Also CR is no longer recommending the Accord V6 and their surveys are reflecting the problems Honda's VCM is causing in the v6.
My dad's 09 Accord v6 is heading in for what looks like it's 3rd major engine issue. The low oil pressure light is coming on and the oil level is fine. It has already been torn apart twice for oil consumption and miss fire problems which began around 60k miles.
I read Honda is offering an 8 year unlimited mile warranty on several vehicles with the 3.5 V6 to cover oil consumption and miss fire issues.
>>>>>If he had ever looked at the statistics showing the number of deaths caused by not wearing seatbelts in car crashes, he would have realized just how wrong he was...>>>>>
Seat belts and shoulder harnesses have been standard in cars since about the 1960's. Today, 2013, we can still read accident/crash reports where the driver and/or passenger(s) were not wearing seat belts. We can still hear about people saying they do not want to wear seat belts either because they are uncomfortable OR that in event of a crash they want to get out of their car quickly and not be burned up in a fire. Would guess that none of these type of people are ardent NASCAR or F1 fans. They know better.
I heard on the NBC (I think) national news tonight that Ford's issues go beyond My Ford/ Synch and now the Eco-boost Turbo's may be problematic. Also, Honda V6 VCM. It seldom pays to buy upfront on these new technologies and VCM was a disaster at GM years back, so not sure why Honda jumped into it.
one thing about the whole electronic sensor gimmick. It will put the onus on people using the interstates (the ones that already pay tolls on a lot of them). All those local miles and back roads won't be captured. And frankly, the money and time/hassle of installing the system is going to limit the implementation.
and definitely expect a number of people to start running on the alternate highways instead of the interstates.
Honda has been doing the VCM deal since at least 2005, and I don't recall hearing much problem with it. I didn't have any on my 2005 Odyssey, and don't notice it on my RDX (except for being able to pull 29-30 MPG running 70-75 on the highway.
"one thing about the whole electronic sensor gimmick. It will put the onus on people using the interstates (the ones that already pay tolls on a lot of them). All those local miles and back roads won't be captured. And frankly, the money and time/hassle of installing the system is going to limit the implementation. "
I'm not sure, but I don't think your description above is how this would be implemented.
Much easier to have the vehicle report its statistics to a central source, on a periodic basis, or if you want to go old-school, simply develop a system that relies on some averaging algorithm and place cameras everywhere (technology that already exists and is in use today to monitor speeding, red light running, etc.).
"It's been my experience that most of the folks paranoid enough to think the government is spying on them through their car's electronics haven't really faced up the fact that they aren't important enough to be spied upon."
I know we don't always see eye-to-eye on car stuff, but we agree on that!
I'm a conservative guy, but I just don't worry about that kind of stuff. I figure I don't do anything bad enough to worry about.
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
I think everyone is over thinking how tax by the mile would work.
In any state that has inspections, that information is already captured. In states without inspections, they could implement them and kill 2 birds with one stone - collect the mileage and get dangerous vehicles off the road.
>>>>>>>I'm a conservative guy, but I just don't worry about that kind of stuff. I figure I don't do anything bad enough to worry about.>>>>>>>
The fuel tax should be an adequate method to pay for roads and highways. Somehow, a method is needed to tax electric or hybrid cars so they pay their fair share of road use.
Conservative guys should be advocating how to cut back on government, and government intrusion into our lives. Government putting mileage tracking devices with gps in our cars is unnecessary intrusion and can easily lead to misuse by someone in government. We have seen an agency of the government in the last few years targeting particular groups of individuals for extra scrutiny and harassment.
"In any state that has inspections, that information is already captured. In states without inspections, they could implement them and kill 2 birds with one stone - collect the mileage and get dangerous vehicles off the road."
The irony here is that in many if the states not currently requiring annual vehicle inspections (I live in one of them, SC), requiring owners to get their car inspected would probably be viewed by many as more tyrannical than the actual data collection to determine miles driven.
At the heart of the matter isn't so much taxation by mile driven, but appropriate (read: fair) allocation of collected monies. I may put 25K miles/year on my vehicle, but how many miles in my state .vs. other states?
If such a system is implemented by state, we have the same issue... Should I pay state X taxes on miles driven in other states?
