Style built in to sunny, 4-level Newton condo

This updated townhouse in Newton's Auburndale neighborhood may not look large from the outside, but it has four levels with 3,000 square feet of airy living space.

The four-bedroom end-unit at 580 Auburn St. is part of the three-building, six-townhouse Auburn Woods development built in 2000. The current owners have updated their unit, replacing carpeting in all the bedrooms and a washer/dryer and adding custom built-ins and window treatments throughout. The townhouse, which includes two bedroom suites and a basement-level two-car garage, is on the market for $875,000.

Set back from the street, the exterior of the unit is gray clapboard with white trim and there's a covered front entryway. The door opens into a spacious L-shaped oak-floored foyer lined on one side with custom built-in cabinets added in 2010, and there's an adjacent half bath with a pedestal sink.

In one direction the foyer leads to a sunny living room with oak floors, recessed lighting and a three-part picture window. Against one wall sits a gas fireplace with a carved wood mantel.

A wide archway leads into an oak-floored formal dining room with three 6-over-6 windows and a glass door that leads out to a brick patio in a small back yard area.

A wall opening and French doors lead into an open kitchen/family room. The recessed-lit kitchen has 27 white wood cabinets and Uba Tuba granite counters. A center island holds a Jenn Air gas stovetop and white oven below. A white G.E. dishwasher is also original to the unit but a white Kitchen Aid refrigerator was added in 2010. The oak-floored family room area has a wall of 6-over-6 windows, recessed lighting, oak floors and French doors. A built-in with cabinets and bookcases, as well as space for a flat screen TV, was added in 2010.

There are three bedrooms on the second floor via a stairway in the foyer and all off a carpeted hallway. The master bedroom suite, recarpeted in 2010, has a good-sized bedroom and walk-in closet. The en suite master bathroom has beige marble floors and surround for a whirlpool tub. There's also a walk-in shower and a double-sink vanity topped with white Corian.

The second bedroom also has updated carpeting and a three-part picture window as well as a built-in dresser and mirror added three years ago. A third bedroom, currently used as a home office, has a wall-length built-in desk, cabinets and bookcase. An additional bathroom on this floor has white ceramic tile floors and a Fiberglas shower, and there's an alcove with a full-size front-facing Bosch washer and dryer.

The entire third floor is taken up by a second bedroom suite with a large carpeted bedroom under the eaves with recessed lighting and a wall-length built-in window suite. There are three closets, two of which run under the eaves, and an en-suite bathroom with white ceramic tile flooring, a Fiberglas shower and Corian-topped vanity.

The current owners added a carpeted exercise room in the unit's basement. There are also unfinished storage areas, one of which holds a gas-fired central heating and cooling system. And there's direct access to a two-car garage.

There's not much yard space — just a small landscaped front yard framed by a stone wall and back yard strip of grass and a stone wall ­— but there is a common grass and wooded area off to the left of the unit. There's also a paved area for guest parking.

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Still king of the road

Since fat and happy is not a good way to go through life, engineers of the once-massive Range Rover put it on a diet, trimming 900 pounds. Still, the mighty 2013 Range Rover — with aluminum frame components and lighter-weight body steel — remains the royalty of SUV elegance.

The classically styled luxury SUV still tips the scales at a kingly 5,542 pounds, and it will never top the charts in fuel economy, managing only 13 in the city and 19 on the highway. I squeezed out a couple of miles per gallon more on the highway but one does not buy this vehicle for fuel cost savings.

The Range Rover channels its long lineage and strikes a bold, angular profile with Space Age-style grill and LED lighting display. Don't let the traditional truck-like look fake you out — this is a technically refined auto.

Powerfully built, this machine easily holds its own in performance to match up to muscle cars such as the Ford Mustang and super sport sedans such as the BMWs and Mercedes in instant acceleration. The 510-horsepower, 5.0-liter supercharged V-8 mated to an eight-speed transmission will spin the tires with a punch of the gas and jolt you back into the seat while rocketing to 60 mph in just under five seconds.

And take a $112,000 Range Rover off-road? Of course. Use the branded Terrain Response 2 computer-aided auto-adjust system to propel the truck confidently down dusty trails, through 36 inches of water or glide smoothly over highways. The SUV senses the type of surface you're on and adjusts the power output to the all-wheel-drive to match.

