Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

driver100

sda said:

My 71 Vega GT was yellow, sunflower yellow. A friend’s dad, when he first saw it, asked who took a le-k on my car? True story, lol.

You're admitting to owning a Vega?

Actually I was managing a retail store at the time and just bought a 1973 Maverick....2 door, Dark Green, at least it was a V8.
My assistant manager bought a 74 Vega shortly after....I think the Vega looked a lot better, it was orange with the white hood etc., but mechanically, I think the Maverick was probably a better car!

driver100

Covid came...people stopped buying cars, car manufacturers cut production.
Car rental companies had very little business....they stopped buying new cars and sold off current cars.
In the meantime....more working at home, needing more computers.
Computer chips are quite different, it takes time to changeover.
Car sales are coming back, computer chips still selling...slow process to switch back to chips for cars.

henryn

oldfarmer50 said:

mjfloyd1 said:

@snakeweasel said:

I think that every car sold should be white, that way we can be a white car nation.

We could make every car yellow to be a yellow car nation or even red to be a red car nation.

We just all need to be on board

I just picked up my car at “the guy” where it was getting an oil change and saw a yellow car just like this 1974 Charger.


It actually looked good in person but the 440 cid made it beautiful.

I still liked my 74’ Charger in Aztec Gold better but this wasn’t bad.

The 74 Charger was a bit of a barge. Too much pollution control, not enough horsepower. The only Charger to own was the '69.

henryn

oldfarmer50 said:

explorerx4 said:

@bwia,
It's pretty common knowledge that after the auto manufacturers cancelled their relatively simple chip orders, production was switched to more expensive chips used in PC's, etc due to so many people being at home and the related device demand.
Give up your place in line and you have to go to the back of the line.

I understand that the new Microsoft Windows 11 will require many to buy new computers. That can’t be good for the shortage.

I think that most will simply not move to Windows 11. Just a guess on my part, but an educated guess. I have played a fair bit with early betas of Windows 11, and there is nothing there to get excited about.

jmonroe1

driver100 said:

sda said:

My 71 Vega GT was yellow, sunflower yellow. A friend’s dad, when he first saw it, asked who took a le-k on my car? True story, lol.

You're admitting to owning a Vega?

Actually I was managing a retail store at the time and just bought a 1973 Maverick....2 door, Dark Green, at least it was a V8.
My assistant manager bought a 74 Vega shortly after....I think the Vega looked a lot better, it was orange with the white hood etc., but mechanically, I think the Maverick was probably a better car!

There you go with white again. I thought we were past that. Yellow is the topic color now.

jmonroe

henryn

driver100 said:

sda said:

My 71 Vega GT was yellow, sunflower yellow. A friend’s dad, when he first saw it, asked who took a le-k on my car? True story, lol.

You're admitting to owning a Vega?

Actually I was managing a retail store at the time and just bought a 1973 Maverick....2 door, Dark Green, at least it was a V8.
My assistant manager bought a 74 Vega shortly after....I think the Vega looked a lot better, it was orange with the white hood etc., but mechanically, I think the Maverick was probably a better car!

I owned a Vega once, for a very shot while. It had a small block Chevy V8. The engine was solid but the transmission was shot. I paid $500 and sold it the same day to someone who wanted just the engine.

jmonroe1

driver100 said:

Covid came...people stopped buying cars, car manufacturers cut production.
Car rental companies had very little business....they stopped buying new cars and sold off current cars.
In the meantime....more working at home, needing more computers.
Computer chips are quite different, it takes time to changeover.
Car sales are coming back, computer chips still selling...slow process to switch back to chips for cars.

It’s only slow because the orders from car manufacturers aren’t large enough.

jmonroe

tjc78

There is no conspiracy with the auto makers. When have you ever seen a car shortage? That’s not their business model at all. Volume is key.

I’d bet all the captive finance companies are taking a beating as well right now.

What I don’t understand is how they haven’t found a way to buy their own chip manufacturer or pick off a head engineer from one and build their own.

oldfarmer50

driver100 said:

sda said:

My 71 Vega GT was yellow, sunflower yellow. A friend’s dad, when he first saw it, asked who took a le-k on my car? True story, lol.

You're admitting to owning a Vega?

Actually I was managing a retail store at the time and just bought a 1973 Maverick....2 door, Dark Green, at least it was a V8.
My assistant manager bought a 74 Vega shortly after....I think the Vega looked a lot better, it was orange with the white hood etc., but mechanically, I think the Maverick was probably a better car!