Its one of the big issues with the current federal tax on gasoline, in that states usually get more (less) than the tax collected in allocation of road funds.
Like most issues, a simple "mileage based" tax sounds easy enough, until one starts digging into it deeply.
I think state mandated inspections are another racket. They label it safety to con the public. The real purpose is to generate some revenue for service centers and then get sales tax and increased income tax as a result.
I grew up in PA, where they used to have two mandatory safety inspections on your car each year. They'd check your horn and all lights, of course, but would also pull two opposite wheels to look at your brakes. My Dad always thought that was a good thing. It's down to a year there now. They'd also fail a rustbucket--even making you fix a small hole in the car. We lived only ten miles from the OH line and the old joke was you could always tell an Ohio car coming, if it had big holes, no bumpers, etc. I live in OH now and all there is is an emissions test; no safety inspection. I live in what would be known as a rural county overall; we have emissions tests but bigger cities in other parts of the state don't. Duh! P.S. I have to laugh at how many cars around here I see with two of three brake lights burned out.
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
Interesting points regarding miles driven in your home state vs other states.
How about something like this --- there are two mileage taxes - one federal, one state (just like gas taxes now). The federal tax goes into a fund to be shared across all states, while the state tax is used by the local DOT for road work.
The federal gas tax is currently 18.4 cents per gallon. With the average vehicle getting 25MPG, driving 15,000 miles a year results in a gas tax of about $110 for the year. Reversing the math, those 15,000 miles would have to be taxed at about .007 per mile to get the same $110.
I think you can have mileage trackers without GPS.
One advantage of the gas tax is that the monies are collected with each fuel purchase transaction. Can a mileage tax be collected as transparently?
At the heart of the matter isn't so much taxation by mile driven, but appropriate (read: fair) allocation of collected monies. I may put 25K miles/year on my vehicle, but how many miles in my state .vs. other states?
Basing it on the state your car is registered in makes the most sense. I would say the the vast majority does the vast majority of their miles in their home states. What driving is done out of state is offset by others coming into your state. In my job, I drive all over New England but live in MA. Someone else doing the same job may live in NH and cover the same area. My mileage in NH offsets his in MA.
Of course, all states would have to drop the gas tax and go to mileage taxes. It wouldn't be fair if I had a mileage tax in MA but paid gas taxes on NH fuel purchases.
There isn't a simple answer. If we keep gas taxes as they are and levy a separate "road tax" on electric cars, it would be considered unfair. If you implement a "mileage tax" and collect data via yearly inspections and via transponders, people find it intrusive.
One advantage of the gas tax is that the monies are collected with each fuel purchase transaction. Can a mileage tax be collected as transparently?
IMHO, no.
They could do it under an honesty policy on sales/use tax on out of state purchases here in MA. On our tax returns we are asked to list those. I doubt very few people list that tv they bought in NH and brought home to MA. But if you don't list it you are technically guilty of tax evasion.
>>>>>>One advantage of the gas tax is that the monies are collected with each fuel purchase transaction. Can a mileage tax be collected as transparently?>>>>>>
Fuel tax would seem to be the most efficient way to collect the tax and send it to government. Presumably, it is done by each operator of a gas/fuel station at certain periods. Weekly, monthly? Wonder if anybody knows. Anyway, it is paygo and drivers easily pay each time they buy fuel.
Fuel tax avoids government intrusion and possible snooping into our lives. With a gps tracking or odo reading by a government agency, how long before some politicians in States or DC say that there is a certain amount of max miles per year per vehicle that is normal and customary. Say 10,000. Anything beyond that is wasteful, harms the environment and must be taxed EXTRA.
Mileage tracking devices or manual odo readings require extra government systems, workers and inefficiencies. If the billing is annually, then car owners have to come up with a payment annually. More government (costs) to administer an accounting office to collect payments, go after people who are late in paying.
I've heard that in places of the world where toll timers are used to issue speeding tickets people will still drive at the appropriate speed and then pull over near the end gate to read a magazine or newspaper (or make a phone call or whatever) for a period of time necessary to avoid the speed limit farce.
We could enact a law that will enact a penalty that if politicians mis-spend our tax dollars they will be put to a slow torturous death.
