Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

driver100 · November 2021

mjfloyd1 said:

@ab348 said:

Warning: @jmonroe -length post below...

Sour experience at the end of my re-roof project this week.

After the guys stripped off the old roof, I got a knock on the door around lunch on Monday from one of them asking me to come outside and look at something. The fellow still up on the roof was standing next to the little (about 16" or 18" square and maybe 2 feet tall) decommissioned chimney poking out near the roof peak and told me it was in bad shape. I didn't know it was as bad as it was but as he pointed out numerous cracks, bad lead flashing and loose bricks I wasn't too surprised. I had it repointed a few years ago but it hadn't fared well since. Since it wasn't in use and never would be in its current location we all agreed it would make sense to just take it down to below roof level, patch the resulting hole with new wood and shingle the entire thing.

At that point the manager/estimator arrived and we had a short chat. He indicated it would be an extra though he wouldn't know exactly how much until they got into it which of course I realized, and we all agreed to go ahead with removing the visible part of it. Their estimate form had language in it that indicated that replacement of wood on the roof deck carried with it a charge of $3.50/sq ft so I wasn't worried about that, and figured it would involve just some small amount of additional labor, materials and markup. During the 5 minutes the estimator and I were talking, the guy on the roof had already removed all signs of the chimney with his bare hands since it was in such poor condition and tossed the bricks and debris to his partner on the ground to place in the dumpster, and the manager then left to go buy some plywood.

They did the job but imagine my surprise when the invoice arrived on Wednesday with an "extra" charge of $565.00! I was stunned and immediately questioned it since in my head I figured at worst it should be half that much. One of the owners whom I had never dealt with before came back with a BS response about how they have a minimum "extra" charge of $450 (not stated anywhere on the estimate T&C or on their website) and that they incurred extra costs for disposing of the old brick, etc, but that he would reduce the charge to their supposed minimum of $450. After stewing for a while about my options I finally decided to just pay it and be done with this outfit. If there was anything I could do to get my revenge I would do it another way via badmouthing them in a review or whatever.

This obviously leaves a very bad taste in my mouth because all reviews and other sources I could find about this outfit said they were very good. The work of the crew was excellent, but they are run by a slimy bunch. Up until this I was considering them for some window and siding work I want to have done but they just blew that opportunity out of the water. Hope they choke on their ill-gotten $150-$200 profit.

Well, it depends on how you look at it. $450 for me not to have to climb on the roof and tear a brick chimney down, patch the hole and dispose of the brick and mortar seems worth it. Falling off the roof would cost more than that in medical bills.

It could have been worse and been USD

Great point but it was $565 total. It is a tough one to call....it is hard to say what the work really involved. And time to do the work is one factor, if it takes some knowledge you have to pay for that as well. Also, someone else may have charged more.
Ab has a good idea of what costs should be, but there are unknowns going on with work like that too.....and like you say mj, it is probably worth $100 or $200 piece of mind that they found the problem....possibly saving money down the road especially if the chimney fell on someone, and not having to do it yourself.

mjfloyd1 · November 2021

This kinda reminded me of when we built our house. Two workers were on the roof (two stories over a walk out basement)and invited me to join them. I replied that I was not coming up and they could feel free to call me any names that they could come up with and the names were probably true. Then I reminded them that if I fell off, they would not get paid. End of conversation.

sda · November 2021

mjfloyd1 said:
This kinda reminded me of when we built our house. Two workers were on the roof (two stories over a walk out basement)and invited me to join them. I replied that I was not coming up and they could feel free to call me any names that they could come up with and the names were probably true. Then I reminded them that if I fell off, they would not get paid. End of conversation.