The Supercharged Edition includes a long list of niceties such as a panoramic sunroof, 21-inch wheels and four-zone climate control. The spartan interior is well made and fitted with 
high-quality leather, wood and plastics. The dash and interior is so reserved that even the ghostly electronic gauges seem an afterthought. However, the Meridian-based infotainment center rocks, and the plethora of information about the car seems endless, right down to the display for the power output to each wheel.

Although the seats look fantastic donned in oxford leather, I found the driver's chair lacking lateral support and actually very firm as compared to the seats in the smaller LR2 I tested last spring. I thought those may have been some of the best I've ridden in.

The sight lines are excellent through plenty of acoustic buffered glass and from the tall driving position. The high vantage spot gave me excellent vision from the helm of the full-sized machine. The rear seat is huge and with a push of a button folds down, creating a massive cargo area. I really liked the electronically controlled split tailgate for getting my gear in and out.

Safety concerns are packed into every exterior corner where sensors for the backup alerts, blindspot monitors and forward collision sensors are mounted. The Surround Camera System displays all your viewpoints on the dash, even while you're driving.

The starting price is $99,995 for a vehicle that was born on the farm, can still be driven in your Wellingtons and chase livestock — it also is meant to be piloted wearing your oxfords to the company's front row parking.

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Investors atwitter over Boston visit

Twitter's top executives are expected to meet with prospective investors in Boston Thursday as part of a multi-city roadshow to promote what could end up being one of the largest Wall Street initial public offerings in history.

San Francisco-based Twitter, which is expected to start trading on Nov. 7 under the ticker symbol "TWTR," plans to sell 
70 million shares at $17 to $20 each to raise as much as $1.4 billion, according to a regulatory filing. If all the shares are sold, the underwriters will have the option to buy another 10.5 million shares.

Twitter's conservative valuation and its decision to trade on the New York Stock Exchange are both attempts to avoid a repeat of Facebook's May 2012 IPO, which set expectations too high and was marred by technical glitches for which the Nasdaq was later fined.

"They don't want to make the same mistakes Facebook did," said Todd Van Hoosear, vice president of public relations and stakeholder engagement at HB Agency in Newton.

Max Wolff, chief economist and strategist for ZT Wealth in New York, said he wants to know Twitter's time frame to break even. Last week, the seven-year-old company disclosed that it lost $65 million in the third quarter, three times as much as in the same period a year earlier. It was Twitter's biggest quarterly loss since 2010.

The company, headed by 
CEO Dick Costolo, also needs to demonstrate how it's going to monetize its international users, Wolff said. Right now, 75 percent of its revenue comes from this country, but 75 percent of its users live outside the United States.

In addition, Twitter needs a "discovery plan" that will make it as easy to find people to follow as it is on Facebook and Google, he said.

"In order to be the true powerhouse Twitter could and should be, it needs to solve that problem," Wolff said.

The company also needs a plan to monetize Vine, the popular mobile service it bought earlier this year that lets users capture and share short, looping videos, he said, and Twitter needs a self-serve ad platform to attract small and regional advertisers.

"There's a huge opportunity for Twitter as a second screen for television, especially for events like premieres, the Grammys and the Super Bowl, when everyone's tweeting," said David Gerzof Richard, Emerson College professor of social media and marketing.

Herald wire services contributed to this report.

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Penalties sought for Teamsters big

New England's top Teamsters union leader faces penalties that could range from a reprimand to permanent expulsion for allegedly threatening to punish supporters of rivals to his union allies in a Rhode Island union local election.

The Independent Review Board — formed under a federal court order in 1992 to investigate allegations of corruption, domination or control in the Teamsters — has recommended charges against Boston-based Local 25 president Sean O'Brien, who allegedly threatened to retaliate against Teamster members for exercising federally protected "rights to seek election to office and support the candidates of one's choice."

O'Brien also is a regional vice president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and president of Joint Council 10, which settles disputes for New England locals, 
including East Providence's Local 251.

In a speech at a campaign event for Joseph Bairos, an incumbent Local 251 secretary-treasurer up for re-election, O'Brien said anyone who "takes on" Bairos and his team have "got a major problem," according to IRB documents.

O'Brien was referring to Teamsters for a Democratic Union, a reform group opposing incumbent Local 251 officers.

"They'll never be our friends," O'Brien said. "They need to be punished, and they need to be held accountable for their actions."

O'Brien's spokeswoman, Melissa Hurley, said, "There's an internal process that takes place ... We're going to let that process run its course."

IBT's executive board must decide this week to file charges against O'Brien or refer the matter back to the IRB. "The charges will be brought against him — not much doubt about that," IRB administrator John J. Cronin Jr. said. "There are a wide range of penalties ... from fines and reprimands to permanent expulsion."

