Why anybody would fall for that crap is beyond me.kinda like those 7 year loans on Cars and Suvs,that after a couple of years you have something that has lost almost half its value and the payments are the same.Why did credit ever become like this? Historically.,I always payed my loans off early(rule of 78s) and had a hard time getting credit established,I was 20 yrs old before I could get a $500 loan.Now it seems people can get a real estate loan for over 3 times or more their net worth(no surety anymore)
Dont get me started on that lottery crap.
“Don’t get me started on that lottery crap.”
Well, if you won’t get started, I will. Every time I stop in 7-Eleven to get some snacks or a soda, I see the same scenario play out. A guy turns in his lottery tickets, they’re worth perhaps 5 o 10 bucks. Instead of taking the cash, they just put it towards more lottery tickets.
What about those “establishments” that give you money for the car title, but apparently let you keep driving the vehicle . . . ?
I think a great white shark is less predatory . . .
We have become a culture of immediate gratification and the banks seem to have plenty of money to provide easy low interest financing for all the finest things that we “deserve.” So many people under 40 that I know look at their credit cards as emergency funds and their groceries and gasoline become emergencies the week after they pay their rent and other monthly payments. I am often tempted to criticize their lack of good financial sense but force myself to bite my tongue.
And my state took it on themselves to protect the desperate victims of predatory loans and put a 592% limit on the APR for payday loans and title loans. Of course the big banks own those loan shark businesses and have a great deal of influence at the state house.
Oh Ed, welcome to the club here. You’ll fit right in. Solid opinions with a sense of humor.
Something to be said though for hocking the house before the nursing homes if you plan to die with no assets anyway. They’ll pay for your nursing care but put a lien on the house for the cost. Then when you die, they collect the money for the lien. If there’s no equity, the gov just loses the money. That’s why people try to transfer their assets before the 7 year look back period. An even worse situation is with second marriages for seniors where there are unequal assets. It forces either divorce or bankruptcy for both parties.
Myself, I bought long term coverage for the two of us maybe 20 years ago. It was fairly cheap then and I hope to not have to use it. The whole nursing home/medicaid system is so screwed up to encourage game playing and irresponsibility that it needs an overhaul. What would be wrong with a $30 a month tack on to FICA to cover long term care for everyone? Then we wouldn’t have this mentality.
Opps. Back to cars. I got my Car and Driver mag this week and they have all the SUVs in it. It was interesting how many small SUVs or crossovers have absolutely no towing capacity. Can’t even tow an 800# fishing boat with an SUV. I don’t want to start an argument but there should be no reason a small SUV or even Camry size, should not be able to pull a couple thousand pounds with no damage.
“592% limit on the APR for payday loans and title loans.”
How kind . . .
In South Dakota they are having a fight over this. One group is pushing a petition for an amendment vote to limit annual interest to 36%. The payday loan group is countering with a petition to limit it to 18% that is unless a greater amount is agreed to. Huh? Right. (I may have the exact detail off, but that is the gist of it.) So the payday guys brought in a bus load of unemployed demonstrators to disrupt the business of the coffee shop that the guy pushing the 36% petition owns. Of course they deny it. Quite interesting though to watch them squirm.
Remember? This used to only happen in the south just off Army bases. First thing you saw off base was a used car dealer with astronomical interest rates that ultimately some soldier from the boonies would get hooked into. Then the JAG guys would have to unravel it. Next to that would be a pawn shop, then a payday loan, although we used to just provide our own pay day loans. Remember the $10 for $20 loans until payday?
When I still lived in Germany, I lived very close to US Army and USAF air base. Anyways, they had a different, but still lousy, car situation.
At the time, the personal vehicles of US military personnel did not have to pass German car safety inspections. They had to pass US military standards, which were . . . sadly . . . quite low at that point in time
There was . . . maybe he’s still there . . . an “entrepreneurial” German businessman who exploited that situation. His business model was buying POS German-spec vehicles that would no longer pass German safety inspections, but would just barely pass the US safety inspections. Naturally, his only customers were young GIs and airmen. Because Germans living in the area knew they’d never be able to get those lousy cars registered
One man’s trash was another man’s treasure
Anyways, several years later, the rules changed drastically. US military personnel who wished to drive a personal vehicle in Germany had to legitimately pass the German driver’s license test . . . which is no joke . . . and their cars had to pass German safety inspection, which is fairly stringent.
I’m not sure what happened to that “entreprenuer” . . . because I was no longer living in Germany . . . but I strongly suspect his business took a nose-dive
Some people borrow money or get student loans with no intention of repaying either,a lot of the unpaid off cars sit around on the grass,with no maintenence being done to them either,then they are repoed and someone ends up with a hunk of junk
Rod Knox: My 1996 Mazda Miata base model had no air conditioning. Everything was in place. Vents, plumbing, electrical, and compressor mount. No fake pulleys. They just used a shorter belt for the power steering.
