Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

Michaell · July 2023

I had something similar happen to me. Back in '99, we leased, then bought out, a New Beetle. Pretty basic trim, 5-speed, wife wanted it and loved to drive it.

We traded it in on the first of our two Saturn VUE's, and we figured that was the end of it.

A few years later, I got a call from a repair shop in Denver asking if we owned said car. I said no, we traded it in to the Saturn dealer. I was told that the engine had blown up and towed to this shop, and they were trying to track down the owner. Told them it wasn't me.

No idea what happened after that.

oldfarmer50 · July 2023

So was this guy thinking that you wrecked it or was he looking to negotiate with you on the price for some weird reason? Maybe he thought you owed him something.

graphicguy · July 2023

oldfarmer50 said:
So was this guy thinking that you wrecked it or was he looking to negotiate with you on the price for some weird reason? Maybe he thought you owed him something.

Good question. He caught me by surprise, as at first I didn't know what he wanted. I kept asking him...."what are you asking about?". He kept repeating he was asking about my TLX and wanted to know what I had done to it. Finally, we got to the point where I told him I was no longer the owner of the car. He wanted to know who had it before me. I was busy at the time and told him he had the wrong person as he was starting to get a little bit on my nerves with his questions. Told him "Good luck" and hung up.

snakeweasel · July 2023

I’m going to change the subject here briefly.

I have a fairly severe case of Crohn’s Disease, thankfully well managed of late, and have needed a colonoscopy annually for the last 17 years or so to track disease progression and monitor for cancer. This year’s is tomorrow.

So, I’m here to remind all of you past a certain age, if you have been putting it off because you’re afraid of the prep or the procedure, don’t - it really is no big deal and it could save your life. I have lots of pro tips for managing both if you need them.

Just had my second one with a clean bill of health. No need for another for some time.

oldfarmer50 · July 2023

snakeweasel said:
I’m going to change the subject here briefly.

I have a fairly severe case of Crohn’s Disease, thankfully well managed of late, and have needed a colonoscopy annually for the last 17 years or so to track disease progression and monitor for cancer. This year’s is tomorrow.

So, I’m here to remind all of you past a certain age, if you have been putting it off because you’re afraid of the prep or the procedure, don’t - it really is no big deal and it could save your life. I have lots of pro tips for managing both if you need them.

Just had my second one with a clean bill of health. No need for another for some time.

I thought you didn’t need them after age 75?😉

driver100 · July 2023

oldfarmer50 said:

snakeweasel said:
I’m going to change the subject here briefly.

I have a fairly severe case of Crohn’s Disease, thankfully well managed of late, and have needed a colonoscopy annually for the last 17 years or so to track disease progression and monitor for cancer. This year’s is tomorrow.

So, I’m here to remind all of you past a certain age, if you have been putting it off because you’re afraid of the prep or the procedure, don’t - it really is no big deal and it could save your life. I have lots of pro tips for managing both if you need them.

Just had my second one with a clean bill of health. No need for another for some time.

I thought you didn’t need them after age 75?😉

You could probably use them after age 75, they just don't want to be bothered doing them...whatever happens happens!

snakeweasel · July 2023

andres3 said:

snakeweasel said:

driver100 said:

snakeweasel said:

roadburner said:

tjc78 said:

@roadburner said:

I hate to break up the culinary discussion with an automotive post, but this morning I was in Louisville for a campaign event so I drove the C43; on the way back to the office I took a familiar on-ramp at double the posted advisory speed. The C43 simply shrugged it off- no tire squeal and very little body roll.

Color me extremely impressed.

I took a 45 posted ramp at 75 today in a Mommy mobile. Does that count for anything 😜😜😜😜😜

Sure- you are doing better than 95% of the so-called "drivers" that I encounter.
Tell me about it. On my way to work the route I normally take has this one rather long curve, this curve was created to take the road around a land fill which is now just a large hill with a nice little overlook on top. The length of the curve is somewhere between half and 2/3rds of a mile so it's really not a tight curve and the speed limit is 45. Every now and again I get behind so "performance" vehicle that's doing well under the speed limit. Now here is the thing, at one end of this road is a quarry and trucks full of stone travel this road and these truck often take this curve at 50+. So if a dump truck carrying tons of gravel can do 50 why does the Audi have to do 40?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That 45 mph limit is for the lowest common denominator vehicle....like a liquid gas tanker that will explode on impact if it turns over on the curve. Probably in case of an accident and impending litigation.
Well my guess is the 45MPH is not due to the lowest common denominator vehicle as I have been behind fully loaded dump trucks doing close to 60 MPH. The issue there is that it is going through forested areas where you have rather large forest dwelling animals who dart across open areas avoiding other large forest dwelling animals that want to eat them. Add to that the numerous hikers, bikers and joggers who think every car on the road will stop suddenly for them to cross the street makes for slower speeds.

There are other factors that determine a safe speed other than the road and the vehicles on it.

In my research one of those factors is most definitely revenue generation, and targeted extra heavy enforcement (likely to meet a monthly quota in a day or two). Of course, they are not determining a "safe speed" just a "lucrative speed."

