Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

fintail

In my area, I am pretty sure you just need a bachelor's to be a sub (and a background check). To go full time, it is a degree in itself. Pay can be similar, but like in most of the public sector, it is the bennies (that seldom exist in the private sector in this racing to the bottom new world) that retain talent. Still likely an under-compensated profession for many in it.

I wouldn't be surprised if there was federal pressure to lower standards, given the credentials and credibility of our super-skilled new Sec'y of Education, helping to make the swamp overflow.

ab348 said:

Living where I do, with a powerful and activist teacher's union, and a hugely bureaucratic and fuzzy-thinking provincial (i.e. state) Dept. of Education, I find it a bit mind-boggling how someone can just decide to go into teaching as a job change. Up here you need a 4-year degree program just to get put on the list for substitute teaching, and if you do OK at that after 5 or 6 years you might get a crack at a staff job. But in order to advance you need a Masters in Education plus all sorts of continuing ed too. Teachers here start at just under $60K and top out at just below $100K a year, with great benefits and a pension. Of course the departmental bureaucrats make much more and that is where a lot of teachers decide to go after teaching for many years. It is a very odd situation where the teachers union essentially controls the system thanks in part to the preponderance of members working in the department.

houdini1

jipster said:

I have said it before, Diminished value is an unrealized loss that cannot be quantified until the vehicle is sold. Beyond that the longer you keep the vehicle and the more it depreciates the so call diminished value diminishes. So let me ask you this, if you get into an accident and you get $10K for diminished value and you keep the car for another 5, 6 or 7 years and when you trade it in you only realize $

The only way to do something like that is for the insurance company to take ownership of the car and write a check for the pre-accident value of the vehicle. Then fix it and sell it on the open market.

If you keep the car then a fully repaired car has made you whole.

If you propose insurance companies "buy back" the repaired car in lieu of paying DV that's probably an acceptable fair option. Pretty much the same as totaling the vehicle, where they then have to sell the scrap or salvaged title. Only difference here is it might not have a salvaged title (but certainly a tarnished one).

Would you propose if someone injects you with a deadly disease the amount of civil damages should be limited by how long you live? To me that sounds like bad faith for the sole purpose of delaying the claim amount until you die (so time of death is known fact).

Now you're comparing apples to aircraft carriers. Injecting someone with a deadly disease does diminish the quality of life once the symptoms start to take effect and shortens that persons life span. Once your car is fully repaired it does not shorten the life of the car nor does it diminish the quality of it.

Why must an asset be sold to determine it's value? Asset values are determined all the time through market research and estimates. How do you sell a totalled vehicle? How do you sell a burned down home?

Because something is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it. Yes asset values are determined all the time through market research and (this is the key word) estimates. So unless the person who does the research and makes the estimate has a check in hand to buy that asset it is simply a guess. Oft times the guess is wrong.

Case in point, many years ago my sister was moving and selling her house. A really nice house with a lot of upgrades. Her realtor (an expert) priced the house and listed the house for that amount. One day, maybe six months or so after the house was listed, she was talking about how the house wasn't selling. She had got some offers but nowhere near what the house was worth. I told her she was getting offers of what the house was worth because those with cash in had are not going to pay more than what they think the house is worth. And if many people give the same offer your realtor is wrong.

I used to buy and sell antiques and collectibles and I very often see experts value something at say $3,000 and at an auction get a high bid of $500. I have also often seen an expert valuing something for a few hundred go for thousands.

Now with many things we buy the thing we buy is 100% identical to every other one of that product so it is easy to say what the price is (as everyone pays nearly the same for it). But somethings are not that way, like houses and used cars. With houses simply being one lot over can change the value by thousands. With used cars it becomes difficult to find the exact same car, with the exact same miles in the exact same condition as time goes by.

Now back to diminished value in a car. Suppose you get hit while driving your 2015 Buoyta Benz Sludgemobile. Now suppose take your car to an expert and he says that before the accident it was worth $25K and after it was fixed it was only worth $22K. So do you have $3K in diminished value? Maybe, then again maybe not.

Now suppose I come along to buy the car and since it was in an accident I give you the $22K for the car feeling that is a reasonable value for that car after the accident. So did you have $3K in diminish value? Again maybe and maybe not as I may have been only willing to pay $24K for the car if it was never damaged. Or I may have been willing to pay $26K for the car prior to the accident.

Now lets say that after the expert says its now only worth $22K but I say "Nope $21K". You say "it's worth $22K the expert told me".Guess what? I have 21,000 reasons why its only worth $21K, your expert has none.

Now lets look at it from another perspective. You keep the car another 10 years and put another 175K miles on it. If the car had never been in the accident it would be worth $1K, so how can you claim $3K in diminished value?

According to your statement, we can't determine the value of anything basically. You can't sell what is lost or destroyed. Perhaps their is land value if you don't rebuild the home. Until the home is rebuilt, you have tremendous diminished value.