That’s not saying much. Back then they had to make those cars to meet a price point and corners were cut everywhere. I remember reading that the Vega engine was made in such a cheap way to save money that oil would actually seep through the block. They rusted in no time at all.

Some think it was arrogance on the part of big domestic manufacturers who assumed that the public would just take what they were given an shut up but it really drove a lot of people to Japanese cars, never to return.

oldfarmer50

henryn said:

oldfarmer50 said:

mjfloyd1 said:

@snakeweasel said:

I think that every car sold should be white, that way we can be a white car nation.

We could make every car yellow to be a yellow car nation or even red to be a red car nation.

We just all need to be on board

I just picked up my car at “the guy” where it was getting an oil change and saw a yellow car just like this 1974 Charger.


It actually looked good in person but the 440 cid made it beautiful.

I still liked my 74’ Charger in Aztec Gold better but this wasn’t bad.

The 74 Charger was a bit of a barge. Too much pollution control, not enough horsepower. The only Charger to own was the '69.


At the time I thought the 70’ Charger was the one to have. I had to wait until 74’ before I could get my girlfriend to buy me one. My 74’ had the same 318 engine as my 69’ Plymouth Satellite (same basic car as the 69’ Charger) it felt about the same in terms of performance but the 74’ suffered from drivability issues much more thanks to the pollution garbage. I imagine the big block motors suffered much more.

As to being a barge, I think they were all barges back then. No car from back then would hold a candle to any modern car but I thought the styling was beautiful. But I was 22, what did I know.

stickguy

tjc78 said:

There is no conspiracy with the auto makers. When have you ever seen a car shortage? That’s not their business model at all. Volume is key.

I’d bet all the captive finance companies are taking a beating as well right now.

What I don’t understand is how they haven’t found a way to buy their own chip manufacturer or pick off a head engineer from one and build their own.

They probably will now. But my son (who works in the industry) said it’s very expensive, and takes a long time, to build and operate a state of the art fab facility. Even getting shuttered US plants out of mothballs and retrofitted is not quick or cheap.

dino001

tjc78 said:

There is no conspiracy with the auto makers. When have you ever seen a car shortage? That’s not their business model at all. Volume is key.

I’d bet all the captive finance companies are taking a beating as well right now.

What I don’t understand is how they haven’t found a way to buy their own chip manufacturer or pick off a head engineer from one and build their own.

Manufacturers don't benefit, when they have large lots full of unfinished vehicles waiting for parts and stopping production for days/weeks due to these shortages. It's beyond ridiculous to think it's some kind of conspiracy. It's quite simple - March 2020 was a panic, everything seized, including car sales, manufacturers canceled part orders in anticipation of prolonged low sales, but the sales bounced back pretty quickly, within 3 months, other suppliers resumed shipments, but chip makers said "Sorry, we switched production to chips that were in high demand (e.g. PC, mobile, certain industrial), moreover those chips actually make more money for us than these for your cars, so sure we take an order, it will be in three-six months or even longer, our backlog is full now and new foundry is a few billion bucks and it will take a few years to build". Conspiracies do exist, but not everything is a conspiracy.

This is the other side of "just-in-time" delivery world, where nobody wants to store anything in excess. Inventory is your enemy as "efficient capital" is a current management religion taught in MBA schools. It all works beautifully in good times, but it's quite fragile when the cycle is disrupted. And disrupted it really was. I wonder if anybody will learn anything from it. I truly doubt it, to be honest.

imidazol97

While we're talking about colors, note that having the right color vehicle can be to
your advantage sometimes.

mjfloyd1

Hey we never talked about a green truck nation. No truckin’ way!

abacomike

@driver100 said:
You're admitting to owning a Vega?

Actually I was managing a retail store at the time and just bought a 1973 Maverick....2 door, Dark Green, at least it was a V8.
My assistant manager bought a 74 Vega shortly after....I think the Vega looked a lot better, it was orange with the white hood etc., but mechanically, I think the Maverick was probably a better car!

