Dead serious. These conversations happened.

Hyundai has a warranty procedure that is crap. And too often (and I put most of the blame on the sales staff for this) owners assumed since it had this great 10 year warranty, you never had to buy anything to maintain them. Ever.

You know I’m on board. The down payment will be plunked down when my 6MT SH-AWD TL kicks it. However, since that may be a while I’ll get the Sport Hybrid MDX first.

Thank you.

There was more freaky shit. At the time I was a damn good Acura technician. The morning of my accident a tow truck driver came to parts looking for some sensor on the rear beam of an MDX. Our parts guys were having trouble finding it. So they called me over and we all worked it out together. Driver left to go to…

How about the time I got hit by a truck on my motorcycle. My wife was down the street eating lunch. She and her friends saw all the first responders hauling ass down the street from the restaurant. She joked to them, “Oh shit. Somebody’s dead.”

After a few minutes of deep thought, an idea hit me upside the head like a can of ginger ale. Well, I was thinking about your situation and not paying attention to the Canada Dry closing on my skull at subsonic speeds. But alas after the concussion wore off, cracked block.

Just wrapping my head around the odds of that is nuts. It is certainly possible, just improbable on high orders of magnitude.

Sweet mother of the gods, yes. I have driven countless examples of UA6/UA7 models. And while I absolutely love those, blasting a UA9 with 3 pedals is a whole different animal.

As a die hard Acura guy (who’s was a master tech with them for years), I am glad to see this finally come about. We have been looking for something to assist my SH-AWD TL for a while. I may have to come to terms with getting an automatic, but I’ll be okay with that. Can always take the TL if I need a 3 pedal fix.

Spectacular write up! As the owner of 5 sportbikes including 2 Interceptors that required valve bucket adjustments at 16,000 miles, I can get behind everything you said about maintaining your bike yourself. I always wondered about Ducati maintenance; now I know.

Gods no. I wish it was though.

I’m kinda partial to my TL. This winter proved it was a tank.

In the area of Pinellas County, Florida that I worked in, major construction was a way of life. The main highway has been undergoing more than a decade of widening and elevating. We saw so many tires with punctures. And half of them go through the sidewall or close to it where it cannot be repaired.

Oh gods yes. Xzylon and the like. Just a very very expensive wax that does very little, if any at all, protection.

Nope, that was not what I was thinking.

I was referring to the insurance end, not the finance end. In my haste I did not clarify. Also, my stupid self forgot to say that the times I was told it was necessary was for leasing vehicles.

Some makes have unusual maintenance schedules. It all depends on the brand. My primary experience was Japanese imports, mainly Honda and Acura. Those vehicles benefit greatly from frequent fluid changes. But others have extended life fluids. And some of those fluids are expensive. Damn expensive. Hyundai has a ZF…

Are you referring to GAP? That is an essential item. Some states even make it mandatory.

Working fixed operations in dealerships most of my adult life has taught me a few things about financial add-ons. Paint protection? Bullshit. Interior protection? Snake oil. Most third party extended warranties (Sorry, third party “service contracts”)? Hogwash. There are some that could be worth it, though.