Falling from a roof is not fun. When I was 28, of all things on Father’s Day, I was painting the exterior of my parent’ s house and ignored dad’s urging to enjoy the day and do it later. But no, hard head, I wanted to get it done. Not much time elapsed, I slipped and ended up breaking my right heal. My heal and ankle have never been the same. Unfortunately this is on the same leg that I recently broke. Just call me hop along. I avoid getting on roofs or high ladders like the plague.

jmonroe1 · November 2021

oldfarmer50 said:

sda said:

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

sda said:

ab348 said:

driver100 said:

btw...tjc, you get it....some seem to think it isn't true but don't have an explanation of exactly how intermittent wipers work, in a Navigator.
Well, it is a Ford, so it could be based on speed, whether the headlights are on, engine rpms, and what the driver had for lunch…. :@
I guess the Lincoln owner should be glad Lincoln no longer uses vacuum to power the wipers! They did until the late 60s and were not the most reliable.
I had cars with those vacuum wipers and that was really aggravating. Go up a hill and the wipers were hardly moving. Those were the good old days. Reminds me of using the gas pedal to open the choke, and that reminds me before that of manual chokes.......at least we have come a ways since then.
Chevy used that system well into the 2000s. Some of the wipers on our school buses built on the Express 3500 would almost completely stop on steep hills.
I’m surprised vacuum wipers were still used so recently. What was the advantage of having them? I can’t imagine they were significantly less expensive.
I’ll be darned if I know. Why the school would use such obsolete technology is beyond me. My 2004 Chevy Express has electric wipers.

I’m almost positive my first car, a ‘56 Chevy 6 cylinder, that I got used from an uncle in ‘61, had electric wipers. I know for sure my used ‘62 Chevy had electric wipers.

I would never have guessed that those vacuum beasts are still around.

jmonroe

imidazol97 · November 2021

I don't think I shared an embarrassing thing that happened to me last week. I got in my Cruze and slowly started backing out of the garage. I often open the garage door with the button by the house door as I crawl out to go get my morning coffee.

I assume I had punched the button on the way to the car. And then started the car and pushed the button on the sunvisor as well. I was slowly backing up and I saw white behind me. I hit the garage door on its way down.

I must have hit the door just as it hit the horizontal part of the bumper below the trunk. The trunk pushed into the inner layer of the door leaving a slight crease in it. (it's a double layer door with insulation inside.)

There was a lot of noise. Of course, the door reversed and went back up. I did pop one roller off the track, but was able to use pliers to open up the opening on the track to pop it back in.

Very, very, very lucky I did no damage on car.

Old age creeping up? Dementia? Altzheimers early sign. I don't know. Those are serious questions there. Or was I just so used to being half awake and didn't check the door status before pushing the sunvisor remote button.

My friend in SC said he couldn't remember how to get to the house of his son's friend to take him home. Couldn't remember even though he had been there before. This happened a couple of times, so he consulted his doctor for information.

imidazol97 · November 2021

jmonroe1 said:

I would never have guessed that those vacuum beasts are still around.

jmonroe

I believe our 1960 Ford had the vacuum wipers with the assist fuel pump that created a vacuum to operate the wipers in case the throttle plate was opened and intake manifold vacuum was lost.

sda · November 2021

It seems things come in 3s. Rim cracked and replaced on TL. 3 yr old washer wouldn't run, required water inlet valve. Moments ago, wife and daughter driving to Atlanta, cracked windshield in the Q5. Thankfully minor stuff really, but groan.

ab348 · November 2021

imidazol97 said:

jmonroe1 said:

I would never have guessed that those vacuum beasts are still around.

jmonroe
I believe our 1960 Ford had the vacuum wipers with the assist fuel pump that created a vacuum to operate the wipers in case the throttle plate was opened and intake manifold vacuum was lost.

I had always thought that AMC was the last domestic manufacturer to use vacuum wipers, as early '70s Gremlins still had them standard. You needed to pay extra for electric.

Not to doubt oldfarmer's account, but I wonder if a school bus mechanic was assigned to repair the electric wipers on the bus and substitued an old vacuum motor they had around the place when he couldn't get the electrics working.

jmonroe1 · November 2021

sda said:

mjfloyd1 said:
This kinda reminded me of when we built our house. Two workers were on the roof (two stories over a walk out basement)and invited me to join them. I replied that I was not coming up and they could feel free to call me any names that they could come up with and the names were probably true. Then I reminded them that if I fell off, they would not get paid. End of conversation.