My research tells me that unless it is one of the very few communities that do wholesale ticket writing and where 20% of the population are police then it's not revenue generation. When considering the salary of the police officer, the cost and upkeep of their equipment, the support staff of the officer and all the associated costs as well as all the costs associated with the court (salaries, benefits, equipment, and all) there is a big cost in issuing and prosecuting the tickets.

Add that to the fact that statistically you have about a 50% chance of getting a ticket after you get pulled over (unless it is for something grievous) and that fact that you rarely see someone pulled over they aren't doing a very good job at it.

I know roads that they would be justified putting a toll booth at the end to give everyone a speeding ticket. Yet some of these roads I might see 3 or 4 cars pulled over in a year while the others you will never see someone pulled over. Lets face it speed enforcement in this country is a joke.

snakeweasel · July 2023

driver100 said:
@graphicguy And you too! I was wondering where you disappeared to.
Nice to catch up and welcome back......unfortunately you arrived when the boys are talking about colonoscopies.

Next up cystoscopies.

snakeweasel · July 2023

driver100 said:

mjfloyd1 said:

driver100 said:

mjfloyd1 said:
Just make sure you say “this butt’s for you” when you turn up on your side just before the colonoscopy 😂

Where in the h--- have you been?
Doing anesthetics for colonoscopies and EGDs😂
Sounds like fun!

I came out of my colonoscopy a bit early, I guess the anesthetic wore off sooner than expected. When I started to gain consciousness it sounded like a party was going on in the room. There I am with my my butt exposed for all the world to see, and there are about 6 people standing around joking about what great parties they had planned for the weekend.

I should sue on Judge Judy.

My first one I was never fully out, I was always aware of movement and sound but I was out enough not to really care. My second one I was all the way out. Both times afterwards I was feeling very awake, no effects from the anesthetics. My wife when she had hers slept the rest of the day, practically had to carry her out to and from the car going home.

snakeweasel · July 2023

graphicguy said:

kyfdx said:

graphicguy said:
Oh…forgot…..got a call from a guy in KY who found my old business card under the seat of my previous TLX. I had forgotten that I had written my personal cell number on a few of my old business cards for “important” people to reach me after work hours.

Anyway, this guy asked me what happened to the TLX. I went through the whole period of flipping my cars that I did for a couple of years. He said he was looking at it in Paducah, KY. I don’t think I’ve ever been in Paducah….ever! Told him it was a good car, very well cared for. He said it had a salvage title. Huh? As I communicated, that didn’t come from me.

I guess whomever had it after me must have wrecked it pretty badly to get it a salvage title.
Paducah might as well be in another country, that's how far away it is..
But, made me wonder...how the hell did the TLX get from Cincinnati to Paducah?

Maybe it floated down the Ohio and that's why it has a salvage title.

venture · July 2023

I was getting on an uphill Interstate on ramp this morning and thought, "What the hell".

I hit 105 before merging and it was still pulling. Sweet.

jmonroe1 · July 2023

venture said:
I was getting on an uphill Interstate on ramp this morning and thought, "What the hell".

I hit 105 before merging and it was still pulling. Sweet.

————————————————
I thought you got rid of the Subie.

jmonroe

driver100 · July 2023

venture said:
I was getting on an uphill Interstate on ramp this morning and thought, "What the hell".

I hit 105 before merging and it was still pulling. Sweet.

Was that in the Ascent or the BMW?

ab348 · July 2023

Back in the early days of my career, I was working at our biggest local hospital in a group then known as Management Engineering, sort of an in-house consulting group that could get involved in any number of non-clinical tasks. One week I was assigned to study patient registration workflow and queuing from arrival to discharge at the colonoscopy unit. It was pretty simple work given that they had virtually no tools or processes to manage the flood of patients who would all be summoned to the clinic at around the same time every morning and afternoon. What I remember was that the clinic staff were supposed to go home at 4PM and that every afternoon just after 3PM it would be all hands on deck to get the groggy ~~victims~~ patients out of their anaesthesia stupor and functional enough to be discharged so the staff could go home. The techs and nurses would be walking these people up and down the halls, trying to get them to walk on their own, and catching them when they bounced off the walls or almost fell down. It was hilarious to watch from a distance.

imidazol97 · July 2023

I gave my Cruze's evaporator a colonoscopy of sorts. It had developed a smell like old socks and
stuff left in a gym locker when the AC was first turned on after the car sat for a day.

I used the Lubegard Kool IT kit to spray a foam into the evaporator through the drain tube. The Kool IT can's tube is pushed into the drain line and up toward the evaporator, like a colonoscopy. The foam
expands and engulfs the evaporator and the inside of the case, then changes to a liquid, and then drains from the evaporator just like AC condensation water does.

Worked like a charm. No old socks smell from mildew or mold that was formed on "stuff" that was inside the case.

Some other cars have this symptom, so I thought posting might be useful.

imidazol97 · July 2023

On my colonscopy 3 or more ago, as I was being prepped the nurse and anesthesiologist put on a CD that was like Mexican dance music. Very upbeat. They explained that my doctor like to dance along with the music while doing the procedure.