A suspension could thwart O'Brien's local and national Teamster ambitions, according to David Levin, a TDU organizer. "I think he's trying to get out in front of it and get a short suspension and be back in time to maintain his eligibility."

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Kelly car dealers tops to work for

Five of Kelly Automotive Group's Massachusetts stores are among the 100 best dealerships to work for in North America, according to the most recent edition of Automotive News.

Dealer Brian Kelly's Nissan stores in Lynnfield and Woburn, his Honda store in Lynn, and his Infiniti and Volkswagen stores in Danvers all made the short list of the nation's pre-eminent newspaper covering the automotive industry.

"We try to take good care of our employees, and they take care of the customers," Kelly, 61, told Automotive News.

Brian Heney, director of operations for Kelly Automotive Group, said its 400 employees enjoy good benefits, flexible hours and upward mobility within the company.

"It's a great recipe for a good workplace and a successful business," Heney said. "If our employees are happy, we'll have happy customers."

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John Connolly, Martin Walsh appeal to CEOs

Boston's mayoral candidates made their cases to business leaders yesterday, emphasizing their strengths and plans for the city, but hitting on many of the same points — even touting the same accomplishment.

Speaking in back-to-back addresses and question-and-answer sessions to the Alliance for Business Leadership's annual CEO Summit, state Rep. Martin J. Walsh and City Councilor John R. Connolly laid out their views of what the city needs for business to prosper, with plenty of overlap:

•  Both candidates stressed the importance of education. Both said students should have two paths after graduation: higher education or a vocation that can lead to a high-paying job, including in manufacturing. "The Boston public schools have to matter for everyone, especially the business community," Connolly said.

• Walsh and Connolly both said any benefits to business and the economy must be tied to middle class housing improvements, specifically changes in height and density restrictions. "We can't be afraid of going up," Walsh said.

• Both said they support raising the minimum wage, and creating a regional economy with surrounding communities.

• Each emphasized his part in bringing drugmaker Vertex Pharmaceuticals to the Seaport from Cambridge. Vertex founder and former CEO Joshua Boger, in the audience, said both had legitimate claims to the accomplishment, calling it a "consensus" move.

For business leaders, those similarities may not be a bad thing.

"Most all of us were very impressed by both," Alliance president James Boyle said. "They both seemed to be very bright and had obviously spent years reflecting how they could best contribute."

Still, there were some small but noticeable differences.

Asked what he could offer the business community that his opponent could not, Walsh spoke about his plan to fold economic agencies including the BRA, tourism bureau and the EDIC into one office.

"I have a vision to grow business in Boston," he said. "I've looked at the different aspects of it as far as creating new opportunities and retention of older businesses."

Responding to the same question, Natasha Perez, a spokeswoman for Connolly, said in a statement he "will not be obligated to a narrow set of interests. He will be a strong, independent mayor who will always put the city's interests first."

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Amazon ups free shipping minimum

Amazon.com hiked its minimum purchase for free online shipping for the first time in more than 10 years, just days before it also starts collecting state sales taxes for the first time from Massachusetts customers.

The world's largest online retailer yesterday increased its minimum order size for free "Super Saver Shipping" to $35 from $25.

The change comes as it prepares to start charging the 6.25 percent state sales tax on purchases by Bay Staters on Nov. 1 — a move expected to generate $36.7 million for the state in the next seven months of the fiscal year, according to the Department of Revenue.

The state announced last December that it had reached a collection agreement with Amazon, which reported $61.09 billion in total sales last year, after the company opened a Cambridge software office and bought a North Reading robotics company.

"There's still a lot of others we need marketplace fairness with, and that's only going to come with passage of legislation through Congress," said Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts.

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College prices appear to be moderating

WASHINGTON — There's some good news on college tuition. Yes, the cost has gone up — but not as much in the past.

For in-state students at a four-year public college or university, published tuition and fees increased this year on average $247 to $8,893. That's a 2.9 percent increase — the smallest one-year increase in more than 30 years, the College Board said Wednesday in its annual report on college prices.

Out-of-state prices, as well as the costs to attend public two-year colleges and private institutions rose but they also avoided big spikes, said Sandy Baum, co-author of the report. These more moderate increases could lessen concern that an annual rapid growth is tuition prices in the new normal.

"It does seem that the spiral is moderating. Not turning around, not ending, but moderating," Baum said.

