joepampelMar 116 min readThe A5 hits 90,000miBack in the fall of 2013 my VW Jetta lease was ending and my fancy consulting job gave me a stipend to pay for a nice car. I went looking...
joepampelMay 31, 20248 min readMy "evil girlfriend" (a car story)I was in an abusive relationship. I bought a 1997 M3 5-sp 4-door sedan via the CPO program from BMW. It had about 30,000 miles on it but...
joepampelMar 27, 20243 min readLife with a Quick JackI knew I would be working on the 911 quite a bit when I bought it, so I ordered an inexpensive home "lift" to help facilitate the work....
joepampelAug 29, 20235 min readSuper car cleaning for the super lazy"I hate buffing out wax, it's too much work". If you like a shiny car, and this is you, try this quick & easy approach. When my new old...
joepampelMay 22, 20232 min readPaint your tired looking wheels!One of the first things I did after I bought the car was clean it and then buff out the paint. I also replaced broken or cloudy lenses on...
joepampelFeb 1, 20232 min readUsed Oil Analysis (UOA) ResultsWith an older car it just seems to make a lot of sense to send out a used oil sample and see what is going on inside the engine. This...
joepampelJan 22, 20236 min readWhy do you use snow tires?My old 1997 M3 4dr enjoying a blast through the snow. Proper snows and a limited slip differential made this fun rather than scary. Our...
joepampelDec 28, 202211 min readA tale of the tape, an old car comparisonOur old cars would have a hard time being more different. The odd couple? I thought it would be fun to look at some of the engine design...
joepampelDec 17, 202210 min readThe English Patient(This is kind of an homage to the kinds of articles the great Peter Egan wrote in Road & Track) The year was 1984. I was newly out of...
joepampelDec 4, 202211 min readTurn Signal Issues / Electrical IntroOne thing that happened when I took the car in for its inspection was we saw the front turn signals were not working. It felt a bit like...
joepampelOct 26, 20225 min read"It's only audio"There is a good chance, if the car you are buying is >25 that the stereo (such as it was) is dead. I didn't buy an old 911 for the...