If you rebuild a home then it is an entirely new home and should have no diminished value. Just like the car you buy to replace a totaled car.
Snake, I'd like to take you with me when I protest the amount of my property valuation assessment !!


Good luck. I thought about challenging my property evaluation. Friend said it was extremely difficult to win such cases...can't fight city hall and all. Don't know if it's true or not. But, this know it all is usually right. ;-)

The Mercury Milan owner still has his car listed on Craigslist. The more I think about it the more I'm glad I didn't go $6,200. Glad he didn't take $6,000. Now dont know if I'd even  pay that. The first offer is usually the best...no? 




Yeah Jip I know. Challenged a couple of years ago by phone. They agreed with everything I said. I said they were at least 20% high. In about 2 weeks I got a revised appraisal and they reduced the value by 2%. I won, but I still lost !!

venture

driver100 said:

venture said:

oldfarmer50 said:

qbrozen said:

I don't know where I left y'all with the whole job situation. A few weeks ago, I started down the path to becoming a teacher. It would be a massive cut in salary for me but I feel like it will make me much happier. Long story short, I am registered to take the mandatory 50-hr course and will complete that in June. I am in talks with my home district about substituting, which you can apparently do with nothing more than a background check and interview. And I have taken a few practice certification tests and scored well above passing with zero preparation. 

Meanwhile, an old coworker reached out to me on Thursday wondering if I'd be interested in being a freelance editor at his new company. I start tomorrow. Unfortunately, it means trekking to NYC twice a week for the next several weeks, but gotta do what ya gotta do. They are nice enough to agree to let me work from home the other days and probably more often after we are aquainted. It is certainly good money.

Back in 1990 I was considering the choice between becoming a sub teacher or a sub bus driver. I only needed about 9 credit hours of courses to get a teaching certificate added to my MSW. Then I took a look at the pay and realized the bus driver made more.

I can't think of an other profession that requires so much formal education yet pays so poorly.

When I graduated as an elementary school teacher my favorite instructor said he left the teaching biz to sell text books....and that was a better job than teaching. He said most teachers last about 3 years, so be prepared to change jobs......it isn't for everyone. Some people absolutely love it, others don't, and it depends a lot on where you end up teaching and the kind of students you get. Not as easy and glamorous as it sounds.

Tell me about it. My wife is a teacher.

imidazol97

venture said:

Tell me about it. My wife is a teacher.

What's even more hilarious is everyone applies their view of politics to the profession currently. AND everyone is an expert because they went to school, therefore they know all about how things should be done. My wife tired of that attitude long before she retired. LOL

Someone mentioned in the posts about the kids loving the new young teacher therefore the teacher must be doing a much better job at pedagogy than the old fuddy duddies who are following the district-mandated curriculum which usually is overseen by a state curriculum these days. Often new teachers appeal to kids just because they are younger and closer to their age. Maybe it's just that the young teacher is younger than the perceived average by the students where anyone over 30 is old, old, old.

My wife had several student teachers who became the young teachers somewhere. In our state student teaching is well regulated. The teachers who teach the next grade level or who teach the courses for which the younger teacher was teaching the prerequisite often have a real handle on how ineffective the "happy times" classroom of the new teacher was. The next-in-line teacher has to try to make up for what was missed while the laughing, easy assignments, etc., were winning the minds of the young ones. We picked the classrooms for our son to be in. In high school he hit a couple of bad apples, but it wasn't because of their age.

In our state the state has had testing, as biased as it is, for 20 years or more that checks on the efficacy of the schools in order to compare districts. Of course, the legislature which is pro charter school, tried to play that down when the charters and others tested out as poorly as the large city districts tested. The charter schools were supposed to be the "new teacher" which showed the standard schools "how it's done." So classrooms that didn't have measured learning steps occurring each year stand out along with their whole school, charter or regular when test time came. The "new teacher" charters tried many ways to cover up including cheating on the testing.

My wife and our friends can tell stories to curl your toes about how ineffective many of the principals and other higher ups are.

stickguy

I don’t miss having kids in school.

tbirdmarco

 Nice on all of the cars you drove yesterday  old farmer 

tbirdmarco

Sounds good to me explore 

oldfarmer50

andres3 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

Great day at work. Got to drive many models I never drove before. The best was an Infinity Q 60 AWD 3.0t. Man, that car is seriously fast. Does AWD give a more torquey feel? It really threw you back went you stepped on it.

I drove the RWD Stinger today and it had nice throw you back torque, and the Michelin tires gripped well.

It was brand new so still in break-in mode. The mid-range was better than the top end though power wise.

Turbo V6's (or supercharged) have a ton of torque.

We were dropping cars at the local Kia store and they had a flaming red Stinger in the showroom. $52,300 sticker and I assume an ADM hiding somewhere. 365hp is nice but for that price couldn't you get a M2?

oldfarmer50

iluvmysephia1 said:

Good luck QB, you have accomplished a lot in a short amount of time. Changing jobs and careers frequently is becoming the new normal....I was ahead of my time (as usual ).

