cletus8269

a super straight shiny black laguna s3 with a paper tag. hope it isnt about to be donkafide cause i spotted it on that end of town.

this is an editorial from a mag subscription i have to Muscle Machines. i thought it was a good read and patiently waited for it to be available on the hemmings site so as not to have to type it up. so without further delay "A Lesson Learned" by Craig Fitzgerald. I was driving home from work the other night, listening to an interview from Boch Toyota, located down near my old home in Massachusetts. The subject, of course, was the recall of some three million Toyotas to fix an issue with the accelerator pedal that was causing the pedal to stick to the floor in some very rare cases. Two things came immediately to mind. The first was an issue I had with my 1989 F-150. It had the venerable--yet sluggish--300-cu.in. six-cylinder, so when I left a toll booth, I had to really shovel the coal to it to keep up with traffic. Around the 100,000-mile mark, the linkage must've gotten gunked up, so when you put your foot on the floor, the accelerator pedal would stick wide open. I'll admit that the first time it happened, it was a little surprising. But in a millisecond, I'd figured out what was going on and stepped on the clutch, thereby alleviating the problem. For the next three years, I'd have to do this from time to time. Why I didn't spend $3.99 on a can of WD-40 to spray on the sticky linkage, I have no idea. But I digress. The point here is that you should always be ready to shift into neutral. I guess in my case, the instinct comes from riding a motorcycle fairly regularly. If you're smart, you fully expect that in that fast, left-hand sweeper, there's going to be a huge slick of antifreeze at the apex, a moose lumbering out of the bushes, and a 10-wheeled cement mixer on your side of the yellow line; you get ready to stand the bike up and get hard on the brakes, rather than just sitting there behind the wheel with your arms folded as you careen through the front door at Dunkin' Donuts. The second thing that struck me was that if we were talking about three million some-odd General Motors products being recalled for a faulty accelerator pedal, all we'd hear is ''I told you so,'' from the media. Oh, but it's Toyota. Toyota loves us like our own mothers. Toyota would never grind its suppliers so that they used a substandard washer, or make a design choice that didn't result in world harmony. Therefore, Toyota gets a perpetual pass, and I'm just so tired of it. Everybody gets the warm-and-fuzzies regarding the Prius (which is also having build trouble now, apparently), while the FJ Cruiser and the Tacoma lines turn in abysmal fuel economy numbers. And yeah, those Toyotas seem to run for a good long time, provided the frames don't rust out from under you, as they did in the Tacomas, and also the first generation Tundras in some cases. I made a list recently of all the cars I've ever owned. Of those, a disturbingly large percentage have come from General Motors. I had a 1976 Camaro, a 1978 Monte Carlo, a 1969 Chevy C20, a 1975 Vega, a 1969 El Camino, a 1983 LeSabre, a 1976 Electra Estate wagon, a 1965 C20, a 1989 K1500 and a 1968 Riviera. Now, despite my last column here about lusting for a Crown Vic, I've found a 64,000-mile 1983 Pontiac Parisienne Brougham. Of those, two have been truly lousy automobiles that I only had for a short period; however, I will say that both of them had undergone backyard engine swaps before I ever got hold of them, so I don't necessarily find GM at fault. The '83 Buick was the real eye-opener. When I bought it from my brother-in-law, Steve, it had 200,000 miles on the odometer. At that time, Steve was driving a 1984 Olds 88 with 230,000 miles, while my future wife drove a 1986 Olds 442 with 180,000 miles showing, though the odometer had been on the fritz for at least a year. And my father-in-law was driving a 1985 Cadillac Eldorado with 125,000 miles, which was a feat, considering it was powered by the HT4100 V-8, quite possibly the most under-developed engine ever built by General Motors. All the while, I heard nothing but dire warnings from my friends and family that whatever GM product I owned would eventually succumb to some mechanical catastrophe along the lines of the Hindenburg disaster. Oh, the humanity. The truth is that I've had 11 GM cars, for a total of about 15 years of driving, traveling about 150,000 miles on the conservative side. I paid about $16,000 for all of those cars combined, less than the price of one four-cylinder Camry. I lost some money on a few, but I broke even on others, and even made a few bucks' profit on two. I recouped about $9,500, total. With those 11 cars, I've needed to call AAA a grand total of twice. Leaving out the '68 Riviera (which was non-running when I got it, and which I invested about $5,500 in to mechanically restore), over those 150,000 miles, I've spent maybe $2,500 in various and sundry radiators, water pumps, alternators, starters, not including batteries, exhaust, tires, shocks and other normal wear items. In 150,000 miles, my grand total would be $9,000. Show me where the economics of a Toyota, any Toyota, work out better than that. The resale value of a Camry is good, but a 150,000 mile, 15-year-old Camry ain't that good. You'd be lucky to get $4,500. In that time, would it be out of the ordinary to experience two breakdowns in your average Camry? You'd have bought at least two timing belts, and it's not uncommon to hear of head gasket failure. A friend of mine just traded her 1999 Camry in for that very reason. So Toyota's gotten a black eye these last few months. I say that's a good thing. Maybe it will convince the average car shopper that no mechanical product is infallible, and that no corporate entity is above falling asleep at the switch every now and again. Maybe it'll wipe that smug look off the average Toyota owner's face for a while. a little background on mr fitzgerald is that he is the former Editor in Chief for Hemmings Muscle Machines and i believe the current EIC of Sports and Exotics. http://www.hemmings.com/mus/stories/2010/04/01/hmn_opinion2.html

