Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

ab348 · April 2019

henryn said:

Well, we sorta do have a system like that here in the USA. It's called Medicare, and it works pretty good. This is my third year on Medicare, and I have no complaints, it is definitely better than the previous insurance I had.

There would be differences in that Medicare is limited to certain groups, not the entire population, and you would have far more choice/access to services thanks to the nature of your system than we do.

oldfarmer50 · April 2019

driver100 said:

fintail said:
I don't rent nearly as often, but in the US have patronized Hertz for some years, as they are linked to a rewards program I am in. Never had an issue, but I am always amazed at the basic spec of most of their cars. I know rentals tend to be basic to begin with, but literal zero option cars amuse me. Also amusing are the well-equipped cars randomly scattered in the fleet. I've also used Sixt when available, as their fleet is generally more interesting.

In Europe I have only rented from Sixt, no issues there either, and a generally very nice fleet of well equipped cars, some of them fairly fancy (my last was a Jag F-type S Cabrio).

Probably low risk buying a rental car, especially a fleet grade bland sedan. Not much attraction in hooning one of
those. A rental muscle car though, I'd tread with caution.

graphicguy said:
RENTAL CARS.....I rent A LOT of cars

Lastly, I rented a Fiat 500 in Boston a few months, ago. Yes, it handled fine. It was a bit slow, but still fun to drive. If Fiat could ever get their act together and make a well built, and reliable car, it would be a hit.

I wonder how many people buy a car based on a rental car? I once had an Elantra which I was impressed with considering how much car you get for the buck, a Volvo which felt very luxurious, a Mitsu Outlander that I liked a lot....then there were cars I didn't like too much including a Chrysler 300....but, you would think the manufacturers would want to put more options on to make these cars more appealing.

I bought based on my rental car driving. Not a car I would have ever considered otherwise.

Rumor has it that our office will be getting 600 new 19’s and 20’s next month. I think when the manufacturers have excess inventory, they deal. Should be fun moving all those around.

ruking1 · April 2019

My 5th grade teacher (57 years ago) was almost cult like, apocalyptic in predicting the eminent/imminent US metric “conversion” & spent tons of class & homework time making us “ready”. Looking back, it’s easy to do those conversions mentally.... First words now are Hey Siri/Alexa....

ruking1 · April 2019

fintail said:
Luckiest generation members now attached medicare or other publicly supported systems mocking "socialized" medicine, if only there was some self-awareness.

Pay attention, Murka pays far more per capita than similarly wealthy nations and doesn't receive superior results.

Para #1. Revisionist history! Being forced to “join”, pay was “defacto” THE ONLY option! Now many will tell you a lot of WEEDS are now being reaped. You just ignore the obvious truths, that others on this board are saying. So yes, self awareness is acute, sans yours.

So it’s easy, so pay more than token attention. We should just be able to go to the hospitals of choice, whether it’s in Norway, Germany or the US, etc.😎 & as promised, pay little to nothing.

explorerx4 · April 2019

Hey oldfarmer50,
I'm now officially part owner of a farm, about 1/3 of 2/3s.
My sister said it's about 8k hectares and it's in Deutschland.
On my mother's side, her family had a farm, but with WW2 and the subsequent iron curtain, it got appropriated.
In the mean time they moved to the other side of the line before it got closed off.
After the fall of the iron curtain and subsequent reunification, land was 'given' back to families who had previously lost it.
It was not the exact property they originally owned.
About 3 years ago, we went there after we fulfilled my mom's wish to have her ashes be deposited in the Baltic Sea(very normal thing over there).
The area is very run down, as is many of the part of the old East Germany.
They have a sign signifying where the old border was, gave me the creeps because I still remember a border guard sticking a machine gun in the car window at my dad's head one time when we were crossing to the East side.

cdnpinhead · April 2019

henryn said:
Uh... what? What was that in relation to? The metric system is a BETTER system, period. Although I still don't have a clue how it wound up in this thread?

I agree that the SI system makes more sense, but the point of my post was that the U.S. does whatever it wants and the rest of the world can like it or not. This was in response to a post positing that "single payer" health care was what the rest of the world does.