Would you have gotten up and walked out at that point? Who wants their doctor having a party while exploring one's innards? He actually was a great guy and so was the anesthesiologist. She was kind.

LOL

I believe that was the procedure where I was awake enough to remember the video screen as the camera went in, and then I remembered 10 or 20 seconds as the screen showed the camera being pulled out.

That may have been the time where I asked what anesthetic would be used and was told propofol and fentanyl.

Or may be it was all just a bad dream?

jmonroe1 · July 2023

imidazol97 said:
On my colonscopy 3 or more ago, as I was being prepped the nurse and anesthesiologist put on a CD that was like Mexican dance music. Very upbeat. They explained that my doctor like to dance along with the music while doing the procedure.

Would you have gotten up and walked out at that point? Who wants their doctor having a party while exploring one's innards? He actually was a great guy and so was the anesthesiologist. She was kind.

LOL

I believe that was the procedure where I was awake enough to remember the video screen as the camera went in, and then I remembered 10 or 20 seconds as the screen showed the camera being pulled out.

That may have been the time where I asked what anesthetic would be used and was told propofol and fentanyl.

Or may be it was all just a bad dream?

————————————————
Nah, you were awake but you didn’t recognize the KOOL IT kit when it’s packaged for medical use.

jmonroe

oldfarmer50 · July 2023

imidazol97 said:
On my colonscopy 3 or more ago, as I was being prepped the nurse and anesthesiologist put on a CD that was like Mexican dance music. Very upbeat. They explained that my doctor like to dance along with the music while doing the procedure.

Would you have gotten up and walked out at that point? Who wants their doctor having a party while exploring one's innards? He actually was a great guy and so was the anesthesiologist. She was kind.

LOL

I believe that was the procedure where I was awake enough to remember the video screen as the camera went in, and then I remembered 10 or 20 seconds as the screen showed the camera being pulled out.

That may have been the time where I asked what anesthetic would be used and was told propofol and fentanyl.

Or may be it was all just a bad dream?

It was the possibility of antics like that that made me switch to the Cologuard test. All negative results so I’ll do one more at around 75 and bid that indignantly farewell.

laurasdada · July 2023

Just before the knocked me out, I asked the colonoscopy team if they could do some liposuction on my belly while I was under. The last thing I remember was a nurse saying, "Honey, me before you!"
And, then the yummy muffin.

andres3 · July 2023

snakeweasel said:

andres3 said:

snakeweasel said:

driver100 said:

snakeweasel said:

roadburner said:

tjc78 said:

@roadburner said:

I hate to break up the culinary discussion with an automotive post, but this morning I was in Louisville for a campaign event so I drove the C43; on the way back to the office I took a familiar on-ramp at double the posted advisory speed. The C43 simply shrugged it off- no tire squeal and very little body roll.

Color me extremely impressed.

I took a 45 posted ramp at 75 today in a Mommy mobile. Does that count for anything 😜😜😜😜😜

Sure- you are doing better than 95% of the so-called "drivers" that I encounter.
Tell me about it. On my way to work the route I normally take has this one rather long curve, this curve was created to take the road around a land fill which is now just a large hill with a nice little overlook on top. The length of the curve is somewhere between half and 2/3rds of a mile so it's really not a tight curve and the speed limit is 45. Every now and again I get behind so "performance" vehicle that's doing well under the speed limit. Now here is the thing, at one end of this road is a quarry and trucks full of stone travel this road and these truck often take this curve at 50+. So if a dump truck carrying tons of gravel can do 50 why does the Audi have to do 40?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That 45 mph limit is for the lowest common denominator vehicle....like a liquid gas tanker that will explode on impact if it turns over on the curve. Probably in case of an accident and impending litigation.
Well my guess is the 45MPH is not due to the lowest common denominator vehicle as I have been behind fully loaded dump trucks doing close to 60 MPH. The issue there is that it is going through forested areas where you have rather large forest dwelling animals who dart across open areas avoiding other large forest dwelling animals that want to eat them. Add to that the numerous hikers, bikers and joggers who think every car on the road will stop suddenly for them to cross the street makes for slower speeds.

There are other factors that determine a safe speed other than the road and the vehicles on it.
In my research one of those factors is most definitely revenue generation, and targeted extra heavy enforcement (likely to meet a monthly quota in a day or two). Of course, they are not determining a "safe speed" just a "lucrative speed."

My research tells me that unless it is one of the very few communities that do wholesale ticket writing and where 20% of the population are police then it's not revenue generation. When considering the salary of the police officer, the cost and upkeep of their equipment, the support staff of the officer and all the associated costs as well as all the costs associated with the court (salaries, benefits, equipment, and all) there is a big cost in issuing and prosecuting the tickets.

Add that to the fact that statistically you have about a 50% chance of getting a ticket after you get pulled over (unless it is for something grievous) and that fact that you rarely see someone pulled over they aren't doing a very good job at it.