Don't I know. I changed again, AAMOF, guys! We're back in little 'ole Alamogordo, NM, at my old job. Same exact job I had in Wenatchee, WA, but man, I was dying at that job. It's the way they require you to document what you see on your study every half hour - it took my 10 minutes per patient and we pert-near always had two patients - like most Sleep Tech's have per night.

Well, I lived in Manson, WA, about an hour and 15 minutes north. With being tired at 7:30AM and driving back, I would have to stop in Entiat and sleep at the City Park. OK, fine, but when it happens almost every day after working overnight, it gets old. Once I clipped a snow marker and another time I plowed into a snow pile and back out, no damage done to my '11 Kia Soul, just woke me up to trouble brewing for keeping this job. Trouble was, rents and mortgages are so high even in Wenatchee, Rock Island, Entiat, Leavenworth (name an oakie eastern War-shington town) that once our lease expired in mid-May and we had to re-up on a rental, we'd be up against it again.

So, one day an e-mail popped into my inbox from the same job recruiter that got me the Alamogordo hospital job in January of 2013.

"Hey, could you tell me what New Mexico city you're advertising for?"

"Same one you worked at last time, iluv!"

"Could you ask them if they'd like to talk to me again?"

"sure."

Long jmonroe story short - I got the job! And what's more - the hospital agreed to pay off the remaining amount of our lease, which was $4,200! And they reimbursed me (haven't got the money yet, s/b next paycheck) for our travel expenses. And, they're putting us up in a nice apartment in Alamo for free until we can locate a rental house or buy our own. We're thinking we want to buy a house of our own again. So we have an offer in on one and we're awaiting a flood elevation report for insurance. The house we picked out is primo but it's 21 years old and has it's original RUUD A/C and it's original roof.

So we've been here for about a month and I'm now licensed again in New Mexico. That's another short story that I can sum up easily - when you move around a lot, you lose papers! I couldn't find my South Dakota license copy. But that's done, I'm licensed and I am busy re-learning things and learning more things and...yep. I'm busy. I have kept up with all of yer all posts since I was posting from Washington more frequently.

We like the desert southwest and I have 6 1/2 years of work left if I plan in retiring at 65 (or do they require you ta go to 66 years and 10 months now?) and 3 1/2 if I stop at 62. I'd love ta stop at 62 and I'll try and figure out how, but more and more it looks like it'll be 65. But that's why we're thinking of buying here and just retiring here - we like this little peaceful southern New Mexico town. I finally decided it was time to pop back on here and do a freshen-up. Things seem mostly the same in here, really.

That's quite an adventure. I'm not sure I could stand all that relocating but it must suit you. Good luck.

ab348

imidazol97 said:

In our state the state has had testing, as biased as it is, for 20 years or more that checks on the efficacy of the schools in order to compare districts. Of course, the legislature which is pro charter school, tried to play that down when the charters and others tested out as poorly as the large city districts tested. The charter schools were supposed to be the "new teacher" which showed the standard schools "how it's done." So classrooms that didn't have measured learning steps occurring each year stand out along with their whole school, charter or regular when test time came. The "new teacher" charters tried many ways to cover up including cheating on the testing.

We don't have charter schools here, but we do have standardized testing province-wide. Interestingly, that is one of the major sticking points for the teachers union. They hate it and fight it every chance they get, saying that it doesn't really prove anything except that the students either know or don't know how to do a test. I find that an odd position to take. If you believe in the necessity for a consistent curriculum across the district/province, I'm not sure how you can tell of teachers are doing the job properly or not without such a mechanism. The relationship between the union and the employer seems broken here, and unfortunately the students are caught in the middle.

The other big issue here for the union and the validity of test results is that some years back they province moved to an "inclusion" model, where kids with learning disabilities or behavioral problems were put in the same classrooms as the mainstream students. This often causes disruption despite the presence of extra aides. The union maintains that their members cannot effectively teach the bulk of students in that situation, and I can sympathize. I can only imagine how difficult that must be in some instances.

iluvmysephia1

iluv, great to hear from you. Sometimes you need to try something different, to find out what is really important to you. It looks like you are on the right path now. Good luck....enjoy!

Yes, and my wife never wanted to leave Alamogordo. At all. I literally pulled her away kicking and screaming. So we're both happier campers now - I need to get some more experience at my job here (in progress) and we really need a house to move in to (also in progress, real estate agent says the flood survey has been done and we're awaiting the results - could take a couple of days). Thanks for the welcome back, driver. I've kept up with the reading in here since things went bonkers up in War-shington.

Hey, @iluvmysephia1 , nice to hear from you! You keep moving around but this one sounds like a better fit. Hope everything works out well.

Thanks ab348! I think even I'm sick of moving around now. Done.

interesting Iluv. But sounds like a good move. Nice to retire somewhere warm too, and cheaper is definitely better. That part of NM, is it desert, or up in the hills? I assume you are not getting any more use out of your new snow tires!