Go figure.

ruking1 · April 2019

explorerx4 said:
Hey oldfarmer50,
I'm now officially part owner of a farm, about 1/3 of 2/3s.
My sister said it's about 8k hectares and it's in Deutschland.
On my mother's side, her family had a farm, but with WW2 and the subsequent iron curtain, it got appropriated.
In the mean time they moved to the other side of the line before it got closed off.
After the fall of the iron curtain and subsequent reunification, land was 'given' back to families who had previously lost it.
It was not the exact property they originally owned.
About 3 years ago, we went there after we fulfilled my mom's wish to have her ashes be deposited in the Baltic Sea(very normal thing over there).
The area is very run down, as is many of the part of the old East Germany.
They have a sign signifying where the old border was, gave me the creeps because I still remember a border guard sticking a machine gun in the car window at my dad's head one time when we were crossing to the East side.

So the nearest I can figure, 8,000 hectors is approximately 19,000 to 19,800 acres ? Your 1/3 being 6,587 acres? What do you plan to do with it? I’m guessing unless you lease it out, it’s a likely money pit? Around here agricultural land tops is $5,000 per acre= $33 M.

fintail · April 2019

Ah, the love it or leave it rebuttal. No wonder a certain demographic is so beloved.

Some people might be working as they can to change it.

Thanks

jmonroe1 said:

Given our country is so bad, both with health care and real estate, why are you still here?

jmonroe

fintail · April 2019

Potaytoe Potahtoe

Would you trade what you and your countrymen have for what exists on this side of the border? Where tens of millions have no coverage, and they along with those who do are lucky enough some kind of coverage live under the constant Damoclean sword of medical bankruptcy, while often not able to afford anything beyond basic care?

Oh yeah, and you get millionaire pharma and insurance suits to show for it. Is corporate bureaucracy better than government bureaucracy? Speaking as someone who works for a large private sector entity, I can attest we have plenty of it too. I am lucky enough to have decent coverage via my employer, and even then had thousands in out of pocket costs from an ER visit, and significant other costs from other visits - and it's not like I had a lung transplant or something.

Arguing that longer life expectancy is somehow a failing is pretty interesting, but I can't support it. Americans spend more and die earlier, it's simple.

Another fun stat, the US spends more per capita than other similar nations even with the evils of "socialized" (used amusingly as a pejorative by some) care. It's almost like a voracious middleman is sucking material out of the system. Maybe to be expected in what has become an oligocracy.

I bet you wouldn't make that trade. I see few Canadians who aren't into partisanship willing to make a one for one trade in those systems either, nor are any Norwegians lining up to move here.

There's no perfect system - nobody said your system is without faults, but one just might treat its people better than the other. Sometimes the big guy can learn something from others, and in time, he might do just that.

ab348 said:

Canada is not the single payer you seem to envisage. It is also close to single-provider, that being the govt, and that is where the problems arise. Family doctors are self-employed and manage their own practices, and pay their staff/operating costs. The govt has a fee schedule and pays them on a piecework basis. Of course they managed to screw that up so that family docs say they can't make any money without being overworked. Pretty much everything else is run and staffed by govt with all the bureaucracy, waste, inertia, and lack of concern for the client experience that brings with it.

Don't want that either and prefer to keep your existing medical infrastructure? If you are imposing insurance on people as single-payer does then you get into huge bureaucracies that determine what is covered and how much procedures are worth. Most doctors don't go to med school for all those years to work for the govt at what they declare to be an acceptable salary. If people and institutions can't make money providing care they stop doing it. If you allow them to charge what they want, invariably that leads to the payer running out of funds, rationing care and declaring some things not eligible. There is no magic bullet here.

The life expectancy data is due to many things, not just the health care system. And of course even that brings with it is own problems, as an aging population that lives longer is yet another burden on the taxpayer, and we have the same horror stories about seniors needing a bed in a care facility and not getting one, or being warehoused in one that has horrible conditions where they get treated terribly. Don't assume because the system you know has problems, that ones touted by those with a certain point of view are automatically better. Canada's surely isn't. Not when you see our politicians traveling to the US for treatment that is good enough that they are willing to pay for it rather than wait years for something here.

