'96 Ford Explorer alignment issue

dude, that vehicle is a killer. bite the bullet and take it off the road.

the bottom has dropped completely out of the used car market lately - $3k will get you into a much safer and more reliable vehicle. you'd be surprised if you shop around. get an accord wagon for $800 and $2k will get you almost completely refurbished. if it even needs it.

The minute they ban Jeep CJs, or I see one not operated as if it were a Porsche.

It's pretty hard to beat 100% reliability.

I've been anticipating this situation, shopping, and working on her for better than a year.

According to my local observations the only people who don't know the bottom dropped out of the used market are sellers, buyers, and dealers.

There's nothing to suggest 90% of rigs advertised on our local Craigslist are not idiots trolling for morons. Half of private owners who "must sell" their ragged/miled out pieces of shit can't be bothered to post more than 1 blurry cellphone picture taken from the next county and 5 words to describe their vehicle; typically "email 4 mor inf" combined with "serious buyers only" combined with "include your phone in your email or be ignored".

It's hilarious, really. It is as if they think the world is standing by and holding their breath waiting for their personal rig to come on the market.

That would not be a bad idea if that's what she wanted, but it isn't.

She's a competent enough driver, but often frightened by the obvious lack of due diligence exhibited by the typical motorist so she wants a lot of metal between them and herself (can't blame her for that), and the better visibility that an SUV provides. -----

- gpsman

until it goes wrong.

i agree with your sentiments and understand that you want to keep her happy. but i wouldn't let her drive that thing if she were mine and i wanted to keep her alive because it's a fundamentally dangerous vehicle. if she can always guarantee to keep it upright and uncrashed, all is well, but she can't and when it crashes, its performance is not only bad, it stands a good chance of killing her where other vehicles won't. the "lot of metal" argument, with respect, doesn't mean a thing because it's how the metal behaves that matters.

car-based wagons are much safer in crashes and can be relied on to not only not roll, but maneuver their way out of crashes much more effectively than an exploder.

re used car prices, i agree, c/l has more than its share of idiots, but asking price != selling price. the s/o of one of my best friends works for the biggest toyota dealer here in the bay area. they're having real problems with used car inventory - they just can't get rid of it. lots of stuff headed out to auctions just to get it offloaded. shop about and see what you can get.