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Michaelll - thoughts are with you. Been there. It ain't easy.
2024 Genesis G90 Super-Charger
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
3G = black and white TV
4G = Color High Definition TV
3G = VHS
4G = Netflix
Go for the 4G LTE. Not only is it better, but companies are starting (or will start soon) the process to turn off their 3G networks.
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
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2015 Subaru Outback 3.6R / 2024 Kia Sportage Hybrid SX Prestige
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
2016 Audi A7 3.0T S Line, 2021 Subaru WRX
Michael, I hope things work out with your parents.
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
Please email PR@edmunds.com before Friday, February 6, 2015 to share your story.
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
I wouldn't be surprised if that car got front end problems very quickly...sure seems to be a lot of weight over that overhanging front end.
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
What I'd like to learn is how to post videos like that one of the pickup towing the tractor-trailer.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
They diagnosed me with acute bronchitis caused by some bacterial infection in my lungs. It was not viral in nature. So they give me solumedrin through my IV twice a day and the levaquin once a day IV. Both medications cause my blood sugar sky high. Still in the 280-320 range which is pretty high.
i might be able to get out of here tomorrow. I've had enough of hospitals since October to last me a lifetime.
Thanks for all your well-wishes.
2024 Genesis G90 Super-Charger
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
that video. I go there, highlight the URL in the line at the top of the browser, copy the youtube address with a right-click, and then I paste the URL into my post here. I do not use the picture posting tool: I just past the URL from the youtube video address line in the browser.
I often put "click here to play video" so that people know it's a video rather than a picture post.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Me too!
Imid: Thanks for the instructions...I'll have to try it tomorrow.
Mike: Glad you can watch your car from your room. Back home hospital parking is a rip off, $1.50 a half hour, maximum $20 day. It has become a way for hospitals to make big money...and the companies that operate the parking lots.
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
Speaking of gas and gas taxes I was reading a Wharton Business School newsletter that talks about a research study that suggests that the best way to reduce carbon emissions is to increase the gas tax rather than to increase the CAFE standards.
In a nutshell, they concluded that when MPG increases, motorists drive 10% more miles. But here is the unintended consequence; as automakers improve their technology to increase MPG they are selling these vehicles at higher and higher prices. New cars, however, represent only a small fraction of vehicles on the road and some 94% of all vehicles are one year and older.
The net result is increased carbon emissions (which is contrary to CAFEs intent), as the price of gas is too cheap allowing used cars to stay on the road longer since owners cannot afford the new higher MPG alternatives. I did not think of the unintended consequences of increasing the CAFE standards from 25.4 today to 54.5 mpg by 2025. But it does make a compelling case to raise gas taxes but politicians do not have the guts to do so.
Read more at:http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/unintended-consequences-ambitious-fuel-economy-standards/
Just one small example, but Los Angeles has cut emissions by 98% over the last 50 years....through times of less expensive gas, and more expensive gas. Didn't matter. Lots of factors go into that. But, LA is one of the car dense cities in the world.
I've never heard any consumer ever think that lower gas prices were a bad thing.......EVER!
Bottom line, the reports I'm reading from the usual sources....WSJ, Business Week, etc, all of them tout what a boon lower gas prices are to a still recovering economy. We're seeing the effects of it already. Economy is getting stronger and stronger. Raising taxes is never a good thing.....NEVER. Any gain for infrastructure repair will be quickly squandered either by inefficiencies or glad handing by friendly state contractors.
I will NEVER vote for any politician who calls for a higher gas tax. No one in my family will, either. We, as consumers, have had oil companies, gov't, etc hands in our pockets for way too long, taking way too much over the crazy oil game.
They keep trying to come up with new ways to prop up gas prices. Sounds like they're still at it. But, their reasoning becomes more and more convoluted the more I hear them.
The biggest reason to keep oil prices at a more reasonable level (like now), is we no longer have to sacrifice lives to keep peace in nations who really don't want us around except to buy their oil. We've got out own. We don't need to ship it across an ocean and bare that expense. It's right here. We're oil independent. That's a good thing.