Medical bankruptcies could be wiped out with an administrative law change. Nobody should go go broke because of a need for lifesaving treatment. As long as people don't rack up millions of dollars in bills for cosmetic surgery or quackery, no harm no foul. But is that knee or hip replacement really necessary? Maybe you should suffer a few more years. Walk slower, don't try to even walk to the corner of the block. Quality of life suffering? Too bad, take some more pain pills, we'll pay for those. When you can't get out of the house at all any more, then we'll talk.

Don't laugh, things are close to that bad here.

fintail · April 2019

IMO that's a failing of makers who decide fleet content. Few are going to have a positive impression from a barebones model. But make the car seem nice (and ensure the rental company maintains them), and it might make some sales.

It amuses me that when I have rented in Germany, I've had no problem finding fairly loaded cars in fleets, but they can be hen's teeth here, to the point where the basic cars don't even exist for consumer sale.

driver100 said:

I wonder how many people buy a car based on a rental car? I once had an Elantra which I was impressed with considering how much car you get for the buck, a Volvo which felt very luxurious, a Mitsu Outlander that I liked a lot....then there were cars I didn't like too much including a Chrysler 300....but, you would think the manufacturers would want to put more options on to make these cars more appealing.

fintail · April 2019

I bet that's what it comes down to, residuals. Sometimes options do well, other times, not so much. I remember my last Enterprise rentals were midrange cars - a Ford and Kia.

My last Hertz before my latest trip was a 300 that seriously had not a single option. But then I lucked out on a fairly loaded Grand Cherokee, maybe one can't assume. Their highline imports appear to be basic though, I remember seeing a zero option Q50 at Hertz, and a similarly loaded Evoque.

oldfarmer50 said:

I don’t know about Hertz but Enterprise has few stripper models from my experience. They tend to be mid range to higher trim levels. For every Hyundai Accent without a backup camera we have a dozen Fusion Titaniums. From what I can gather it all depends on what the company can negotiate. I think they realize that a higher trim level will sell better when it goes on the block after it’s rental life.

fintail · April 2019

Luckyboomer lecturing about self-awareness, oh the irony.

You're a public sector retiree with a fat bennie package now using publicly funded healthcare and a similarly funded income stream, yes? Yes, self-awareness, study it. I got mine, to hell with everyone else.

ruking1 said:

Para #1. Revisionist history! Being forced to “join”, pay was “defacto” THE ONLY option! Now many will tell you a lot of WEEDS are now being reaped. You just ignore the obvious truths, that others on this board are saying. So yes, self awareness is acute, sans yours.

So it’s easy, so pay more than token attention. We should just be able to go to the hospitals of choice, whether it’s in Norway, Germany or the US, etc.😎 & as promised, pay little to nothing.

jmonroe1 · April 2019

fintail said:
Ah, the love it or leave it rebuttal. No wonder a certain demographic is so beloved.

Some people might be working as they can to change it.

Thanks

jmonroe1 said:

Given our country is so bad, both with health care and real estate, why are you still here?

jmonroe

You can thank me more by either leaving or stop _itching.

jmonroe

Michaell · April 2019

jmonroe1 said:

fintail said:
Ah, the love it or leave it rebuttal. No wonder a certain demographic is so beloved.

Some people might be working as they can to change it.

Thanks

jmonroe1 said:

Given our country is so bad, both with health care and real estate, why are you still here?

jmonroe

You can thank me more by either leaving or stop _itching.

jmonroe

I don't see evidence of that .. I see a disagreement of perspective, and a free exchange of ideas.

So long as it doesn't get personal, all is good.

But, if it does get personal, posts will get deleted...

We all have a scroll wheel.

suydam · April 2019

Getting off the health care rant, I would have to say that it was probably good that @abacomike went to the ER rather than urgent care. With as many underlying problems as you’ve had, I’m sure they would prefer you go where there is the greatest range of treatment options. As a transplant recipient, I’m always told to go to the ER — just in case.

ruking1 · April 2019

fintail said:
Luckyboomer lecturing about self-awareness, oh the irony.