Good luck with the house hunt.

So, same hospital, same job? They could have saved a lot of money just keeping you in the first place!

Hi stick! Yes, it's high desert. Interestingly, we're awaiting a flood elevation report on the house we're going after here right now. We'll find out just how high we're at here shortly. the snow tires are still on the Kia but I need to head over to our Discount Tire and get my all-season radials put back on. I'll like the ride better, huh?

As to the hospital, I decided to leave them in Feb. of 2015, it's not their fault, it was my Mom sick with cancer that would take her life a few short months after I moved back to Washington. I missed my Dad's passing, I was in college in Missouri, so for Mom I decided to just move back there to see her and spend time with her before cancer took her. I got to give her a great big hug and for that it was all worth it. Now my wife's Mom in Chicago died in early January 2018, and she flew back to be with her family. So it's gone full circle, literally, we're back in Alamo 3 years later!

Nice to see you, iluv. I know the Wenatchee area is becoming popular for affluent boomer new retirees, so the market there for normal people is probably becoming ruined too. You'd have to go a bit more to the east for things to become reasonable.

fin - yeah, you're right. After a couple of months there at the Wenatchee job I asked my Manager about the possibility of moving to a start-up Sleep Lab of Confluence Health's over in Moses Lake.

"Yeah, it'll happen, eventually. But upper management is slow as a large dinosaur getting those kinds of things done."

Great. The way things were going with my commute and the entire Wenatchee region's high rental and mortgage prices, I didn't have forever. This one was a total blessing and it's nice to chat with you again, too. I'm planning on sticking around a bit more now.

Still driving the 2011 Kia Soul 5-speed stick in white. Last night, at the gigantor Wal*Mart in Alamogordo, I got out of shopping and into the car and attempted to start it up..."da-da-duh-da-da."

What? Battery needs charging? I waited a while so flooding didn't become an issue. Flooding doesn't occur now with direct injection, does it? Well, I waited a few minutes and tried it again and this time gave it more gas pedal.

"Zaroom!" The little 1.6L 4-banger fired up and off I went. All right! Good ta be back here in Alamo and back on Edmunds. Can't wait to hear about the flood elevation. Hate to abandon efforts to buy this house now, but because of discovering that this house is in a flood zone, we now know our insurance will have to include a FEMA/flood policy, too, and our payment will go up. I'm still bullish that we can get a great house out of this one, was told to report hail if it hails and see if you can get your insurance to send somebody and OK a new roof - only if it actually gets hit with hail, of course. The RUUD A/C is 21 years old, like the roof, but the inspector says it's fine right now, so I'd really love to go through with this house transaction here - we're ready.

I just discovered another house that's about a third of a mile from my work that is the same price as ours and it's got an in-ground swimming pool. It's been remodeled inside, it's 4BR's, 2 BA's, gorgeous new kichen, nice fax wood flooring (our choice has carpeting, but we really need tile or laminate flooring because we have 4 pets) and the pool area is enclosed - sweet. It's only been on the market for about 8 days and I'm pretty sure offers are gonna come in fast for that one. Alamogordo serves Hollomon Air Force base service-people and their families, and it's time for another group of several hundred ta move to the area. Plus, a new call center's being started up with 200 people employed - so we're flexing upward several hundred people/families again.

Sorry for the jmonroe - like post, guys. Wow - I'll try and shorten them a bit after this!

graphicguy

I luv...congrats on the new gig! Sounds like you’re pretty happy about going back!

graphicguy

Deleted

graphicguy

Deleted!

andres3

venture said:

oldfarmer50 said:

qbrozen said:

I don't know where I left y'all with the whole job situation. A few weeks ago, I started down the path to becoming a teacher. It would be a massive cut in salary for me but I feel like it will make me much happier. Long story short, I am registered to take the mandatory 50-hr course and will complete that in June. I am in talks with my home district about substituting, which you can apparently do with nothing more than a background check and interview. And I have taken a few practice certification tests and scored well above passing with zero preparation. 

Meanwhile, an old coworker reached out to me on Thursday wondering if I'd be interested in being a freelance editor at his new company. I start tomorrow. Unfortunately, it means trekking to NYC twice a week for the next several weeks, but gotta do what ya gotta do. They are nice enough to agree to let me work from home the other days and probably more often after we are aquainted. It is certainly good money.

Back in 1990 I was considering the choice between becoming a sub teacher or a sub bus driver. I only needed about 9 credit hours of courses to get a teaching certificate added to my MSW. Then I took a look at the pay and realized the bus driver made more.

I can't think of an other profession that requires so much formal education yet pays so poorly.

I can't think of any other profession that works a maximum of 9 months out of the year either (maybe professional sports). I would multiply the pay by 1.25 to figure out the real pay.

