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What kind of gas mileage do you get?
paigeoliver:
Taxis, public transport and "for hire" vehicles are generally exempt from child safety seat rules. I do think that kids should have them, however a single (or even multiple) incident in riding in a taxi without them is less dangerous to your child than ANY time they EVER play sports.
The missouri laws have this little bit in them,
"The act does not apply to public carriers for hire or to students four years of age or older who are passengers on a school bus designed for carrying eleven passengers or more and which is manufactured or equipped pursuant to Missouri Minimum Standards for School Buses (Sections 307.178 and 307.182)."
And basically every state and country has the same little rider to their child seat laws. Another common exemption is that if you have more kids than official seating positions then you can just pile them all in the backseat willy nilly, the same way everyone used to do it back in the old days.
Also, school buses shouldn't have seat belts. Only a few kids die annually in school bus crashes, so few in fact that adding seat belts would actually increase that number (it is very hard to make a number like 3 go down, but one school bus on fire that had seat belts, or a couple chokings, or a beating to death with the buckle would certainly make the number go up).
paigeoliver:
I actually got excited when I thought you had a link to a $2700 Fairmont and then realized that a Fairmont is a modern Taurus in Australia. We used to have a Fairmont in the late 70s/early 80s and I have always wanted one (specifically a Mint Green Futura model with a white vinyl top and a white vinyl interior like this girl I went to high school with had), and a $2700 one would look like it was fresh from the showroom (I have seen a couple immaculate ultra-low mileage American Fairmonts on ebay in the past and they only fetched around that price.
Here is one that didn't meet reserve on ebay, wrong color scheme and missing the vinyl top, but you couldn't ask for better condition that this one.
ebay Link shortened by saint
That Fairmont/Taurus is actually bringing a premium because it can run on propane (which is apparently cheaper than gas these days, at least that is what the ad says). That same money (here at least) would get you a 2002 model with fairly low mileage. Tauruses are an amazing buy used. If I just wanted vanilla transportation I'd drop 3K on a 5-6 year old Taurus in a heartbeat. And since they devalue so early you could actually do really well buying Tauruses with 70K on them for $3000, driving them up to about 100K and then reselling them for $2000. Most of them would probably make it without ever seeing a repair shop for anything other than maintenance.
On the cheap Toyota list I would probably pick the 1981 TOYOTA CROWN MS112. It looks like a nice car, seems classy, and I know that most of that $5K I spent would still be there for me when I went to sell it, as long as I kept it up.
patrickl:
--- Quote from: danny_galaga on April 29, 2008, 05:43:46 am ---how do these prices compare to holland? this could solve a few problems we seem to be having...
--- End quote ---
I was talking more about US prices. Cars (and thus insurance) and gas are bout twice as expensive in the Netherlands. Overall it doesn't matter for the budget though. the difference between new and junker is still 30%.
Sure if you drive a 50,000 car the absolute difference will be greater, but for a car of normal price in the US the monthy cost difference will be between $50 and $100.
Besides, I'm talking about average cars and cars that are actually being driven. So not the one bizarre case that never breaks down in 200K miles. If you use your bike or scooter and not your car then sure you car will not break down. If you use your car every day and drive an normal average of kilometers/miles per year you will have break downs and high maintenance costs on the old junker (if not total loss due to catastrophic failure)
danny_galaga:
fairmonts and falcons in australia have a roughly similar spec to the american models. but designed here. they only came in straight 6 and V8, thus a bit bigger than the taurus which i dont believe sold here...
danny_galaga:
--- Quote from: patrickl on April 29, 2008, 06:40:26 am ---
--- Quote from: danny_galaga on April 29, 2008, 05:43:46 am ---how do these prices compare to holland? this could solve a few problems we seem to be having...
--- End quote ---
I was talking more about US prices. Cars (and thus insurance) and gas are bout twice as expensive in the Netherlands. Overall it doesn't matter for the budget though. the difference between new and junker is still 30%.
Sure if you drive a 50,000 car the absolute difference will be greater, but for a car of normal price in the US the monthy cost difference will be between $50 and $100.
Besides, I'm talking about average cars and cars that are actually being driven. So not the one bizarre case that never breaks down in 200K miles. If you use your bike or scooter and not your car then sure you car will not break down. If you use your car every day and drive an normal average of kilometers/miles per year you will have break downs and high maintenance costs on the old junker (if not total loss due to catastrophic failure)
--- End quote ---
for my car 'the master' i drove it every day to work for the first two years. half an hour each way. i also took it on several mini road trips where i drove all day and into the evening. until this year, when i started riding my bike to work (takes the same amount of time!) this was not a car that just sits in a garage getting polished. many, many people drive second hand cars to work every day with little hassle. most of my work colleagues drive second hand cars, and amazingly, make it to work on time 99.99% of the time. you better hope this is the case, if second hand cars were as unreliable as you and wade make out, you wont be able to GIVE your car away after your 4 years is up ;)
honestly, can you not see that this is the case? from a pure argument by selected instance, i can report that it seems to me those friends that drive second car they paid for in cash are always financially better off than those friends who have got a loan for a new car...
i think you and wade are dazzling yourselves with this 'pay this much a month' thing. draw a giant 20000 on a large piece of cardboard. now tear it into pieces. reassemble. it still says 20000 doesnt it? if those tears represented a loan, then more pieces will magically appear. it will be even more than 20000. tearing up the figure into monthly amounts wont make it less in the end, and will probably make it more
but lets talk your language then. lets take my car as an example again. imagine i will sell it after 4 years. 2500 plus 2000 for repairs. 4500 (2,697.45 EUR ;)) divide by 48= 93.75 a month. ok, new small car 15000. divide by 48= 312.50. so, where is this 30% of which you speak?
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