You're a public sector retiree with a fat bennie package now using publicly funded healthcare and a similarly funded income stream, yes? Yes, self-awareness, study it. I got mine, to hell with everyone else.

ruking1 said:

Para #1. Revisionist history! Being forced to “join”, pay was “defacto” THE ONLY option! Now many will tell you a lot of WEEDS are now being reaped. You just ignore the obvious truths, that others on this board are saying. So yes, self awareness is acute, sans yours.

So it’s easy, so pay more than token attention. We should just be able to go to the hospitals of choice, whether it’s in Norway, Germany or the US, etc.😎 & as promised, pay little to nothing.

Wrong on all 4 counts! 👀

I’d be much higher on the hog if I had made it a point to score publicly funded boondoggles. However, I’m hardly complaining.

There are very easy ways to end so called publicly funded boondoggles (Medicare, etc.). Don’t make asinine & multi trillion $ & generational promises with little chances of folks like you repaying. How’ are socialized systems like Venezuela, Cuba, Russia, etc. working out? 👺👽

henryn · April 2019

My last rental car, 2 or 3 years back, was an Explorer. It was a very high end model (Limited?), but had the base 6 cylinder NA engine. Weak, slow, no fun at all. I would have traded all of the leather and fancy options for the ecoboost engine.

henryn · April 2019

suydam said:
Getting off the health care rant, I would have to say that it was probably good that @abacomike went to the ER rather than urgent care. With as many underlying problems as you’ve had, I’m sure they would prefer you go where there is the greatest range of treatment options. As a transplant recipient, I’m always told to go to the ER — just in case.

I can't speak for @abacomike and his problems, nor you with the transplant. But the urgent care clinic I use has real doctors (MDs, not NP or PA). They have a lab, they have x-ray equipment, pretty well equipped. I have used them 3 or 4 times in the last 5 years, and I'm usually in and out in an hour to an hour and a half. The last time I went to an ER at a hospital, I was there for 6 hours. YMMV

snakeweasel · April 2019

henryn said:

cdnpinhead said:
Yeah, just like the metric system.
Uh... what? What was that in relation to? The metric system is a BETTER system, period. Although I still don't have a clue how it wound up in this thread?

Actually if you're using fractions a system based on 12 is better. That's why there are 12 inches in a foot.

henryn · April 2019

I will agree that a base 12 system would allow for better fractions. Myself, personally, I'll take decimals, you can keep the fractions. And when you get right down to it, hexadecimal is much better than base 12, yes?

I have no idea why there are 12 inches in a foot. Quick google search -- usual historical weirdness, no scientific basis.

First Usage of the 12-Inch Foot
The typical roman foot was approximately 11.64 inches which are about 97% of the measurements used today, but in the provinces the people used Nero Drusus’s foot (which was about 13.15 inches long). Initially, the Romans divided their foot into 16-digits, but they later split it into 12 unciae (which in English means ounce or inch).

And don't even get me started on how hard it is to work with 5,280. Sheesh.

But all of that pales in comparison to time. Trying to do time in a computer system is ridiculous. Today's higher level languages make it much easier, but I remember back in 1983 writing a device driver (in x86 assembly language) to deal with a clock built into the motherboard of an IBM Clone pc. The Leading Edge Model M, to be specific. Now that was a challenge!

ab348 · April 2019

Fin, you continue to compare apples and oranges. Your system costs more because in part access to better and more pricey care is available to some. That kind of care does not exist here because govts do not fund it. Extending life expectancy is indeed a problem because people generally are living longer and someone has to pay for that. Even here where the govt runs it the first thing they do is drain the inductee’s bank account and asset base, hardly nirvana. I would trade ours for a system where access to necessary care is available in a timely manner and if that meant paying a bit more to a more efficient non-govt provider, so be it. Paying huge taxes for a system that does not work is hardly a good system. Your system works but is not accessible to all. You don’t want to trade that care for better access because it will kill that care. Tell that woman in the video how our system is better.

ruking1 · April 2019

It’s pretty obvious, one’s never had to experience the consequences of ones attitudes. Or if an untruth is repeated enough, it will be true. Or subtlety is not a strong point.