I, too, have to admit I owned an Orange Vega back in the early 70’s. It was my work car - I drove from the Chicago western suburbs to the far west side of Chicago when I first started teaching. It was a 3-pedal and drove like a truck - I felt every bump. I bought it new for $1900 from a dealer in Joliet, Illinois. Fuel economy was the major reason I got this Vega - 68 mile round trip every weekday. This way, my wife had a car to use when I was at work.

jmonroe1

tjc78 said:

There is no conspiracy with the auto makers. When have you ever seen a car shortage? That’s not their business model at all. Volume is key.

I’d bet all the captive finance companies are taking a beating as well right now.

What I don’t understand is how they haven’t found a way to buy their own chip manufacturer or pick off a head engineer from one and build their own.

I never said it was a conspiracy or even alluded to that. When COVID-19 hit, new cars sales tanked and the car manufacturers probably acted too quickly and halted production. Then when they wanted parts that contained chips they still weren’t sure how much they wanted. Now they know they want to get back to full production so orders are coming in to the chip manufacturers and those orders will be filled pretty quickly now. Not over night but fast.

jmonroe

abacomike

@jmonroe1 said:
I never said it was a conspiracy or even alluded to that. When COVID-19 hit, new cars sales tanked and the car manufacturers probably acted too quickly and halted production. Then when they wanted parts that contained chips they still weren’t sure how much they wanted. Now they know they want to get back to full production so orders are coming in to the chip manufacturers and those orders will be filled pretty quickly now. Not over night but fast.

jmonroe

The major long term problem is that we don’t manufacture sufficient microprocessors here in the US. Most are produced in Asia, unfortunately.

carnaught

(WARNING, a jmonroe sized lengthy post. Feel free to skip it.)

To bring on a different subject, with my recent move to the new house a week ago, I’m engaged with various companies for goods and services. I want to mention customer service after after payment is made. I have had plenty of no shows for services, specifically pool maintenance and routine exterminator treatment. Before I get to some negatives, I wanted to give props to my painter who patched and painted some nasty walls where the previous owner, an artsy f*rtsy type had wall anchors that could support an automobile’s weight in various walls that had to be, let say, reversed. We had a check-up for our two hvac’s even though they we only a couple of years old. We just can’t afford to take the chance of failure living in the desert. A young lady arrived and spent two hours checking outside, in the house and even our 110+ degree attic during the peak of the day’s heat. she was thorough and overall excellent.

Now for especially bad product(s), bad customer service, I am going to call out a large flooring company, based in the Chicago area, and also out here, and an electronics,/appliance store, which is national and starts with a first name denoting superlative. The flooring place sent someone out to give us options for floor replacement in two our small to medium sized rooms. We talked products looking like wood, from tiles to textured vinyl, and spoke with a slick fast talking, seemingly knowledgeable guy, who arranged the work to be done before we moved in. The work was completed in two days and the installation seemed good but now the floor creeks, seems hollow in many areas and it’s transition areas to a tiled or carpeted area look like they were done by a third grader. Each time when I tried to reach out to customer service I got the dreaded massage of “delays due to call volume being unusually high”. Later on the automated “hold”, it advised the usual advice to utilize online chat for better service, after stating hold times if 63, even 88 minutes. Then, I would go to Chat, which was “unavailable”, even though it was right in the middle of the hours of availability. This happened multiple times until I finally struck pay dirt and got a live person who seemed slightly motivated to help me. She stated someone would call in 24-48 hrs to arrange a person to come out and look at the floor. I told her to make a note of the fact that they left me with 5 boxes of extra product that I had paid for (sorry for the preposition here), four of which were still sealed, and that I expected these to be taken and credited to me. The other thing I told her was that I did not want to hear that the results were normal when the salesman promised me the floor would be finished off well (he showed examples) and would feel rock solid and quiet. It is 48 hrs and no call yet. To cut to the chase, while I am awaiting my options, I put a payment dispute on the work with my AMEX. Any other ideas besides the fact that a should have used a different vendor originally?

My next issue is in the next post of mine….

henryn

carnaught said:

(WARNING, a jmonroe sized lengthy post. Feel free to skip it.)

To bring on a different subject, with my recent move to the new house a week ago, I’m engaged with various companies for goods and services. I want to mention customer service after after payment is made. I have had plenty of no shows for services, specifically pool maintenance and routine exterminator treatment. Before I get to some negatives, I wanted to give props to my painter who patched and painted some nasty walls where the previous owner, an artsy f*rtsy type had wall anchors that could support an automobile’s weight in various walls that had to be, let say, reversed. We had a check-up for our two hvac’s even though they we only a couple of years old. We just can’t afford to take the chance of failure living in the desert. A young lady arrived and spent two hours checking outside, in the house and even our 110+ degree attic during the peak of the day’s heat. she was thorough and overall excellent.

