The thing that annoys me the most is when I wash the windshield with a squiggee I can't pick the blade up to swipe the area under the wiper blade.
Old days wipers had a air foil that cause the blade to wipe with more effort on the down stroke. I know on the up stroke it had less pressure.
My wife doesn't use the gas gauge, she uses the miles to empty. I'll how much is in it, she always responds the miles to empty number. If it works for her it works better for me.
Yeah, Put mudflaps on. I live on a dirt road also, these roads were a like a mini mud bog, this spring, also had snow tires on, which really throw the mud. I put the longest and widest mudflaps on that I could find. It helps, cut it down quite a bit, probably got on my jeans twice.
To me the article explains the reasons for having a specific AGM charger/maintainer.
I agree everything with your saying , one other reason for the AGM is the location of the battery, being under the back seat. Harder to maintain the battery.
I found this article in one of my RV sites. It has a lot of info on charging and maintaining AGM batteries. It had a lot of information I was not aware of.
https://cloreautomotive.com/agm-batteries-an-update-for-2026/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Same here, live in Michigan, I noticed the same thing, 2025 XLT Hybrid, It seems to got noisier with cold weather. Let face this weather been COLD so far this December. The other thing is that when it is in electric mode it is so Quiet you really notice all the noises with engine running.