This does not detract from the point that Canada has one of the best socialize medicine schemes around.

Michaell · April 2019

henryn said:
I will agree that a base 12 system would allow for better fractions. Myself, personally, I'll take decimals, you can keep the fractions. And when you get right down to it, hexadecimal is much better than base 12, yes?

I have no idea why there are 12 inches in a foot. Quick google search -- usual historical weirdness, no scientific basis.

First Usage of the 12-Inch Foot
The typical roman foot was approximately 11.64 inches which are about 97% of the measurements used today, but in the provinces the people used Nero Drusus’s foot (which was about 13.15 inches long). Initially, the Romans divided their foot into 16-digits, but they later split it into 12 unciae (which in English means ounce or inch).

And don't even get me started on how hard it is to work with 5,280. Sheesh.

But all of that pales in comparison to time. Trying to do time in a computer system is ridiculous. Today's higher level languages make it much easier, but I remember back in 1983 writing a device driver (in x86 assembly language) to deal with a clock built into the motherboard of an IBM Clone pc. The Leading Edge Model M, to be specific. Now that was a challenge!

The system I cut my teeth on uses a simple integer to represent the number of seconds that had elapsed in the day (0-86400). You can then use a conversion format to denote 12 or 24 hour clocks, include or exclude seconds.

Dates are also integers, with day 0 being 12/31/67

abacomike · April 2019

fintail said:

Luckyboomer lecturing about self-awareness, oh the irony. You're a public sector retiree with a fat bennie package now using publicly funded healthcare and a similarly funded income stream, yes? Yes, self-awareness, study it. I got mine, to hell with everyone else.
Para #1. Revisionist history! Being forced to “join”, pay was “defacto” THE ONLY option! Now many will tell you a lot of WEEDS are now being reaped. You just ignore the obvious truths, that others on this board are saying. So yes, self awareness is acute, sans yours. So it’s easy, so pay more than token attention. We should just be able to go to the hospitals of choice, whether it’s in Norway, Germany or the US, etc.😎 & as promised, pay little to nothing.

We better get off this topic before it gets nasty and more personal. Politics just doesn’t work well here!!! 😩

explorerx4 · April 2019

https://mycreativetype.com/

It came back that I'm a Dreamer.

jmonroe1 · April 2019

abacomike said:

fintail said:

Luckyboomer lecturing about self-awareness, oh the irony.

You're a public sector retiree with a fat bennie package now using publicly funded healthcare and a similarly funded income stream, yes? Yes, self-awareness, study it. I got mine, to hell with everyone else.
ruking1 said:

Para #1. Revisionist history! Being forced to “join”, pay was “defacto” THE ONLY option! Now many will tell you a lot of WEEDS are now being reaped. You just ignore the obvious truths, that others on this board are saying. So yes, self awareness is acute, sans yours.

So it’s easy, so pay more than token attention. We should just be able to go to the hospitals of choice, whether it’s in Norway, Germany or the US, etc.😎 & as promised, pay little to nothing.

We better get off this topic before it gets nasty and more personal. Politics just doesn’t work well here!!! 😩

That's because some of us, not me of course, aren't trying hard enough. When I try, I'm told I say it wrong. Everyone should get a trophy for participating even if what they say just cries sour grapes. Im not saying I'm always right unless you listen to what Mrs. j says about me.

jmonroe

houdini2 · April 2019

henryn said:
It's a little hard to render an informed opinion on that old convertible without more information, what repairs have been recommended, the cost of each of those repairs, etc.

Depending on what is wrong with it, I would probably either leave it alone and drive it until the wheels fall off, or just get rid of it now.