Falling from a roof is not fun. When I was 28, of all things on Father’s Day, I was painting the exterior of my parent’ s house and ignored dad’s urging to enjoy the day and do it later. But no, hard head, I wanted to get it done. Not much time elapsed, I slipped and ended up breaking my right heal. My heal and ankle have never been the same. Unfortunately this is on the same leg that I recently broke. Just call me hop along. I avoid getting on roofs or high ladders like the plague.

Since that leg has given you so much trouble over the years, why not just get rid of it? You don’t have to do it yourself if you’re squeamish. You can ask our poster buddy doctor to do it. No more hurts from that appendage.

jmonroe

jmonroe1 · November 2021

imidazol97 said:
I don't think I shared an embarrassing thing that happened to me last week. I got in my Cruze and slowly started backing out of the garage. I often open the garage door with the button by the house door as I crawl out to go get my morning coffee.

I assume I had punched the button on the way to the car. And then started the car and pushed the button on the sunvisor as well. I was slowly backing up and I saw white behind me. I hit the garage door on its way down.

I must have hit the door just as it hit the horizontal part of the bumper below the trunk. The trunk pushed into the inner layer of the door leaving a slight crease in it. (it's a double layer door with insulation inside.)

There was a lot of noise. Of course, the door reversed and went back up. I did pop one roller off the track, but was able to use pliers to open up the opening on the track to pop it back in.

Very, very, very lucky I did no damage on car.

Old age creeping up? Dementia? Altzheimers early sign. I don't know. Those are serious questions there. Or was I just so used to being half awake and didn't check the door status before pushing the sunvisor remote button.

My friend in SC said he couldn't remember how to get to the house of his son's friend to take him home. Couldn't remember even though he had been there before. This happened a couple of times, so he consulted his doctor for information.

Knowing you for years the way we do, I’d say you’re just a dope.

jmonroe

sda · November 2021

jmonroe1 said:

sda said:

mjfloyd1 said:
This kinda reminded me of when we built our house. Two workers were on the roof (two stories over a walk out basement)and invited me to join them. I replied that I was not coming up and they could feel free to call me any names that they could come up with and the names were probably true. Then I reminded them that if I fell off, they would not get paid. End of conversation.

Falling from a roof is not fun. When I was 28, of all things on Father’s Day, I was painting the exterior of my parent’ s house and ignored dad’s urging to enjoy the day and do it later. But no, hard head, I wanted to get it done. Not much time elapsed, I slipped and ended up breaking my right heal. My heal and ankle have never been the same. Unfortunately this is on the same leg that I recently broke. Just call me hop along. I avoid getting on roofs or high ladders like the plague.
Since that leg has given you so much trouble over the years, why not just get rid of it? You don’t have to do it yourself if you’re squeamish. You can ask our poster buddy doctor to do it. No more hurts from that appendage.

jmonroe

That will be a BIG NO!

imidazol97 · November 2021

jmonroe1 said:

Knowing you for years the way we do, I’d say you’re just a dope.

jmonroe

That wasn't one of the 4 choices. Keep up with the program.

snakeweasel · November 2021

imidazol97 said:
I don't think I shared an embarrassing thing that happened to me last week. I got in my Cruze and slowly started backing out of the garage. I often open the garage door with the button by the house door as I crawl out to go get my morning coffee.

I assume I had punched the button on the way to the car. And then started the car and pushed the button on the sunvisor as well. I was slowly backing up and I saw white behind me. I hit the garage door on its way down.

I must have hit the door just as it hit the horizontal part of the bumper below the trunk. The trunk pushed into the inner layer of the door leaving a slight crease in it. (it's a double layer door with insulation inside.)

There was a lot of noise. Of course, the door reversed and went back up. I did pop one roller off the track, but was able to use pliers to open up the opening on the track to pop it back in.

Very, very, very lucky I did no damage on car.

Old age creeping up? Dementia? Altzheimers early sign. I don't know. Those are serious questions there. Or was I just so used to being half awake and didn't check the door status before pushing the sunvisor remote button.