Mr_Shiftright

qbrozen said:

oldfarmer50 said:

qbrozen said:

I don't know where I left y'all with the whole job situation. A few weeks ago, I started down the path to becoming a teacher. It would be a massive cut in salary for me but I feel like it will make me much happier. Long story short, I am registered to take the mandatory 50-hr course and will complete that in June. I am in talks with my home district about substituting, which you can apparently do with nothing more than a background check and interview. And I have taken a few practice certification tests and scored well above passing with zero preparation. 

Meanwhile, an old coworker reached out to me on Thursday wondering if I'd be interested in being a freelance editor at his new company. I start tomorrow. Unfortunately, it means trekking to NYC twice a week for the next several weeks, but gotta do what ya gotta do. They are nice enough to agree to let me work from home the other days and probably more often after we are aquainted. It is certainly good money.

Back in 1990 I was considering the choice between becoming a sub teacher or a sub bus driver. I only needed about 9 credit hours of courses to get a teaching certificate added to my MSW. Then I took a look at the pay and realized the bus driver made more.

I wish that was the case here because they are looking for sub drivers. But the pay is a little over $10/hr.

Not good. I once calculated that it costs about $15 to get out of bed in the morning. Then you'd have transportation costs to work, lunch, etc. You'd be sliding backwards at $10 a hour on a part time gig.

andres3

oldfarmer50 said:

andres3 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

Great day at work. Got to drive many models I never drove before. The best was an Infinity Q 60 AWD 3.0t. Man, that car is seriously fast. Does AWD give a more torquey feel? It really threw you back went you stepped on it.

I drove the RWD Stinger today and it had nice throw you back torque, and the Michelin tires gripped well.

It was brand new so still in break-in mode. The mid-range was better than the top end though power wise.

Turbo V6's (or supercharged) have a ton of torque.

We were dropping cars at the local Kia store and they had a flaming red Stinger in the showroom. $52,300 sticker and I assume an ADM hiding somewhere. 365hp is nice but for that price couldn't you get a M2?

Close, but the M2 is missing 2 doors

Also, the Kia dealer I went to must have had at least 10 Stingers on the lot. I'm betting they are going to start dealing and wheeling.

The RWD model I drove stickered around $40K, but it didn't have the upgraded sound system, the power steering wheel tilter/telescoper, nor a moon-roof.

I agree that at $50K+ the competition is too far ahead of Kia. At $40K you might be talking, but it seemed too many cost-cuts were made for my taste. They need to throw $10K on the hood and I might give it a 2nd look.

driver100

iluvmysephia1 Alamogordo,

Yes, and my wife never wanted to leave Alamogordo.

I never want to live in a place I can't pronounce.....or remember what it is called.

qbrozen

hmmm... well, what does a 5-series or E-class at $52k sticker look like compared to the $52k Stinger?

EDIT: I at least looked up BMW. For that same sticker, I get a base model 4-cyl 530i with absolutely zero add-ons and only in white or black.

driver100

Picture of the 23rss trailer;





I don't think the trailer life is for everyone...but, my bro has used RVs and rented a Mercedes small RV before. He has rented a Durango and trailer once....said the long wheel base made for a nice comfortable drive. But, he thinks it is too big for taking into town (without the trailer) and he doesn't like the looks.

stickguy

I am sure my wife and I will never be doing any sort of RVing.

xwesx

Looks fairly comfortable, driver. I think the small living quarters (e.g., the portion outside of the bed area) will feel cramped before too long (if they're looking at six-month stints in it). The good thing about that teardrop shape is that it should not buck wind badly in normal driving. Even cross winds should be easier to manage with that front slope easing forward passage, as much of the trailer height is above the roofline of the Jeep.

I think the economy on the Jeep is going to be abysmal, though.

andres3

qbrozen said:

hmmm... well, what does a 5-series or E-class at $52k sticker look like compared to the $52k Stinger?

EDIT: I at least looked up BMW. For that same sticker, I get a base model 4-cyl 530i with absolutely zero add-ons and only in white or black.

BMW charges too much. They charge for the prestige and the badge.

Still, I don't think a buyer will cross shop a turbo 4 with a turbo 6. I think someone looking for 365 HP would look at the C43 AMG, S4/S5, 340i, but that's me.

driver100

xwesx said:

Looks fairly comfortable, driver. I think the small living quarters (e.g., the portion outside of the bed area) will feel cramped before too long (if they're looking at six-month stints in it). The good thing about that teardrop shape is that it should not buck wind badly in normal driving. Even cross winds should be easier to manage with that front slope easing forward passage, as much of the trailer height is above the roofline of the Jeep.

I think the economy on the Jeep is going to be abysmal, though.

xw......They own a rental property in Las Vegas. Their plan is to leave the trailer there, then drive down from Calgary when they want to stay for about a month....to get out of the winter cold. If they feel like taking a trip they will leave from LV. You are right about the aerodynamic design, probably glides better.

I like a smoother, squarer look, but most of them ain't that purdy. I like this one more, but not sure how practical;

fintail

Not to mention few would cross-shop something as traditional and formal as a 5 or E with the Stinger. Different target audience.

