Re: The Auto Industy's 2nd Biggest Fear

On Sat, 9 Feb 2008 09:10:34 -0500, "Mike Marlow" wrote: The biggest problem is the EPA and the oil company. These people need a leash. There is nothing wrong with clean air. It is all greed.

I've driven both and IMO, the Smart was the better of the two. Reliability remains to be seen.

Methinks he's a MarKKKSSSist.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

heh - i wonder if one of those would fit in the back of my avalanche.

Nothing to do with that - I just cannot trust a car that has almost zero buffer room between me and the mack truck that is going to eventually hit me.

I much prefer 6,000lbs of steel holding back whatever idiot is driving drunk and without insurance.

Ouch! I'm stung by the incredible witty comeback. I'm hurt. I cannot go on...

Huh? They have thrill rides at the circus?

I'd rather have a properly designed car of any weight with airbags and crumple zones than a 6000 pound cage of steel. Weight is not the deciding factor.

FWIW, I was broadsided by a Mack truck in a compact car and walked away needing only a Band-Aid for a cut.

Oh, I agree. Which is why I drive an Avalanche.

No, but it certainly helps out in tipping the scales in my favor. Kind of reminds me when I got rear-ended by an Accord once in an older pickup.

The Accord had a horrendous scratch all up the hood and the poor person's airbags went off.

My fender got a mild scratch.

You're very lucky. I had a friend's dad die as the result of a guy driving a Peterbuilt making a wrong lane change on the 101.

"PerfectReign" wrote

I bet it will be running when you avalanche has rusted into the ground.

Ahh a Windows luser...

...from Canada (the 51st state)...

...okay, that explains your aggression. You're using an inferior virus-riddled operating system (from America) and are just jealous.

In any case, I hope to have this truck for a while. My first truck lasted 10 year and 120K miles. My second (GMC Jimmy) lasted six years and 150K miles. (Along the way, I ran into several people with GM trucks over 30 years old.)

But back to the real discussion. You seem to be hell-bent on people like me dumping a perfectly fine truck for some sardine can. Let's take a look at my day, and how apt it would have been to own such a sardine can.

I started off by taking my family to church. So, the four of us piled into the truck. We could've taken the Saturn, but opted for the comfort of the truck.

Smart Car? Nope. No seating for the rugrats.

Okay, after church rugrat junior and I took off to Lowes. I was building some stairs in the back slope to get up to an apple tree I planted back in December. We bought about a half ton of bricks, concrete, rebar and stones. I threw this all in the back of the AV.

Smart Car? Nope. No room for 1,000 lbs of masonry.

After working my ass off in the back yard, the boys wanted to head to the park. I obliged. We threw their two bicycles, scooters, the baseball bags and ourselves into the truck and headed over to the sports center in town.

Oh, probably couldn't have put that all in the smart car either, eh? (I actually know a bit of Canadian.)

We then finished the day by piling into the truck and heading to my mom's for dinner. My wife and rugrat senior walked/rode while I drove over with the rugrat jr and two bags of salt for her salt system.

Need I go on?

It would fit in the glove compartment.

I've seen it go the other way. Last month my neighbors Chev pickup 4x4 was parked in front of my house on a snowy evening. A Camry slipped into him on the curve at a low speed. The Camry hit the rear bumper left corner, went under it and hit the Chevs left rear tire. This drove the Chev right front wheel up on the curb. The Camry was slightly damaged on the right fender top, but it drove away. The Chev had to be towed away. Broken rear axle and serious damage to the rear end that took 3 weeks to repair.

Then the Yaris is the better car. The ForFour is discontinued anyway.

I play at several golf clubs.

I play at several golf clubs. Should I have two Smarts? One for me and one for my wife. You'd be dumb enough for that approach.

Not by Mercedes selling an overpriced tiny car that is subsided by normal size cars. How much is Mercedes giving you to push a car I wouldn't buy if I was still a team ager going to school.

China is killing everyones clock on household goods. Cars from China are coming soon, the Smart is so overpriced and poorly equipped it doesn't stand a chance. Imagine sitting by the side of the road patching a tire, if you pay extra for the patching kit! I don't live in the USA.

A local car reporter got the Smart car right on. He said: "Great little car for two people with brief cases commuting a few inner city miles to the office, but a far better solution for them would be to take a bus".

"PerfectReign" wrote

Then you should fill your car with bags of sand to make it weigh as much as possible.

"who" wrote

Lets be honest here. Cars are designed so that there isn't a hope in hell of fixing them. Once they are damaged they might be able to be pulled back into rough shape, but there isn't a chance in hell of the thing ever working properly after that.

Just another way the AmeriKKKan people are suckers.

"PerfectReign" wrote

That's what delivery is for.

I second that ...

the problem with v-for-vendicar, it that he has good points, however, his mannerism and conduct on this list leaved a lot to be desired. A shame really. I have never been a conservative, but if this is representative of the liberal mentality, then colour me kkkonservative.

"Dan Wright" wrote

Milk me.. Milk me, Dan shouts to GM. My nipples are ready to explode. Milk me Damnit.

Again you illustrate your stupidity. His Chev truck was finally fixed and runs very well.