With all due respect, I’m 99% certain that not everything was in place
For example . . .
ac compressor
condenser
evaporator
hoses, lines
txv/ot
accumulator/drier
I think it would have been a LOT of work to actually add those “few items”
That is why buying a base model car can severely limit you, down the road
No disrespect db,but what he said has been done before,it seems my v6 Dakota uses basically the same exhaust system as the v8 Dakota and the exhaust system on a v6 Altima sure looks the same as the 4 cyl model.I remember reading about one car to get a premium feature you had to connect a wire rhat was already there and I have seen many wiring harnesses with the plugs dummied off etc(saves on stocking so many different parts,besides on a Miata,a purist wouldnt want the extra weight of an AC pump,Joe Average wouldnt notice the difference
Besides the case has been made now its cheaper to have everything with power windows,rather then having a few base models with manual windows(zeitgeist,I suppose)
I said it would be a lot of work to add AC to a car that doesn’t have it. The fact that it’s prewired and has brackets, is fine, but that doesn’t make it easy
I didn’t say it’s never been done, I just said it would be a lot of work
Don’t hear anybody disagreeing with me about that part . . . not yet, anyways
If somebody wants to say it’s easy . . . well, it’s all relative
I said it would be a lot of work to add AC to a car that doesn't have it. The fact that it's prewired and has brackets, is fine, but that doesn't make it easy
From the mid-80’s to the 90’s you could get OEM AC installed at the dealer. Same components, but the AC was a dealer applied option. You could get a vehicle with factory installed AC…but if it didn’t come with it from the factory - you could get it installed from the dealer.
Back in the 60’s and 70’s there were a slew of AC installation specialists around. Most cars didn’t come with AC back then. So these specialty shops sprung up to install it in almost any vehicle.
I have installed air conditioning on non A/C vehicles but I have never seen A/C plumbing on a non A/C vehicle. Installing the condenser, evaporator and hoses is 90% of the work. It sounds like someone removed the compressor and left the hoses loose in the engine compartment.
“I have never seen A/C plumbing on a non A/C vehicle.”
Neither have I, and I believe that car which was mentioned didn’t have it
I suspect the word plumbing was referring the HVAC ductwork . . . plenum, registers, etc. . . . and not the actual high and low side hoses, lines, txv, etc.
Db, that was my understanding as well. Many years ago manufacturers discovered that it was cheaper to build all the cars with the same ductwork and wiring harnesses rather than try to sort out on the assembly line the ones with the various options.
However, as you’ve already stated, there’s lots of stuff like the AC compressor, evaporator, condenser, and control panel that won’t be there in a car that’s built without A/C. I agree that it would be possible but very expensive to add A/C to a car built without it.
Manufacturers for years have included wiring in the harnesses for optional accessories, My 1965 Rambler did not have the optional back-up lights, but the wiring was in place and it was an,easy installation. The 1985 Ford Tempo had a thin gauge wire in the harness for a warning system that would turn on a,light on the dashboard if a rear bulb was out. My Tempo didn’t have,this,feature, but someone at the factory goofed and connected the tail lights through this,wire. Tbe current draa, of the tail lights melted the insulation off this wire. When I would make a right hand corner at night the wide would ground out against the body and blow the fuse for the tail lights.
I agree that it would be possible but very expensive to add A/C to a car built without it.
Nissan dealers were able to add AC at the same cost as the factory option. The big items like compressor and evaporator had to be added. But the wiring was already there. There was even an AC button on the controls. Most manufacturers didn’t do it this way…but Nissan did. I thought it was pretty cleaver.
DB,I suspect the evaporater,would be the hard part Mack trucks used to use “Red Dot” heaters and AC,units neither one of them looked particulary hard to install,A modern ac on a Mack has about a bushel of componets(the trucks I used to drive the owners wouldnt fix them when they fell off usually(nothing like a 110 degree Mack cab when its 95 outside)
Lets just say I was neutral on the whole deal.if it came like that.it wouldnt have suprised me.
“The big items like compressor and evaporator had to be added.”
I suspect, that in addition to what you mentioned, the hoses and lines also had to be added
And I suspect that the dealership mechanic did NOT get paid well to retrofit the ac
They probably got paid a set amount of hours, regardless of how long it took them. To determine factory labor times, the manufacturer often observes a methhead, when he’s on a high, because they know he’ll be unusually fast. And that will be the benchmark . . .