2015 Camry, purchased April, 2015, now at 104,000

General Discussion
41

“So far we have always managed to get through. Have had to dig drifts at 1 a.m. in blizzards.
Was sweating inside my jumpsuit from exertion.”

Get out on the highway around here in that kind of inclement weather and you’re likely to find a snow plow up you butt unless the plow driver sees you and can stop.

And think about this. Do you know why the State Police in my area ask people to stay off the roads in this kind of weather?

It’s because they are trying to assist people who truly need help, through no fault of their own, not those needing help because of self-inflicted idiocy.

Besides, while you’re out there playing hero you could wind up causing (or becoming) an accident or getting stuck and clogging a road so that real emergency vehicles are hampered. That could result in somebody or several somebodies to die while waiting for help.
CSA

42

Good points!

When a hospital orders emergent transport, the State Patrol is notified of the starting address, routes of travel, destination and purpose of transport.

When travel on closed highways and interstates is necessary, the Department of Transportation is also notified. They will supply a snow plow, but that ruins their plans.
Fortunately we have always been able to dig out drifts enough that the Expedition’s aggressive Winter tires got it through. (I got stuck in a hospital’s parking lot and trudged the platelet boxes through the snow to the hospital.)

The Expedition carries 2 snow shovels, bottled water, Wal-Mart’s brand of Ensure, MREs, extra clothing, heavy orange trash bags, spare charged cell phone, butane lighter, LED spotlight, and most important, toilet paper.
The cell phones transmit GPS data. The dashcam replays mileposts passed, but many times the mileposts were covered by snow or snow was sticking making them unreadable.
Four-way-flashers also illuminate rear-facing amber lights on the light bar making it very visible.

43

When I bought my 2002 Sienna new, the dealer had a newspaper clipping on his office wall. It told of a Corolla which had 800,000 miles on it without repairs on the motor.

So, 104,000 on a Toyota is not a reason to buy a new car. Ask yourself what vehicle does that state trooper drive? Ford? Dodge? He is judging from a point of ignorance and assumes a good Toyota will fail about the time the Ford or Dodge does.

Get an oil sample tested by Blackstone and see just what shape your engine is in. It should be as good as new.

I would say, as much as I hate to admit it, that you know more about driving than he does, because you drive much more. My dad called this the blind leading the sighted.

44

Not to continue this since I think we are being suckered anyway, but in Minnesota for medical emergency transport, it was the state patrol with or without lights, the Civil Air Patrol, or normal air or ground emergency transport. I just don’t see this whole emergency blood delivery business.

45

^ State patrol still does “Blood Relays”. Did one a few weeks ago during a snow storm when I arrived at a hospital 204 miles away and they ordered more platelets.
First trooper picks up the product and takes it to the boundry of his/her jurisdiction.
Hands it to another trooper. That trooper takes it across their jurisdiction to the next.
On dry, straight highways they attain 120 mph I’m told.
But meeting is the problem.
My knowing right where to go to pick up the product, heading one direction and knowing exactly where to go still provides the earliest arrival.

Ford dealers have said the Expedition’s 105 mph governed speed is “perfectly safe”.
Tires are rated for 118 mph.

46
So, 104,000 on a Toyota is not a reason to buy a new car.
The 2008 Camry hybrid attained 297,000 when we.re advised to replace it. If just for my own driving I would have kept it.
47

My opinion on Mr. Gift has changed with this posting. He gave us more information than in the past. I believe he has done and is doing exactly what he says. The only other option is he is brazenly lying, but he has been posting here for years and his tale is consistent.

Assuming as I now am, that he truly drives up to 10,000 miles a month at high speeds on blood runs, he is a talented high speed driver that few can be.

That 10,000 miles a month need only involve 3 hours a day, heh, heh.

Some years ago, I left my house in rural Mexico and came back 59 days later, having driven 11,000 miles. But, I was driving at legal speeds. I hated my car for a while…

Another thing I realized, assuming he is not lying, which is what I am assuming until someone gets concrete proof otherwise, he has done this enough that he has no new routes. He knows every entrance and exit ramp for many miles around his home base.

He knows where the blind curves are. He knows where the road is damaged. He knows where the worst snow drifts and water on the roadway will be. He knows where the road is that is kept clean by the winds.

During my ‘insane’ youth years, I drove usually the same routes. I would take a curve at 50 mph, like civilized folk. Then, try it at 51, then 52, and in the end I’d take it at 70, scaring the bejabbers out of anyone who saw it happening. Like me in those days, Mr. Gift has no surprises on any 100 mile run he has made a zillion times before.

I have been wrong before and expect to be wrong again, but right now I believe him absolutely. I think I am going to write about him as a hero on my private board.

I was also thinking the car would be faster than a helicopter at some distances. A nice Camry can run 200 miles, add gas and do it again, without even checking the motor oil. Check out the checklist for a helicopter just to take off on a run! Checklists take time. The checklist on the Camry assuming you are keeping up maintenance: Turn ignition and motor starts? Check! Go, go, go Cars are indeed that reliable today.

I think the most important parameter on this car is the tires. He needs high speed tires, and they need to be inspected (between runs when nothing is happening) all the time.

48

I agree with Irlandes

49
My opinion on Mr. Gift has changed with this posting. He gave us more information than in the past. I believe he has done and is doing exactly what he says. The only other option is he is brazenly lying, but he has been posting here for years and his tale is consistent.

No he is NOT consistent. He’s changed his facts several times over the years. I don’t have the time to drudge through past posts…but if you have the time…look it up. The only thing that’s been consistent is he admits he drives at extreme unsafe speeds on tires that so over inflated to be driven on at any speed let alone 100mph.

