The Toyonda Pious and Hindsight?? Excessive smug emissions from hybrids? C'mon people. Hilarious. Painted a perfect picture of these screwheads that come into the dealer with their "package 2 Super White Prius with cargo net and Nav that I waited two months to get" vehicles. Browsing the New York Times on their laptops through horn-rimmed glasses waiting in the customer lounge while they sip $10 coffee drinks and wear turtlenecks. Wierdos.
Welcome to Northampton.
How many Irish Car Bombs did *you* have tonight?
I get the feeling you aren't a big fan of the environmentalists.
No problem with environmentalists at all. You wanna help the planet, kudos to you. What bugs me are these weenies that buy hybrids for no other reason than to be seen in a hybrid, then throw in your face how socially responsible they are every chance they get.
Or the idiots here that buy environmental plates for their Hummer. Why the heck does a Hummer have CAR plates on it, anyway? Anything with a gross weight that high ought to be registered by Gross Vehicle Weight, i.e. a TRUCK.
But then again, something funny is going on here in Illinois. I see a lot of trucks registered with NOT truck tags. NOT RV tags, but with out and out PASSENGER tags, i.e. Car tags. I can remember when VANS in Illinois always had truck tags, now most of them have car tags.
Charles of Schaumburg, Illinois
They're called a back seat and rear seat belts, which legally make many light trucks and vans nothing more than heavy cars.
I had a 1978 Lincoln that weighed 6000 pounds, which is quite a bit more than the typical 1/2 ton pickup or van.
You mean like pulling up to the pump next to you and only putting in a dollars worth while you struggle for the second time in a week to fill your car? Hehehe I do that all the time. It's fun.
My main mode of transport gets over 45mpg and my secondary mode gets 30. I don't think I'm too far behind you there, boy.
Check the Illinois Vehicle Code statutes to be sure - and remember the Official Motto of Chicago, "Vote early and often." ;-) Some big companies, unions or trade association just might have greased the right palms in the statehouse and gotten an exemption through. That, or word got around that they can sign the 'non-commercial use affidavit' with their fingers crossed and it doesn't count.
If you ever see a SUV Van or Pickup with [passenger car tags on it in real commercial service and you know it's against the law, write down the license, take pictures if you can to show the company signs plastered on the side (and the stacks of Stuff in the back and the ladders on the rack) and call your local DMV office - they want to know.
(And the pictures are to shut up the 'Alligator Tears' complaints when they guy cleans out the truck and removes the magnetic signs before driving to the meeting, feigning total innocence.)
In California you can get passenger car tags on a pickup truck or cargo van - even a Class 7 Semi Tractor if you tow a large 5th wheel camping trailer - that would normally register commercial. But you have to have a permanent shell or hard tonneau cover on the back of a pickup, and sign an affidavit that this vehicle will never be used to carry cargo or passengers for hire, or to be used for any commercial purposes. Big fine if they catch you cheating, plus the difference in the back registration fees.
And there's even a bit of an advantage to having commercial plates - you get to park in that "15 Minute Loading Zone" - you're working...
-->--
And of course _you_ know them when you see them? ;-) Do try to allow that the smile on their faces may be innocent of gloating.
That's good. I hate to think cycles hadn't improved since my Triumph days. mark_
No, I'm talking about regular pickup trucks with a bed in the back with CAR tags. I've seen quite a few lately on the road. Car tags here in Illinois have a different color and different numbering than truck tags. Vehicles with a bed and liner in the back and only one row of seats are usually called a pickup truck. I'm not just talking about Stupid Useless Vehicles.
Your Lincoln was not a car it was a land-yacht. Should have had to be licensed as livery or something like that, as big as it was.
The Illinois Vehicle Code, Chapter 95 1/4 of the Illinois Revised Statues defines a pickup truck as a Second Division vehicle. Period. If it was for non-comm use, it would get RV tags, not passenger tags here. Illinois doesn't have a 'non-comm' exemption form like Ontario and California. That's the way the law has worked since 1969. And the demarcation between First and Second Division was pretty well fixed in July 1920, and hasn't changed much since then, except vans are cars now.
Charles of Schaumburg.
How do you know what the needs are of those that own SUVs? Sound like you are envious the SUV owners. ;)
mike hunt
"Consumer Reports" says you can't ever recover extra cost of hybrid technology. Plus resale value is very low.
Wait until you pull up to the "pump" to replace those batteries. So save that gasoline money you're saving.
After reading your message, I compared a hypothetical 2002 Prius and Echo on Edmunds.com.