A local dealer had 10K ADMs on Stinger GT2s - didn't work. Now they have small discounts. D'oh!

andres3 said:

Still, I don't think a buyer will cross shop a turbo 4 with a turbo 6. I think someone looking for 365 HP would look at the C43 AMG, S4/S5, 340i, but that's me.

fintail

I saw a sign in my town for school bus drivers at $20/hr - not sure if that was temp or not.

Mr_Shiftright said:

Not good. I once calculated that it costs about $15 to get out of bed in the morning. Then you'd have transportation costs to work, lunch, etc. You'd be sliding backwards at $10 a hour on a part time gig.

xwesx

driver100 said:

xwesx said:

Looks fairly comfortable, driver. I think the small living quarters (e.g., the portion outside of the bed area) will feel cramped before too long (if they're looking at six-month stints in it). The good thing about that teardrop shape is that it should not buck wind badly in normal driving. Even cross winds should be easier to manage with that front slope easing forward passage, as much of the trailer height is above the roofline of the Jeep.

I think the economy on the Jeep is going to be abysmal, though.

xw......They own a rental property in Las Vegas. Their plan is to leave the trailer there, then drive down from Calgary when they want to stay for about a month....to get out of the winter cold. If they feel like taking a trip they will leave from LV. You are right about the aerodynamic design, probably glides better.

I like a smoother, squarer look, but most of them ain't that purdy. I like this one more, but not sure how practical;

Yes, that's a pretty trailer.... but a much better candidate for a diesel heavy-duty truck to haul around! And, once you start getting into those sizes, fifth-wheel is the only way to fly. The added stability, ease of hauling/maneuvering, and space just makes it an obvious choice.

jmonroe

@iluvmysephia1, good to have you back in here and it's nice that you are back where you want to be, too. Just my 2 cents worth but I'd hold off on any car searches until you are firmly planted in the house.

I just have one suggestion about the house, don't play with painting the bathroom ceiling like @explorerx4 has been doing. You have to make progress with that before Mrs. iluv gets to you and then you'll have to learn how to work your keyboard with your toes. To be honest, I don't see how @explorerx4 has avoided that fate. Mrs. Explorer has to be a saint.

Good luck and keep us informed.

jmonroe

fintail

I could actually deal with living in those areas, too. I lived in ML when I was a kid, and I like the high desert scenery, and the distinct seasons. ML housing is still quite cheap, too. However, jobs in tech or telco just aren't there yet.

iluvmysephia1 said:

fin - yeah, you're right. After a couple of months there at the Wenatchee job I asked my Manager about the possibility of moving to a start-up Sleep Lab of Confluence Health's over in Moses Lake.

"Yeah, it'll happen, eventually. But upper management is slow as a large dinosaur getting those kinds of things done."

Great. The way things were going with my commute and the entire Wenatchee region's high rental and mortgage prices, I didn't have forever. This one was a total blessing and it's nice to chat with you again, too. I'm planning on sticking around a bit more now.

Still driving the 2011 Kia Soul 5-speed stick in white. Last night, at the gigantor Wal*Mart in Alamogordo, I got out of shopping and into the car and attempted to start it up..."da-da-duh-da-da."

andres3

fintail said:

Not to mention few would cross-shop something as traditional and formal as a 5 or E with the Stinger. Different target audience.

A local dealer had 10K ADMs on Stinger GT2s - didn't work. Now they have small discounts. D'oh!

andres3 said:

Still, I don't think a buyer will cross shop a turbo 4 with a turbo 6. I think someone looking for 365 HP would look at the C43 AMG, S4/S5, 340i, but that's me.

I was downright shocked how many Stingers they had, most with the V6. Gave me the impression they missed the mark on the MSRP. The lease deals are probably coming soon! Slapping a 65% residual on them should help move some metal. They had blue, yellow, black, white, gray, and silver. The red one's have either been avoided or sold.

Reminds me when I went shopping for a 335i years back, and they had dozens of the lesser engine 3 Series, and 1 335i, in their special storage lot miles away.

driver100

I saw a Kia Stinger today...in black. Reminds me of a smaller version of an Audi A7 - even copied the tailights (and the BMW hockey stick on the side). Looks nice, but, pricing is in MB and BMW 3 Series territory. I imagine they are testing the waters.........and they will have to drop the price.

oldfarmer50

fintail said:

I saw a sign in my town for school bus drivers at $20/hr - not sure if that was temp or not.

Mr_Shiftright said:

Not good. I once calculated that it costs about $15 to get out of bed in the morning. Then you'd have transportation costs to work, lunch, etc. You'd be sliding backwards at $10 a hour on a part time gig.

Full time bus drivers are a rarity in schools. Usually you have a split shift of 2-3 hours each with no pay for down time, vacations or summers. Twice the commuting too.