I know roads that they would be justified putting a toll booth at the end to give everyone a speeding ticket. Yet some of these roads I might see 3 or 4 cars pulled over in a year while the others you will never see someone pulled over. Lets face it speed enforcement in this country is a joke.
_______________________________

That's nonsense you wrote about revenue generation. Utter non-sense. Every cost you mentioned isn't a big cost in issuing and prosecuting tickets; they are sunk costs. They are spent whether 1 or 1,000,000 tickets are written. It just so happens they prefer writing enough tickets that they can work maybe 4 or 5 hours a day and pretend to call it 8.

Also, I'm not sure where you got the idea that 50% of traffic stops result in a citation, but I suspect it's from your colonoscopy area

I'd peg the number at closer to 90%, at least in CA and Nevada.

You might rarely see someone pulled over, but if you see a cop on the side of the road / shoulder, they most likely already pulled someone over, it's just that the other car left already.

If everyone would get a speeding ticket on a particular road at any particular time, that is powerful evidence that the speed limit is not justified, and incorrectly set.

Speed enforcement is still big money, and far from a joke in that sense.

driver100 · July 2023

These days you can swallow a capsule to have a colonoscopy. But still have to prep........

With the new system, the patient swallows the capsule with water. After the non-reusable capsule is excreted, it's flushed down the toilet. The patient returns the recorder to the physician's office. If a polyp is found, the patient arranges to undergo a colonoscopy to remove the growth.

If you get a copy of the video you can have a video screening for friends and relatives and show a trip through your intestines.

Colorectal cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer deaths in women and second leading cause in men. Early detection and screening are essential to reduce the rates of colorectal cancer

andres3 · July 2023

Anyone else look at refrigerators lately, and also wonder why they got so expensive?

clm8 · July 2023

imidazol97 said:
On my colonscopy 3 or more ago, as I was being prepped the nurse and anesthesiologist put on a CD that was like Mexican dance music. Very upbeat. They explained that my doctor like to dance along with the music while doing the procedure.

Would you have gotten up and walked out at that point? Who wants their doctor having a party while exploring one's innards? He actually was a great guy and so was the anesthesiologist. She was kind.

LOL

I believe that was the procedure where I was awake enough to remember the video screen as the camera went in, and then I remembered 10 or 20 seconds as the screen showed the camera being pulled out.

That may have been the time where I asked what anesthetic would be used and was told propofol and fentanyl.

Or may be it was all just a bad dream?

I briefly woke up during my first colonoscopy. I remember I was facing the monitor and watched the scope for a few seconds.

I also woke up during a hernia operation. The surgeon was a friend and I asked him if he was putting in sutures because it hurt, he said he was positioning the mesh.

oldfarmer50 · July 2023

andres3 said:
Anyone else look at refrigerators lately, and also wonder why they got so expensive?

It’s either because US money isn’t worth anything anymore or the appliance stores are taking a page from the car dealer’s playbook.

Is there a market adjustment on any of them?

[Deleted User] · July 2023

@carnaught said:
Maybe this: http://www.analogx.com/contents/vinview.htm

Thanks @carnaught, I had him call a dealer to confirm before we bought it.

explorerx4 · July 2023

Carmax thinks Mavericks are like gold.
https://www.carmax.com/car/24317021?adcode=RTGDISCRTA&utm_campaign=Retargeting&utm_source=Retargeting_Active_CRT&utm_medium=DIS&utm_content=DSK&utm_term=0-7d&cto_pld=zwovYLmJAABffQxrIqJB8Q

snakeweasel · July 2023

andres3 said:

snakeweasel said:

andres3 said:

snakeweasel said:

driver100 said:

snakeweasel said:

roadburner said:

tjc78 said:

@roadburner said:

I hate to break up the culinary discussion with an automotive post, but this morning I was in Louisville for a campaign event so I drove the C43; on the way back to the office I took a familiar on-ramp at double the posted advisory speed. The C43 simply shrugged it off- no tire squeal and very little body roll.

Color me extremely impressed.

I took a 45 posted ramp at 75 today in a Mommy mobile. Does that count for anything 😜😜😜😜😜

Sure- you are doing better than 95% of the so-called "drivers" that I encounter.
Tell me about it. On my way to work the route I normally take has this one rather long curve, this curve was created to take the road around a land fill which is now just a large hill with a nice little overlook on top. The length of the curve is somewhere between half and 2/3rds of a mile so it's really not a tight curve and the speed limit is 45. Every now and again I get behind so "performance" vehicle that's doing well under the speed limit. Now here is the thing, at one end of this road is a quarry and trucks full of stone travel this road and these truck often take this curve at 50+. So if a dump truck carrying tons of gravel can do 50 why does the Audi have to do 40?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That 45 mph limit is for the lowest common denominator vehicle....like a liquid gas tanker that will explode on impact if it turns over on the curve. Probably in case of an accident and impending litigation.
Well my guess is the 45MPH is not due to the lowest common denominator vehicle as I have been behind fully loaded dump trucks doing close to 60 MPH. The issue there is that it is going through forested areas where you have rather large forest dwelling animals who dart across open areas avoiding other large forest dwelling animals that want to eat them. Add to that the numerous hikers, bikers and joggers who think every car on the road will stop suddenly for them to cross the street makes for slower speeds.