My friend in SC said he couldn't remember how to get to the house of his son's friend to take him home. Couldn't remember even though he had been there before. This happened a couple of times, so he consulted his doctor for information.

I would say it's just old age creeping up if you are aware of the memory problems. It happens to everyone. People with those other issues usually don't realize they are having memory issues.

snakeweasel · November 2021

sda said:

jmonroe1 said:

sda said:

mjfloyd1 said:
This kinda reminded me of when we built our house. Two workers were on the roof (two stories over a walk out basement)and invited me to join them. I replied that I was not coming up and they could feel free to call me any names that they could come up with and the names were probably true. Then I reminded them that if I fell off, they would not get paid. End of conversation.

Falling from a roof is not fun. When I was 28, of all things on Father’s Day, I was painting the exterior of my parent’ s house and ignored dad’s urging to enjoy the day and do it later. But no, hard head, I wanted to get it done. Not much time elapsed, I slipped and ended up breaking my right heal. My heal and ankle have never been the same. Unfortunately this is on the same leg that I recently broke. Just call me hop along. I avoid getting on roofs or high ladders like the plague.
Since that leg has given you so much trouble over the years, why not just get rid of it? You don’t have to do it yourself if you’re squeamish. You can ask our poster buddy doctor to do it. No more hurts from that appendage.

jmonroe
That will be a BIG NO!

Wait, don't be so quick to decide. Have you ever thought that if you did that you could be a pirate on Halloween?

ab348 · November 2021

Just in the last month or so I began parking the ATS in the garage. So far no problems but I am always a bit nervous backing in even though it fits easily. Last week was my must first uh-oh moment though. I had gone out one afternoon to buy groceries and ended up with 4 fairly large reusable bags to haul inside. They were heavy and a bit of a chore for me right now. The garage is freestanding at the end of the walkway from the back door so I left the roll-up door open and exited via that. I got the bags inside and took some time putting everything away.

The next morning after I had been up for a while the sun was out and looking out a rear window I realized I could see light through the window on that side of the garage. Long story short, I forgot to close the roll-up door so it was open all night. Since my hands were full I didn't try to use the pushbutton on the garage wall to close it, and then I forgot to use the spare remote I keep by the back door in the house. Fortunately nothing seemed touched in the garage.

imidazol97 · November 2021

Anyone venturing on to Windows 11 might get help from reading this guy's tech letter weekly. I think last week and this week he's had lots to say about Win 11.
https://www.techbyter.com/current-program.html

tjc78 · November 2021

The first week we were in the new house, we didn’t close the garage one night. No cars in there yet as we were still going through things.

roadburner · November 2021

imidazol97 said:
I don't think I shared an embarrassing thing that happened to me last week. I got in my Cruze and slowly started backing out of the garage. I often open the garage door with the button by the house door as I crawl out to go get my morning coffee.

I assume I had punched the button on the way to the car. And then started the car and pushed the button on the sunvisor as well. I was slowly backing up and I saw white behind me. I hit the garage door on its way down.

I must have hit the door just as it hit the horizontal part of the bumper below the trunk. The trunk pushed into the inner layer of the door leaving a slight crease in it. (it's a double layer door with insulation inside.)

There was a lot of noise. Of course, the door reversed and went back up. I did pop one roller off the track, but was able to use pliers to open up the opening on the track to pop it back in.

Very, very, very lucky I did no damage on car.

Old age creeping up? Dementia? Altzheimers early sign. I don't know. Those are serious questions there. Or was I just so used to being half awake and didn't check the door status before pushing the sunvisor remote button.

My friend in SC said he couldn't remember how to get to the house of his son's friend to take him home. Couldn't remember even though he had been there before. This happened a couple of times, so he consulted his doctor for information.

I did something very similar with the 2er...

ab348 · November 2021

imidazol97 said:
Anyone venturing on to Windows 11 might get help from reading this guy's tech letter weekly. I think last week and this week he's had lots to say about Win 11.
https://www.techbyter.com/current-program.html

Well, his screen images don't look anything like what I have in mine and I find his writing confusing. I had no idea what he was trying to get across much of the time. I looked for a search box to narrow things down but his page has no such thing I can see. There are umpteen Win11 pages already so I'll try some others when the time comes.