Now for especially bad product(s), bad customer service, I am going to call out a large flooring company, based in the Chicago area, and also out here, and an electronics,/appliance store, which is national and starts with a first name denoting superlative. The flooring place sent someone out to give us options for floor replacement in two our small to medium sized rooms. We talked products looking like wood, from tiles to textured vinyl, and spoke with a slick fast talking, seemingly knowledgeable guy, who arranged the work to be done before we moved in. The work was completed in two days and the installation seemed good but now the floor creeks, seems hollow in many areas and it’s transition areas to a tiled or carpeted area look like they were done by a third grader. Each time when I tried to reach out to customer service I got the dreaded massage of “delays due to call volume being unusually high”. Later on the automated “hold”, it advised the usual advice to utilize online chat for better service, after stating hold times if 63, even 88 minutes. Then, I would go to Chat, which was “unavailable”, even though it was right in the middle of the hours of availability. This happened multiple times until I finally struck pay dirt and got a live person who seemed slightly motivated to help me. She stated someone would call in 24-48 hrs to arrange a person to come out and look at the floor. I told her to make a note of the fact that they left me with 5 boxes of extra product that I had paid for (sorry for the preposition here), four of which were still sealed, and that I expected these to be taken and credited to me. The other thing I told her was that I did not want to hear that the results were normal when the salesman promised me the floor would be finished off well (he showed examples) and would feel rock solid and quiet. It is 48 hrs and no call yet. To cut to the chase, while I am awaiting my options, I put a payment dispute on the work with my AMEX. Any other ideas besides the fact that a should have used a different vendor originally?

My next issue is in the next post of mine….

Be very glad that you used Amex instead of Mastercard or Visa or whatever. Amex is much more likely to be of help in your dispute.

tjc78

@jmonroe1 said:
I never said it was a conspiracy or even alluded to that. When COVID-19 hit, new cars sales tanked and the car manufacturers probably acted too quickly and halted production. Then when they wanted parts that contained chips they still weren’t sure how much they wanted. Now they know they want to get back to full production so orders are coming in to the chip manufacturers and those orders will be filled pretty quickly now. Not over night but fast.

jmonroe

It wasn’t you who said it was a conspiracy, at this point I don’t remember who said it!

tjc78

@henryn said:
Be very glad that you used Amex instead of Mastercard or Visa or whatever. Amex is much more likely to be of help in your dispute.

I think it depends on what bank your MC or Visa is. The ones I have took good care of me in a dispute.

carnaught

Ok, now for my customer service experience with the electronic/appliance store. The order for three televisions was placed on it’s online “.com” store, with delivery, as they were all large and I did not want to tackle this in 105+ degree weather, plus I am working. My previous homes tvs were older and all bought by the home buyer.

The first tv arrived and I installed it, then noticed the screen looking funky. I thought it was the sticky wrap covering it, but it was badly damaged with two fist sized screen deficits, damaged pixels, etc. Yes, I should have checked prior to proceeding but I foolishly kept the plastic foam covering on it to protect it while hooking it up. I then went online to the site to return it, filled out the reasoning for return, etc., and it said, “the free and easiest way to return (my damaged set)” was to “bring it to my local store”. I then packed it up, always a fun thing to do (like putting a square peg into a round hole”, put it in the car, all the while regretting the online purchase, and off to the store I went. I wheeled it into the store, over to customer service, and explained that my order, from their .com arrived with damage. The two young ladies took it in the “back” to verify my damage and make sure everything was there. After 5-10 min.they came out with the male of authority who confirmed that it was indeed damaged, and that they would not take it it for exchange or refund it, and that I had to take it home. At first I was taken aback and even thought this geek was joking but when I tried to calmly and rationally reason with him that the .com and store were the same company and bringing it in was what advised online, he just said “we don’t take damaged goods from deliveries ordered through the .com”, then mumbled something and went into the back. What!! This was a no brainer. So then I said I have two more tvs on order from them, and hypothetically if I were to get one, didn’t unbox it and brought it in for exchange, what would they do. One of these robot gals answered, “we would bring it in the back, open the box and make sure it was not damaged”. I asked if it was damaged, what then? She said, “she we wouldn’t take it”. What??

