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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John Henry takes reins at Boston Globe

Red Sox owner John Henry officially took over The Boston Globe yesterday, right after a Worcester judge lifted a temporary restraining order that had blocked the $70 million cash deal since last Friday.

"The sale has been finalized," said Globe spokeswoman Ellen Clegg.

The deal had been on hold after a ruling by Worcester Superior Court Judge Shannon Frison in a class-action lawsuit brought by newspaper carriers at the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.

The four named carriers in the suit had argued they were wrongly classified as independent contractors and were owed mileage and expenses, which could add up to as much as $60 million for the approximately 1,500 carriers, according to court documents.

Henry's deal, which was completed within about an hour of the release of the judge's decision, includes the Globe, Boston.com, the Telegram and all related properties, including the broadsheet's Dorchester headquarters, seen as the most valuable asset.

Henry has been tight-lipped about his short- and long-term plans for the Globe, but has frequently visited the news plant.

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Hub home inventory way down this fall

A year ago housing inventory levels statewide were down 17 percent from the previous year. Well, here we are a year later and things are pretty much the same — which isn't necessarily a bad thing. That is, unless you're a buyer looking to find a home in the city of Boston.

The fall market is typically the second busiest time of the year for real estate transactions after the spring market. Yet where is the inventory? According to Otis & Ahearn Real Estate, the downtown Boston market currently has 328 units versus 531 units at the same time last year, which is a decline of 62 percent. At the same time, the average price of sold units year to date is $727,457, up from $660,864 last year. That's a 9 percent gain. The downtown market includes these neighborhoods: Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Bay Village, East Cambridge, Charlestown Navy Yard, Chinatown, Fenway, Financial District, Leather District, Midtown, North End, South Boston, South End, Seaport, West End and Waterfront.

So where is the inventory? Private sellers seem to be more hesitant to put their homes on the market, as they have no place to go. And with an abundant supply of new development inventory just a few years ago, developers who put the brakes on projects then for various reasons, including lack of financing, are now trying to play catch up. But that will take time.

With the last new building selling out at a record pace (Millennium Place in Downtown Crossing), there's not much left on the horizon for new inventory. The bulk of inventory currently being built is to be leased and not sold, although that could change as developers see the continued need for new supply. In any case, the time frame for these projects to be built is anywhere from 30 to 48 months from breaking ground to obtaining their certificates of occupancy, so any new inventory should come in about three years.

"In the downtown market there is only 1.5 months of supply inventory," said Kevin Ahearn, president of Otis and Ahearn. "Since 2004, the city has lost 1,100 units of sales priced at under $500,000." To this end, says Ahearn, "the city and the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) are working to promote both higher density and height construction to help with this lack of lower priced inventory."

Two of the three strongest city markets (Back Bay and South End) have just 138 units between them, according to information gathered from the Multiple Listing Service Property Information Network.

Surprisingly, other than the latest bit of sluggishness in the market due to the government shutdown, which sparked a bit of fear with consumers, the market has held steady here in Boston.

According to Ahearn, "The city of Boston should have a record year in terms of overall number of transactions (with the exception of 2004 and 2005) since 1998."

Charlie Abrahams is a licensed real estate agent in Boston who works with buyers and sellers and can be reached at: Bostonrealestate@charlieabrahams.com.

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State ups grants for hiring vets

The Patrick administration has more than doubled cash grants for employers who hire Massachusetts veterans and the long-term unemployed.

Employers can now apply for training grants of $5,000 for each hire who has been unemployed for six months or longer, or for each veteran, regardless of the length of unemployment, up to a total of $75,000 per calendar year.

"It provides an opportunity for companies to hire people even if they don't have a perfect skill set," said Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Joanne F. Goldstein. "We provide the training funds."

Employers previously received no more than $2,000 per new hire, for a total of no more than $30,000 per calendar year.

Doubling those amounts provides a greater incentive for employers to hire not only the long-term unemployed, but also veterans who have an average unemployment rate of 9.9 percent, compared to 7.2 percent for civilians.