One thing he seems to have that I looked for without success years ago and never bothered to again was the old-time clock in the background.

oldfarmer50 · November 2021

imidazol97 said:
I don't think I shared an embarrassing thing that happened to me last week. I got in my Cruze and slowly started backing out of the garage. I often open the garage door with the button by the house door as I crawl out to go get my morning coffee.

I assume I had punched the button on the way to the car. And then started the car and pushed the button on the sunvisor as well. I was slowly backing up and I saw white behind me. I hit the garage door on its way down.

I must have hit the door just as it hit the horizontal part of the bumper below the trunk. The trunk pushed into the inner layer of the door leaving a slight crease in it. (it's a double layer door with insulation inside.)

There was a lot of noise. Of course, the door reversed and went back up. I did pop one roller off the track, but was able to use pliers to open up the opening on the track to pop it back in.

Very, very, very lucky I did no damage on car.

Old age creeping up? Dementia? Altzheimers early sign. I don't know. Those are serious questions there. Or was I just so used to being half awake and didn't check the door status before pushing the sunvisor remote button.

My friend in SC said he couldn't remember how to get to the house of his son's friend to take him home. Couldn't remember even though he had been there before. This happened a couple of times, so he consulted his doctor for information.

I would prefer to blame such things on a conspiracy by forces unknown.

oldfarmer50 · November 2021

ab348 said:

imidazol97 said:

jmonroe1 said:

I would never have guessed that those vacuum beasts are still around.

jmonroe
I believe our 1960 Ford had the vacuum wipers with the assist fuel pump that created a vacuum to operate the wipers in case the throttle plate was opened and intake manifold vacuum was lost.

I had always thought that AMC was the last domestic manufacturer to use vacuum wipers, as early '70s Gremlins still had them standard. You needed to pay extra for electric.

Not to doubt oldfarmer's account, but I wonder if a school bus mechanic was assigned to repair the electric wipers on the bus and substitued an old vacuum motor they had around the place when he couldn't get the electrics working.

My recollection is that vacuum system was on a bus I was driving in 2008. Since they kept buses about 10 years, it could have been as old as a 1998 model. Believe me, I was shocked that they were running that kind of equipment.

oldfarmer50 · November 2021

I got gas this morning for my lawn machinery and the van. $3.36 for RUG, the cheapest in the area. $50 barely filled two gas cans and my tank from 3/4 to full.

It’s getting expensive out there.

driver100 · November 2021

imidazol97 said:

Old age creeping up? Dementia? Altzheimers early sign. I don't know. Those are serious questions there. Or was I just so used to being half awake and didn't check the door status before pushing the sunvisor remote button.

I did something similar about 5 years ago at the Florida house. I was overly tired after driving to Florida, the garage door worked a little differently, Mrs D was asking me a question and as I backed out my mind wasn't on what I was doing....I had already raised the door so as I backed out for some reason I absent mindedly pressed the button to close the door and it came down on the trunk.

I really think it is a matter of 1) you are on automatic pilot 2) you are probably thinking about something else, 3) you could be a bit tired at the time. Now I try to be more careful, it isn't a nice thing to deal with.

imidazol97 · November 2021

oldfarmer50 said:
I got gas this morning for my lawn machinery and the van. $3.36 for RUG, the cheapest in the area. $50 barely filled two gas cans and my tank from 3/4 to full.

It’s getting expensive out there.

What cost $2.19 a year, year and half ago, now is $3.30 The alcohol pads to wipe skin before my wife's insulin injections went from $1.69 to $2.29 now. Inflation is everywhere and strong. Reminds me of buying my condo at 12 5/8% interest in Carter's 1979 environment.

imidazol97 · November 2021

I'm glad to know a few others have garage door encounters. I don't feel so singled out.
I'm just really lucky no damage to car and slight damage to door panel was all.