When I got home I called the .com, went through the automated menu, and it said to bring a damaged item to the store! When I got a live human and explained the scenario she said the store should have taken it. I reminded her that both she and her website are apparently saying the wrong thing. She told me not to worry that someone would call me in 24-48 hrs to arrange a UPS pickup. After three days I called and after the wait over the phone, they told me they would have someone call to arrange e pick-up. I reminded her that I had till July 24 to return this. She also said, “don’t worry, it’s noted in (my) record”. Yesterday I got an email with attachment to print a UPS shipping label for either UPS drop off or waiting for pickup, like Amazon does. I took the d*mn thing to a UPS Store and shipped it within minutes. Now, I get to wait “10-15 business days” to get my refund, u like Amazon. Fortunately, tv number two arrived undamaged and I cancelled the order on tv number three. Just to send a message to them, I also filed a payment dispute with my AMEX.

Anyway, it taught me who not to deal with, and maybe prevent others from using their .com online store.

Whew…

henryn

Most of the businesses who have moved into online sales in the last few years have no idea what they're doing. "Hey, Amazon is making a lot of money doing online sales, let's try that!" It isn't that easy, and most of them are flunking the course.

I signed up for the Walmart account with free shipping a few months ago, mostly to get free delivery on groceries. I have ordered a few things from them other than groceries, and so far it has worked out. I did get a microwave that was damaged in shipment, and they immediately generated a shipping label and cross-shipped another unit.

abacomike

@carnaught said:
(WARNING, a jmonroe sized lengthy post. Feel free to skip it.)

To bring on a different subject, with my recent move to the new house a week ago, I’m engaged with various companies for goods and services. I want to mention customer service after after payment is made. I have had plenty of no shows for services, specifically pool maintenance and routine exterminator treatment. Before I get to some negatives, I wanted to give props to my painter who patched and painted some nasty walls where the previous owner, an artsy f*rtsy type had wall anchors that could support an automobile’s weight in various walls that had to be, let say, reversed. We had a check-up for our two hvac’s even though they we only a couple of years old. We just can’t afford to take the chance of failure living in the desert. A young lady arrived and spent two hours checking outside, in the house and even our 110+ degree attic during the peak of the day’s heat. she was thorough and overall excellent.

Now for especially bad product(s), bad customer service, I am going to call out a large flooring company, based in the Chicago area, and also out here, and an electronics,/appliance store, which is national and starts with a first name denoting superlative. The flooring place sent someone out to give us options for floor replacement in two our small to medium sized rooms. We talked products looking like wood, from tiles to textured vinyl, and spoke with a slick fast talking, seemingly knowledgeable guy, who arranged the work to be done before we moved in. The work was completed in two days and the installation seemed good but now the floor creeks, seems hollow in many areas and it’s transition areas to a tiled or carpeted area look like they were done by a third grader. Each time when I tried to reach out to customer service I got the dreaded massage of “delays due to call volume being unusually high”. Later on the automated “hold”, it advised the usual advice to utilize online chat for better service, after stating hold times if 63, even 88 minutes. Then, I would go to Chat, which was “unavailable”, even though it was right in the middle of the hours of availability. This happened multiple times until I finally struck pay dirt and got a live person who seemed slightly motivated to help me. She stated someone would call in 24-48 hrs to arrange a person to come out and look at the floor. I told her to make a note of the fact that they left me with 5 boxes of extra product that I had paid for (sorry for the preposition here), four of which were still sealed, and that I expected these to be taken and credited to me. The other thing I told her was that I did not want to hear that the results were normal when the salesman promised me the floor would be finished off well (he showed examples) and would feel rock solid and quiet. It is 48 hrs and no call yet. To cut to the chase, while I am awaiting my options, I put a payment dispute on the work with my AMEX. Any other ideas besides the fact that a should have used a different vendor originally?

My next issue is in the next post of mine….

My LOL was due to your last sentence - not the horrific problems you are experiencing. Good luck!

bwia

@stickguy said:
They probably will now. But my son (who works in the industry) said it’s very expensive, and takes a long time, to build and operate a state of the art fab facility. Even getting shuttered US plants out of mothballs and retrofitted is not quick or cheap.

I read somewhere that full fab production will not return until 2022 - 2023. Meanwhile, Tesla is using non-traditional chips in it's new vehicles.