Sub driver pay in the district I left started at $19+ and permanent topped at about $24 with ot after 8. Teachers started at around $40k and topped out near $100k. The superintendent made over $200k and got a free BMW. Sub teachers got about $80 a day, maybe $100. Getting a permanent position is quite political with a lot of de facto age and gender discrimination.

When I was on overtime I was making over $34/hr, a fact which is not lost on me when I finishing a 12 hour day at $10.40.

Oh well, at least when I'm driving a luxury SUV nobody is screaming from the back seat.

andres3

xwesx said:

driver100 said:

xwesx said:

Looks fairly comfortable, driver. I think the small living quarters (e.g., the portion outside of the bed area) will feel cramped before too long (if they're looking at six-month stints in it). The good thing about that teardrop shape is that it should not buck wind badly in normal driving. Even cross winds should be easier to manage with that front slope easing forward passage, as much of the trailer height is above the roofline of the Jeep.

I think the economy on the Jeep is going to be abysmal, though.

xw......They own a rental property in Las Vegas. Their plan is to leave the trailer there, then drive down from Calgary when they want to stay for about a month....to get out of the winter cold. If they feel like taking a trip they will leave from LV. You are right about the aerodynamic design, probably glides better.

I like a smoother, squarer look, but most of them ain't that purdy. I like this one more, but not sure how practical;

Yes, that's a pretty trailer.... but a much better candidate for a diesel heavy-duty truck to haul around! And, once you start getting into those sizes, fifth-wheel is the only way to fly. The added stability, ease of hauling/maneuvering, and space just makes it an obvious choice.

I'd like to tow one of those with a Neon for the fun of it. So what would happen? What would burn out first.

tbirdmarco

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Bs-KaFUEl7g

fintail

The site I checked had maybe 15 in stock. The ADM vanishing says a lot, it being replaced by a discount says even more. As we head towards summer, I think there will be some deals. Only 2 in the listing were GT2s, one was a nice blue.

The small engine thing is typical for cars built to lease. I think 95% of Cs in stock are C300.

andres3 said:

I was downright shocked how many Stingers they had, most with the V6. Gave me the impression they missed the mark on the MSRP. The lease deals are probably coming soon! Slapping a 65% residual on them should help move some metal. They had blue, yellow, black, white, gray, and silver. The red one's have either been avoided or sold.

Reminds me when I went shopping for a 335i years back, and they had dozens of the lesser engine 3 Series, and 1 335i, in their special storage lot miles away.

iluvmysephia1

driver100 - you do know the Kia Stinger's performance qualities, right? It's not just a pretty new hatchback, it's built for speed, too. I don't think Kia's overpricing, but the market probably thinks otherwise. We'll see how it plays out.

iluvmysephia1 -good to have you back in here and it's nice that you are back where you want to be, too. Just my 2 cents worth but I'd hold off on any car searches until you are firmly planted in the house.

I just have one suggestion about the house, don't play with painting the bathroom ceiling like @explorerx4 has been doing. You have to make progress with that before Mrs. iluv gets to you and then you'll have to learn how to work your keyboard with your toes. To be honest, I don't see how @explorerx4 has avoided that fate. Mrs. Explorer has to be a saint.

Good luck and keep us informed.

jmonroe

hello again to you, jmonroe. Apparently I can post at length like you can, man, I have wrote a couple a short stories in here last night and today! No, no new car or used car trades or purchases for me and Mrs. iluv for a good while - we're househunting. Thank you for the sound advice.

As far as work on the house, if the one we've already put an offer on goes through, I won't have to do anything, though it's got desert grass (I'll see how green it gets in a few months) that I'll have to cut. Still have my TroyBilt mower that's tough as nails. We will have a fig tree of all things in the backyard, close to the house, too. All kinds of different trees and bushes are planted that we'll have to learn about and I'll have to trim now and then. There is a thick bush on the south side of the house that's hugging too close to the brick veneer - that will be an early project to trim back - it will need to be at least a foot from the brickwork.

It's actually sounding inviting to me - a bit. No painting required as of now. It's got a 2-car garage with an automatic opener - sweet. Nice when you haven't had that sort of thing for a while!

fintail

The split shift would bug me, along with driving a behemoth filled with screaming hyenas. I'd rather substitute teach any day. With the cost of living here, I have to imagine sub teachers make at least as much.

The rental car gig doesn't sound bad at all. My grandpa did that for several years.

oldfarmer50 said:

Full time bus drivers are a rarity in schools. Usually you have a split shift of 2-3 hours each with no pay for down time, vacations or summers. Twice the commuting too.

Sub driver pay in the district I left started at $19+ and permanent topped at about $24 with ot after 8. Teachers started at around $40k and topped out near $100k. The superintendent made over $200k and got a free BMW. Sub teachers got about $80 a day, maybe $100. Getting a permanent position is quite political with a lot of de facto age and gender discrimination.

When I was on overtime I was making over $34/hr, a fact which is not lost on me when I finishing a 12 hour day at $10.40.