'18 Porsche Macan Turbo, '16 Audi TTS, Wife's '19 VW Tiguan SEL 4-Motion
Agreed! Whoever came up with the idea of a mileage tax based on GPS tracking had a very VERY VERY low IQ.
Either that, or they are just greedy corrupt politicians that'll benefit from it.
The gas tax is much simpler. It would also be much simpler to just take away "hybrid car" incentives and say "That's your gas tax, since you don't use much gas." Or, they could charge a yearly fee for registering annual licenses for hybrid/electric cars.
All much simpler than some ridiculous mileage based fee.
'18 Porsche Macan Turbo, '16 Audi TTS, Wife's '19 VW Tiguan SEL 4-Motion
I've heard that in places of the world where toll timers are used to issue speeding tickets people will still drive at the appropriate speed and then pull over near the end gate to read a magazine or newspaper (or make a phone call or whatever) for a period of time necessary to avoid the speed limit farce.
the problem isn't that EcoBoost is too new, but that it's Ford.
My '06 Audi A3 has Direct Injection and a Turbo and over 105,000 miles, and aside from doing 2 induction/fuel injector cleanings at about $150 a pop, it's not an issue.
'18 Porsche Macan Turbo, '16 Audi TTS, Wife's '19 VW Tiguan SEL 4-Motion
Well Uplander, I think the nitpicking in PA inspection you pointed out kind of supports my thought that these things are really revenue enhancers. I've yet to see any emperical evidence that states with inspections are any safer on the highways than those without, nor that any safety differences between states are directly attributable to those so called inspections. In fact, I've lived in states where the required inspections are performed at privately owned auto service centers. No conflict of interest there!
It'd be awesome to see the overpaid overpensioned revenue addicted public sector official class be strung up and held accountable for unjustifiable regulations that they support and enact. It's funny, how the French of all people, had a good idea maybe 224 years ago. Something for another thread, though.
I was out on the road yesterday, thinking how my grandfather drove on the same road 50 years ago, with the same speed limit.
People drive at a speed that is comfortable and safe to them, regardless of what the speed limit is. The speed limit might alter a small percentage of drivers that pay deep attention to them, thereby bringing the average speed of traffic down a tad (no one wants to be an extreme out-lier).
The Solomon curves shows that going slower than average speed gets very unsafe, and going much faster than average can start to get unsafe too.
I suppose people do it so they can legally use their cell phone? You shouldn't be on your cell phone while driving. If you are pulled over, you are free to do whatever safely.
'18 Porsche Macan Turbo, '16 Audi TTS, Wife's '19 VW Tiguan SEL 4-Motion
It's funny that a gas tax, or compensating tax on non internal combustion vehicles, is still the most efficient system. I shudder to think of all the departments with 17 levels of management that would be created for GPS tracking issues.
You know, no matter what state or city I may be in; turn on the news and you'll hear we need more revenue because we can't meet our costs. You'll never seem to hear anything about cutting costs. Three city or state guys in a pickup truck seems to be the local labor standard cost basis.
Since the Tyranny of govt already requires you (in CA) to overpay a smog check place every 2 years after your car is 6 years old, why not have them simply read the odometer every 2 years and report that to the DMV which then forwards you a mileage bill?
I can see the cost of non-functional speedos going up drastically!
'18 Porsche Macan Turbo, '16 Audi TTS, Wife's '19 VW Tiguan SEL 4-Motion
I suppose people do it so they can legally use their cell phone? You shouldn't be on your cell phone while driving. If you are pulled over, you are free to do whatever safely.
I think you will find that non-emergency use of breakdown lanes on controlled access highways (where tolls are found) is illegal in most states.
Again - I ask for real proof of toll booth ticket times being used to enforce speed limits and issue speeding violations.
Yep. When submitting a MA tax return, it says under the signature line that what you are submitting is the truth. If you lie on the question about out of state purchase brought into MA, you are committing tax evasion.
I would hope that toll both ticket times being used for speed enforcement would at least incite a boycott of said toll road, and at a maximum incite a riot and revolt.