Although Arizona is building itself up as the new silicon valley of semiconductor manufacturing, progress on these multi-billion $ fabs are slow at best.
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/global-chip-shortage-will-easily-drag-into-2022-stellantis-ceo-2021-07-21/

sda

driver100 said:

sda said:

My 71 Vega GT was yellow, sunflower yellow. A friend’s dad, when he first saw it, asked who took a le-k on my car? True story, lol.

You're admitting to owning a Vega?

Actually I was managing a retail store at the time and just bought a 1973 Maverick....2 door, Dark Green, at least it was a V8.
My assistant manager bought a 74 Vega shortly after....I think the Vega looked a lot better, it was orange with the white hood etc., but mechanically, I think the Maverick was probably a better car!

Yep, I bought it well used for $495 in 1977 while I was in high school. It burned a lot of oil, was fairly rust free. It never left me stranded.

roadburner

I’ve never had a problem with BB, I had them deliver my Kuro Elite along with my first BD player. Since then I’ve ordered some items online and some in store with no issues. I received no pushback at all when I returned the defective Panasonic 4K BD player and replaced it with an equivalent Sony player. As with car dealerships, the quality of service between stores can vary exponentially- and that in turn can exponentially influence a customer’s relationship with the parent corporatIon. In other words, YMMV.

roadburner

I was in another county on one of my special prosecutor gigs and the judge(who owns a BMW and often refers to me as “the BMW Wizard”- referring to my BMW Genius days) told me he heard a rumor that the Kentucky Supreme Court may reinstate a mask mandate(or worse) in the near future. What a fiasco. In my view, a mask should not be needed if you are vaccinated- and if you aren’t vaccinated, that’s your choice- and if you catch COVID as a result I have absolutely no sympathy for you.
As an aside, I actually obtained a conviction of Wanton Endangerment 1st Degree on a guy who had a positive COVID test yet went to see his probation officer and said he didn’t test positive. It occurred during the pinnacle of the pandemic hysteria and the entire staff of the office had to quarantine as a result. His attorney was prepared to fight me tooth and nail but the guy picked up a couple of new felonies in other counties and was going to be staying at a palatial county jail until he went to trial- so his attorney finally accepted a year to serve on my charge.

cdnpinhead

Well, this should be interesting.

roadburner

I emailed graphicguy; he’s doing well- he’s been traveling a lot. He sends his regards and hopes to check in here in the near future.

driver100

@carnaught I don't know where to begin...I thought I had a bad day losing my tennis match.
What awful experiences....at least you are relatively young so you have more patience than I do. It is overwhelming thinking about the time and trouble you are going through to solve these problems.

carnaught

driver100 said:

@carnaught I don't know where to begin...I thought I had a bad day losing my tennis match.
What awful experiences....at least you are relatively young so you have more patience than I do. It is overwhelming thinking about the time and trouble you are going through to solve these problems.

What do you mean by “relatively” young ? 😳

jmonroe1

@carnaught said:
What do you mean by “relatively” young ? 😳

Young enough to know not to wear a horizontally striped shirt.

jmonroe

mjfloyd1

I thought young means “younger than I am”. Young gets older every day

sda

It is funny how one’s perspective of old changes as you get older. I remember being in the 4th grade and Miss Gault asked how old would we be in 2000. Math skills put to work, 41. My parents were in their late 20s, early 30s, yikes! Now, don’t ask.

snakeweasel

carnaught said:

(WARNING, a jmonroe sized lengthy post. Feel free to skip it.)

OK,

carnaught said:

Now for especially bad product(s), bad customer service, I am going to call out a large flooring company, based in the Chicago area, and also out here...

OK I have to ask, does it rhyme with vampire? If it does I know exactly who you are talking about and they do not have a stellar reputation.

snakeweasel

carnaught said:

driver100 said:

@carnaught I don't know where to begin...I thought I had a bad day losing my tennis match.
What awful experiences....at least you are relatively young so you have more patience than I do. It is overwhelming thinking about the time and trouble you are going through to solve these problems.

What do you mean by “relatively” young ? 😳

He means you have relatives who are young.

oldfarmer50

roadburner said:

I was in another county on one of my special prosecutor gigs and the judge(who owns a BMW and often refers to me as “the BMW Wizard”- referring to my BMW Genius days) told me he heard a rumor that the Kentucky Supreme Court may reinstate a mask mandate(or worse) in the near future. What a fiasco. In my view, a mask should not be needed if you are vaccinated- and if you aren’t vaccinated, that’s your choice- and if you catch COVID as a result I have absolutely no sympathy for you.

