all made of carbon. And of course, the frame, the nucleus of every bicycle, is where most of the carbon fiber craze is focused.

But what about good old steel? Is there a place in the modern peloton for the tried and true material which has been manipulated by man since 1300 years before the birth of Christ? Read on…

Cell Phones + Prius = Crash?

Runaway Prius

By Kurt Gensheimer

James Sikes is getting death threat letters. Why? Because he claims his 2008 Prius went completely out of control on a San Diego freeway, hit 95 miles an hour (thankfully the section of freeway was nearly 10 miles of uphill) and could only be slowed down by the aid of a CHP officer.

Many people are now calling Sikes a liar, a prankster, and stunt publicist. Even Toyota has said in euphemistic fashion that Sikes’ story is “inconsistent” with Toyota engineer findings, who tested Sikes’ car repeatedly and could not duplicate the unintended acceleration issue.

So just because Toyota can’t repeat the problem, does this mean Sikes is lying? Read on…

Twitter = Fail - Facebook = Triumph

Twitter_logo copy

As is stated on our homepage, we are late adopters. We always wait a few years for the hype to wear off before adopting a new technology. If after this period of hype, the technology in question has become more ubiquitous, and truly addresses a need which makes cyber communication better, we then decide to give it a try. But there are some technologies – no matter how meteoric the rise in popularity – which are destined for failure.

Take Twitter for instance. From the word go, we have never understood the reason for its existence. Besides having one of the most irritating names in the history of the interweb, spawning rage-inducing verbs like ‘tweet’, the mere existence of Twitter begs the ultimate question that we always ask before undertaking any project; “So What?” Read on…

Hubris

 hubris1

A mud bog + a Land Cruiser + an oversupply of hubris = stuck. But not just any stuck; stuck overnight with my father-in-law.

By Kurt Gensheimer

I should have known better. I should have just turned around. The blocked off entrance to Pine Mountain’s lookout tower was Providence’s way of saying, Not today kid, just pack it up and head home.

But I didn’t take much stock in Providence. Providence didn’t understand the capabilities of a Land Cruiser. Providence couldn’t grasp my driving skill. Providence was nothing more than a city overrun by sailboats, striped polo shirts, Topsiders and tea parties. I didn’t take stock in my father-in-law’s comments either, who was sitting shotgun and sided with Providence. Read on…

On Cyber Spam

spammy

After relaunching the BPP site in WordPress, I’ve been getting comments on my first few Musings. But of course, most are ridiculous spam comments which beg only a one word response – Really?

Really? Is my work ‘wonderfully lucid’ and ‘gratifying’? Are you really ‘thirstily’ awaiting my next post? Or did you just cut and paste an entire generic, adverb-riddled comment for the less than microscopic chance of plugging your make-more-money-at-home dot com spam site? Is English even your first language?

Although annoying, some of these comments are entertaining. I’ve posted a few below. And if you are truly reading this for actual comprehension purposes(doubtful) and intend to post your cyber refuse, I ‘thirstily’ recommend you not waste your time with the CTRL C and V buttons. Instead, take that time and off yourself. ‘Substantially’, your life has become nugatory.
Read on…

2011 BMW Z4 sDrive35is Review - Roadster 2.0

2011 BMW Z4 Roadster

Published at CarReview.com

By Kurt Gensheimer

Blings:

  • Most attractive modern BMW roadster design yet
  • Exhilarating, more powerful twin-turbo inline 6
  • Lightning-fast shifts from the 7-speed dual clutch tranny
  • Retractable hard top delivers best of both motoring worlds

Dings:

  • Too much technology for the inherent simplicity of a roadster
  • Too much weight for the inherent svelteness of a roadster
  • For the price of one Z4, you can buy both a hard and soft top Miata

Ruling: Not quite the ultimate driving machine, but most definitely the ultimate luxury and technology machine which strays from the traditional characteristics of a roadster.

Read on…

Helpless as a Borrego in Mud

Not Happy

What happens when poor male judgment meets the Salton Sea. 

By Kurt Gensheimer

There should be a photograph paired to the word “helpless” in Webster’s Dictionary. It should be a photograph of a man, because only men possess both the lack of good judgment and oversupply of bravado to be caught in the situation I’m about to describe. The image should be of a spotless, chrome-rimmed, street-bound SUV stuck frame rails deep in mud. Below this photograph, it should read “see knucklehead”.

Read on…