Unless of course the country can agree on a sound scientific engineering principle of setting speed limits at the 85th percentile, rather than an arbitrary slow speed limit used for maximizing revenues for the government and insurance companies.
'18 Porsche Macan Turbo, '16 Audi TTS, Wife's '19 VW Tiguan SEL 4-Motion
I'd guess with all of the treacherous overpaid irresponsible FIRE industry junk in the Boston area, that tax evasion thing isn't exactly an enforced law.
Two brand-new recalls on Audi today...one for breaking sunroofs and one for potential fire hazard.
I know many feel recalls aren't a quality issue, but like a minor problem, they usually involve an unscheduled visit to the dealer...particularly with today's extended service intervals.
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
My old Audi doesn't have a sunroof, but I admit the new one on order does.
How many Audi's were recalled though, didn't you argue that the quantity recalled should be weighed when considering recalls a problem?
All I know is Audi reimbursed me nearly $700 for the induction control module issues I had (and extended the warranty to 7 years or 120,000 miles). That went a long way towards my new order, along with the 1,000 dollar loyalty rebate.
Acura had a $1,500 conquest rebate, if that was doubled, it would have been more effective.
'18 Porsche Macan Turbo, '16 Audi TTS, Wife's '19 VW Tiguan SEL 4-Motion
I remember speaking to someone that was in the "seatbelts" can be dangerous camp.
He provided an anecdotal story of someone surviving a horrific roll over accident because they were ejected from the vehicle. Had they been in the vehicle in the chair strapped by the seat belt, they surely would have been dead.
How he could reason this one type of accident in a million takes away the other 999,999 possibilities of an accident where seat belts could help is lost upon me.
He also is a motorcycle driver and thinks baseball cap style helmets are just as good as full face and head protection.
'18 Porsche Macan Turbo, '16 Audi TTS, Wife's '19 VW Tiguan SEL 4-Motion
Those are good incentives. Since you liked your current car, why wouldn't you buy the same make again--especially with incentives like you enjoyed on the new and old cars? I don't blame you for that.
I think a recall on an "8" series Audi is a little different than a recall on a low-price, high-volume Cruze or Focus, though.
I remember when fewer than 5K Caddy SRX's were recalled for a fire hazard. A photo of one on fire--the same photo--was posted on the old GM forum by the same guy every bit of ten times--perhaps more. Just sayin'.
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
I wonder why they started not recommending cars with a Poor when it was Toyota who scored poorly. The Audi A4 got the same score earlier yet they didn't feel compelled to do that. Are they picking on Toyota again?
Remember when the Lexus GX skidded they put a "Do Not Buy" stamp on it and it made headline news. The Grand Cherokee "hopped and skidded sideways" in their tests and they gave Jeep another model year to revise the stability control program.
I think they were cutting Chrysler slack because they were in bankruptcy at the time.
Nonetheless, it does seem like they've had it out for Toyota.
Sure Lexus and Toyota score #1 and #2 but notice that's objective survey results. They have no choice but to report those.
I would say we've pretty much examined the road-use tax dilemma in enough detail to demonstrate there's no perfect way to collect road use taxes.
Someone always gets short shrift...
Regarding 2 other subjects others brought up...
Auto inspections: SC required annual auto inspections up until about 15 years ago, at which time the legislature changed the law, allowing the practice to expire. The inspections were done only at privately owned licensed auto repair locations, and the fee was regulated to something in the single-digit dollar range, so it was impossible to do the mandated checks/verifications and break even, much less make a profit. Predictably, no shops would do auto inspections (but a few would simply sell you the decal with no inspection). No SC politician was willing to lose votes by raising the fee to a decent amount... Therefore, no more inspections.
Out-of-state purchases reporting: SC also has a line item on the state income tax return where you are "supposed" to report out of state/Internet/tax free purchases, and remit the corresponding tax amount... Its voluntary, and from what I remember reading about it, extremely few SC citizens "make" any out of state/Internet/tax free purchases... As one might expect. That's why state department revenue agencies are pushing so hard for Internet sales tax reporting and collection.
In PA, all of the safety inspections are performed at privately-owned garages. When I was growing up ('60's and '70's), every gas station, car dealer, and independent garage had the 'keystone' sign out front that said "Authorized Pa. State Inspection Station". I seem to remember a cost of $6.75 in the '70's, but I could be wrong. I prefer a safety inspection to an emissions inspection. Cars here were actually being damaged by the doofuses at the emissions station here at first!