Here is another idea. It might be possible to just "unhook" the top from all the motors and switches that are not working. Then you could operate the top manually for the few times you might want to or need to. Oops, I see where you already nixed that idea.

oldfarmer50 · April 2019

explorerx4 said:
Hey oldfarmer50,
I'm now officially part owner of a farm, about 1/3 of 2/3s.
My sister said it's about 8k hectares and it's in Deutschland.
On my mother's side, her family had a farm, but with WW2 and the subsequent iron curtain, it got appropriated.
In the mean time they moved to the other side of the line before it got closed off.
After the fall of the iron curtain and subsequent reunification, land was 'given' back to families who had previously lost it.
It was not the exact property they originally owned.
About 3 years ago, we went there after we fulfilled my mom's wish to have her ashes be deposited in the Baltic Sea(very normal thing over there).
The area is very run down, as is many of the part of the old East Germany.
They have a sign signifying where the old border was, gave me the creeps because I still remember a border guard sticking a machine gun in the car window at my dad's head one time when we were crossing to the East side.

Wow, 20k acres in Germany must be valuable. Population is denser in Europe so open land is at a premium. What does the family plan on doing with it? Will we get a picture of you in lederhosen? That would put driver100’s Batman outfit to shame.

Interesting story about traveling in a totalitarian socialist country.

imidazol97 · April 2019

fintail said:
IMO that's a failing of makers who decide fleet content. Few are going to have a positive impression from a barebones model. But make the car seem nice (and ensure the rental company maintains them), and it might make some sales.

I do not know if the car maker has full control over the content. The fleet buyers likely have a price point in mind and negotiate to get the number of vehicles of the passenger size they want. The negotiations, just like bean counters in car design and content, determine the content.

I do know that GM had special fleet packages that added specific content to base Chevies, e.g., by adding some of the content items from higher line LT models.

On buying rentals as used vehicles, I've bought two. Put a long term GM warranty on them. No problems beyond expected maintenance. Both were high line models of the Chevy line, LT2 or 2LT2. They had options I would have ordered. So maybe my experience is not typical. I do know the Chevy garage loaned my son an LS Malibu 2014 and it was much different from my 14 Malibu LT2.

Do people decide they will buy a car based on the rental they get. I doubt it. But I believe they do decide they won't even look at the store and at higher level models based on the bad impression a poorly-equipped rented makes. I believe that hurt Chevy through the years.

imidazol97 · April 2019

Our pet post of the day is loosely related to @abacomike's food store experiences in the produce department.

oldfarmer50 · April 2019

ruking1 said:

explorerx4 said:
Hey oldfarmer50,
I'm now officially part owner of a farm, about 1/3 of 2/3s.
My sister said it's about 8k hectares and it's in Deutschland.
On my mother's side, her family had a farm, but with WW2 and the subsequent iron curtain, it got appropriated.
In the mean time they moved to the other side of the line before it got closed off.
After the fall of the iron curtain and subsequent reunification, land was 'given' back to families who had previously lost it.
It was not the exact property they originally owned.
About 3 years ago, we went there after we fulfilled my mom's wish to have her ashes be deposited in the Baltic Sea(very normal thing over there).
The area is very run down, as is many of the part of the old East Germany.
They have a sign signifying where the old border was, gave me the creeps because I still remember a border guard sticking a machine gun in the car window at my dad's head one time when we were crossing to the East side.
So the nearest I can figure, 8,000 hectors is approximately 19,000 to 19,800 acres ? Your 1/3 being 6,587 acres? What do you plan to do with it? I’m guessing unless you lease it out, it’s a likely money pit? Around here agricultural land tops is $5,000 per acre= $33 M.

Location, location, location. In the country farm land is $5k an acre, in suburbia it’s $50k and near a city it can be $5 million an acre.

cdnpinhead · April 2019

abacomike said:
We better get off this topic before it gets nasty and more personal.

Too late, but there is one common denominator in all the political or pseudo-political stuff.

oldfarmer50 · April 2019

fintail said:
I bet that's what it comes down to, residuals. Sometimes options do well, other times, not so much. I remember my last Enterprise rentals were midrange cars - a Ford and Kia.