As an aside, I actually obtained a conviction of Wanton Endangerment 1st Degree on a guy who had a positive COVID test yet went to see his probation officer and said he didn’t test positive. It occurred during the pinnacle of the pandemic hysteria and the entire staff of the office had to quarantine as a result. His attorney was prepared to fight me tooth and nail but the guy picked up a couple of new felonies in other counties and was going to be staying at a palatial county jail until he went to trial- so his attorney finally accepted a year to serve on my charge.

Dumb criminals.

I wonder how you would proceed on two local case I heard about on the radio today.

Case number one was a guy who got drunk and drove to a house where he thought there would be a party. Unfortunately, the people who lived there weren’t having a party and had no idea what the guy was talking about. Undeterred or perhaps thinking they just didn’t want him at their party the guy began kicking in doors and attacking people. He fought with the cops who responded. He blew a .23, almost three times the legal limit. He was charged with aggravated harassment, DUI and resisting arrest.

Case number two, a budding entrepreneur was caught stealing cooking grease from behind a restaurant and was arrested for petty theft. His business model was to cut his fixed costs by stealing the grease and selling it downstate to a refinery.

This was his second arrest for the same crime having previously been confronted by the restaurant owner who he proceeded to run over with his car.

Thanks to NY’s new bail laws he was released within hours on his promise to be a good boy from now on.

I think he’s in the wrong business.

andres3

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

sda said:

My 71 Vega GT was yellow, sunflower yellow. A friend’s dad, when he first saw it, asked who took a le-k on my car? True story, lol.

You're admitting to owning a Vega?

Actually I was managing a retail store at the time and just bought a 1973 Maverick....2 door, Dark Green, at least it was a V8.
My assistant manager bought a 74 Vega shortly after....I think the Vega looked a lot better, it was orange with the white hood etc., but mechanically, I think the Maverick was probably a better car!

That’s not saying much. Back then they had to make those cars to meet a price point and corners were cut everywhere. I remember reading that the Vega engine was made in such a cheap way to save money that oil would actually seep through the block. They rusted in no time at all.

Some think it was arrogance on the part of big domestic manufacturers who assumed that the public would just take what they were given an shut up but it really drove a lot of people to Japanese cars, never to return.

My vote is a healthy combination of arrogance and stupidity.

driver100

carnaught said:

driver100 said:

@carnaught I don't know where to begin...I thought I had a bad day losing my tennis match.
What awful experiences....at least you are relatively young so you have more patience than I do. It is overwhelming thinking about the time and trouble you are going through to solve these problems.

What do you mean by “relatively” young ? 😳

I do know that old age is 10 years older than you are now!

driver100

jmonroe1 said:

@carnaught said:

What do you mean by “relatively” young ? 😳

Young enough to know not to wear a horizontally striped shirt.

jmonroe

Hey, I don't own that shirt anymore and I don't buy striped shirts anymore.......horizontal or vertical.

roadburner

oldfarmer50 said:

roadburner said:

I was in another county on one of my special prosecutor gigs and the judge(who owns a BMW and often refers to me as “the BMW Wizard”- referring to my BMW Genius days) told me he heard a rumor that the Kentucky Supreme Court may reinstate a mask mandate(or worse) in the near future. What a fiasco. In my view, a mask should not be needed if you are vaccinated- and if you aren’t vaccinated, that’s your choice- and if you catch COVID as a result I have absolutely no sympathy for you.

As an aside, I actually obtained a conviction of Wanton Endangerment 1st Degree on a guy who had a positive COVID test yet went to see his probation officer and said he didn’t test positive. It occurred during the pinnacle of the pandemic hysteria and the entire staff of the office had to quarantine as a result. His attorney was prepared to fight me tooth and nail but the guy picked up a couple of new felonies in other counties and was going to be staying at a palatial county jail until he went to trial- so his attorney finally accepted a year to serve on my charge.

Dumb criminals.

I wonder how you would proceed on two local case I heard about on the radio today.

Case number one was a guy who got drunk and drove to a house where he thought there would be a party. Unfortunately, the people who lived there weren’t having a party and had no idea what the guy was talking about. Undeterred or perhaps thinking they just didn’t want him at their party the guy began kicking in doors and attacking people. He fought with the cops who responded. He blew a .23, almost three times the legal limit. He was charged with aggravated harassment, DUI and resisting arrest.

