Housekeeping: Merry Christmas!

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

It's Christmas time, and we're going on break for a couple of days.

Not the full rest of the year, don't worry. Click to see our holiday schedule.


We're shuttin' down early today and we're totally off Christmas Day and Dec. 26., plus the weekend. Back for full days Monday and Tuesday of next week, with another half day on New Year's Eve.

We'll be closed again on New Year's Day and Jan. 2., plus the weekend, before going full bore again on January 5th.

As always, you may see some pre-scheduled stuff, and we'll cover major news if it breaks.

Until then, merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, happy Kwanzaa, happy whatever holidays you celebrate. We'll see you Monday.

[Image: Nelosa/Shutterstock.com]

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Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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  • MaintenanceCosts MaintenanceCosts on Dec 26, 2025

    The Truth About Cars on Christmas is that it's a very bad day for mechanical failure. So of course a radiator hose on my Legend (the hose, only a few years old) decided to split late in the evening of Christmas Eve. I nursed it back to its home with a few stops to cool down, and will need to fix it this coming week. Other than that, it was a very merry Christmas!

    • See 4 previous
    • Original Guy Original Guy on Dec 28, 2025

      As a teenager I was told that the worm-drive hose clamps were superior, but as an adult I have learned that I prefer the factory spring style. As long as you have the right tool to remove and reinstall them.


  • Original Guy Original Guy on Dec 28, 2025

    Well the hotel is out of food. I guess TTAC was right all along about the economic collapse and the empty shelves and all the shortages.

    (I am headed to the Ford dealership, they are handing out food to those members of the community who didn’t pay themselves second after purchasing a brand new 2022 Ford Maverick which has a small bed but you can make it work.)

    • See 2 previous
    • Original Guy Original Guy on Dec 28, 2025

      Bd2, if my 'serious' comments were as vapid as yours, I suppose I would find a leading commenter like myself and glom onto them as well.

      I stopped by the Hyundai dealership and they aren't doing anything like you describe. Can you try to be more factual in 2026? Thanks in advance.



  • Peeryog Everytime I see one I am reminded of the current Santa Fe. And vice versa.
  • Original Guy I watched that Moscow parade thing. (With the Cyrillic captions because my Russian is a little rough.) I won't give the whole thing away, but it started off with a couple of dudes riding around in stupid useless convertibles, standing up like Hitler, who I'm pretty sure was an actual Nazi. They drove around in circles and kept stopping to ask if anyone had seen all the missing military equipment, and all the guys kept moaning back, that no, they hadn't, ask the next section of guys.They looked around for someone shorter and sicker-looking than Putin but they were unsuccessful so they let him speak.The North Korean military was there, I guess the invasion has begun. The North Korean guys were skinny but their rifles were nicely polished, I guess they have plenty of time on their hands between meals.Some of the Russian military guys carried little white flags, I assume they keep those handy in case they run across any U.S. Marines.
  • Marc J Rauch EBFlexing on ur mom - Ethanol is compatible with more types of rubber, plastic, and metal than gasoline and aromatics. This means that ethanol is less corrosive. The bottom line is that long before ethanol could have any damaging effect on any engine component, gasoline and aromatics would have already damaged the components. And the addition of ethanol doesn't exacerbate the problems caused by gasoline and aromatics; it actually helps mitigate them.
  • Original Guy Today I learned that a reverse brake bleeder (and a long borescope) can be helpful if you are autistic and don't have any friends and no one wants to work with you to bleed your brakes. Also it is quick, once you figure out the process.When Canada assembled my truck back in circa 1995, they apparently used a different clip to attach the brake pedal (and switch) to the brake booster than what is technically called for. It is tough to realize this when the spring steel clip flies off to who knows where. Of course I ordered the wrong clip trying to match the style that I saw buried up in the dash before it flew away. My truck now has the 'correct' clip, everyone can relax.I ordered some more brake fluid (DOT 3, nothing fancy) but it turns out I still have two fresh bottles (my shelves aren't empty, I just have too many shelves).Went to install my fancy new Optima YellowTop battery and it turns out I need a new side post terminal bolt. (Yet another order placed, bring on THE TARIFFS.) It would be a shame to strip out the threads on a nice new battery, no?Good news: The longer it takes me to get my truck started again, the more I save on fuel. 😁
  • Normie Weekends here would be a great time for everyone to join in praise of dog dish hubcaps on body-color matched steelies!
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