There are other factors that determine a safe speed other than the road and the vehicles on it.
In my research one of those factors is most definitely revenue generation, and targeted extra heavy enforcement (likely to meet a monthly quota in a day or two). Of course, they are not determining a "safe speed" just a "lucrative speed."
My research tells me that unless it is one of the very few communities that do wholesale ticket writing and where 20% of the population are police then it's not revenue generation. When considering the salary of the police officer, the cost and upkeep of their equipment, the support staff of the officer and all the associated costs as well as all the costs associated with the court (salaries, benefits, equipment, and all) there is a big cost in issuing and prosecuting the tickets.

Add that to the fact that statistically you have about a 50% chance of getting a ticket after you get pulled over (unless it is for something grievous) and that fact that you rarely see someone pulled over they aren't doing a very good job at it.

I know roads that they would be justified putting a toll booth at the end to give everyone a speeding ticket. Yet some of these roads I might see 3 or 4 cars pulled over in a year while the others you will never see someone pulled over. Lets face it speed enforcement in this country is a joke.

_______________________________

That's nonsense you wrote about revenue generation. Utter non-sense. Every cost you mentioned isn't a big cost in issuing and prosecuting tickets; they are sunk costs. They are spent whether 1 or 1,000,000 tickets are written. It just so happens they prefer writing enough tickets that they can work maybe 4 or 5 hours a day and pretend to call it 8.

Not nonsense at all, if you have police officers on traffic patrol you would need additional manpower for other police activity. Say that manpower requirement for traffic enforcement is 2000 hours a year, that's one additional officer, add to that you need at least a part time clerk to process the tickets the officer writes and other associated duties. Now add to the fact that if you didn't enforce traffic laws you wouldn't need a traffic court with a judge, bailiffs clerks and others. That all adds up, look how much a traffic court judge makes. We are talking of hundres of thousands of dollars in salaries and benefits. It's not a sunk cost because to do it you have to add and/or pay more (in overtime) salarys.

andres3 said:
Also, I'm not sure where you got the idea that 50% of traffic stops result in a citation, but I suspect it's from your colonoscopy area I'd peg the number at closer to 90%, at least in CA and Nevada.

From personal experience, talking to police officers, police departments statistics. Statistics claim just shy of 60% chance but that includes all stops like reckless driving and DUI which I would believe are higher than more routine stops.

andres3 said:
You might rarely see someone pulled over, but if you see a cop on the side of the road / shoulder, they most likely already pulled someone over, it's just that the other car left already.

I find that hard to believe, there could be multiple reasons why a police officer is sitting by the side of the road that doesn't involved pulling over someone. Plus you are far more likely to see the officer with the car he just pulled over than the officer sitting there after the car he pulled over left. BTW I don't see very many police cars just sitting on the side of the road either.

andres3 said:
If everyone would get a speeding ticket on a particular road at any particular time, that is powerful evidence that the speed limit is not justified, and incorrectly set.

Well we on this forum do spend a lot of time discussing the lack of proper driving skills of those around us. I guess that doesn't include doing proper speeds. One of the roads that I referenced has hills and curves and no shoulder and foliage right up to the road. there are at least two spots where if there is a stalled car or say a deer standing there and you come around the curve at say 10 over the limit you are going to have a very bad day. So just because everyone goes well over the speed limit doesn't mean that the speed limit isn't justified.

andres3 said:
Speed enforcement is still big money, and far from a joke in that sense.

Speed enforcement in this country is a joke. I drive the expressways around here with people flying by me doing 20-30+ over the limit and you rarely see anyone pulled over. I drive to the kids house in Florida, over 1200 miles one way and with the possible exception of one county in Georga near the Florida state line you rarely see people pulled over even though few obey the speed limit. I know for a fact there is one town here where the policy for the police is only to pull you over if your doing 10+ and to only issue a ticket to those doing 15+. I could go on but it's enough to say that speed enforcement is at best token enforcement and a joke.

snakeweasel · July 2023

andres3 said:
Anyone else look at refrigerators lately, and also wonder why they got so expensive?

Every time I grab a beer.

oldfarmer50 · July 2023

explorerx4 said:
Carmax thinks Mavericks are like gold.
https://www.carmax.com/car/24317021?adcode=RTGDISCRTA&utm_campaign=Retargeting&utm_source=Retargeting_Active_CRT&utm_medium=DIS&utm_content=DSK&utm_term=0-7d&cto_pld=zwovYLmJAABffQxrIqJB8Q

Well, it is gold.

To be fair, CarMax thinks all their cars are made of gold. There’s been a number of videos speculating as to what the big no haggle stores are doing with prices. Generally they are sticking to high prices even if they sell fewer units.

stickguy · July 2023

Maybe I should stop at carmax on the way home from vacation. That’s basically my truck. Though I doubt the wife would be too happy, and I have no idea how to replace it!

jmonroe1 · July 2023

stickguy said:
Maybe I should stop at carmax on the way home from vacation. That’s basically my truck. Though I doubt the wife would be too happy, and I have no idea how to replace it!