Sandman6472 · November 2021

Wife did that last week, came home and forgot to close the garage. Got up the next morning and went out to open the garage door but it was already open. Guess she forgot to close it after she brought her packages in the night before. Doesn't happen very often and both cars were still sitting there. We're the only folks on the block to put both vehicles in the garage daily, the others all use theirs for a storage closet or workshop of some kind. We have shelves for all the extra garage stuff plus we use hooks to hang up the brooms & other utensils we use outdoors. Have some lawn chairs also on hooks on the other side. So glad I got that bookcase the next door neighbor put in the trash. Am using it now to store the 12 pack Pepsi cans I but for work plus the extra bottles of detergent I store out there. It's big enough to hold all that stuff but doesn't stick out much from the wall. He said he asked a few friends if they wanted it and all declines, so he put it outside for the trash folks to take. Luckily I came home while working at Toyota to see it in front of his house. Saw him in the garage & went over to question him about it. Once he said it was garbage, asked if I could have it for my garage storage. He was even kind enough to drag it over into our garage as he saw I walk with a cane. Got it positioned where I wanted it and now, it's working beautifully!

bwia · November 2021

No. No. No! She didn't have to die this way. This is perhaps the most horrible death a person will ever encounter in her life time -- being burnt alive. Last Tuesday a Toyota RAV4 driven by 23 old Tina Tintor, a woman, coming from work at 4:00 am. was struck from behind by a speeding Corvette Stingray traveling at 156 mph on the Las Vegas strip. Police say the Tintor’s car caught fire, and both she and a dog died from a result of being trapped.

The Corvette was being ~~piloted~~ driven by 22 year old Henry Ruggs III, a former Las Vegas Raiders football player, who suffered minor physical injuries. His passenger girlfriend was also unhurt. There is a lot of blame to go around but none will bring back senseless death of Tina Tintor. Other than Rugg's gross negligence, GM should bare a share of the blame by allowing the Corvette to drive at these unconsionable speeds without being equipped with a speed governor.

tjc78 · November 2021

Horrific accident and I hope he gets justice, however, GM did nothing wrong here. The driver is the only one to blame.

oldfarmer50 · November 2021

tjc78 said:
Horrific accident and I hope he gets justice, however, GM did nothing wrong here. The driver is the only one to blame.

I agree. Besides, would the results be much different if the Vette was speed limited to 100? That driver was DUI as well from what I’ve read. You can’t govern stupid.

qbrozen · November 2021

Oh, HELLLL NO should GM even be mentioned! The repercussions around the automotive world would be devastating. Imagine a world where nothing could go above 75. And next we realize that not just speed kills but so does acceleration. So now we need to make sure every driver has ample time to male decisions, and getting up to 60 in less than 10 secs just isn’t enough time should road conditions not allow or an obstacle is suddenly thrown in your way. Oh, and then there is a size and weight factor. Oh my! The public can’t possibly keep control of a vehicle heavier than 2 tons. No, no, no. Nobody needs anything beyond a Prius. Oh, man, and now what do we do with all of these vehicles that already exist? Can’t leave those in public hands. Gonna have to form a new government agency and give them the authority to go around kicking in doors and seizing offending vehicles by force. What a world, indeed!

ab348 · November 2021

That is a terribly tragic situation. I concur with those disagreeing with the speed governor/GM comment. I find the pic interesting in that given the Corvette hit the RAV at what was reported to be 120mph or more, the RAX appears largely structurally intact from what we can see. I assume the Ruggs car submarined under the RAV, taking out the fuel tank and leading to the fire. It is rather amazing that a Corvette can hit something at that speed and still have the passenger compartment intact and the occupants receive only minor injuries.

oldfarmer50 · November 2021

“ The repercussions around the automotive world would be devastating. Imagine a world where nothing could go above 75.”

That’s been tried already. Remember in the 80s when even a Corvette speedometer only went up to 85? If I recall correctly, people still drove like maniacs, just without knowing how fast they were going.

qbrozen · November 2021

Well, ACTUALLY limiting performance and merely putting blinders on are not even remotely the same.

snakeweasel · November 2021

oldfarmer50 said:
I got gas this morning for my lawn machinery and the van. $3.36 for RUG, the cheapest in the area. $50 barely filled two gas cans and my tank from 3/4 to full.