sorta like the story i read in a mag by a guy who worked at a plymouth dealership. they would hang the rags and towels off the superbirds spoilers to let them dry after washing the cars on the lots. he said they finally took the nose cones and wings off and sold em as regular road runners after they languished on the lots for a year or so... my how things change.

i was looking through the camaro listings on ebay when i came across this... http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2010-2SS-pkg-w-RS-Automatic-PLEASE-SAVE-ME-HELLLLP_W0QQitemZ300408859958QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Cars_Trucks?hash=item45f1c36d36 Help me!! I am a brand new 2010 Chevy Camaro. Not just a regular Camaro, a 2SS with the 6.2 liter V8 in Inferno Orange. I was just built in February and shipped to this little Chevrolet dealership in the middle of freakin nowhere!! If a vehicle can't tow a bass boat or have a place for a gun rack put in it, these hayseeds can't sell it. I'm doomed to spend the rest of this winter outside, in the snow, parked next to a Cobalt!! I'm the reincarnation of an American icon, I don't deserve this!! Please save me from these syrup sucking, stump jumping, wood chopping salesmen. I deserve to be parked in a garage, heated preferred, with a soft car cover keeping me clean!! Will you give me a good home? To make things even worse this dealership is advertising to sell me at INVOICE!!! My gosh, other dealerships are getting sticker plus for their Camaro's!! If the other Camaro's back at the factory found out about this I could not live with myself. Please save me from this hillbilly hell!! i had to laugh because its probably the funniest dealer listing i have seen outside of craigslist.

if you cant see my mirrors... i cant be held responsible for the results...

C&G's the homepage for the computer, i just been busy with the house and work lately, but i gave $12 so does that make me a premium lurker? heheheh

if you have direct tv and like anything ed roth there is a show airing tonight at 8pm eastern on OVTV channel 274 about him.

Black Barbie Sold for Less Than White Barbie at Walmart Store Walmart Says Lower Sales of Ballerina Theresa Barbie Prompted the Price Cut Walmart is raising eyebrows after cutting the price of a black Barbie doll to nearly half of that of the doll's white counterpart at one store and possibly others. A photo first posted to the humor Web site FunnyJunk.com and later to the Latino Web site Guanabee.com shows packages of Mattel's Ballerina Barbie and Ballerina Theresa dolls hanging side by side at an unidentified store. The Theresa dolls, which feature brown skin and dark hair, are marked as being on sale at $3.00. The Barbies to the right of the Theresa dolls, meanwhile, retain their original price of $5.93. The dolls look identical aside from their color. Editors at Guanabee.com said the person responsible for the photo told the Web site that it was taken at a Louisiana Walmart store. The person did not return e-mails from ABCNews.com. A Walmart spokeswoman, who could not verify the exact store shown in the photo, said that the price change on the Theresa doll was part of the chain's efforts to clear shelf space for its new spring inventory. "To prepare for (s)pring inventory, a number of items are marked for clearance, " spokeswoman Melissa O'Brien said in an e-mail. "... Both are great dolls. The red price sticker indicates that this particular doll was on clearance when the photo was taken, and though both dolls were priced the same to start, one was marked down due to its lower sales to hopefully increase purchase from customers." "Pricing like items differently is a part of inventory management in retailing," O'Brien said. But critics say Walmart should have been more sensitive in its pricing choice. "The implication of the lowering of the price is that's devaluing the black doll," said Thelma Dye, the executive director of the Northside Center for Child Development, a Harlem, N.Y. organization founded by pioneering psychologists and segregation researchers Kenneth B. Clark and Marnie Phipps Clark. full story here http://abcnews.go.com/Business/black-barbie-sold-white-barbie-walmart-store/story?id=10045008

i remember reading the comments on autoblog or jalopnik about the front wheel drive units on the 4wd tacomas being questionable now. i kid you not there were people posting such things as "leave it to fat union slob americans to screw up a good product. if it was made in japan you wouldnt be having this problem" dana by the way is responsible for the fwd units if i am not mistaken. http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2010/02/recall-alert-2010-toyota-tacoma.html first comment Dana corporation again... I know Toyota wants to prove to the USA that their products are American made but they should stop getting defective parts from fat, lazy, unionized Americans who would not recognize a good work ethic even if it smacked them upside the head. Import your parts from Japan. That way you'll know the parts are made right. ah, self loathing ignorance towards your country at its best.

not in the least bit. i just posted the story cause i thought it was funny, maybe brash, but considering all thats going on funny none the less. it was still his house and his property. if he wanted to do what he did so be it. my aunt is a branch manager at a bank i have neither side to take but can see why both sides are at each others throats.

