SAmadei

Yeah, thats what I was thinking. It just seems like GM is reverting to a "business as usual" but with some Toyota influence. Not really the great, sweeping return to glory we hoped for.

Its funny, I feel the same way when I'm out of Jersey... Why would anyone want to pump their own gas. Usually, I'll sit in the car for a few awkward moments until I realize I'm not in Jersey anymore... Actually, its real reason is to create jobs. Granted, crappy jobs... but jobs. Keep in mind, I like the feature... I'd rather pay $2.00 a gallon and have someone pump it than pay $2.30 in NY or PA and have to pump it myself. Its been law since 1949, so you can take your 1980s stereotypes and stick it. ;-)

This happens all across rural South Jersey. The hardware example was in Absecon... town or suburbia, definitely not city.

That sounds like something that should be on Snopes. How are they going to determine the losses? Usually, there is no sign... its verbal. In the case I mention... its enforced by the credit machine provider! He tried to run the card for $2.99... it came back as too little. Also, I doubt that if Exxon flaunts it on their big outdoor sign, that they haven't already run it by their lawyers.

He wasn't looking for 2011, that's why I left the Aveo and Granite out (I thought the Granite was going to be a 2011). Problem is, I think he's looking for some more substantial than rumor.

LOL, I've considered that, but I doubt it. My father's business used to see a lot of profit eaten via the merchant fees... I can see why some places wouldn't want to be bothered. Less fun fact. They do anyway... I got hit with a $5 minimum purchase just the other day... had to buy a soda and candy bar to get valve stems on plastic at the local hardware store. Also, had to pay "credit price" for gas, too, as I wasn't leaving the island to get "same price cash or credit". Edit: typo.

LOL, yes! That is something we can agree on!

I'm not sure there really is one... even at GM. Even half paying attention here, the only thing that seems to be coming down the pipeline is the ATS, XTS and '12 Malibu.

Sure there is. Its called "social engineering". The chances of getting your bank account hacked is remote... unless you are completely clueless (which we know you're not) and give out your bank info for every piece of spam that lands in your inbox. Its actually a lot easier to "hack" your account the old fashion way... hitting you over the head in a back alley and running off with your wallet. Well, it took a long time for me to start using EZ Pass... I don't like the lack of privacy. I also don't like that your driving habits are obvious. I share my EZ Pass with someone who likes to harp on me for speeding... so I occasionally show them the EZ Pass timestamps... and distance... and derived time to demonstrate that I KNOW they drive as fast as I do. ;-) Well, in that case, cash ain't going to help much, anyway. At that point, you better have a hoard of gold, food, or gasoline (or clean water in your desert).

Well, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I've found many of the local independent restaurants and businesses don't take plastic. I've TRIED to live on plastic only. In PA/NJ/NYC, my favorite pizzeria and hoagie shops do not take plastic. And a lot of places are iffy for using plastic... minimum purchase or outright higher rate (gas stations). Obsolescence is the state of being which occurs when an object, service or practice is no longer wanted even though it may still be in good working order. So then, cash is still not obsolete... that cash is still wanted in those situations. Ironically, many of the vending machine I encounter now take plastic. And so do the toll roads (EZ Pass). Edit: I'm not trying to say that plastic is not highly used now or in the future... I am only saying that some things will likely always prefer/require cash, and some people will always value the anonymity of cash. If I want a GOOD hoagie, I better have cash on hand.

Well, I'm sure there are some people who never stray from using corporate America for every purchase... Walmart, BurgerKing, Red Lobster, Lowes. Thats fine. But that doesn't cover everybody in every situation, therefore, non-plastic cash is not obsolete, as Satty asserts. Oh, and in the dystopian future, that short drive will likely be a trip on public transportation and you'll need a cash permit, filled out in triplicate and notarized.

