97 F350

They need to make it more like the Silverado.................................... Where is that chop that was floating around?

Oh - I agree that in the real world the money is often diverted away to pay for something else. But there are a lot of studies out there showing that if you stop smoking, lose weight, stop pickleing your liver, etc - your risks of "X" disease drop significantly. That does mean a savings on the expense side and the lost produtivity side. So if the revenue from sin taxes declines - there is some good coming from it. Of course, since everyone will start living longer, that makes us all exposed for a longer period of time to the crap in the air, etc. So I guess cancer treatment expense will start increasing.

Actually in this case, it is an answer. Yes over time you get less revenue, but you also have a corresponding decrease in related expense. Smokers are expensive in later life. So are beer bellies, Big Mac butts, etc. If you reduce the incidences of lung, throat cancer, diabetes, cirrossis (sp?), etc. that is a LOTof money saved. Plus you have more production (GDP) out of healthy people than sick - thus (in theory) higher wages - more taxes. Sick people cost a lot and its not just straight medical costs.

But that the kind of vehicle I look for when I'm in the market. A babied 5-6 year old pickup without a scratch on it that will look good for a couple of years till I beat the crap out of it. Don't try to get rid of my supply! :angry:

Anybody else thinking this is getting a little out of hand? You got SVT, Shelby, Bullitt, all coming out with several different editions. Some of them are good, but some seem little more than a decal and wheels. When are we going to get the Little Red Truck edition?

But it should beat the Titan in 0-60. That's all that matters in a truck - right?

Interesting all the responses pretty much mirror what Peter D. said over on Autoextremist. One big meh.

Or they could have figured that Fiat-Chrysler was going to be such a train wreck that in a couple of years - they could step in and get the whole thing. Renault picking up Fiat would put them a lot closer to VW with the big range of brands from inexpensive to high performance. And Nissan could get stronger in the US with minivans and trucks and Jeep.

That's as fast as they need to go in their home country. Traffic is terrible! That was about the average speed of getting around town. So it made their lack of paying attention to traffic laws ok. The only wrecks I was were low-speed bumps. No need to test at 40+ mph. I've ridden in a lot of their minibus/vans. Some were very nice, some were like above - early 90's mitusibishi-style minivans. But they all got us around fine. Served their inexpensive utilitarian purpose fine.

That's the model. Don't know if they were prone to rusting or if it was where we lived........ My cousin had one back in the 80's. He worked at Dow Chemical in Freeport, TX - about 10 miles away. He would always drive that truck only - never his wife's car. The bodies would rust out and he would swap the motor (350) and transmission over to a new donor. Probably did this three or four times. I always thought it was from working at the plant - lots of fun stuff floating in the air back then. Maybe it was just the truck.

Not to take away from this riveting conversation............ :shades: But does anybody else find it interesting that the Mustang started out using the Falcon platform all those years ago and is now coming full circle. If that's the case, maybe there is a Cougar for Mercury somewhere in it - or even a Comet.

Yes. But the latch puts them in there TIGHT. With just the seatbelt - no matter how tight you get them, they can move around or tilt to the side. My F-350 rear seat is like this. I have put my weight on the seats (230 lbs) to hold them down while being tightened and they still move around with a kid in them. They're ok - but the latch is a huge improvement. That's the one aggravation I have with the Flex or our Freestyle - for want of a $10 part, a lot of flexibility is removed.

I agree - the last one I liked was before the redesign in 88? 89? - somewhere around there.

Well Porsche is already part of the one of the European survivors - VW. And Toyota (Japanese survivor) owns a piece of Suburu. So even most of the niche companies are part of someone else. BMW would be the largest niche left I think and then you have the ultra-niches like Spyker and Koenigsegg.

3 kiddie seats can fit with some caveats. Due to lack of Latch/tethers on both rear seats - only one can be permantently fastened. But a booster seat and seat belt can be used there if the kid only needs that. 2 sets of tethers in middle row. And you can fit a child/slender person in between. If you got back, forget it. But in order to use the rear seat with two kiddie seats in middle row, one of those kiddie seats needs to be a booster that is easily pulled so you can flip the middle row fo access. Just ONE more tether in the back seat and it would have been so much more functional!

Nah, I still think when Chrysler-Fiat fiasco blows up, Nissan will try to pick up some of the pieces. What's good in Chrysler - trucks, minivans and Jeep. How well is the Titan and Quest doing these days?

Heard an interview on NPR on the drive home with the president of Hyundai North America. He said that their guarantee that if you lose your job, they will take back your car cost them a lot less than they had thought it would. He said there were less than 100 takers on it during 2009. They had provisioned for a lot more - so were considering it a major success and selling point. Also said that they would continue it for 2010. Thought that was interesting. When it came out, I thought they were going to get burned bad. Sorry I don't have a link.

Wasnt' that Tina Turner who sang "We Don't Need Another Hero"

Would that be the J. Crew Edition for short?

I went almost the exact opposite. First car was an 80 Capri with the anemic 4-banger. Got rid of her when I put my thumb through the roof made of painted rust. Bought the 84 Encore that lasted me almost thru college. I could have bought the front end off your car to fix mine when I rear-ended the Chevy. I couldn't find a donor car around here w/out front end damage at the time.

You drove them for what - a week? Probably by yourself, testing the all-important 0-60 and slalom times. I drove them for years - with kids, pets, luggage, in-laws, you name it. And not just the WIndstar. I live in a mini-van world at this point in my life - can't escape them. That's really interesting - Washington must have a different pricing scheme than down here. For similar options and trim levels - from cheapest to most expensive was Sedona, Caravan, T&C, Flex & Sienna were neck & neck, Routan & Odyssey. Tested all but the Kia and Honda. These were real world prices too as we were looking to buy, not just comparing msrp's.

Yes. Fixed if for you.

Nope. Huge difference. Only one I will give you possibly is the Odyssey since I didn't drive one. Didn't know the Traverse was a mini-van. Guess I am being edu-ma-cated here after all. Driving experience IS one of the things you give up when you get a minivan. Been there, done that.

Yeah - you're right. Like a big wallowing Chrysler Cordoba from 1982 or whenever. But the Flex handles fairly close to a modern car.

Neither does a minivan. :shades: