Had a (quick) conversation yesterday with my wife, asking her if I could buy some new wheels for her Cruze, and I got the typical response of "the car is fine, it doesn't 'need' them." It absolutely needs them!!! Stock wheels are so small and ugly, lol.

will do thank you for the help!!

"small and ugly" means that you're looking at larger wheels, so that means tires too. Wheels *AND* tires is tough sell for a Chevy Cruze.

To sweeten the proposition, claim use of the OEM wheels and tires (or snows) during the winter. In that case you can sell it as a safety issue. I don't recall if you live in the snow belt.

The only other recommendation is to let her choose the wheels.

I tried to tell her that it'll need new tires soon anyway, so might as well upgrade the wheels in the process. Ehhh, it's fine for now though, it doesn't really concern me that much. I live in northern Arkansas and we see snow maybe 2-3x each winter, so not really any need for a snow setup.

On another note, I just went to Youtube and typed in G37 and it's just disgusting what you'll find on there. 99% of the G37's are single exhaust, super loud, POV drives cutting through traffic, drifting, multiple color body panels, slammed, owned by kids (the bad kind) etc. It's really disheartening actually being an owner of one of these cars. The culture is one of the worst I've seen.

I think that the G37s have become the cheap 370z, since those are still selling at a premium as a 'sports' car.

I'm struggling to find a roller for less than 5K (a car that doesn't run but is intact). Driveable 370s within a few hours are $15k - 30K. That's nuts for a 10 year old car that was 30k new.

The Z/G platform is the new S13/S14. It's cheap, good aftermarket, great for motorsports, and well attracts all the young kids that want to get into their first performance car.

FPFQ (Falling Price Falling Quality)

Can’t say this was planned, since I had my coupe 19s coated nearly 10 years ago (!), but these IPL caps are pretty spot-on

YouTube has a bunch of methods for popping off the center caps with the wheels still on the car, gonna give em a try this wkend (my floor jack is long gone)




https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.myg...93a030460.jpeg

That does look very promising. Put them on!

Any of you guys ever swap out your thermostat for a new one, as preventative maintenance? I've had a vague opinion this is something you should do at 10 years or 100,000 miles. Now I'm no where near those miles, but the car is 13 years old. Do I bother?

I've been thinking of having the coolant system flushed & filled, and wondering if I should replace the old thermostat too.

Look at the prices on Rock Auto (no idea how much an actual nissan oem part is) and if you're getting anything changed it is worth it as preventative maintenance.

Now that I need to redo my hack repair job on the heater hose, I'll be doing the thermostat as well just because. 11 years but 78k miles.

Having to fix the hose connector I popped in the USB OBD2 dongle and fired up OBD Fusion to monitor - seems like the thermostat opens around 178 and the car hovers between 192 and 195 on the open road. So it's working...

Is this the correct part?

https://www.infinitipartsdeal.com/pa...tra2=&filter=()

It looks like the thermostat comes as a part of the overall assembly, which I suppose I don't care if it's only $30.

https://www.infinitipartsdeal.com/re...91b3b9fdb0.jpg

Oof tried popping off the old center caps with the wheels still on the car. No dice. Suction cup and adhesive weren’t strong enough.


So I’ll need to go rent a floor jack for a day. Opportunity to deep clean wheels and brakes too. Anyone have a good cleaner they swear by? I think I’ll go with Adam’s wheel and tire spray.

Dont you got one in trunk?

I'd highly recommend a HF race jack - the smaller ones are perfect for tire changes and are light and fit pretty much anywhere: https://www.harborfreight.com/automo...ump-64545.html

Looks like it. Compare to Z1 (look for OEM parts) as I know they show the Nissan PN.