————————————————
Make an even swap. Maybe a two for one deal if you’re good at it. She gets one and you get the Miata you’ve been craving for years.

jmonroe

andres3 · July 2023

_______________________________

andres3 said:

That's nonsense you wrote about revenue generation. Utter non-sense. Every cost you mentioned isn't a big cost in issuing and prosecuting tickets; they are sunk costs. They are spent whether 1 or 1,000,000 tickets are written. It just so happens they prefer writing enough tickets that they can work maybe 4 or 5 hours a day and pretend to call it 8.

Not nonsense at all, if you have police officers on traffic patrol you would need additional manpower for other police activity. Say that manpower requirement for traffic enforcement is 2000 hours a year, that's one additional officer, add to that you need at least a part time clerk to process the tickets the officer writes and other associated duties. Now add to the fact that if you didn't enforce traffic laws you wouldn't need a traffic court with a judge, bailiffs clerks and others. That all adds up, look how much a traffic court judge makes. We are talking of hundres of thousands of dollars in salaries and benefits. It's not a sunk cost because to do it you have to add and/or pay more (in overtime) salarys.

andres3 said:
Also, I'm not sure where you got the idea that 50% of traffic stops result in a citation, but I suspect it's from your colonoscopy area I'd peg the number at closer to 90%, at least in CA and Nevada.

From personal experience, talking to police officers, police departments statistics. Statistics claim just shy of 60% chance but that includes all stops like reckless driving and DUI which I would believe are higher than more routine stops.

andres3 said:
You might rarely see someone pulled over, but if you see a cop on the side of the road / shoulder, they most likely already pulled someone over, it's just that the other car left already.

I find that hard to believe, there could be multiple reasons why a police officer is sitting by the side of the road that doesn't involved pulling over someone. Plus you are far more likely to see the officer with the car he just pulled over than the officer sitting there after the car he pulled over left. BTW I don't see very many police cars just sitting on the side of the road either.

andres3 said:
If everyone would get a speeding ticket on a particular road at any particular time, that is powerful evidence that the speed limit is not justified, and incorrectly set.

Well we on this forum do spend a lot of time discussing the lack of proper driving skills of those around us. I guess that doesn't include doing proper speeds. One of the roads that I referenced has hills and curves and no shoulder and foliage right up to the road. there are at least two spots where if there is a stalled car or say a deer standing there and you come around the curve at say 10 over the limit you are going to have a very bad day. So just because everyone goes well over the speed limit doesn't mean that the speed limit isn't justified.

andres3 said:
Speed enforcement is still big money, and far from a joke in that sense.

Speed enforcement in this country is a joke. I drive the expressways around here with people flying by me doing 20-30+ over the limit and you rarely see anyone pulled over. I drive to the kids house in Florida, over 1200 miles one way and with the possible exception of one county in Georga near the Florida state line you rarely see people pulled over even though few obey the speed limit. I know for a fact there is one town here where the policy for the police is only to pull you over if your doing 10+ and to only issue a ticket to those doing 15+. I could go on but it's enough to say that speed enforcement is at best token enforcement and a joke.

_________________________

1. The Clerk and Officer are already hired though. They are paid whether you assign them to traffic duty or something else. The Government almost never fires anyone and almost never reduces size. The traffic court judge has his job already too. They are not going to be laid off just because autonomous cars never speed in the far off future. There might be a hiring freeze at most; reducing size only through attrition. No one is truly doing overtime either; the traffic court calendar is a joke, with trials set 6 months out unless you demand a speedy trial. Even then, they'll barely make the 45 day requirement. They are not setting trials that far out because they are working overtime. The truth is the judge comes in around 1:30 to 1:45 from lunch, when afternoon traffic trials were scheduled to start at 1 PM. That's the reality; I've seen it multiple times.

2. Statistics? You claim 60% are ticketed during stops but what you left out is that approximately 30-35% of stops are for non-enforcement reasons already. So my figure of 90% is pretty dead-on accurate when you consider that reality. Also, some stops lead to searches and arrests, rather than citations.

"CPL was provided with data on 3,179,857 stops made by the CHP from January
to December of 2019. Of those, 2,141,817 were initiated for enforcement
reasons (RIPA stops) and 908,391 were initiated for non-enforcement reasons.
CHP officers initiated non-enforcement encounters for the following reasons:
to aid a disabled motorist (275,782), for a crash investigation (110,339) or crash
report (222,135), or for motorist services (249,550). A total of 28,974 stops
were made for other miscellaneous reasons.

City Police agencies might tilt a bit different (About 12 percent of stops don't even result in a warning indicating that the true percentage for real traffic enforcement stops is 64/88; far more than 64%:

"In the vast majority of stops, about 88 percent, the officer issued at least a warning (Table 1). The officer issued at least a citation in 64 percent of all stops. Officers made an arrest—either a cite and release, or a booking—in 11 percent of stops, and booked over 6 percent of stopped individuals into jail."

https://www.ppic.org/publication/racial-disparities-in-law-enforcement-stops/#:~:text=In the vast majority of,of stopped individuals into jail.