"Veterans are not only heroes for their service to our country, but they also make fantastic employees," said Secretary of Veterans Services Coleman Nee. "They have a broad range of skill sets that are readily transferable to a commercial setting."

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The Ticker

Globe sale still stalled

The sale of The Boston Globe remained on hold yesterday as both sides awaited a judge's ruling on an emergency motion connected to the class-action lawsuit between the Worcester Telegram & Gazette and former newspaper carriers.

Worcester Superior Court Judge Shannon Frison halted the $70 million deal between the New York Times Co. and Red Sox owner John Henry on Friday. Lawyers for the Times filed an emergency motion to let the sale proceed on Monday, which Frison has been considering.

Four former Telegram newspaper carriers sued the newspaper in 2009 alleging they were misclassified as independent contractors instead of regular employees. They could receive up to $60 million.

Henry had been slated to take over the Globe last Saturday.

Caterpillar earnings, falling oil end S&P 500 record close streak

A four-day streak of record closes ended for the Standard & Poor's 500 index yesterday after Caterpillar reported weak earnings and falling oil prices hurt energy stocks.

Caterpillar, which makes mining and construction equipment, is considered an important barometer of the global economy. The plunge in Caterpillar's third-quarter profit discouraged investors and stalled a two-week surge in the stock market. Energy stocks dropped as the price of oil fell to its lowest in almost four months.

TODAY

• Labor Department releases weekly jobless claims.
• Labor Department releases job openings and labor turnover survey for August.
• Santander, Southwest Airlines, Ford Motor Co., 3M, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., Microsoft Corp., Zynga Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. all report quarterly earnings.

TOMORROW

• Germany's Ifo Institute releases its monthly index of business confidence, a closely watched indicator for Europe's biggest economy.
• United Parcel Service Inc. reports quarterly financial results before the market opens.

THE SHUFFLE

• TD Bank has promoted Anabela A. Blake, left, to assistant vice president, store manager II of the store located at 60 Main St., Westfield. She will continue to be responsible for new business development, consumer and business lending, managing personnel and overseeing the day-to-day operations
• Insulet announced the appointment of Dr. Howard Zisser as the company's first medical director. An expert in the diabetes community, Zisser has conducted clinical research on new and innovative therapies for Type 1, Type 2 and gestational diabetes.

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Injunction over suit blocks Boston Globe sale

A judge's 11th-hour order to freeze the scheduled sale of The Boston Globe to Red Sox owner John Henry — amid a class-action lawsuit brought by former newspaper carriers at sister paper Worcester Telegram & Gazette — left the Times with even more headaches yesterday as it tries to unload the beleaguered broadsheet.

"In all the years I've followed the newspaper industry, I've never heard of this happening," said Edward Atorino of The Benchmark Co. "It sounds to me like the Times just wants to get rid of the Globe."

The Times, which paid $1.1 billion for the Globe in 1993, agreed to sell the paper in August to John Henry for $70 million. But it also agreed to take over employee pension liabilities and could now be on the hook for up to $60 million, the high end of what the Worcester carriers are seeking, according to court documents.

The Herald first reported on Saturday that the sale would be delayed.

Worcester Superior Court Judge Shannon Frison is expected to rule today on whether the sale can proceed after she ordered a temporary stop on Friday. Attorneys for the T&G filed an emergency motion to modify the injunction on Monday, which Frison is considering.

It all stems from a class-action suit filed by four former carriers at the T&G who allege they were misclassified as independent contractors instead of regular employees.

Attorney James Galliher said the approximately 1,500 carriers may be owed as much as $60 million, mostly for mileage and supplies reimbursements as well as other benefits between January 2006 and April 2011, when their positions were outsourced.

Meanwhile, the Times sought to downplay any suggestions that the judge's order could derail the sale.

"We continue to move toward a close," said Times spokeswoman Abbe Serphos.

Henry and the Globe declined to comment.

Analysts have said much of the value in the Globe deal is in the real estate of the paper's Morrissey Boulevard headquarters.

However, contrary to a published report yesterday claiming the Department of Environmental Protection had banned any development on contaminated sections of the Globe property, Henry could in fact redevelop the site, but would first need to take certain additional environmental steps, said DEP spokesman Ed Coletta.