My last Hertz before my latest trip was a 300 that seriously had not a single option. But then I lucked out on a fairly loaded Grand Cherokee, maybe one can't assume. Their highline imports appear to be basic though, I remember seeing a zero option Q50 at Hertz, and a similarly loaded Evoque.

oldfarmer50 said:

I don’t know about Hertz but Enterprise has few stripper models from my experience. They tend to be mid range to higher trim levels. For every Hyundai Accent without a backup camera we have a dozen Fusion Titaniums. From what I can gather it all depends on what the company can negotiate. I think they realize that a higher trim level will sell better when it goes on the block after it’s rental life.

10 years ago I got a free rental while my car was in the shop. Can’t remember the company but it was one of the most bare bones Sebrings I had ever seen. Seeing that I had an older version of that car (Cirrus)at the time, I was shocked at how cheap the newer version was.

The Q50s I’ve driven at work were pretty nice inside. Didn’t look like a stripper.

driver100 · April 2019

houdini2 said:

henryn said:
It's a little hard to render an informed opinion on that old convertible without more information, what repairs have been recommended, the cost of each of those repairs, etc.

Depending on what is wrong with it, I would probably either leave it alone and drive it until the wheels fall off, or just get rid of it now.
Here is another idea. It might be possible to just "unhook" the top from all the motors and switches that are not working. Then you could operate the top manually for the few times you might want to or need to.

Unhook, go on the highway.....and watch your roof fly away.

houdini2 · April 2019

abacomike said:
I guess summer is early this year - we hit 91 degrees today with high humidity - feels like temp was 99 degrees. A/C running full blast. 🤪😜😀😩

Yes, but it is snowing in Chicago, etc. When the alarmists changed to name from global warming to climate change it was a stroke of genius. With that term they are right if it gets cooler or warmer. Problem is, if they spend money to fix the cooling, they are making the warming worse. If they fix the warming they are making cooling worse. Nobody wins.

stickguy · April 2019

sometimes makers (GM at least) keeps models for fleet only. They did it with a prior generation of the Malibu (the "classic") when the new one came out. Strip out options, and dump as rentals. They also sold nameplates solely that way (the Captiva?)

otherwise I thought they just sold to the rentals what was overstocked, so why sometimes you see higher trim levels. I have gotten some pretty well equipped rentals. And a few tightwad specials!

explorerx4 · April 2019

It's a lot of land, but I don't think it has a high value per acre. The only number I can put on anything is that 3 parcels totaling about 270 acres(or hectares, can't remember) lease out for about 1k euros per year.

driver100 · April 2019

and they kept building Impalas as rental cars. Once again it is looking at the small picture. When you rent a stripper (I mean a bare bones car here) you are not impressed and would never consider buying one. If you rent a car you really like, there is a chance you will consider buying one, especially if yo are a person who is not driven by a particular brand.

oldfarmer50 · April 2019

driver100 said:

houdini2 said:

henryn said:
It's a little hard to render an informed opinion on that old convertible without more information, what repairs have been recommended, the cost of each of those repairs, etc.

Depending on what is wrong with it, I would probably either leave it alone and drive it until the wheels fall off, or just get rid of it now.
Here is another idea. It might be possible to just "unhook" the top from all the motors and switches that are not working. Then you could operate the top manually for the few times you might want to or need to.
Unhook, go on the highway.....and watch your roof fly away.

On my vert the latches are manual so that wouldn’t happen which is why I suggested that possibility. Unfortunately, his car was made under the reign of Daimler so of course it was unnecessarily complex which is why I changed my recommendation.

driver100 · April 2019

explorerx4 said:
It's a lot of land, but I don't think it has a high value per acre. The only number I can put on anything is that 3 parcels totaling about 270 acres(or hectares, can't remember) lease out for about 1k euros per year.

I don't think you are going to get wealthy from this parcel of land then.
I guess we should hold off on the big get together we were planning on holding this August.

oldfarmer50 · April 2019

stickguy said:
sometimes makers (GM at least) keeps models for fleet only. They did it with a prior generation of the Malibu (the "classic") when the new one came out. Strip out options, and dump as rentals. They also sold nameplates solely that way (the Captiva?)

otherwise I thought they just sold to the rentals what was overstocked, so why sometimes you see higher trim levels. I have gotten some pretty well equipped rentals. And a few tightwad specials!

