Garandman

Years ago I used to work at Bailey Corp, the largest employer of 'brookas. I used to point out to folks that there were 3 1/2 columns of Eatons, 2 columns of Dows, and nearly 2 columns of Fowlers in the phonebook. While I worked there an Eaton robbed the state package store, which was managed by an Eaton, and the responding officer was also an Eaton (according the local lore at the plant). So the 911 call was something like "Donald Eaton just robbed the package store." "Donald Junior or Donald Senior?" Most folks today don't realize tha the prototype for Dogpatch USA in the Lil Abner cartoon was Seabrook. Al Capp was from the area.

Maybe they could add a jobs board here, we need two SolidWorks AE's and a technician to service RP machines.

Yay! Soon we'll take over the place! I've seen one other 3.0R in New England.

Mingya!

I don't know where Whitey Bulger is, either.

There's quite an infestation in Manchvegas. I commute to our office there 2-3 days a week and bought my current Subaru at Manchvegas Subaru, so there's a steady supply. I wave like a madman to every other 2006 Silver Outback 3.0R wagon I see.....

Not sure I wanna know, but. South Boston MA, E. Broadway & F Street at 6am 4/28/6. A dark blue LGT sedan with GIGANTIC exhaust outlets: as big as any Honda Civic in Dorchester......

Most mornings, a 50-ish woman driving a red LGT wagon with a dog gate North on route 93 from Boston -> 128 around 7:30am.

DK, great job. FWIW, here's an image of an automatic Outback. The orange arrow points to the connector. While there seem to be a lot of white connectors, the others are closer to the driver and have a lot more wires coming out of them. The plug was much farther over to the left than I expected. Note it's about in line with the dead pedal. I had to disconnect the OBDII connector from the cover to get the cover out of the way so I could get at it.

At Boston Athletic Club in Boston several mornigs a week there's a Subaru, always a high-zoot model and sometimes even NJ or Manufacturer plates. Lately it's been a Tribeca, but there have been GT's and Outbacks as well. Always parked right near the door at around 6am. Does a factory rep live in South Boston?

A few weeks back I was sitting with a group of executives. All were admiring a new model. "It is absolutely the best automobile that can be made," enthused one. I objected to that statement. "Let's take this automobile which, you say, is the 'best that can be made' and put it into a glass showcase," I said. "Let's put it in there—seal it so no person can possibly touch it. Just before we seal it in the case, let us mark the price in big letters inside the case." "Let us do that and come back here a year from today. After looking at it and appraising it, we will mark a price on the outside of the glass. It will be a price something less than what we think the car is worth today. Probably $200 less. Then, let's come back once every year for ten years, look through the glass, and mark a new price. At the end of ten years we won't be able to put down enough ciphers to indicate what we think of the car. That is, of course, eliminating its value as junk. "In those ten years, no one could possibly have touched the car. There could be no lessened value through handling. The paint would be just as good as new; the crank case just as good; the real axle just as good; and the motor just as good as ever. What then, has happened to the car? "People's minds will have been changed; improvements will come in other cars; new styles will have come. What you have here today, a car that you call 'the best that can be made,' will then be useless. So it isn't the best that can be made. It may be the best you can have made and, if that is what you meant, I have no quarrel with what you said. . . ." Change, to a research engineer, is improvement. People, though don't seem to think of it in that manner. When a change is suggested they hold back and say, "What we have is all right—it does the work." Doing the work is important but doing it better is more important. The human family in industry is always looking for a park bench where it can sit down and rest. But the only park benches I know of are right in front of an undertaker's establishment. There are no places where anyone can sit and rest in an industrial situation. It is a question of change, change, change, all the time—and it is always going to be that way. It must always be that way for the world only goes along one road, the road to progress. Nations and industries that have become satisfied with themselves and their ways of doing things, don't last. While they are sitting back and admiring themselves other nations and other concerns have forgotten the looking-glasses and have been moving ahead . . . . The younger generation—and by that I mean the generation that is always coming—knows what it wants and it will get what it wants. This is what makes for change. It brings about improvements in old things and developments in new things. You can't stop people from being born. You can't stop the thing we call progress. You can't stop the thing we call change. But you can get in tune with it. Change is never waste—it is improvement, all down the line. Because I have no further need for my automobile doesn't mean that that automobile is destroyed. It goes to someone who has need for it and, to get it, he disposes of something that is unnecessary to his happiness. And so on to the end where the thing that is actually thrown away is of no further use to anyone. By this method living standards, all around, are raised. We hear people complaining because of new models in automobiles. If it were not for these new models these same people would be paying more for what they have. Recognition of the fact that progress is inevitable forces us to recognize that we must have improvements in motor cars. We, as manufacturers, must offer those improvements after they have been found to be capable improvements. The public buys and disposes of what it has. The fact that it is able to dispose of what it has enables us, as producers, to put a lower price tag on the new model. The law of economy in mass production enters here. We are permitted to turn out cars in volume because there is a market for them. If automobile owners could not dispose of their cars to a lower buying strata they would have to wear out their cars with a consequent tremendous cutting in the yearly demand for automobiles, a certain increase in production costs, and the natural passing along of these costs to the buyer. If everyone were satisfied, no one would buy the new thing because no one would want it. The ore wouldn't be mined; timber wouldn't be cut. Almost immediately hard times would be upon us. You must accept this reasonable dissatisfaction with what you have and buy the new thing, or accept hard times. You can have your choice. [From Charles F. Kettering, "Keep the Consumer Dissatisfied," Nation's Business, 17, no. 1 (January 1929), 30–31, 79.]

42 is pretty cold. Most cars put out around 50 degrees F. My cold weather strategy is to shut the system off until the water temp gage has started to move. My thinking is that putting it on before that will call for heat and just increase the volume of cold fluid that has to be warmed up. Anyone ever test this theory?

You bet! That car really put Subaru on the map. It was the best selling wagon in the country for severa lyears, and basically invented the "Crossover" concept. We had two. We sold one at 86,000 miles and recently sold the other, also a 97, to my sister in law. It had a mere 164K miles versus the 244K on hers. The only changes I made were to remove the Outback grille tag, pinstripe, crossbars and AWD decal to clean up the profile a little. It had head gaskets; one axle; one front wheel bearing; and front seals and water pump. I bought an 06 OB 3.0 and will pick it up next week, once my fearless insurance agency comes back to work.

Any issue with the 5mm offset? On the Hondas and Acuras folks interchange 50 and 55 offset wheels without regard.