OT -- Small Cars Are Dangerous Cars - Fuel economy zealots can kill you

Who eats fast food? I am diabetic, have high blood pressure, and eat the meals approved by my dietitian. I guess you speak from personal experience of eating too much fast food, and are grossly obese?

Does it meet ALL US safety standards? If not, it might as well not exist, as far as the US market is concerned.

Who can afford 'new' on a VA pension? I have to hope the 12 year old Dodge Dakota runs six more years, till the house is paid off. :(

New was only used to differentiate between the old style bug and the newest version. The new version has been around since 1997. I guess they call it the "Volkswagen New Beetle" (shrug).

I sure wouldn't buy a brand new anything nowadays. What I don't want in a vehicle; no airbags, anti-skid/traction crap, air conditioning, tire air pressure monitor/alarm, Onstar... I'm sure there must be a few more things I can't think of right now too. Most likely if I have to replace my old 1982 truck someday it will be with something else old.

I miss my '73 Chevy stepvan with a Union City body. It gve me 20 MPG, no matter how much I hauled in it. It had non commercial tags, and one trip had over 8,000 of cargo.

I bet that was a white-knuckle trip!

I just bought wife a new Toyota Venza. Drove it 350 miles down I-5 to L.A. Ran 85-90 comfortably all the way, listening to Satellite radio, and got

22.2 mpg for the trip. Helping the economy. But the car I replaced a 1996 S-10 Blazer with 144k miles means I buy and hold. A long time hold. Lots to be said for newer cars. Rarely break, quiet, and comfortable. Someimes you need to spend some money.

Only when the Georgia Highway Patrol chased me just south of Atlanta, long enough to see I had non commercial tags. Then he slammed on the brakes, slid into the median, and was pounding the dash with both fists.

You can't do that when you don't have it to spend. My VA disability states that due to my health, I will never be able to work again, and I miss working. I had my last two vehicles given to me. In fact, I've only spent S1,000 to buy vehicles in the last 25 years.

I just gave away an '84 C10 Chevy van (today) to a very nice family who are barely making it. Its not been run or even started for at least 10 yrs..having the front seal of the auto tranny start to pour out fluid.

We cleaned out the computer equipment its been storing for those 10 yrs, poured in some gas, a bit down the carby, stuck in a good used batttery and fired it up. I put on a tire, filled up the other 3 and he drove it home.

It only had 80k on a factory new motor with 150k actual miles on the vehicle. I handed him the new front tranny seal, put a jack and jack stands in the van, and added two sets of manuals. Told him Id help him next weekend if he needed help dropping the tranny, replacing the seal and putting the tranny back in place.

Nice family, trying hard to make a go of it.

He helped me replace the alternator in the ex's Saturn later this afternoon. Figured that he owed me something. I told him he could help..but if he was under some feeling of obligation...he should go work on his new van and dont pester me

I could have fixed it up and sold it..maybe got $1200 out of it...shrug...but he busts his ass taking care of his family and that means he gets first dibs.

Shrug

Gunner

"Somewhere a True Believer is training to kill you. He is training with minimum food or water,in austere conditions, day and night. The only thing clean on him is his weapon. He doesn't worry about what workout to do--- his rucksack weighs what it weighs, and he runs until the enemy stops chasing him. The True Believer doesn't care 'how hard it is'; he knows he either wins or he dies. He doesn't go home at 1700; he is home. He knows only the 'Cause.' Now, who wants to quit?"

NCOIC of the Special Forces Assessment and Selection Course in a welcome speech to new SF candidates

If you check carefully you may find that you are allowed a certain (small) earned income without endangering your VA status.

It's probably something like $4000.

Richard

I have asked repeatedly for the last three years, and still haven't got an answer. Most give me a blank stare, or just shrug, then ignore me. One hinted that if I earned even $1, I would lose the zero co-pay on all the medication, and some of the other benefits. To make up for that amount could cost me the pension, as well. No one is willing to give a straight answer, and there is nothing on the VA website, or in the benefits handbook that I can find.

Good for you. I have crawled out of bed with pneumonia to do emergency repairs to a neighbor's house. I always helped where I could, back when I could.

BTW, I an into a guy at a local flea market with a case of new socket

370 motherboards for $15 each. They were still in the retail boxes with the CDROM, manual and cables, and had three EISA slots and one PCI slot. Too bad it wasn't six months ago, when you could have made some money on them. :(

I considered buying the case of ten, but just couldn't justify it.

That's not true - but about normal.

I suspect that's because most of them are government class morons who don't know and don't care.

Do you have a counselor you can trust? It would be worth the effort to find one.

Richard

I had a VA caseworker try to get a valid answer for a year, before he gave up. I could make some cash by doing some IT consulting part time. I have turned down the work, because I don't know where I stand under the contradicting laws. In one letter the VA tells me I will never be able to work again. In the next, they tell me that I am not unemployable. Which is right?

Sort of like my S10 4x4 Pickup. Got a load of pavers for the back yard. Said a pallet load was 1500#. Pick up the load one night from HD, drive home, luckily the wife is with me as the truck barely steers. Front wheels probably would not of touched if wife was not in cab. The pallet they referred to was much smaller. We figured there were 4500# of pavers in the truck, Setting on the axle stops.

Kid worked for me in 1972 bet the quarry foreman a case of beer that his '52 Fargo 1/2 ton could get home with the box level full of crushed limestone. First attempt, he lost the load climbing out of the quarry, so after re-loading he backed it up the hill then drove home. His Dad was happy to get some gravel for the driveway. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

These loads were sitting on the front & rear axels. I had replaced the original ass breaker seat with a bucket seat from a junked 66 GTO. The truck rode and drove like a new caddie. :)

I drove straight from near Dayton, to just north of Orlando, only stopping for gas and food. I had to stop in Atlanta to chnage the oil filter. It was plugging up with carbon, so I had to wait an hour for it to cool, in a mall parking lot. I made it to my destination 15 minutes before the tags expired.

A little over 17,000 pounds of cargo in two trips. Not bad for a truck that everyone told me would never run again. So what if it was hit by a drunk driver who ran out of the road, and totaled two cars into the right front corner, or that the engine was siezed? I spent $8 and had it running. I ended up having to put new bearings in the starter, and replaced the alternator. That was another $5. I made a new back bumper out of scrap steel for 97 cents, and an alumnum tube grill for $8 in pop rivets and one piece of new angle aluminum. Then I drove it

5,000 miles over the next six months with nothing more than one oil change, and gasoline. :)

Gee. The best I ever got was when the owner of a bunch of dump trucks who hauled for an asphalt plant was when he delivered two free truckloads of hot asphalt for our shop's parking lot. It had been paved with slag from the local steel mill and he was always complaining about the dust, so we told him, "If you don't like it, do something about it!" He did!

I hope it wasn't like the Church Men's Club that decided to pave the parking lot by hand and refused to listen to advise from the driver who delivered their load of paving mix and insisted that he dump the load in the middle of the area so they could spread it with shovels and rakes, and compact it with a water filled lawn roller Gerry :-)} London, Canada