3. Lack of proper driving skills doesn't prevent people from driving generally safe speeds. Going too fast for conditions is a problem, but even that is limited. A driver without proper driving skills is dangerous at 5 MPH or even 1 MPH. I seriously doubt 10 MPH is going to make much of a difference between a "very bad day" or not a very bad day. For that to be true they'd have to be going way too close to 10/10th's of their driving ability and therefore, too fast for conditions. We have collision data. Absent supporting evidence that a particular roadway is having SIGNIFICANTLY more collisions per mile driven than an average roadway, we know for certain that the speed limit isn't justified when most are disobeying it.

4. Speed enforcement is big business, and a complete racket. It has nothing to do with safety by and large, it has to do with this US figure:

" In fact, speeding is one of the most common moving violations with 41 million drivers receiving speeding tickets each year amounting to a total amount paid of around $6 billion."

https://www.thezebra.com/resources/driving/common-traffic-tickets/#:~:text=you commit them.-,Speeding,paid of around $6 billion.

"Over 2 million speeding tickets are issued in California each year." Doing more than its proper share.

https://www.ticketsnipers.com/article/how-much-does-a-speeding-ticket-cost-in-california

These dollars are a drop in the bucket compared to other revenue generation created from speeding tickets. From traffic violator schools, online schools, and to insurance. There are the insurance surcharges for people with tickets on their driving record, which delivers an extremely high profit margin for Insurance companies.

As always, as with everything, follow the money $$$$$.

fintail · July 2023

Many speed limits are also a joke.

snakeweasel said:

Speed enforcement in this country is a joke. I drive the expressways around here with people flying by me doing 20-30+ over the limit and you rarely see anyone pulled over. I drive to the kids house in Florida, over 1200 miles one way and with the possible exception of one county in Georga near the Florida state line you rarely see people pulled over even though few obey the speed limit. I know for a fact there is one town here where the policy for the police is only to pull you over if your doing 10+ and to only issue a ticket to those doing 15+. I could go on but it's enough to say that speed enforcement is at best token enforcement and a joke.

stickguy · July 2023

@jmonroe1 said:
————————————————
Make an even swap. Maybe a two for one deal if you’re good at it. She gets one and you get the Miata you’ve been craving for years.

jmonroe

I could work out all kinds of complicated swaps. Many of which would get me in trouble if I tried.

tjc78 · July 2023

Hey Stick - wasn’t the best weather week for you, but at least some good days. Hope you are having a great vacation despite it.

Looks like those storms we just had will move out and the day will be decent.

stickguy · July 2023

Not many beach days but still fun. Luck of the draw because next week looks perfect.

graphicguy · July 2023

Interestingly, All of these YouTubers who have their own car lots and/or flippers are saying the used car market is collapsing. Not sure if that is or isn't true. I know the used market was still pretty strong 4-5 months ago when I flipped my Accord.

But, maybe from what they're saying, being able to do that is a thing of the past. I knew it wouldn't last, and am surprised that part of the market lasted as long as it did.

What are you guys seeing? I know some of you were flipping vehicles for a while, too.

stickguy · July 2023

I just flipped a maverick but that was a very specific market niche! Have not looked for a quote on my new one yet but hybrids are still supposed to be hot.

tjc78 · July 2023

@stickguy said:
Not many beach days but still fun. Luck of the draw because next week looks perfect.

I took off Thursday and Friday next week so I’m sure the weather M-W will be perfect lol

qbrozen · July 2023

graphicguy said:
Interestingly, All of these YouTubers who have their own car lots and/or flippers are saying the used car market is collapsing. Not sure if that is or isn't true. I know the used market was still pretty strong 4-5 months ago when I flipped my Accord.

But, maybe from what they're saying, being able to do that is a thing of the past. I knew it wouldn't last, and am surprised that part of the market lasted as long as it did.

What are you guys seeing? I know some of you were flipping vehicles for a while, too.

They are a ways behind. The market has been going down for several months now. Problem is, it is largely resulting in no-sales rather than reduced sales. At some point, these sellers have to cut and run and take their losses.

fintail · July 2023

graphicguy said:
Interestingly, All of these YouTubers who have their own car lots and/or flippers are saying the used car market is collapsing. Not sure if that is or isn't true. I know the used market was still pretty strong 4-5 months ago when I flipped my Accord.

But, maybe from what they're saying, being able to do that is a thing of the past. I knew it wouldn't last, and am surprised that part of the market lasted as long as it did.

What are you guys seeing? I know some of you were flipping vehicles for a while, too.

I've seen Randy from Auto Auction Rebuilds remarking on an apparent uptick in repos at a local yard like it is some kind of pending great depression.

ronsteve · July 2023

As we talk about how much the used market is weakening, I give you this just for entertainment value!

https://www.bobwalterscars.com/details/used-1984-volkswagen-rabbit/91752255

oldfarmer50 · July 2023

qbrozen said:

graphicguy said:
Interestingly, All of these YouTubers who have their own car lots and/or flippers are saying the used car market is collapsing. Not sure if that is or isn't true. I know the used market was still pretty strong 4-5 months ago when I flipped my Accord.

But, maybe from what they're saying, being able to do that is a thing of the past. I knew it wouldn't last, and am surprised that part of the market lasted as long as it did.