Which is also a good point... minors can't have plastic. In fact, I had a hard time getting an ATM card until I was 18 (I was an early ATM adopter) because it was linked to my checking account (minors can't sign checks). Now, I know that in this day and age, a lot of minors have plastic... backed by their parents... but I'm sure there is a limit to this.

Hmmm... thats really odd. I doubt that they are a thief... I would think dual plates would raise suspicion. I was thinking dealer plates, but you say these were standard issue. I would think tax or commercial reasons would result in commercial plates or something other than special issue. Yeah, MD cabs are especially ridiculous in their paint schemes... LOL, can't mistake that. Even so, pretty much all cabs that drive in other states go by the same rules... pick up in their area only... can drop off anywhere legally. So, after thinking about this, I have this to say... I suspect one set of plates are bogus. Why? Simple... you can't have two valid license plates from different states. If the car is owned by one person, its going to be registered and titled in the state they have the license in. Perhaps the car is co-owned by two people, each having a residence in a different state... but then it would be titled and registered in two different states. It make no sense for the states to allow that... and we're not even touching on the insurance. So, then if they flip-flop from one state to the other, one plate is going to be bogus. I imagine it would be against the law to add extra, bogus plates to your car. I guess _if_ the vehicle is corporate owned, things would change... but I'm not sure if a corporate-owned vehicle would require commercial plates in those states. Otherwise, I'm stumped. People do STRANGE things... like plaster a bunch of registration stickers all over their plates, so I guess they might think they can have all their license plates on the car. Actually, one last thought... perhaps dual plates would fool EZ Pass? I've seen people take their plates off or put them on backwards, run through EZ Pass to escape the tolls. Again... people do STRANGE things.

Oh really? Well, it seems like 80% of the small restaurants in Brooklyn don't take anything but paper cash. Even in South Jersey, the GOOD Italian restaurants will point you towards the nearest ATM (with a $3 fee). Bet you have a lot of luck using your plastic to negotiate at a yard sale or flea market. And obviously there are many transactions that traceable plastic will never be very good for... Like This

I'm getting to be anti-coin. I really don't want to see the $1 bill replaced with a coin. Current coins are heavy enough... and I'm tired of dirty, corroded coins sitting around because I never spend with them. The solution to paper bills wearing out is plastic bills. I'd even like to see metal coins move to a plastic coin or fractional plastic bill. The only time coins seem to get used is in vending machines... and quite frankly, they seem to work fine with bill readers (assuming the bill isn't worn out). I do like the idea of differently size currency... to help blind people read money. Or, I imagine a plastic bill could have braille dots punched into it... or along the edge. I'm sure at some point in the future, all the bills will have a smart RFID chip that will be able to do a handshake with a reader to determine reliably its denomination. Then a wave of a wand would simply be able to read back a value.

That is a pretty good design... it simply does not look like that "worthless" foreign money. ;-) I will admit, I feel the $1 should have been redesigned with the other bills. It now looks very out of place. I feel the current $5-$100 designs are fine as-is. The bill with Obama on it? Crap... I'll move to another country before that happens. One thing that article does not include is the idea of starting to print plastic money. A few countries do it and it make forgery more difficult, the bills last longer and are waterproof. I'd really like to see someone float this idea before getting rid of the paper $1.

Did they use a Sawszall? I would think that the neighbors would hear that... Well, I suppose if you don't mine the weight penalty, have the shop weld in some extra steel supports along the exhaust... so that thieves would have to cut 10' of exhaust out or cut through double the steel... I would think any potential thief would see that and move to an easier target. Wow... glad I'm not in the Detroit area. I would be driving a true Mad Max car if I thought I was going to have serious theft problems.

Notorious, yes, but isn't the whole purpose of these tapered ends to redirect the energy of impact up, so that gravity counteracts it... rather than to just slice through the car? I imagine that these are only designed to be particularly effect up to a certain speed... Once your doing 80+ mph, all bets are off... you're probably going to launch into a bridge abutment or something. Even so, it always about limiting damage... as once a car is hitting this, its toast anyway. At least it hopefully will stop or slow the vehicle before hitting something worse... at that point, being upside down and slowing might be a blessing over the alternative.