Ariel Rodriguez contributed to this report.

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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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Survey: Consumer plan to spend more on holiday shopping this year

LOS ANGELES — A survey of holiday shoppers finds an upswing in spending plans this year.

Deloitte retail sector chief Alison Paul says shoppers plan to spend an average $421 on holiday gifts, up about 8 percent from last year.

And discount stores are no longer their first choice. For the first time, Paul says, the Internet is the top shopping destination for holiday shopping by a majority of consumers. Until this year it was discount box stores.

Paul says consumers also now expect free shipping as a standard convenience, so online retailers who don't offer it will lose out.

Three-quarters of consumers say coupons and promotional offers will influence their holiday spending. And nearly a third plan to have most of their holiday shopping done before Black Friday.

Sound: 12:32 aed

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Asia stocks waver ahead of US jobs report

BANGKOK — Asian stock markets wavered Tuesday as investors battened down for U.S. earnings and the September employment report that was delayed by the government shutdown.

Benchmarks in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and South Korea fell while Japan and Australia posted modest gains. Stock markets in Southeast Asia were mixed. Oil traded below $100 a barrel.

Markets are absorbing quarterly U.S. earnings, with about 30 percent of S&P 500 companies releasing results this week, and also awaiting the September jobs report which was delayed more than two weeks.

U.S. employers are forecast to have added 180,000 jobs, up from 169,000 in August. The unemployment rate is expected to remain at 7.3 percent, which will support arguments in favor of the Federal Reserve continuing its super easy monetary policy.

Employers are adding jobs at only a modest pace, and many of the hires are in lower-paying industries. Economists think the shutdown slowed growth in the October-December quarter and likely dampened hiring.

Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average was up 0.2 percent at 14,723.44 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.5 percent to 5,378.

Seoul's Kospi lost 0.1 percent to 2,051.65. Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.5 percent to 23,324.50 and China's Shanghai Composite Index was off 0.7 percent at 2,214.51.

Benchmarks in India and Singapore rose while Indonesia and Thailand fell.

Monday's batch of U.S. earnings were mixed. McDonald's confirmed that it faces greater competition, shifting eating habits and tough economic conditions around the world. The share price of toy maker Hasbro spiked sharply after reporting better-than-expected results.

The S&P 500 closed up a fraction of a point at 1,744.66, an all-time high, its third consecutive record close. The Dow Jones industrial average edged down 7.45 points, or 0.1 percent, to 15,392.20. The Nasdaq composite rose 5.77 points, or 0.2 percent, to 3,920.05.

Benchmark crude for November delivery was down 27 cents at $98.95 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The November contract expires Tuesday.

Oil closed below $100 a barrel Monday for the first time since early July as U.S. supplies keep rising and the risks of disruption to Middle East shipments subside. The contract fell $1.59 to $99.22

In currencies, the euro fell to $1.3667 from $1.3673 late Monday. The dollar rose to 98.31 yen from 98.18 yen.

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Bacteria found in breast milk sold on Internet

CHICAGO — Human breast milk is sold for babies on several online sites for a few dollars an ounce, but a new study says buyer beware: Testing showed it can contain potentially dangerous bacteria including salmonella.

The warning comes from researchers who bought and tested 101 breast milk samples sold by women on one popular site. Three-fourths of the samples contained high amounts of bacteria that could potentially sicken babies, the researchers found. They did not identify the website.

The results are "pretty scary," said Dr. Kenneth Boyer, pediatrics chief at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, who was not involved in the study. "Just imagine if the donor happens to be a drug user. You don't know."

The research cites several cases of infants getting sick from strangers' milk published in medical literature.

Breast milk is also provided through milk banks, whose clients include hospitals. They also charge fees but screen donors and pasteurize donated milk to kill any germs.

With Internet sites, "you have very few ways to know for sure what you are getting is really breast milk and that it's safe to feed your baby," said Sarah Keim, the lead author and a researcher at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. "Because the consequences can be serious, it is not a good idea to obtain breast milk in this way."

The advice echoes a 2010 recommendation from the federal Food and Drug Administration.