No need to read the entire thing, but the EPA has put out an executive summary about the drop in emissions and the increase in MPG over the last 30 years. In short, it doesn't support what Wharton says.
http://www.epa.gov/fueleconomy/fetrends/1975-2014/420s14001.pdf
And yes, I can't believe I'm saying that.
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
Time and again, those of us in the U.S have said, we like to drive what we like to drive. We DO NOT like anyone, any gov't entity, dictating to us what we can drive....whether via gas taxes to affect our decisions, or some sort of tax on vehicles that are perceived to be something we should not be allowed to have.
What's a rationally sized vehicle? Is it a Smart car? Is it a Ford Explorer? And, who determines what is rational and who it is rational for? Why should NYC be penalized with higher gas taxes because he needs to drive an F-150 for his plumbing supply business? Wouldn't that mean the cost of a faucet goes from $100 to $250 because of the extraordinary cost for the manufacturer to deliver it to the distributer, who in turn has to deliver it to NYC, who in turn has to haul it to the end user? That's not good for anyone, is it?
In short, that's a very slippery slope when you try to dictate what kind of vehicles consumers should have based on a few peoples' ideas of what a rational or right vehicle should be.
Bottom line, emissions have NEVER been lower (and continue to drop) and MPG has never been higher (and continue to rise) than right now. Let's not look a gift horse in the mouth. Let's work to keep gas prices low, to fuel a healthy economy, and reduce the amount we spend on having a defense system that for the last few decades have had to guard our interests in oil producing nations. We have the opportunity to severely curtail those activities. That's a blessing.
Would be even better though if we were energy independent. Low gas prices means scaling back on drilling. That even hurts us in NM since we get about a quarter of our tax revenue from oil and gas. So my gas price goes down but my ox gets gored in other ways. Ain't no free lunch.
What's interesting to me is that things can change so fast in society. What happens I believe is that people with a certain set of ideas, ---what we call "normal" state of mind right now---they don't "change their minds" and abandon their mind set---what happens is that the generation right after them installs THEIR "normal" as the present generation passes away.
So ideas and habits and prejudices and even heartfelt belief systems we see 'entrenched' right now could be swept away in a decade. Station wagons went extinct, and floaty Cadillacs almost did--why not big SUVs?
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
AB.....for decades many in the U.S. have wondered why we can't have universal health care as you do in Canada. Well, we're moving in that direction, and the backlash is pretty severe. Not going to discuss if it's right or wrong, just that it's moving in that direction with most kicking and screaming along the way. In short, as you point out, we want certain things (free healthcare, free education, etc). We just don't want to pay for it.
You really want to send the U.S. into a tizzy? Try selling all 12 packs for $25. That's the exact reason you'll see pickups with gun racks.
I'm not a smoker, but the amount of time and effort that has gone into the anti-smoking campaigns could have had much greater effect if it was poured into heart disease research, for example. Besides, the trend for smoking has been going down for decades. There was actually a spike in smoking when the commercials began airing showing those with terrible maladies as a result of smoking. People in the U.S. just don't like to be told what to do. Eventually, we figure it out on our own.
So, about 4 liters equals a gallon, right? That means $4/gal gas. We're half that right now....even with the vast majority of that cost going for taxes. The question always is....are the roads better in Canada? Is the education system better? IS healthcare better? If there are no clear cut answers, then what are you paying all that extra for?
Don't get me wrong. I love Canada. I have relatives who live in Toronto. I've spent a lot of my travels doing business in Montreal. Vancouver is one of my favorite places on earth. But, I sometimes wonder if I had to live there, would I feel better about my standard of living?
Our off-grid friends are visiting tonight. Love their house but they don't have a dishwasher or a microwave. They could get more panels but their battery room is about maxed out.
Their storage batteries are Rolls btw. But no relation to Rolls Royce afaik, even though they use a similar script in their logo. They are made in Nova Scotia however.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
You see, in my 15+ years here I noticed that Americans are very quick in constantly demanding more government services - they want total security at airports, best schools in the world, even better roads. When asked how to pay for all of that, they almost always say "them, the rich people", or answer with "cut the government waste".