The average published cost for tuition and fees at a private college for the 2013-14 academic year was $30,094 — up $1,105. An out-of-state student at a public college or university faced an annual average price tag of $22,203, which is up $670. The average price tag to for an in-state student to attend a two-year institution was much less at $3,264 — up $110.

Most students don't actually pay that, though. There are grants, tax credits and deductions that help ease the cost of going to college. About two-thirds of full-time students get grants, most from the federal government.

But, in the two years leading up to the 2012-2013 school year, the federal aid per full-time equivalent undergraduate student declined 9 percent, or about $325.

That means students have to foot more of the bill themselves.

"The rapid increases in college prices have slowed, however, student and families are paying more because grant aid is not keeping up," said David Coleman, president of the College Board.

While the average published price for tuition and fees for a private college is $30,094, the net price is $12,460 — up $530 from last year. The net price is what they actually pay after grants. There were years this decade that saw the net price going down, but it has gone up the last two years.

The average published in-state price for tuition and fees at a public four-year school is $8,893, but the average net price is about $3,120.

Molly Corbett Broad, president of the American Council on Education, in a statement called it "troubling" that overall grant aid is not keeping up with prices. Her organization represents the presidents of U.S. colleges and universities.

"Institutions are committed to holding down costs, but it is equally important for state and federal governments to play their part to make college affordable," she said.

The College Board is a not-for-profit membership group that promotes college access and owns the SAT exam.

The report spells out the large declines in state appropriations given to public institutions in recent years. These cuts have been blamed for rises in college costs. Other causes often cited range from the high cost of health care for employees to the demand by students for flashier campus amenities.

Among the other findings in the report:

— Adding in costs for room and board to live on campus, average annual published costs: At public, four-year universities, $18,391 for in-state students and $31,701 for out-of-state students; $40,917 for private colleges and universities; $10,730 for in-state students at public two year schools.

— The average published tuition and fees at for-profit institutions increased by $70 to $15,130 — an increase of less than 1 percent.

— New Hampshire and Vermont had the highest published in-state tuition and fees at both four-year and two-year institutions. Wyoming and Alaska had the lowest published in-state tuition and fees at a four-year institution, while California and New Mexico had the lowest in-state among two-year schools.

— In 2012-2013, $238.5 billion in financial aid was issued to undergraduate and graduate students in the forms of grants from all sources, Federal Work-Study, federal loans and federal tax credits and deductions. Also, students borrowed about $8.8 billion from private, state and institutional sources.

— About 60 percent of students who earned bachelor's degrees in 2011-2012 graduated with debt, borrowing a total of $26,500 on average.

___

Online: http://www.collegeboard.org/

___

Follow Kimberly Hefling at http://www.twitter.com/khefling

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World stocks down after weaker US hiring report

BANGKOK — World stock markets fell Wednesday, hit by slower U.S. hiring and reports of tighter money market conditions in China that could check its economic recovery.

Weaker-than-expected U.S. job creation in September was a mixed cue for markets. On the plus side, it boosted the case for a full-strength continuation of the Federal Reserve's super-easy monetary policy that has boosted investment in stocks worldwide. On the downside, it suggests U.S. demand for exports will continue to be subdued, which could hurt company earnings.

The Labor Department reported that 148,000 jobs were created in September, below the consensus among analysts for around 180,000. Following revisions to back data, it means that the U.S. economy added an average of 143,000 jobs a month from July through September, down from 182,000 from April through June.

Sentiment in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan was hurt by reports the central bank refrained from injecting funds into money markets, pushing up short-term lending rates.

Markets were also down in Europe where Britain's FTSE 100 dropped 0.4 percent to 6,668.81. Germany's DAX fell 0.4 percent to 8,912.97 and France's CAC-40 tumbled 0.6 percent to 4,269.70.

Futures pointed to a retreat on Wall Street too. Dow futures were down 0.4 percent and broader S&P 500 futures lost 0.5 percent.

In Asia, China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.3 percent to 2,183.11 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 1.4 percent to 23,999.95. Taiwan's benchmark dropped 0.3 percent to 8,393.62.

China's economic growth rebounded to 7.8 percent in the third quarter but inflation and house prices have also risen, creating a balancing act for policymakers who want to shift the economy to growth driven by consumption rather than investment and exports.

Japan's Nikkei 225 tumbled 2 percent to 14,426.05 as the yen gained against the U.S. dollar, which can hurt sales and profits at Japanese exporters.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.3 percent to 5,356.10.

