it's a regular jiffy lube around here

after threatening the lovely mrs k with the idea of changing her own oil, i relented and went to o'riley's to get the goods to proceed. her ride, the ford escape, has essentially the same layout as the mazda6 did; 3.0 v6, turned sideways. actually, the escape is an adaptation of the original mazda 626 platform, which the mazda six was adapted from as well. two branches of the 626 evolved into different species, as it were.

one of the finer points of the escape it the access to anything and everything in the engine bay. a feature that did not carry over from the basic car platform was lack space...there is plenty of that to go around.

the only thing lacking on this completely capable automobile is a v8.