The government waste is a fact of life, inherent to the government. We should stride to limit it and believe it or not, USA is doing fairly decent job in that. But a magical belief that we can somehow increase the efficiency to the point of closing the deficit gap, or better, starting paying off the debt, is simply believing if magic and financial fairy tales. For a voter "waste" is usually defined as something they don't use right now. "Cutting the waste" end up being giving up $5 latte in face of $100,000 debt and calling the day.
Half of the voting people in this country think that Pentagon is not wasting a single cent ("we need a strong defense"), the other half believes that all those Social Security and (especially) Medicare promises can actually be kept to the letter ("we keep our promises"), in fact even expanded (we are so rich, so why ... fill here the blank perceived "injustice"). Even worse, majority of current senior citizens truly believe that they already "paid" for the Medicare service they are demanding. If they only bothered to check how much money they actually paid into the system over their lifetime (I did), they'd shocked to learn that it's often not even a tenth of the promised benefit. It's often not enough for even one major procedure, not to mention chronic illness care and medication. Even with money paid by those deceased, who never had a chance to collect, it's still laughable.
Somebody, somehow will pay. Since you, your family (and millions of others) seem to flatly refuse to acknowledge there is even a problem, the only politically palatable solution will be screwing you (and all of us, of course) out of any savings we may have by inflation, preferably slowly so we won't notice. You see, I'd rather pay upfront, so I know how much, can I choose when and moreover, know that I actually keep the rest. Seems the rest would rather have it taken away from them with an illusion that they actually kept it.
2018 430i Gran Coupe
And why encourage increased capacity on the roads? The emphasis should be on moving people - everyone out there already has a car and a half in their garage. Automous cars will help a lot in making parking lots useful for something besides storage.
2018 430i Gran Coupe
Fundamental law of road congestion (journalistsresource.org)
Funny you should mention that. Before I punched my CCBA card with the Subaru, I tried (I know master Yoda says: there is no try. only do or do not, but I think he would even say I made a valiant effort) to talk my Dad into buying (or leasing) a pickup truck for me so we'd have a smaller vehicle to make deliveries with and get around a little better. Commercial vehicles are only allowed to travel on Expressways (Interstate Highways), not Parkways here in the city not to mention the other un posted travel restrictions. We decided that its use would be so limited because so many times we LOAD up out 14' Box Truck (2006 Mitsubishi FUSO FE180) with bathtubs, toilets, vanity cabinets, 10' lengths of pipe, 5 gallon buckets of compound, cases of garbage bags and the truck would be much more for MY personal (commuting) use and we couldn't legitimately write it off with a straight face, so no truck for me:(
2001 Prelude Type SH, 2022 Highlander XLE AWD, 2025 Camry SE AWD
I'm betting any difference in the price of oil between domestic and OPEC derived oil equals out once you consider the cost of shipping what looks like cheaper oil from the Middle East. Those shipping charges across the Atlantic ain't cheap.
2024 Genesis G90 Super-Charger
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
The contrast with the provincial (state) govt is striking. They are responsible for funding health care, education, roads, and social services. The provincial economy is not growing and revenues are stagnant. They are having a terrible time trying to fund everything, and some cuts are being attempted. The screaming from the public-sector unions and the opposition parties is something to behold. But if it was a business, people would be laid off, poorly-performing divisions would be sold or closed, etc., without a whole lot of drama. That kind of mindset simply does not fly in government. As to @graphicguy 's question about the quality of healthcare, education, etc, it is very hit and miss. In case of urgent illness you usually get taken care of. For less urgent things you can wait and wait and wait. Education is a bit of a mess because there is little direct control over the way schools and universities are run, so govt has a hard time extracting any efficiencies. Personally I think the universities here are a money pit and are spending like fools, but any attempt to change how they do things opens up a debate that govt never wins. The need to get re-elected every 4 years means politicians never want to do unpopular things even if they are the right things.
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
I wonder if anyone ever did a study like this on taxes and spending. If they did, I am sure that they would come up with the same conclusion. Give the gov. an extra windfall dollar and they will spend two...then scream they have to raise taxes to make up for the deficit.
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460