Both are gold, with 60k, and in "clean" condition. For options, I selected everything except ABS, and a rear spoiler for the Echo, and everything except Nav for the Prius.
In my zipcode here in New England:
Prius = 15,095 Private Party and 16,200 Dealer Retail Echo = 7,900 PP and 9,100 DR
My inlaw's Prius was $21k brand new, that means after factoring the $2000 tax credit they got, they drove the thing for four years for ~$4k of depreciation. As I recall, a _loaded_ Echo would have sold for ~14-15k new
That's low resale value? $1000 a year on a $21,000 car? Are you out of your mind?
By comparison, a 2002 4 cyl Camry that sold for about $21k new (using all of the same variables as above) is now worth about $11,900 PP and $13,300 DR.
Now, all of this will change by region and by WHICH hybrid you're talking about, but this little trip into actual data land certainly dosen't support your claim.
And if you're about to reply that Edmunds numbers are high, etc... I used the same source for all of the values.
Hey I get damn tired of dodging people in their SUV's that don't want to share the road with anything they don't want to see. I see way too many SUV drivers up here with an attitude that they own the road and to hell with the Corollas. They're so much safer, but by their driving they make the rest of us less safe. There are a few people that do need and use SUV's but it's also become a 'status symbol'. Much like the people that drive some of the fast hot sports cars because they are a 'status symbol' and really don't drive them well. . . . When people tell me that the SUV is the be all/end all of vehicular existance, I start listening for the echos of the land yacht owners of the early 70's telling me the same thing with the same attitude. They were wrong then and these are wrong now as well. Not everyone wants or needs an SUV, and unfortunately not everyone knows how to drive one, either, judging by some of the accidents I see. I don't want an SUV. I have no use for that much vehicle. Ray O, for instance, needs one and uses it quite a bit. But I've seen him drive, too. Not a problem. It's the jerks that cut 3 lanes with no signals, right across your nosecone, or the goof who sits in the left lane blocking traffic at rush hour that's the problem.
One thing that makes me LIVID is the attitude that since I've achieved a certain level of income, I should be driving an SUV or a BMW, that to be driving a Corolla is somehow un-American. It's really thick here in the 'burbs. That since I'm not driving something like that, I must be lying about what I'm doing and how much I make. I've been hearing comments like that since my very first job back in 1977. Being a wastrel and spendthrift used to be un-American, but now days, being thrifty is somehow wrong. Usually I find out it's some goofus liberal feeding me this line of bull, too, which keeps proving my point that we ought to change the medication we've got them on, because what they're on now obviously isn't working.
Charles of Schaumburg.
Agreed on most of what you said: even during brief (3-4 weeks at a time) visits to the US, particularly the delights of LA roads, I marvel at some of the daft shenanigans. But I think you will find not a few goofus conservatives are at it too -- frantically guarding what they regard as the American Way Of Life (the high consumption way), while the rest of us slowly develop the arts and sciences of conserving what it is that makes a decent way of life possible. Conservation isn't about living miserable lives, just not wasting. And it has supporters in all political camps.
I've made conservation a hobby. My wife backs me up 100%. Yesterday I noticed our on-demand K1 H2O heater didn't turn on at all while everyone took their showers. The heater is a miser on it's own merit but the secret to our extremely low fuel usage is the solar collectors. I got ribbed a lot when they were installed 25 years ago, the negativity amounted to I could have put the money in the bank and paid for the fuel from the interest (at the time 5%). Well, we all know that type of interest isn't around anymore. The K1 water heater cost $2000 and a typical hot water heater cost about
10%-15% of that back then but with all the new regulations a typical hot water heater runs installed for about $1100 and you still have to keep your fingers crossed the tank won't leak (or burst). I love my front load washer. I REALLY love my chlorine generator for my pool. Have you seen the cost of chlorine lately? It jumped from $1.59 last year to $2.59 a pound this year. I designed and built my own solar collector for the pool about 7 or 8 years ago using 3/4 inch copper and safety glass but had to disconnect it because it was too difficult to control total chlorine, and the water got too hot; had to run the filter at night just to cool the pool. I live in Massachusetts, who would of thought!! Not only is conservation fun for me, staying the speed limit is a fun challenge. I'd rather put up with a tail gator than to have to be on the constant look out for a cop ahead. I'm not against the police or any government entity I just don't want any interaction with them. Thanks for reading this. It took my mind off the real estate tax bill I just got in the mail. mark_
With all the "green" stuff in your house how come the local government isn't giving you any tax breaks?
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.