I was bumped from behind about a year ago by a woman in an old Taurus who said, "I guess I should've had my brakes looked at since the brake light stays on". Duh!
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
We have the opposite problem in CA as the emissions checks are not price regulated. Everybody is willing to do them, but it seems 99% of them price collude to gouge the prices. $35 or so for a Civic that takes less than 10 minutes of their time? And that's after shopping around a bit; could of paid a lot more.
I think it could be both a safety and emissions check, and be extended to be every 3 years rather than every other year.
It seems if the State is going to mandate something, then they are going to have to mandate businesses only charge a certain price (and tie it to inflation to keep it current).
'18 Porsche Macan Turbo, '16 Audi TTS, Wife's '19 VW Tiguan SEL 4-Motion
He provided an anecdotal story of someone surviving a horrific roll over accident because they were ejected from the vehicle. Had they been in the vehicle in the chair strapped by the seat belt, they surely would have been dead.
You must mean this one where the guy survived due to the advanced safety features of the corvette.
Fuel tax avoids government intrusion and possible snooping into our lives.
I'm with you on this. We've certainly had enough of that elsewhere recently. Even my brain-dead illustrious senator Feinstein is finally coming around.
Comments
My dad's 09 Accord v6 is heading in for what looks like it's 3rd major engine issue. The low oil pressure light is coming on and the oil level is fine. It has already been torn apart twice for oil consumption and miss fire problems which began around 60k miles.
I read Honda is offering an 8 year unlimited mile warranty on several vehicles with the 3.5 V6 to cover oil consumption and miss fire issues.
Seat belts and shoulder harnesses have been standard in cars since about the 1960's. Today, 2013, we can still read accident/crash reports where the driver and/or passenger(s) were not wearing seat belts. We can still hear about people saying they do not want to wear seat belts either because they are uncomfortable OR that in event of a crash they want to get out of their car quickly and not be burned up in a fire. Would guess that none of these type of people are ardent NASCAR or F1 fans. They know better.
and definitely expect a number of people to start running on the alternate highways instead of the interstates.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
That's in todays Detroit News as well.
My brother has a newish F-150 and he avoided the EcoBoost; thought it was too new.
I'm not sure, but I don't think your description above is how this would be implemented.
Much easier to have the vehicle report its statistics to a central source, on a periodic basis, or if you want to go old-school, simply develop a system that relies on some averaging algorithm and place cameras everywhere (technology that already exists and is in use today to monitor speeding, red light running, etc.).
I know we don't always see eye-to-eye on car stuff, but we agree on that!
I'm a conservative guy, but I just don't worry about that kind of stuff. I figure I don't do anything bad enough to worry about.
In any state that has inspections, that information is already captured. In states without inspections, they could implement them and kill 2 birds with one stone - collect the mileage and get dangerous vehicles off the road.
The fuel tax should be an adequate method to pay for roads and highways. Somehow, a method is needed to tax electric or hybrid cars so they pay their fair share of road use.
Conservative guys should be advocating how to cut back on government, and government intrusion into our lives. Government putting mileage tracking devices with gps in our cars is unnecessary intrusion and can easily lead to misuse by someone in government. We have seen an agency of the government in the last few years targeting particular groups of individuals for extra scrutiny and harassment.
The irony here is that in many if the states not currently requiring annual vehicle inspections (I live in one of them, SC), requiring owners to get their car inspected would probably be viewed by many as more tyrannical than the actual data collection to determine miles driven.
At the heart of the matter isn't so much taxation by mile driven, but appropriate (read: fair) allocation of collected monies. I may put 25K miles/year on my vehicle, but how many miles in my state .vs. other states?
If such a system is implemented by state, we have the same issue... Should I pay state X taxes on miles driven in other states?
Its one of the big issues with the current federal tax on gasoline, in that states usually get more (less) than the tax collected in allocation of road funds.
Like most issues, a simple "mileage based" tax sounds easy enough, until one starts digging into it deeply.
