Middle-Age Crazy on a Budget

So I recently fell into a middle age stereotype. I bought a red convertible. It's not a musclebound Mustang, Camaro or Chevelle from the '60s or early '70s, nor is it some sleek little European number. It's a 1995 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, a mid-sized, middle-of-the-road car from the mid-'90s. As I said, it's not a muscle car, not yet an antique but something of a classic in waiting. Like most cars from the '90s, it's just beginning to become a bona fide collectible, especially as fewer and fewer of them remain on the road.

Built on GM's front wheel drive W-Body platform, which it shared with the Pontiac Gran Prix (1988-2008); Buick Regal (1988-2005), Century (1997-2005) and LaCrosse (2006-2010); Chevy Lumina (1988-1999), Monte Carlo (1997-2008) and Impala (2000-2016); and Oldsmobile Cutlass and Intrigue (1998-2002), this final iteration of the iconic Cutlass Supreme ran from 1988-1997. The convertible body style was exclusive to the Cutlass Supreme and was in regular production from 1991-1995, although it originated as an Indianapolis 500 Pace Car in 1988 with only about 50 units produced.

The '95 convertible has the distinction of being the last year model for the last convertible produced by Oldsmobile. It's also the only year the convertible was offered with the updated Cutlass Supreme interior, necessitated by the addition of a passenger side airbag.

With so many sibling vehicles using many of the same components, replacement parts are plentiful and relatively cheap. junk yards are also full of compatible donor cars, although they are getting a bit scarcer as time goes on. The one thing that's borderline 'unobtainium' is parts for the convertible top and any body or interior parts specific to the convertible.

I chose this particular car because its original paint is in very nice condition, the upholstery was in excellent shape with a couple of high-wear panels replaced on the driver's seat, the transmission had recently been rebuilt and the top had been recently replaced, a repair that would have cost almost as much as I paid for the car. It came to me with just under 120,000 miles on it, which is more than I ideally would have liked, but it's a solid enough car and not my daily driver, so it will do.

To be sure, it still needed some work. The air conditioner is non-functional, as is the anti-lock braking system. The brakes still work just fine as conventional brakes, they just don't pulse to avoid locking up if I stand up on the pedal. These things will be fixed as time and finances allow. A more recent priority was to replace the rear struts and the rear brake pads and rotors. Now, it stops safely and it doesn't ride like a buckboard anymore.

As I said, this car isn't a muscle car. At best, it's a cruiser. The 3.1 liter V6 is enough to have some fun with on a sunny day but it'll never win any races, much less do a burnout. But it's the perfect car for a little zen driving in which the journey is more important than the destination.

Driving with the top down on a country road, which fortunately are in abundance within a couple minutes of my house, is a heavenly experience and a great way to de-stress. It puts you more in touch with the surroundings without being quite as vulnerable as one would be riding a motorcycle. It's a feeling of freedom one simply cannot experience in a closed sedan. Curiously, on the occasions when I drive the convertible with the top up, I get a feeling of claustrophobia I don't get when driving my sedan. It's just a car that needs to be open to the sky.

UPDATE—With this year's social distancing due to COVID-19, the convertible provided the perfect means of escape. The combination of cheap gas, empty roads and mild weather formed a perfect convertible trifecta, satisfying my need for a change of scenery without being too close to other people.

UPDATE—Now that I've had the car almost three years, I've begun to have a few problems with it. The rebuilt transmission didn't last and had to be replaced at the end of last summer. The paint and top have also begun to deteriorate and the latter will have to be replaced, probably within the next couple of years and I still haven't done anything about the brakes or the air conditioning but driving it around on sunny days is still just as fun as ever.

iPod Mini—Better than New

Sometimes something old becomes new again. I recently resurrected my old fourth generation iPod to use in the car because I find setting my phone to stream music to be too cumbersome while driving. The iPod had sat in a drawer for a few years and was stone dead when I pulled it out. It took three days to charge and while I was waiting, I looked online to price replacement batteries—just in case.

Of course, that lead to looking at second hand iPods as well. In the process, I came across an iPod Mini that had been upgraded to be better than new. Besides replacing the original 650 mAh battery with a new 1,300 mAh unit, the 4GB micro hard drive had been replaced with a 32GB Compact Flash memory card, of the sort that used to go into high end digital cameras. The cool thing is that it's a direct fit, requiring no adapters. With a better battery and eight times the storage capacity in a solid state format to boot, this unit was truly better than new and since it was priced right, I bought it.

Being generally curious about such things, I did some online research into what it is involved in making this upgrade and found it's surprisingly easy. Just remove the two plastic end caps, a spring clip from the bottom end and two teeny-tiny screws from the top end, disconnect the click wheel control cable and the whole chassis slides right out. Replacing the drive is pretty much plug-and-play, and it doesn't hurt to put in a new battery while you're at it because iPad Minis were made in 2004 and 2005, so they're getting some age on them.

Learning how the upgrade was accomplished made me want to try my hand at it, so I bought a second Mini for about half what I paid for the first one. It was sold as being in working order, although the battery would go flat in a little over an hour. In short, it was the perfect candidate for an upgrade. After finding a replacement battery kit that included two tiny screwdrivers and a generic 32GB CF card, I was ready to proceed.

Popping off the end caps was easy. There are two competing methods on the Internet: you pry it out with the tiny flat screwdriver that comes with the battery, but you will inevitably gouge the aluminum case. The other, less damaging method is to hot glue a piece of wood (I used a tongue depressor-like 'craft stick' from from the dollar store) to the cap, then lever it out. I used this method and removed the caps with ease and without damaging the aluminum. Removing the wooden stick from the end cap was a different matter but I did accomplish it with a little patience and perseverance. Now came the truly challenging part—getting the iPod software file system set up on the newly installed CF card.

The procedure is supposed to be pretty simple. connect the iPod to a computer with iTunes and run the 'Restore' routine, then start loading on the music. File this one under 'E' for 'easier said than done'. Mine would not successfully restore for what the computer said was an 'unknown error'. After a couple of hours doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result (classic definition of insanity), I opened up the Disk Utility application on my Mac and tried to reformat the CF card at the root level. This failed, but it left things in what iTunes interpreted as a corrupted state, which was something the 'Restore' routine could handle. Finally, after nearly two hours of trying, I had the iPod restored to a usable state and better than new.

In the end, the physical upgrade took me about 40 minutes and well over an hour and a half to get it restored, and I ended up spending about $10 more on the Mini that I upgraded myself than I did on the one I bought already upgraded, but the knowledge gained and the satisfaction of making it work are priceless.

Oh, and my old iPod? the battery isn't what it once was but it's still got sufficient life left in it that I chose not to replace it at this time. I'll just let it roll for now.