What are you guys seeing? I know some of you were flipping vehicles for a while, too.
They are a ways behind. The market has been going down for several months now. Problem is, it is largely resulting in no-sales rather than reduced sales. At some point, these sellers have to cut and run and take their losses.

If you can believe the data on sites like Edmunds or some of the others that show pricing history there has been a downward trend but when you see a thousand dollar reduction over several months on a vehicle that was overpriced by 50% to begin with I’m not sure how much of a bargain it is.

oldfarmer50 · July 2023

fintail said:

graphicguy said:
Interestingly, All of these YouTubers who have their own car lots and/or flippers are saying the used car market is collapsing. Not sure if that is or isn't true. I know the used market was still pretty strong 4-5 months ago when I flipped my Accord.

But, maybe from what they're saying, being able to do that is a thing of the past. I knew it wouldn't last, and am surprised that part of the market lasted as long as it did.

What are you guys seeing? I know some of you were flipping vehicles for a while, too.
I've seen Randy from Auto Auction Rebuilds remarking on an apparent uptick in repos at a local yard like it is some kind of pending great depression.

All the auction visitor YouTubers are pointing out the same thing. Of course that raises a new concern that the used vehicle you think is a good deal may be someone’s old neglected repo. While not every repo is trashed they carry the same stigma as a former rental. At least with former rentals there are disclosure laws to protect you.

tjc78 · July 2023

@oldfarmer50 said:
If you can believe the data on sites like Edmunds or some of the others that show pricing history there has been a downward trend but when you see a thousand dollar reduction over several months on a vehicle that was overpriced by 50% to begin with I’m not sure how much of a bargain it is.

No one said it has corrected yet… just that it is coming down 😎

fintail · July 2023

oldfarmer50 said:

fintail said:

graphicguy said:
Interestingly, All of these YouTubers who have their own car lots and/or flippers are saying the used car market is collapsing. Not sure if that is or isn't true. I know the used market was still pretty strong 4-5 months ago when I flipped my Accord.

But, maybe from what they're saying, being able to do that is a thing of the past. I knew it wouldn't last, and am surprised that part of the market lasted as long as it did.

What are you guys seeing? I know some of you were flipping vehicles for a while, too.
I've seen Randy from Auto Auction Rebuilds remarking on an apparent uptick in repos at a local yard like it is some kind of pending great depression.
All the auction visitor YouTubers are pointing out the same thing. Of course that raises a new concern that the used vehicle you think is a good deal may be someone’s old neglected repo. While not every repo is trashed they carry the same stigma as a former rental. At least with former rentals there are disclosure laws to protect you.

I always wonder why a real creampuff later model vehicle that wasn't a rental would end up at an auction and not diverted to a dealer beforehand. I know older cars can slip through the cracks and end up there, but I think a lot of the newer material at these auctions has a story behind it - repo at the very least.

fintail · July 2023

tjc78 said:

@oldfarmer50 said:

If you can believe the data on sites like Edmunds or some of the others that show pricing history there has been a downward trend but when you see a thousand dollar reduction over several months on a vehicle that was overpriced by 50% to begin with I’m not sure how much of a bargain it is.

No one said it has corrected yet… just that it is coming down 😎

Reminds me of the real estate doomers waiting for that late 00s style crash. They might be disappointed. If something doubles in 5 years and then deflates by 25%, it's not a miracle.

graphicguy · July 2023

stickguy said:
I just flipped a maverick but that was a very specific market niche! Have not looked for a quote on my new one yet but hybrids are still supposed to be hot.

Anecdotal, but my Honda dealer said he wa having a hard time getting new Accord Touring Hybrids. He said the Hybrid Sport models were a little easier, but they didn't stay on the lot more than 48-72 hours. Now, that's one hybrid model out of a whole slew of them being produced. He said his #1 seller is the CRV-Hybrid....followed closely by the Accord Hybrid.

Same principal who owns the Honda dealership, also owns the Toyota dealership right next door. He has LOADS of 4-Runners and pickups. Can't get Rav4 Hybrids and Camry Hybrids. I did see a Prius Prime on his lot Monday. I'm sure it's gone by now. Not a performance car by any stretch, but a good looking car in the flesh.

Used....he has trucks and SUVs by the dozens.

Since my old Acura dealer changed owners, you can tell how that's affecting their stock. Where they used to stock used BMWs, Mercedes and Lexi. They're now stocking used Dodges, Chevys and Fords.

They have a healthy new stock of Acuras. Which sort of reflects not having any Hybrids or Electrics to sell.

jmonroe1 · July 2023

@ronsteve said:
As we talk about how much the used market is weakening, I give you this just for entertainment value!

https://www.bobwalterscars.com/details/used-1984-volkswagen-rabbit/91752255

————————————————
If you don’t ask, you don’t get.

jmonroe

mjfloyd1 · July 2023

@ronsteve said:
As we talk about how much the used market is weakening, I give you this just for entertainment value!

https://www.bobwalterscars.com/details/used-1984-volkswagen-rabbit/91752255

Half hour or so away from me. I can run by and look at it for you😂

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