Its against federal law to install a used Cat on a car, so a lot of junkyards don't want to sell them. $320 sounds like a dealership price or for it to be installed. I've never paid more than $140 for a catalytic. I'm surprised they'd do it on a car. Normally, its more common to happen on SUVs, where no jacking up is needed. Best argument yet for having a in-the-weeds stance.

Blander product, possibly, but its how I remember MD back in the '70s. Some would say it had a more 'subtle' flavor. ;-) I would have stocked up on the stuff, but I only drink diet sodas now a days.

Well, its clear that the '67 Camaro stole a lot of the Corvair's reason to exist. But at the same time, looking at the design proposals, its clear that at least one flavor of the 3rd Corvair was folded into the '70 F-bodies. Had the Corvair designers not been working on that early on, who knows if the 1st gen F-bodies would soldiered on longer like the X-bodies did.

I don't understand why so much is being made of the 9th anniversary, though. Is there going to be more hoopla next year? Its hard to believe how fast time flies. Those kids Bush was reading to are probably driving and thinking about collage. Meanwhile, its an event that has still deeply affected me... between the sadness, horror and anger. Living in NJ, I had some friends/family who could have been there, but luckily weren't. And subsequently working in NYC, I met many people who did lose friends/family or were personally involved with the attack. Its impossible to not see how it affected the entire NYC area. That said... "We Will Never Forget"... this is so true. Even ten years later, this is truer and stronger than ever. But other things I'm not certain about... "Things are different now", a sentiment during the days after the attack seems to have passed. People changed for the better in the days after the attacks, but much of that day to day behavior has gone back to normal. I'm also not so sure about "We can't let them win"... because some would say we have. We've spent a lot of money and effort to make things safer with debatable results... and we've allowed this to fuel our fears, which people have exploited for much personal profit. Still, 9 years later, my condolences to all who lost friends and family and and cheers to the heroics that occurred that day, big or small.

I bought the Meguiar's kit, which I had heard good things about, but in the end, headlight clusters for the '99 GP were only $30 bucks each. Since the ones in the car were REAL cloudy, I figured it would be easier to just replace them. I put them in the garage, and I might still polish them if another GP needs them... I also had a cheaper kit... similar to that Symtech kit... I tried to use it on the fog lights... but IMHO, it was a lot of work and barely did anything. Also, once I got up close to the fog lights, I found the problem was also a series of small radial cracks, which the polishing kits can't fix. So, from my limited exposure, I have this to say... get the one that has some sort of buffing wheel. Its going to be a lot less work. I would also remove the cluster and put it in a holder or vise so that I didn't splatter or damage the surrounding paint or trim while buffing. Finally, some kits include a liquid UV protectant you apply after polishing... I like this idea, as the reason the headlights get cloudy in the first place is because the UV resistance fails, but I'm somewhat skeptical to how good this coating would be, so I'd look for a reputable product.

Our automobile emissions are no longer that big of a deal, though it would be nice to eliminate idling while sitting in traffic. Just as you say, emissions are not local, so something needs to be done about the other 90-odd 3rd world countries... not the US. Of course, the US needs to stop allowing companies to buy pollution credits to offset smokestack emissions. Sure, some smokestacks have gotten cleaner... but not enough. We want clean air... fix the 3rd world countries and smoke stacks. You know, we could have cleaned up a lot of air by trading the C4C cars for the wrecks bumping around polluting the 3rd world.

I haven't seen much of this trend. Sure, years ago I thought steel wheels with a poverty cap where kinda cool. But the old school concave steel wheels looked a lot cooler, IMHO than todays flat or slightly convex steel wheels with a bunch of holes punched into the wheel to lighten it.