How about something like this --- there are two mileage taxes - one federal, one state (just like gas taxes now). The federal tax goes into a fund to be shared across all states, while the state tax is used by the local DOT for road work.
The federal gas tax is currently 18.4 cents per gallon. With the average vehicle getting 25MPG, driving 15,000 miles a year results in a gas tax of about $110 for the year. Reversing the math, those 15,000 miles would have to be taxed at about .007 per mile to get the same $110.
I think you can have mileage trackers without GPS.
One advantage of the gas tax is that the monies are collected with each fuel purchase transaction. Can a mileage tax be collected as transparently?
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Basing it on the state your car is registered in makes the most sense. I would say the the vast majority does the vast majority of their miles in their home states. What driving is done out of state is offset by others coming into your state. In my job, I drive all over New England but live in MA. Someone else doing the same job may live in NH and cover the same area. My mileage in NH offsets his in MA.
Of course, all states would have to drop the gas tax and go to mileage taxes. It wouldn't be fair if I had a mileage tax in MA but paid gas taxes on NH fuel purchases.
There isn't a simple answer. If we keep gas taxes as they are and levy a separate "road tax" on electric cars, it would be considered unfair. If you implement a "mileage tax" and collect data via yearly inspections and via transponders, people find it intrusive.
IMHO, no.
They could do it under an honesty policy on sales/use tax on out of state purchases here in MA. On our tax returns we are asked to list those. I doubt very few people list that tv they bought in NH and brought home to MA. But if you don't list it you are technically guilty of tax evasion.
Fuel tax would seem to be the most efficient way to collect the tax and send it to government. Presumably, it is done by each operator of a gas/fuel station at certain periods. Weekly, monthly? Wonder if anybody knows. Anyway, it is paygo and drivers easily pay each time they buy fuel.
Fuel tax avoids government intrusion and possible snooping into our lives. With a gps tracking or odo reading by a government agency, how long before some politicians in States or DC say that there is a certain amount of max miles per year per vehicle that is normal and customary. Say 10,000. Anything beyond that is wasteful, harms the environment and must be taxed EXTRA.
Mileage tracking devices or manual odo readings require extra government systems, workers and inefficiencies. If the billing is annually, then car owners have to come up with a payment annually. More government (costs) to administer an accounting office to collect payments, go after people who are late in paying.
We could enact a law that will enact a penalty that if politicians mis-spend our tax dollars they will be put to a slow torturous death.
Either that, or they are just greedy corrupt politicians that'll benefit from it.
The gas tax is much simpler. It would also be much simpler to just take away "hybrid car" incentives and say "That's your gas tax, since you don't use much gas." Or, they could charge a yearly fee for registering annual licenses for hybrid/electric cars.
All much simpler than some ridiculous mileage based fee.
Why bother speeding then?
My '06 Audi A3 has Direct Injection and a Turbo and over 105,000 miles, and aside from doing 2 induction/fuel injector cleanings at about $150 a pop, it's not an issue.
I was out on the road yesterday, thinking how my grandfather drove on the same road 50 years ago, with the same speed limit.
Surely you don't mean to insinuate that Ford did Turbo on the cheap!
_________________________
People drive at a speed that is comfortable and safe to them, regardless of what the speed limit is. The speed limit might alter a small percentage of drivers that pay deep attention to them, thereby bringing the average speed of traffic down a tad (no one wants to be an extreme out-lier).
The Solomon curves shows that going slower than average speed gets very unsafe, and going much faster than average can start to get unsafe too.
I suppose people do it so they can legally use their cell phone? You shouldn't be on your cell phone while driving. If you are pulled over, you are free to do whatever safely.
It's funny that a gas tax, or compensating tax on non internal combustion vehicles, is still the most efficient system. I shudder to think of all the departments with 17 levels of management that would be created for GPS tracking issues.
Of course, they still need to make sure that is consistent across all models and lines, CR reported the S4 was not as reliable as other models.
I can see the cost of non-functional speedos going up drastically!
I think you will find that non-emergency use of breakdown lanes on controlled access highways (where tolls are found) is illegal in most states.
Again - I ask for real proof of toll booth ticket times being used to enforce speed limits and issue speeding violations.