It’s getting expensive out there.

I filled up the Sonata today (1/8 tank left give or take) and it was just over $50.00 Rug was in the neighborhood of $3.50.

snakeweasel · November 2021

Sandman6472 said:
Wife did that last week, came home and forgot to close the garage. Got up the next morning and went out to open the garage door but it was already open. Guess she forgot to close it after she brought her packages in the night before. Doesn't happen very often and both cars were still sitting there. We're the only folks on the block to put both vehicles in the garage daily, the others all use theirs for a storage closet or workshop of some kind. We have shelves for all the extra garage stuff plus we use hooks to hang up the brooms & other utensils we use outdoors. Have some lawn chairs also on hooks on the other side. So glad I got that bookcase the next door neighbor put in the trash. Am using it now to store the 12 pack Pepsi cans I but for work plus the extra bottles of detergent I store out there. It's big enough to hold all that stuff but doesn't stick out much from the wall. He said he asked a few friends if they wanted it and all declines, so he put it outside for the trash folks to take. Luckily I came home while working at Toyota to see it in front of his house. Saw him in the garage & went over to question him about it. Once he said it was garbage, asked if I could have it for my garage storage. He was even kind enough to drag it over into our garage as he saw I walk with a cane. Got it positioned where I wanted it and now, it's working beautifully!

Normally before I go to be I do a security check of the house which includeds peeking into the garage to make sure that the garage door is closed.

jmonroe1 · November 2021

bwia said:
No. No. No! She didn't have to die this way. This is perhaps the most horrible death a person will ever encounter in her life time -- being burnt alive. Last Tuesday a Toyota RAV4 driven by 23 old Tina Tintor, a woman, coming from work at 4:00 am. was struck from behind by a speeding Corvette Stingray traveling at 156 mph on the Las Vegas strip. Police say the Tintor’s car caught fire, and both she and a dog died from a result of being trapped.

The Corvette was being ~~piloted~~ driven by 22 year old Henry Ruggs III, a former Las Vegas Raiders football player, who suffered minor physical injuries. His passenger girlfriend was also unhurt. There is a lot of blame to go around but none will bring back senseless death of Tina Tintor. Other than Rugg's gross negligence, GM should bare a share of the blame by allowing the Corvette to drive at these unconsionable speeds without being equipped with a speed governor.

That surely was a horrible accident that should not have happened. However, GM is not at fault. Blaming GM is akin to blaming knife manufacturers because people cut themselves using their knives and hammer manufacturers because people whack their fingers.

jmonroe

snakeweasel · November 2021

qbrozen said:
Oh, HELLLL NO should GM even be mentioned! The repercussions around the automotive world would be devastating. Imagine a world where nothing could go above 75. And next we realize that not just speed kills but so does acceleration. So now we need to make sure every driver has ample time to male decisions, and getting up to 60 in less than 10 secs just isn’t enough time should road conditions not allow or an obstacle is suddenly thrown in your way. Oh, and then there is a size and weight factor. Oh my! The public can’t possibly keep control of a vehicle heavier than 2 tons. No, no, no. Nobody needs anything beyond a Prius. Oh, man, and now what do we do with all of these vehicles that already exist? Can’t leave those in public hands. Gonna have to form a new government agency and give them the authority to go around kicking in doors and seizing offending vehicles by force. What a world, indeed!

Wait, it's coming. From what I understand they are talking in Europe about setting up a system where the car reads the speed limit sign and automatically limits the speed of the vehicle based on the speed limit or does something irritating (like shaking the steering wheel or sounding a buzzer) until you slow down.

snakeweasel · November 2021

@oldfarmer50 said:
“ The repercussions around the automotive world would be devastating. Imagine a world where nothing could go above 75.”

That’s been tried already. Remember in the 80s when even a Corvette speedometer only went up to 85? If I recall correctly, people still drove like maniacs, just without knowing how fast they were going.