"When human milk is obtained directly from individuals or through the Internet, the donor is unlikely to have been adequately screened for infectious disease or contamination risk," the FDA says. "In addition, it is not likely that the human milk has been collected, processed, tested or stored in a way that reduces possible safety risks to the baby."

The researchers believe theirs is the first study to test the safety of Internet-sold milk, although several others have documented bacteria in mothers' own milk or in milk bank donations. Some bacteria may not be harmful, but salmonella is among germs that could pose a threat to infants, Boyer said.

Sources for bacteria found in the study aren't known but could include donors' skin, breast pumps used to extract milk, or contamination from improper shipping methods, Keim said.

The study was published online Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

There are many milk-sharing sites online, including several that provide milk for free. Sellers or donors tend to be new mothers who produce more milk than their own babies can consume. Users include mothers who have difficulty breast-feeding and don't want to use formula and people with adopted infants.

Breanna Clemons of Dickinson, N.D., is a donor who found a local woman who needed breast milk through one of the online sites where milk is offered free.

"A lot of people are like, 'Ewww, it's weird,' but they haven't been in a situation where they didn't want their child to have formula," or couldn't produce enough milk, Clemons said. She said she shared her medical history with the recipient.

Clemons is breast-feeding her 7-month-old and stores excess milk in her freezer. Every few weeks, she meets up with the recipient and gives her about 20 6-ounce bags. Clemons said the woman has a healthy 9-month-old who "loves my milk."

Keim said it's unclear if milk from sites offering donated milk would have the same risks because donors might be different from those seeking money for their milk. And in a comparison, the researchers found more bacteria in breast milk purchased online than in 20 unpasteurized samples donated to a milk bank.

Bekki Hill is a co-founder of Modern Milksharing, an online support group that offers advice on milk donation. She said there's a difference between milk sellers and donors; milk donors "don't stand to gain anything from donating so they have no reason to lie about their health."

Hill, of Red Hook, N.Y., used a donor's milk for her first two children and plans to do so for her third, due in February, because she doesn't produce enough of her own.

"Breast milk is obviously the preferred food" for babies, she said.

___

Online:

Pediatrics: http://www.aap.org

___

Follow AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner .

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Hub fed chief: Shutdown slows recovery

The two-and-a-half week government shutdown and prolonged partisan gridlock in Washington, D.C., has helped to slow the country's economic recovery, one of the top financial officials in the country said.

"You wouldn't run a business by threatening to shut it down every six weeks," Eric Rosengren, president of the Boston Federal Reserve Bank, told the Herald. "Unfortunately economic conditions haven't improved as anticipated in part because of the headwinds created by the fiscal discussion."

The focus on reducing government spending, while not a bad goal in general, has meant a slower recovery than in the past, Rosengren said. "Normally government spending is picking up during recovery, this time the opposite's been true," he said.

The shutdown and looming threat of another budget fight in months is preventing businesses and employers from making long term plans, he said.

Businesses invest and hire, Rosengren said, when they "think business prospects are going to improve," something that is now hard to determine. In turn, unemployment rises and limits overall spending and economic growth.

The level that the central bank should be propping up the economy through its 
$85 billion per month bond buying program remains dependent on economic progress, largely gross domestic product. "We should begin reducing our purchases when it's clear the economy is growing faster than 
2 percent," he said.

Last week, IHS Global Insight reduced its forecast for fourth quarter GDP to 
1.6 percent, from 2.2 percent. Rosengren said he thought the shutdown alone would take a few tenths of a percent off of GDP.

Rosengren also countered criticism of Janet Yellen, President Obama's nominee to replace current fed chairman Benjamin Bernanke when his term expires next year. Critics have called Yellen more of an academic economist than a practical one, a notion Rosengren dismissed.

"I think she actually does have a perspective that's very practical and pragmatic," he said. "I would expect her to do a wonderful job."

Rosengren said Yellen's experience, including serving as the vice-chairwoman of the Federal Reserve Board and previously as the president of the San Francisco Fed, give her plenty of practical knowledge and expertise.

"It's not like those positions are an ivory tower," he said.

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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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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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