Today's new vehicles/winter weather

[k0ua]

I never drove one of the Matadors myself, but I heard nothing but complaints about them. I don't think we had an officer who didn't hate them. And I don't know, but I heard that they were supposed to have the 360 engines, but came with the 304s. In the Fall of '75, my unmarked home storage car was a Plymouth Satellite with a 400 engine, actually my favorite of all the cars I drove, and one night I had gone downtown to visit my night crew and started home about 2 a.m. out Stemmons Frwy and came up behind a 1960 Cadillac that was taking 3 lanes; apparently drunk driver. Since I was wearing slacks and a sport shirt that night, I called on the radio for a marked unit to stop him. There was one of the Matadors less than half a mile behind me and the drunk and I weren't doing 70 mph, but the Matador couldn't overtake us. I had to use the red lights in my grill and got the drunk stopped so the uniformed officers could catch up to us.:laughing: So I was just as happy that I never drove one.

We had a few of them in the fleet on the Sheriff's Dept. The unlucky officer's that drew them called them Kelvinator's as AMC owned the Kelvinator division, and also when you stepped on the throttle they made some interesting and unproductive noises. They were said to be "making ice cubes". They were big dogs, and in no way could they compare to our Mercury's and Plymouths. Everyone hated them.

James K0UA

 

[RoyJackson]

The app will only work with the registered GM vehicle with Onstar. Onstar sends a unique code to the IPhone that you have to enter in the app. The code will only work on that IPhone with that user. Now if someone stole my phone and figured out my password, then I am in trouble.

I have a 2010 Chevy Traverse that I use this for. I think the app only works with 2010 and 2011 models.

Yeah...did a bit of research. Apparently, there is a similar app for vehicles with Viper Alarm systems...

Just curious...

 

[JDgreen227]

Don't forget the crappy plastics, cheaply made engines and thinner bodies new cars have!

Give me an old car I have to crank for ages and warm up any day over a new crap box.

My mother's 1997 Ford Fiesta was made just as cars were making the transision from well made to crappy, so we're lucky. It has EFi so fires right up, has a strong chassis, thick body, and even though you could drive off right away, it gets warmed up for 10-15 minutes to let the oil circulate and heat up, as you always should with an engine when it is cold outside.

A 10-15 minute warmup is WAAAAYYYY too long, unless it is minus 30 degrees. And a 1997 model does NOT have a strong chassis or thick body, anything made after 1988 or so is cheaply made. My dad in law was a shift supervisor at Fisher Body in Lansing, he said when they downsized the RWD body-on-frame models on the middle 80's to unit body models they began using steel for the doors, fenders, etc that was only about 70% as thick as the older RWD cars used. And he also says compared to the body steel thickness used in the 60's, any body made after Y2K is only half as thick.

 

[jmurray01]

A 10-15 minute warmup is WAAAAYYYY too long, unless it is minus 30 degrees. And a 1997 model does NOT have a strong chassis or thick body, anything made after 1988 or so is cheaply made. My dad in law was a shift supervisor at Fisher Body in Lansing, he said when they downsized the RWD body-on-frame models on the middle 80's to unit body models they began using steel for the doors, fenders, etc that was only about 70% as thick as the older RWD cars used. And he also says compared to the body steel thickness used in the 60's, any body made after Y2K is only half as thick.

Compared to new cars, it is very strong and thick.

Also, 10-15 minutes isn't too long, as that is the time it takes to warm up fully on idle.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I worked for a warranty company in college. It a cash cow. We paid out 3% on the dollar. Yes, $.97 was profit. I got paid well for part time work in 1993 at $7 per hour.plus $5 for each sold plus %3 of the warranty value. So say its a $1000 warranty I made $35 on it.

It's a cash cow scam in my eyes.

Chris

 

[JDgreen227]

I worked for a warranty company in college. It a cash cow. We paid out 3% on the dollar. Yes, $.97 was profit. I got paid well for part time work in 1993 at $7 per hour.plus $5 for each sold plus %3 of the warranty value. So say its a $1000 warranty I made $35 on it.

It's a cash cow scam in my eyes.

Chris

Will you elaborate on what "a $1000 warranty" is? I have never known they were considered to have a dollar value, my experiences simply provided repair services for a covered product. Sorry if this is a dumb query...but I am confused as to what kind of warranties you are telling us about.

 

[jeffsw6]

You can buy all kinds of third-party warranties now on many kinds of products. There is a company in my town, ServiceNet, that sells them on appliances, computers, cell phones, car radios, all sorts of things. Like any kind of insurance, as long as they don't make a mistake and sell a warranty on a product that fails prematurely so much they lose money on it, they do well; and I am guessing the retailers that push those warranties get paid a lot for offering them.

It's really not like a car or truck warranty. I mean, if your truck needs a new transmission or half the gadgets stop working you are pretty glad you spent $1000 on a warranty since you might have saved yourself thousands, and if you don't need to use the warranty at least you had some peace of mind for a few extra years or whatever.

A warranty on a washing machine, IMO that is just silly, a replacement won't break most people and those warranties aren't that cheap and it's not like they are 10 year warranties most of the time either.

 

[mjncad]

C'Mon, why can't my IPhone drive this for me yet?

Because the iPhone is too busy sexting. :laughing:

I worked for a warranty company in college. It a cash cow. We paid out 3% on the dollar. Yes, $.97 was profit. I got paid well for part time work in 1993 at $7 per hour.plus $5 for each sold plus %3 of the warranty value. So say its a $1000 warranty I made $35 on it.

It's a cash cow scam in my eyes.

Chris

Exactly. A long ago friend of mine used to work in major appliance sales for J.C. Penney when they used to sell them and corporate constantly pressured the sales people to sell extended warranties because they are almost all pure profit. Like others, I've bought a few in years past; but I refuse to buy them on anything now. I learned my lesson that they are a ripoff.

I only know of two people who collected on them. One was my first boss who bought a used diesel 80's Eldorado in the mid 80's. He collected $2,500 to fix that GM gas to diesel engine abortion, and then he traded it on a gas powered Eldorado. Flash forward to around 2009 - 2010, and a couple I used to work with at a different company collected about the same amount on a late model Gooberu wagon that had engine problems.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Will you elaborate on what "a $1000 warranty" is? I have never known they were considered to have a dollar value, my experiences simply provided repair services for a covered product. Sorry if this is a dumb query...but I am confused as to what kind of warranties you are telling us about.

Simply the sale price of the warranty to the customer.

Chris

 

[crazyal]

I dont mind manual cranked windows, locks. too many things to go wrong.I hate ABS. I do believe I can stop better in powder snow without abs, and love skidding cars sideways to park in snowy lots. you cant do that with ABS on. :thumbsup:

I don't like ABS, I hate traction control. What a horrible feature.