Saying you can't recall or remember seems to be a workable defense, at least for Politicians.
Yep. When submitting a MA tax return, it says under the signature line that what you are submitting is the truth. If you lie on the question about out of state purchase brought into MA, you are committing tax evasion.
Unless of course the country can agree on a sound scientific engineering principle of setting speed limits at the 85th percentile, rather than an arbitrary slow speed limit used for maximizing revenues for the government and insurance companies.
I know many feel recalls aren't a quality issue, but like a minor problem, they usually involve an unscheduled visit to the dealer...particularly with today's extended service intervals.
How many Audi's were recalled though, didn't you argue that the quantity recalled should be weighed when considering recalls a problem?
All I know is Audi reimbursed me nearly $700 for the induction control module issues I had (and extended the warranty to 7 years or 120,000 miles). That went a long way towards my new order, along with the 1,000 dollar loyalty rebate.
Acura had a $1,500 conquest rebate, if that was doubled, it would have been more effective.
He provided an anecdotal story of someone surviving a horrific roll over accident because they were ejected from the vehicle. Had they been in the vehicle in the chair strapped by the seat belt, they surely would have been dead.
How he could reason this one type of accident in a million takes away the other 999,999 possibilities of an accident where seat belts could help is lost upon me.
He also is a motorcycle driver and thinks baseball cap style helmets are just as good as full face and head protection.
I think a recall on an "8" series Audi is a little different than a recall on a low-price, high-volume Cruze or Focus, though.
I remember when fewer than 5K Caddy SRX's were recalled for a fire hazard. A photo of one on fire--the same photo--was posted on the old GM forum by the same guy every bit of ten times--perhaps more. Just sayin'.
Pretty soon we'll all be driving V8 RWD coupes doing burnouts the whole way.
Maybe that's not so bad, LOL.
I wonder why they started not recommending cars with a Poor when it was Toyota who scored poorly. The Audi A4 got the same score earlier yet they didn't feel compelled to do that. Are they picking on Toyota again?
Remember when the Lexus GX skidded they put a "Do Not Buy" stamp on it and it made headline news. The Grand Cherokee "hopped and skidded sideways" in their tests and they gave Jeep another model year to revise the stability control program.
I think they were cutting Chrysler slack because they were in bankruptcy at the time.
Nonetheless, it does seem like they've had it out for Toyota.
Sure Lexus and Toyota score #1 and #2 but notice that's objective survey results. They have no choice but to report those.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPECS_%28speed_camera%29
Someone always gets short shrift...
Regarding 2 other subjects others brought up...
Auto inspections: SC required annual auto inspections up until about 15 years ago, at which time the legislature changed the law, allowing the practice to expire. The inspections were done only at privately owned licensed auto repair locations, and the fee was regulated to something in the single-digit dollar range, so it was impossible to do the mandated checks/verifications and break even, much less make a profit. Predictably, no shops would do auto inspections (but a few would simply sell you the decal with no inspection). No SC politician was willing to lose votes by raising the fee to a decent amount... Therefore, no more inspections.
Out-of-state purchases reporting: SC also has a line item on the state income tax return where you are "supposed" to report out of state/Internet/tax free purchases, and remit the corresponding tax amount... Its voluntary, and from what I remember reading about it, extremely few SC citizens "make" any out of state/Internet/tax free purchases... As one might expect. That's why state department revenue agencies are pushing so hard for Internet sales tax reporting and collection.
Along those lines, here's an interesting post from our mechanic friend out in Pennsylvania.
I was bumped from behind about a year ago by a woman in an old Taurus who said, "I guess I should've had my brakes looked at since the brake light stays on". Duh!
I think it could be both a safety and emissions check, and be extended to be every 3 years rather than every other year.
It seems if the State is going to mandate something, then they are going to have to mandate businesses only charge a certain price (and tie it to inflation to keep it current).
You must mean this one where the guy survived due to the advanced safety features of the corvette.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e611e6fdf5
I'm with you on this. We've certainly had enough of that elsewhere recently. Even my brain-dead illustrious senator Feinstein is finally coming around.
I heard a good idea. Every year the budget is not balanced, Congress doesn't accrue that year's seniority toward their retirements.
lol