"As far as what the bank is going to get, I plan on giving them back what was on this hill exactly (as) it was," Hoskins said. "I brought it out of the ground and I plan on putting it back in the ground." seems the man bought the land then built the house. i dont know if he used land as collateral for his home's down payment but thats how it sounds to me. sure, i agree with him. be kind rewind hehehehe.

Frustrated Owner Bulldozes Home Ahead Of Foreclosure Like many people, Terry Hoskins has had troubles with his bank. But his solution to foreclosure might be unique. Hoskins said he's been in a struggle with RiverHills Bank over his Clermont County home for nearly a decade, a struggle that was coming to an end as the bank began foreclosure proceedings on his $350,000 home. "When I see I owe $160,000 on a home valued at $350,000, and someone decides they want to take it – no, I wasn't going to stand for that, so I took it down," Hoskins said. View Slideshow Hoskins said the Internal Revenue Service placed liens on his carpet store and commercial property on state Route 125 after his brother, a one-time business partner, sued him. The bank claimed his home as collateral, Hoskins said, and went after both his residential and commercial properties. "The average homeowner that can't afford an attorney or can fight as long as we have, they don't stand a chance," he said. Hoskins said he'd gotten a $170,000 offer from someone to pay off the house, but the bank refused, saying they could get more from selling it in foreclosure. Hoskins told News 5's Courtis Fuller that he issued the bank an ultimatum. "I'll tear it down before I let you take it," Hoskins told them. And that's exactly what Hoskins did. The Moscow man used a bulldozer two weeks ago to level the home he'd built, and the sprawling country home is now rubble, buried under a coating of snow. "As far as what the bank is going to get, I plan on giving them back what was on this hill exactly (as) it was," Hoskins said. "I brought it out of the ground and I plan on putting it back in the ground." Hoskins' business in Amelia is scheduled to go up for auction on March 2, and he told Fuller he's considering leveling that building, too. RiverHills Bank declined to comment on the situation, but Hoskins said his actions were intended to send a message. "Well, to probably make banks think twice before they try to take someone's home, and if they are going to take it wrongly, the end result will be them tearing their house down like I did mine," Hoskins said. Hoskins said he's heard from people all over the country since his story first aired Thursday, and he said most have been supportive. He said he sought legal counsel before tearing down his home and understands the possible consequences, but he has never doubted his decision once he made it. "When I knew I was going to lose it, I decided to take it down," Hoskins said. http://www.wlwt.com/news/22600154/detail.html

on the way to work i spied this in tow with a nice rosy red spray job. small block by the looks of the engine bay. this was at the end of the parking lot at walmart of all places... hehe and also middle of the month i caught this on a ride from my house.

er.. uh whats wrong with a southern draw exactly? hehe

i dont know if they travel with or its a semi local thing here but there is always a vendor at our super chevy show in commerce ga that has vintage drag racing dvds along with the crashes smashes and other stuff collections. there are also many many drive in movie types too. i'll dig around see what i find.

a white 63 ss impala with skyjackers and torq thrusts and then a WB edition chevy venture hehehe

hehe well if its the 3000gt i think it was (its wrecked on the passenger side and i was on the drivers side) then it probably gave up the ghost... some 12th grader/ college freshman in the area has flogged it pretty hard.

a subie svx at the local mexican dive.

in all my slack jawed disbelief i watched as a prius passed a mitsu 3000gt on the 2 lane rd in front of my house.

thanks blu, it will need some work on the inside but all and all its turn key and is the same age as me. The property is what i was mainly after, 8 acres of what was family land some 35 years ago is now back in our hands after my great grandfather's estate sale. the guy that had the house built was... er, unique to say the least XP. if it saved money he was on it, function over form seemed to be another logic he had. i assume that the roof is so steep so the shingles will last longer by not giving anything half a second to come into contact with them hehehe. here in SC we dont usually see the snow anymore, just ice... one cool thing about it is that he laid the house's foundation out using a sun chart. thats why the side of it faces the hwy. said it was the first time he used one and after they had it inspected it was found to be of by a degree or degree and a half. the garage is what i like though, 15' x 46' ooorah!

seen this right before my hiking trip last week of november... i do wish gm would bring back the 2tone RPO's again it looks great to me. and then there was this... it was all i could do not to get sucked into the scoop. THE POWwA!

i caused the country's deficit to go up another $8000 last week... theres enough room for the impala and colorado to fit into the garage, Joy!

the horse power sucks but i always liked the styling of these

as of right now seats in the orchestra area in front of the stage are only $65 bucks. with asheville a mear 1hr and a half away this is very tempting indeed...