Case number two, a budding entrepreneur was caught stealing cooking grease from behind a restaurant and was arrested for petty theft. His business model was to cut his fixed costs by stealing the grease and selling it downstate to a refinery.

This was his second arrest for the same crime having previously been confronted by the restaurant owner who he proceeded to run over with his car.

Thanks to NY’s new bail laws he was released within hours on his promise to be a good boy from now on.

I think he’s in the wrong business.

Case Number One- A lot would depend on the guy's prior record-if any. As a prosecutor I make the final call, but I always listen to what the police and/or victims want to see happen- and try to accommodate their wishes- within reason. He'd definitely have to pay restitution for any damages and at a minimum I'd want to hang five years over his head, probated for five years. Unlike larger offices, I handle probation revocations 99.9% of the time, so I remember defendants if they show up there. If he insisted on going to trial I'd seek the maximum sentence possible - there has to be an incentive to take a plea bargain.

Case Number Two- Unless it's a minor drug possession case I'm not at all sympathetic to repeat offenders; I'd want him to serve time and pay the highest fine possible.

As for bail, the big progressive push is to eliminate cash bail, which is a big mistake in my opinion. I only request cash bail if the defendant has a history of not appearing for court and or they are charged with a violent offense. In Louisville The Bail Project posts cash bonds so that poor misunderstood defendants like rapists, murderers and drug traffickers can continue their mayhem. In the space of a couple of months they posted $5,000 cash bonds for two defendants from my county who had absconded from probation. To no one's surprise, they disappeared. I made motions to forfeit their bonds and consequently The Bail Project lost $10,000. Since then they have not posted any more bonds for defendants being held on warrants from my county.

mjfloyd1

Well, at least the (excuse me, The) Bail Project learned from their mistakes = situational awareness

jmonroe1

@driver100 said:
Hey, I don't own that shirt anymore and I don't buy striped shirts anymore.......horizontal or vertical.

You’re kinda slow about a wardrobe change aren’t you? That’s a sure sign of aging.

jmonroe

mjfloyd1

andres3 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

sda said:

My 71 Vega GT was yellow, sunflower yellow. A friend’s dad, when he first saw it, asked who took a le-k on my car? True story, lol.

You're admitting to owning a Vega?

Actually I was managing a retail store at the time and just bought a 1973 Maverick....2 door, Dark Green, at least it was a V8.
My assistant manager bought a 74 Vega shortly after....I think the Vega looked a lot better, it was orange with the white hood etc., but mechanically, I think the Maverick was probably a better car!

That’s not saying much. Back then they had to make those cars to meet a price point and corners were cut everywhere. I remember reading that the Vega engine was made in such a cheap way to save money that oil would actually seep through the block. They rusted in no time at all.

Some think it was arrogance on the part of big domestic manufacturers who assumed that the public would just take what they were given an shut up but it really drove a lot of people to Japanese cars, never to return.

My vote is a healthy combination of arrogance and stupidity.

Methinks that you are in a good position to make this guess

cdnpinhead

andres3 said:

My vote is a healthy combination of arrogance and stupidity.

As Markcincinnati posted many years ago, without attribution (maybe it was his own): " Often wrong, but never uncertain."

There's a lot of that going around these days

snakeweasel

@driver100 said:
Hey, I don't own that shirt anymore and I don't buy striped shirts anymore.......horizontal or vertical.

So you've gone plaid?

Michaell

snakeweasel said:

@driver100 said:

Hey, I don't own that shirt anymore and I don't buy striped shirts anymore.......horizontal or vertical.

So you've gone plaid?

In other words, horizontal and vertical. :laughing:

carnaught

cdnpinhead said:

andres3 said:

My vote is a healthy combination of arrogance and stupidity.

As Markcincinnati posted many years ago, without attribution (maybe it was his own): " Often wrong, but never uncertain."

There's a lot of that going around these days

@markcincinnati, was very entertaining to read, especially related to Audis. Anyone remember @shipo, who was a BMW enthusiast - also very entertaining? Then there was @tagman, a frequent Edmund’s poster who became disillusioned here and left.

As far as @graphicguy, I’m glad he’s all right.

qbrozen

I don't recall tagman.