In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude for December delivery was down 78 cents at $97.53 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.38 to $98.30 on Tuesday.

The dollar fell to 97.26 yen from 98.13 yen late Tuesday. The euro fell to $1.3755 from $1.3777.

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After 2-week delay, September jobs report due

WASHINGTON — September employment data is finally set to appear Tuesday after being delayed two weeks by the partial government shutdown.

Economists forecast that employers added 180,000 jobs in September, according to FactSet. That would be a slight improvement from August's gain of 169,000. And it would be much better than the average 155,000 jobs a month added from May through August. The unemployment rate is expected to remain at 7.3 percent.

The job market has stumbled in recent months after starting the year with some promise.

The jobs report is carrying less weight than usual because the shutdown has likely slowed growth and hiring. And the September figures are certain to be revised two weeks later, when the government reports on October hiring. Some experts predict October numbers will be disappointing.

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Study: Flavored small cigars are popular with kids

ATLANTA — The first study of cigars flavored to taste sweet suggests they're a hit with underage smokers.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that about 1 in 30 middle and high school kids say they smoke the compact, candy- or fruit-flavored cigars. The percentages rise as kids get older, to nearly 1 in 12 high school seniors.

The results — based on a 2011 survey of nearly 19,000 students, grades 6 through 12 — were published online Tuesday by the Journal of Adolescent Health.

There are no restrictions on sales of flavored cigars except in Maine, Maryland, New York City and Providence, R.I.

The sale of cigarettes and cigars to those under 18 is illegal but CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden says the cigars are as dangerous as cigarettes and that the marketing of such products seems intended to interest kids in smoking.

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Startup has skin in the game

A Colombian company offering new hope to burn victims and other patients who suffer skin tissue loss is one of the 26 MassChallenge top finalists who'll compete on Oct. 30 for a piece of the start-up accelerator's $1.5 million in cash prizes.

Keraderm was founded in Bogota in 2010 by a group of plastic surgeons, who set out to find an affordable, painless way of treating tissue loss resulting from burns, ulcers, tumors and trauma.

The typical treatment calls for a graft to be taken from a patient's healthy skin and meshed to cover a large wound — a surgical procedure that often results in severe pain, significant scarring and, sometimes, rejection by the patient's body.

But Keraderm's team found that by taking a sample of healthy skin less than one centimeter in diameter from behind a patient's ear, within five to seven days they could reproduce the skin cells and plant them on a collagen sheet four times the size of a business card to cover the wound, said Jorge Soto, the company's chief financial officer.

"It starts to heal the injury by accelerating the growth of healthy skin cells," Soto said. "In 20 to 40 days, the wound is completely healed."

The patent-pending procedure, which eliminates the need for an operating room and anesthesia as well as the possibility of rejection, has been successfully done on more than 100 patients so far in 11 different hospitals in Colombia and entails no pain or scarring, he said.

A 10-by-10-centimeter sheet of skin also costs $550, significantly less than a skin graft operation does.

"There are other variations of what we're doing," Soto said, "but we haven't been able to find anyone doing the same thing."

Keraderm hopes to expand the procedure in Latin America before bringing it to the United States, where it would need to be tested in a clinical trial to gain regulatory approval.

That's a process that would take the kind of money the company, which has only eight employees including Soto, does not yet have, he said.

The team bootstrapped the start-up with $50,000 and in 2012 raised an additional $300,000 from angel investors, allowing it to open a lab in Bogota that June, Soto said.

But even if Keraderm doesn't win any money in MassChallenge, he said, the four-month accelerator, for which they were selected out of a field of nearly 1,200 applicants, has been worth it.

"I never even thought I was going to be here," Soto said. "It's going to help me a lot to show we have a product that is working."

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Massport to hit up pols

Massachusetts Port Authority officials — already facing a ticking clock to grab vital federal funding — are prepping to start a Beacon Hill blitz this week to pitch a $300 million plan to dredge Boston Harbor, hoping to convince lawmakers to bankroll nearly a quarter of it.

The four-year project to deepen the Hub's vital maritime channels could double the amount of cargo containers that pass through Boston Harbor — a 
$42.5 million business for Massport last year — and will help it vie for the bigger cargo ships primed to hit East Coast ports starting in 2015, officials say.

But they admit they're already playing catch-up to other ports' dredging projects, making lobbying efforts — both federally and at the state level — crucial to keeping them competitive.

