Family Get-togethers.

My Sis and her family came up for the weekend. Three days of family parties. Thursday was with my wife, my parents, and my sis, her husband, and kids. Friday was to celebrate my Grandmother's 97th Birthday....yes 97...born in 1910...just amazing. Went to my aunts house. Saturday was at my parents house again, 3 aunts/uncles and their children were in attendance...had a fun time...house full of kids. Sunday was with just my sister and her family at our place. We spent the time at the local Alameda beach. Again, really fun. I have so many cousins, it's ridiculous. I don't even know, or haven't even met all my aunts and uncles...I have probably 40+ aunts/uncles and about 100+ cousins scattered around the world. Even my parents don't know all their names.

Dropped off the S4 for bumper repairs related to my Bay Bridge incident. My adjuster was cool...drove an SVT Focus with alot of performance mods. He clearly gave me more money than I needed to fix the car and I'm getting my cracked and pitted windshield replaced for free...WOOHOO!

Driving a Cobalt rental car...this car is horrendous.

1. Brakes: Impossible to modulate. You lock it up half the time in the rain...yes it was raining in Daly Shitty this morning...no surprise.
2. Tires: The all-season tires have zero ability to grip the asphalt. Squealing tires on nearly every turn.
3. Engine management: You can't hold the RPM's steady. Basically you're either accelerating or off throttle. No part or even throttle power delivery...maybe it was just cold but throttle modulation essentially sucks balls.
4. Automatic Tranny: Complete garbage. It shifts at 3 grand no matter what you're doing with the throttle.
5. Engine: Gutless
6. The rest of the car: Not bad.

The Cobalt is pretty much all about style over substance. It has no performance capability what-so-ever. It'll get you from point A to point B in comfortable seats, a smooth ride, with a nice sound-system, and powerful heater/air con...but that's about it. The Civic, it's competitor, has the same amenities, but you get independent suspension, a VTEC motor, great handling, and ludicrous durability to boot. Why anyone would purchase this vehicle given the utter superiority of all of it's competitors is beyond me. Again, another example of a crappy American Car. However, I should add that even Americans don't bay these cars NEW...the rental industry does, and afterwards sell them at cheap prices to folks who could care less about purchasing a reliable and capable car.

This is not to say all American Car's suck. There are a few exceptions: Corvette, Z06, Caddy CTSV, Focus, SRT Neon, Viper,...I think that's about it. Pathetic.