Oh well, at least when I'm driving a luxury SUV nobody is screaming from the back seat.

andres3

fintail said:

The site I checked had maybe 15 in stock. The ADM vanishing says a lot, it being replaced by a discount says even more. As we head towards summer, I think there will be some deals. Only 2 in the listing were GT2s, one was a nice blue.

The small engine thing is typical for cars built to lease. I think 95% of Cs in stock are C300.

andres3 said:

I was downright shocked how many Stingers they had, most with the V6. Gave me the impression they missed the mark on the MSRP. The lease deals are probably coming soon! Slapping a 65% residual on them should help move some metal. They had blue, yellow, black, white, gray, and silver. The red one's have either been avoided or sold.

Reminds me when I went shopping for a 335i years back, and they had dozens of the lesser engine 3 Series, and 1 335i, in their special storage lot miles away.

I think I saw some ADM stickers relegated to the round file in the round cup holder, rather than on the window. Strange place to "hide" the ADM. Not sure if it was a mistake, done by a customer, or just a lazy employee.

driver100

andres3 said:

xwesx said:

driver100 said:

xwesx said:

Looks fairly comfortable, driver. I think the small living quarters (e.g., the portion outside of the bed area) will feel cramped before too long (if they're looking at six-month stints in it). The good thing about that teardrop shape is that it should not buck wind badly in normal driving. Even cross winds should be easier to manage with that front slope easing forward passage, as much of the trailer height is above the roofline of the Jeep.

I think the economy on the Jeep is going to be abysmal, though.

xw......They own a rental property in Las Vegas. Their plan is to leave the trailer there, then drive down from Calgary when they want to stay for about a month....to get out of the winter cold. If they feel like taking a trip they will leave from LV. You are right about the aerodynamic design, probably glides better.

I like a smoother, squarer look, but most of them ain't that purdy. I like this one more, but not sure how practical;

Yes, that's a pretty trailer.... but a much better candidate for a diesel heavy-duty truck to haul around! And, once you start getting into those sizes, fifth-wheel is the only way to fly. The added stability, ease of hauling/maneuvering, and space just makes it an obvious choice.

I'd like to tow one of those with a Neon for the fun of it. So what would happen? What would burn out first.

Andre, I get the impression you don't like Neons.

stickguy

farmer, down by us, I don't know if many schools still have their own bus fleets. Our schools (k-8 and HS are separate districts) both contract out, as do many others. especially the small ones. So not only do you get lousy pay, probably no public sector benefits either!

I could never do that job. The driving is fine. Just not with kids on the bus.

qbrozen

andres3 said:

hmmm... well, what does a 5-series or E-class at $52k sticker look like compared to the $52k Stinger? EDIT: I at least looked up BMW. For that same sticker, I get a base model 4-cyl 530i with absolutely zero add-ons and only in white or black.

BMW charges too much. They charge for the prestige and the badge. Still, I don't think a buyer will cross shop a turbo 4 with a turbo 6. I think someone looking for 365 HP would look at the C43 AMG, S4/S5, 340i, but that's me.

That is exactly my point. Folks keep trying to compare unlike vehicles. An M2 or S3 or CLA AMG just aren't comparable to a Stinger. You have to step up to the midsizers, and then if you want comparable performance, you'll have to pay a helluva lot more for the German. I think Kia's problem is marketing, not pricing. 

explorerx4

@jmonroe,
It's all about timing. My wife left Friday to visit her sister all weekend, so I had all time to myself.
Took 1/2 a day off Monday and finished the ceiling before she got home from work.

driver100

"stickguy">
I could never do that job. The driving is fine. Just not with kids on the bus

.

Stick, unfortunately not much demand for school bus drivers driving empty buses.

explorerx4

@driver100,
Interesting layout in the trailer. It looks like the door to the bedroom area is also the bathroom door.

driver100

Marco, I watched that bit about GM dropping the Buick name from the car. They said Hyundai and VW are doing this now. Buick will still have the emblem though. I wonder what the thinking is? Is it that these cars sell because people want them for the car, the brand name isn't a help, like it would be if it was a BMW or Cadillac. Sometimes, when I see a nice looking car I check what brand it is......won't be able to do that.

driver100

explorerx4 said:

@driver100,
Interesting layout in the trailer. It looks like the door to the bedroom area is also the bathroom door.

My bro said the bedroom door can be closed - shutting it off from the rest of the space. My guess is the think panel next to the refrigerator across from the bathroom is a pocket door that slides across. Not good if you have to open the door to the bedroom to close the door on the bathroom

explorerx4

@driver100,
Now that you pointed it out, yes there could be a pocket door. I feel better now.

tbirdmarco

Welcome  back  I  love  gladd to see you  glad things are working  out

tbirdmarco

All interesting on the Kia  stinger 

tbirdmarco

Driver nice trailer. That your brother has from what you are saying the data go  is no good for your brother  meads to look at other   Options