I think it’s all of the above. I remember the last year of production on the old Ford Taurus (2008) was strictly for rentals. Grand Marquis too.

imidazol97 · April 2019

houdini2 said:

abacomike said:
I guess summer is early this year - we hit 91 degrees today with high humidity - feels like temp was 99 degrees. A/C running full blast. 🤪😜😀😩
Yes, but it is snowing in Chicago, etc. When the alarmists changed to name from global warming to climate change it was a stroke of genius. With that term they are right if it gets cooler or warmer. Problem is, if they spend money to fix the cooling, they are making the warming worse. If they fix the warming they are making cooling worse. Nobody wins.

X2 LOL

imidazol97 · April 2019

stickguy said:
sometimes makers (GM at least) keeps models for fleet only. They did it with a prior generation of the Malibu (the "classic") when the new one came out. Strip out options, and dump as rentals. They also sold nameplates solely that way (the Captiva?)

otherwise I thought they just sold to the rentals what was overstocked, so why sometimes you see higher trim levels. I have gotten some pretty well equipped rentals. And a few tightwad specials!

In GM's case, selling to the fleets was a matter of bean counting because of the high union wages with which they are stuck. So the fixed cost of the factory stayed the same and they could help spread that over more cars by selling to the fleets. The negotiations about what options and what the fleet (rental) companies were willing to pay for and balancing that with how desperate GM was to help spread their fixed costs, determine what is on the vehicles.

As I said before, there was a fleet package in the RPOs for at least some GM cars which included some upline features.

imidazol97 · April 2019

driver100 said:
and they kept building Impalas as rental cars. Once again it is looking at the small picture. When you rent a stripper (I mean a bare bones car here) you are not impressed and would never consider buying one. If you rent a car you really like, there is a chance you will consider buying one, especially if yo are a person who is not driven by a particular brand.

Continuing the Classic Impala production was smart because it helped keep lines operating that had paid for themselves. The same was done with the Malibu and, I believe, the Cruze.

driver100 said:
When you rent a stripper (I mean a bare bones car here) you are not impressed and would never consider buying one. If you rent a car you really like, there is a chance you will consider buying one, especially if yo are a person who is not driven by a particular brand.

Frankly, I disagree. I don't see a Mercedes owner liking a Gen 8 Malibu because they are comparing it to their C400. I wouldn't either. I'm rather limited because I think in terms of regular sedans and not SUVs.

So Perhaps an Equinox rental or an Envision rental would capture an alien owner looking for a similar replacement vehicle.

suydam · April 2019

I decided to buy an Encore based on a rental experience. I had never owned a new GM vehicle and had not heard of the Encore. It was optioned very nicely. Very smart of GM. Most rentals I’ve had are very bare-bones, especially Hyundai,so that’s my impression of them.

Mr_Shiftright · April 2019

Tax incentives on EVs are really a form of regressive tax IMO. The money goes to the car buyers who could afford to pay MSRP in the first place, not to the bloke who is nursing some wreck so he can get to work.

I was wrong though about thinking that Tesla sales on the Model 3 would not be affected due to the cut in tax credit (half of what it was). It actually did seem to make a difference.

Mr_Shiftright · April 2019

RE: Metric System -- it seems to work well for cars at any rate.

suydam · April 2019

I think tax incentives make a difference in bringing the price into line for regular folks.

ruking1 · April 2019

Mr_Shiftright said:
RE: Metric System -- it seems to work well for cars at any rate.

I’m not sure what is meant by that. Metric or English seems to be pretty seamless to most people in America.

I like it as metric tools are mentally easier flow to. to 6mm to 20 mm, etc.

houdini2 · April 2019

fintail said:
Ah, the love it or leave it rebuttal. No wonder a certain demographic is so beloved.

Some people might be working as they can to change it.

Thanks

jmonroe1 said:

Given our country is so bad, both with health care and real estate, why are you still here?

jmonroe

Well, jm has a point. That Canadian border is not very far....

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