50

Dear Mr. Irlandes : This is to inform you that your 2016 Gullibility Award is in the mail.

51

+1000 to @MikeInNH . Gift is a wanna be that does not have the proper training and takes a casual conversation with an emergency responder and twists it around. Instead of posting the comments he gets, he should continue the conversation with the trained professional and give/get all the facts. But even more important than that is getting proper training, which he obviously does not have. This post started as selling a car with 100k miles. He then turns it into a macho boast of his driving, I am still trying to figure out how he became an expert on helicopters while considering selling his car. I wish @cigroller was still around, he always had very good comments on this type of person, I think he had a social work/ psychologists background. It seems like Gift wants all the attention he gets even if it is negative. He should get a dog or a girlfriend. I do appreciate that Gift volunteers and likely provides a valuable contribution to his community, but the boasting and ego fluffing needs to be posted elsewhere.

52
He should get a dog or a girlfriend

I forgot about his girlfriend…One time she was Chinese…the next time she’s Mexican…depending on what group the discussion is on.

53

I thought he was married? I also thought he drove an SUV with the light bulbs under it to keep it warm, but what’s this Camry deal?

54

I indicated you may be correct. But, your opinions have little more value than mine. And, mine is a personal guess.

One thing I have noticed as former editor of company and organization newsletters is that he doesn’t write very well. That is not proof he is lying, which is what you all think.

And, the accusation that I am gullible is nonsense. It has taken me years to conclude he MIGHT be telling the truth. As I said until you give actual proof he is lying, I am holding my belief. Strong opinions are not proof he is lying any more than my strong opinion he might be telling the truth proves he is telling the truth.

There is a reason I would like to see him proved as a liar. In the 90’s before I retired, we got a new technician, a man in his 50’s. He said he was a retired EE from GE. He also said he had graduated from West Point and was a combat officer in Viet Nam. When he learned I was a militant father’s rights he informed me he had done so, too.

We assumed he was lying, and we kept digging for proof We never found it. For example, we never found a list of all West Point graduates.

As far as being a retired EE from GE, once I mentioned Cordic converters, and he responded by a comment on sine and cosine channels. I don’t think there were three people in our company who know that Cordic converters had sine and cosine channels. So, for sure, he knew electronics beyond the average bear.

After I retired, a girl friend told him to come get his stuff from her house. When he got there he learned she had tossed it all out in the rain and destroyed it. This was not a survivable mistake on her part. He will die in prison. And, I will never know if he was lying about it all.

There are men named Robert Gift in Wyoming and in Nebraska. Mostly long in the teeth.

I am of the generation which admired Richard Halliburton. He once claimed to have climbed to the top of that famous volcano IN THE WINTER. He was branded as a Lair. Until the photos were developed.

So, yes, I’d like real proof Gift is lying. Or not. But, strong opinions don’t count.

55

@irlandes

First you wrote this

“I believe he has done and is doing exactly what he . . .”

Then you wrote this

“It has taken me years to conclude he MIGHT be telling the truth.”

then you wrote this

“So, yes, I’d like real proof Gift is lying. Or not. But, strong opinions don’t count.”

That would mean that somebody has to prove or or disprove his stories

and it also means that even YOUR strong belief in his stories doesn’t count, until somebody furnishes some kind of proof, one way or the other

Here’s what I personally believe . . . Robert is aptly named. Whether they’re true or not, he has a real gift for telling tales

56

Well one thing you know, EE or West Point grad or not, he sure had a temper. I do believe there is a class or two in hand to hand so did he break her neck or just beat her to death?

57

What could be proof?
One girlfriend was Mexican. Another was apostate Muslim from Saudi Arabia.
Wife is native Chinese. It’s unimportant.

Since 1989 I have been a voldumbteer performing medical transports for free.
Thankfully started being reimbursed for miles, one way (when transporting something), in 2005.

The used 2008 Camry hybrid was wife’s car for work and in town.
Unfortunately the hybrid’s use became mostly highway and interstates miles to distant hospitals.
An authorized emergencyehicle, it was retired at 297k miles at suggestion of state patrol trooper.

2015 non hybrid Camry purchased last April is now 106,700.
It has been caught in a few mountain snow storms.
One time I was called at 0400 hrs to transport blood platelets to a hospital 308 miles away.
About 100 miles into heading home, was called to another mountain hospital to transport a blood specimen, stat, to the laboratory.
A snow storm developed. Heading up a mountain pass, many SUVs could not proceed and slid to the right shoulder of the interstate.
I was able gain enough traction on the left shoulder’snow to keep moving. Otherwise would have had to back all they way down and try again, all the while more snow was accumulating.
Managed to get the specimen to the lab without delay. Such is why I bought one pair of snow cables.

The incandescent floodlights are a cheap and efficient way to keep thExpedition warm. It has been called for emergent transports in very cold weather. Shortly after starting, it may be doing 65 mph on a nearby 55mph highway. Hate to have a frigid engine and transmission so abused.

The Camry is used for every transport that is not in deep snow or blizzards.
Wife has a used SUV for in town and work.
She has also used it for medical transports when I am too far away.

Others, especially those with SUVs, should volunteer for stat and emergency medical transports.

58

I think a couple years ago, someone mentioned there was an article in a Colorado paper concerning Mr. Gift and the blood transport work. I assume its Mr. Gift with a wife but these days you really don’t know. I’ve known a couple females that also had wives.

59

^ I know of no such article.
Maybe it was an article about the huge Denver City and County Building bells I play during the holidays. It may have mentioned the periods of blessed silence when I left on a medical transports.

60

There is one about the Christmas bells and the lack of an “E” with your picture?