IIRC all speedometers only went up to 85 MPH. I knew a couple of people that had charted out estimated speed based on RPM's for speeds greater than 85MPH.

imidazol97 · November 2021

The talk about open garage doors reminds me of something from several yars back. I had been cleaning the Century, the glovebox, other junk, etc.. I left the remote garage door opener and couple of other things from the glovebox on the roof.

Went inside. Forgot about closing the garage door later.

1 AM. There's pounding on the door. I must not have heard the doorbell. Pounding. I called 911 because I thought someone was trying to break in or do what is now called home invasion, rare or nonexistent in our suburb, but talked about in the media.

Long pause. Then dispatch says, "That's my unit at your door."

Police had noticed the items on the roof of the car so decided to check that there might have been someone going through the car looking for anything of value in the open garage.

Took me a long time to get back to sleep after the panic and having to call 911.

Darn sure to check the garage door before bed since that. Helps that a local door company 5 second ad asks, "Is your garage door down" before the 10:00 / 11;00 news.

snakeweasel · November 2021

Well it was in the mid 50s and sunny today so I took the bike out for one last hurrah. Just before going home I topped off the tank and put some Stabil in the tank. Got home and put it to sleep until spring time. Ah a sure sign that summer is over.

stickguy · November 2021

my son sent me a picture yesterday of the new snow tires/wheel package on his S4. He said it was nice to not be driving on hockey pucks when it got cold (and up by Old Farmer, it gets cold by now!) Wheels he picked out look nice too. He said that tire rack balanced them perfectly. A little noisier and not quite as sharp handling, but makes sense for new snows vs. summer performance sneakers.

stickguy · November 2021

prepping the house to host Thanksgiving, we did our annual touching up of the cabinet stain in the kitchen. And finally broke down and redid the caulk around the counters (where the granite meets the backsplash). That was very overdue, but I hate caulking. Ended up coming out better than I ever did before. Spending extra time prepping (digging out all the old stuff and prepping the joint) is tedious, but worth it. And putting down tape actually really helped.

now hopefully it lasts until I can sell the house, because I never want to do it again!

explorerx4 · November 2021

The deposit on the lot we picked out has been confirmed.
We haven't done this before, but we are in the process of getting a construction loan.
This will convert to a mortgage when we close.
Our other houses, we put down 20% and just had an approved mortgage when we closed.

kyfdx · November 2021

explorerx4 said:
The deposit on the lot we picked out has been confirmed.
We haven't done this before, but we are in the process of getting a construction loan.
This will convert to a mortgage when we close.
Our other houses, we put down 20% and just had an approved mortgage when we closed.

There are one-close construction loans out there, where the rate is maybe 1/4% higher, but it's locked in at loan signing, not at house completion.

stickguy · November 2021

is this a contractor you are hiring? that is usually for when you are building a house yourselves. The new builds we looked at were all from bigger builders, in actual developments (smaller ones though, like 20 houses, but building it all). Those were just putting down a series of deposits at set points (totaling 20% I think), but no kind of mortgage until the end.

Michaell · November 2021

Our first house was purchased as a dirt lot, from a national builder. All we had to provide was $1000 or $1500 earnest money when we signed the contract, then got a conventional mortgage when we closed on it after it was built.

In fact, we put the money down on a house from the same builder, but in a different development (and a different town). When we saw the plot plan, we found that the left back corner house was only going to be 1' from the back fence. We were able to switch to the house we ultimately moved into - it was the same floorplan, but a different (lower) price.

explorerx4 · November 2021

This will be a 1 close loan. We are getting in at the end of phase 4, phase 5 not yet started.
It looks like we will be putting down 20% and paying interest only on the construction loan.
Interest goes up as the builder takes draws to complete whatever the current part of the project is after the down payment is absorbed.

stickguy · November 2021

so essentially you are floating a line of credit that the builder is using to pay for construction?

carnaught · November 2021

I would really worry about supply issues - no signs this is going away soon.

explorerx4 · November 2021

@stickguy,
That seems to be a good description. I think if there is anything left over, it is used to shorten the term of the loan.

Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

Comments

Helpful Tools

Most popular vehicles