"We want to make sure we're putting our best foot forward and make the case for federal funding, and make the case for state funding. But it's kind of a chicken-and-egg process," Massport CEO Thomas Glynn said, noting the board has yet to vote on the project but could within four months. "We have to tell the board, then we have to go to the State House, so we kind of go back and forth."

Their first targets are East Boston lawmakers, whose sometimes prickly history with the agency mean Massport pitches always require a grain of salt, said Eastie state Rep. Carlo Basile.

"I just don't take their word for it. I do my own due diligence," said Basile, who plans to meet with Massport officials Tuesday. He admitted he's aware of little to no complaints from past dredging projects rolled out in 2001, 2005 and 2008, but warned, "that's not to say it can't happen this time."

"It's a much bigger project," Basile said. "I'm still waiting to hear a lot of details."

Massport spokesman Matthew Brelis, said, "We talk with legislators all the time on a host of things," but noted for the dredging project officials are starting with lawmakers from "impacted communities" before moving on to others.

Massport officials are counting on as much as 
$170 million in federal money for the project, with $65 million each coming from the agency and the state.

Secretary of Transportation Richard Davey, who chairs the Massport board, implored members that "we shouldn't do anything right now that would preclude us from the $170 million," likening the shot at the federal funds to waiting for Halley's Comet.

"You can call it Davey's Comet," he told the board during a Thursday meeting.

When Congress will act to award the money, however, is unclear, especially in the wake of the government shutdown, Glynn said.

"Everything is up for grabs down there until it's final," he said. "(Other ports) are a little bit ahead of us in terms of making their request ... but we have enough time. It's a question of it's a moving target."

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What to do when battery is on its last legs

I have a 2005 Hyundai Tucson with 90,000 miles on it. I've never had a problem since I purchased the vehicle, but I'm worried the battery will fail sometime soon because of its age. I'm planning to change the battery myself but I'm concerned about the computer and electronics due to the temporary loss of power during the replacement process. What should I do before and after changing the battery?

Just drive the car. Replacing the battery, which of course requires disconnecting the vehicle's electrical system from the original battery, will do no harm to the vehicle's electronics. You'll likely have to reset the radio station pre-sets and the engine management system will take a few miles of driving to "re-learn" your driving characteristics, but you probably will not notice anything.

Perhaps the more relevant question at this point is: Should you replace the battery now or wait until it fails? Being a founding member of the "Snug America" club and not wanting to part with any more of my hard-earned dollars than absolutely necessary, I lean toward the latter. Most batteries will develop symptoms of impending failure such as slow engine cranking speeds, giving you a heads-up that it's time for a new one. But batteries can and do fail suddenly and completely without warning.

So when I suspect a battery might be on its last legs, I carry a portable battery booster in the vehicle. Then, if the battery does fail, — at any time and for any reason — I can jump-start the vehicle to complete my trip.

This, by definition, is the Murphy's Law of automobiles — if you have a spare part with you, you'll probably never need to use it!

And finally, to put your mind at ease, have the original battery tested at a local parts store. A load test or electronic test will give you an idea of how much life your battery still has.

I have a '93 Buick Riviera with the 3800 V6 engine and 182,000 miles. When I start the engine it makes a "thudding" noise four to five times. It has done this intermittently for the past three years. One mechanic told me it could be a cracked flywheel. Can you help?

Does this noise primarily occur on a cold start after the car's been sitting for at least several hours? Also, watch the oil pressure warning light carefully as you start the engine — do the "thuds" last precisely until the warning light goes out? If so, the noise may be due to worn main or rod bearings. Once oil pressure is up, the excess clearance is buffered by the oil film and the noise stops.

A cracked flex plate/flywheel or loose torque converter mounting bolts could cause a similar noise, but for three years without some type of failure? Other possibilities include a broken or failed engine/drivetrain mount or an engine startup misfire.

Regardless of the cause, at 20 years old and nearing 200,000 miles, I'm not sure I'd be willing to spend much on repairs. If the vehicle is still nice, keep an eye out for a used or rebuilt engine. Remember the automotive version of Murphy's Law.

We have a 2008 Buick Lucerne. This fall we will be leaving the state for about seven months. Should we disconnect the battery? Will this mess up the computers? Also, should I use a trickle charger or a float charger? What's the difference?

I recommend disconnecting the battery — it is safer and will cause no harm as described above — and connect a float charger or battery maintainer like Battery Tender to keep the battery safely charged while you're away.

A trickle charger continuously charges the battery at a low amperage rate, which can lead to overcharging and battery failure. A battery maintainer charges and holds the battery at its optimum voltage safely for an indefinite period.

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