@jtsanders.
This sounds like my wife at times. An unsafe car due to worn suspension components means some one with car knowledge needs to take that aspect of the decision making over. It’s not easy when the person making the wrong decisions in one area is also the “chief cook and bottle washer” so to speak, but for me, I have to grow some nuggets and take over. Much easier said then done but friendly reminders until it becomes “her idea” instead of yours takes a little time. But, compromises can be made. Car safety is not one and I always use the “grandchildren may be riding in your car” approach. I see a new Prius in your garage !
Guard those chargers!
@dagosa, her solution is to drive the Cobalt most days and the van occasionally. She wants another couple of years out of the van. But when we go on long trips to see her brother’s family, we take her parents. And we can only do this comfortably with the van. I’m using that as a wedge to get her to budge. Mutual decisions are better than unilateral ones. The suspension issues are only apparent when going over pot holes or well worn expansion joints. I’m sure there is still some life left, but it’s at the point where we either need to fix it or get her a new car. If there was shuddering or veering to the side, I would take the van in without discussion.
The copper solution is to devalue it and stop accepting copper from private parties ,time to put these deadbeats to work-do away with these sillyass gov’t restrictions that make these people unemployable-Kevin
Sounds like a plan. You’re right, mutual decisions work best, as long as both remember them that way. 
Personally, my wife prefers I make major decisions about the cars, while she makes them about her areas. I get that it’s a big decision about buying or not a new car. But, you are definitely the most qualified on keeping a car in safe repair as I am in our family.
"The copper solution is to devalue it"
How, exactly? Price (aka “value”) is determined by supply and demand, and (historically) attempts to muck about with price fixing have ended rather poorly.
"and stop accepting copper from private parties"
So, when I rip out and replace my plumbing, I cannot dispose of my own property (I.e. the old Cu pipes) as I see fit?!? That seems to be one of the basic tenets of a free society: I get to own property, and to sell it as I please (or to be compensated for it if the government needs it).
"time to put these deadbeats to work"
Uh, excuse me?!? Isn’t it funny how people say things online that they wouldn’t dare say to a person’s face? I “curb crawl” with my F150 on days I’m not too tired from landscaping and handyman work, so I take this very personally! (And doesn’t “deadbeat” imply one doesn’t work? Hefting water heaters and such around is HARD freaking work!)
P.S. I think you may have misjudged the room, seeing as mechanics, as a class, are probably much more likely to cash in metal than the general population.
Oh well, my wife’s vacuum cleaner died recently, and I’d planned on cutting off the cord prior to setting it to the curb…and possibly removing the motor if I feel especially industrious. I mean, if that’s allright with YOU, @kmccune …
I would say it to your face-because the people around here that steal copper are usually deadbeats or greedy-dont ruffle your feathers,there are a lot of materials that are overvalued due to artifical scarcities .A guy I was working with stole several thousands of feet of no.10 or maybe bigger copper on a demo job(didnt share it either-he was too lazy to strip it so he burnt it off and got no.2 price for it) he is a avid lottery player,so I guess He needed the money for beer and scratch off lottery tickets,No Offense to you,but I will say it to your face,I’m no weeny.
Was nothing meant personal,but as I regard the calluses on my hands,I have to say ,I too,know what hardwork is,having ran chainsaws and wackers ten hour days and laying drystacked native stone retaining walls,I can tell you are preaching to the choir and its alright with me-Kevin
well, I agree! not sayin’ with who tho… 
probably both of you.
I too have the callouses, battered hands, destroyed back, worn out shoulders of a hardworking steel fabricator
I also survived by scrapping, and salvage, and auction to yardsale profiteering for awhile.
meanjoe, if you go to the salvage yard a lot , you may have noticed that you and i and were among the minority, as honest scrappers.
I think kevin just threw it against the wall to see if it would stick. no need to get your boxers in a bunch…
recycling is good.
kmccuneThe copper solution is to devalue it
Historically, every time a government attempts to artificially keep the price of a commodity low, it results in shortages.
These people are not waiting in line to dance on Hugo Chavez’s grave, they are waiting in line to buy food.
If you can reliably charge your electric car for free and you expect that benefit to continue, that might change the picture considerably…
I can’t see how providing free electricity for EVs is a sustainable business model. If EVs really take over, not only are free charging stations going to go away, but the government will figure out a way to put a road tax on it, that or the gas tax will be replaced by a mileage driven tax essentially turning every road into a toll road.
I think if the garages put up a charging station and it costs $5 for each charge, it will sit there unused. For now, free charging makes sense. It certainly doesn’t cost the garage much to do so with only 2 spots.
It would make even more business sense to not provide any free EV charging stations for now.
An employer could provide “free” charging stations for their EV driving employees and deduct the cost of providing that service from their taxes, then it would make business sense, as long as the IRS doesn’t start counting “free” EV charging as income for the employees.
What about the guy who lives only a block away from work and rides a bicycle or walks to work? Should he receive a “not using a parking space and freeloading on ''free” electricity bonus"?
I really think that if EVs become mainstream free charging stations will go the way of free air at service stations.
Many employers in downtown Baltimore provide a stipend for those employees that take public transportation to work. My daughter gets a free parking space at her job downtown, and it would not cost much more to provide charging stations. Or public transportation vouchers in lieu of free parking.
Calculations put the cost of charging your EV at about 1/2 the cost of gasloline if it was run with an ICE. That’s coal fired electricity. Hydro in Washington state would cost less.
The beauty of charging up an EV at night means that the power use would be more even, and electric utilities would not need the very high installed power to meet peaks to provide the same amount of energy.
Believing electric power for your EV to be “free” in the future is dreaming in technicolor.
Our household uses between 8000 and 9000 Kilowat hours (KWH) per year. Adding an EV driven 10,000 miles would likely increase the usage by about 2800 KWH costing $448 here. A good deal but defintely not free!
If that is directed at me, I used the EPA figures for gasoline and electricity. It was about $2750 for gas and $750 for electricity. That seems black and white to me, but you can colorize it if you want.
Yeah, guess I shouldn’t have taken that so directly, kmccune…it’s just that everybody looks down their noses at scrappers, particularly those economically situated so as not to need to do it. Since the USSC ruling that trash, put to the curb is not “your property” anymore (and thus no warrant is needed to go through it) lawmakers have been in a tizzy to “end-run” this inconvenience, generally by requiring a permit to collect (that they have no intention on ever issuing, LOL).
IMO “scrappers” play an important role in urban settings.
I rely on them to haul away things that are too big to fit in my car or the city’s trash station won’t accept.
Then there are the city dwellers who don’t own cars. Who want’s to rent a truck to haul junk?
From time to time I keep a watch out for old guys in old battered pickups driving slowly through the alleys and side streets.
They’re nice enough to go up on your back porch and carry off that heavy 20 y.o. air conditioner for you.
The city has a bulk pickup service you can call, but they’re not so accommodating.
Maybe the solution to copper theft of charging stations is to use aluminum wiring in the vulnerable areas.
@MJ, no sir I was not throwing anything at hardworking honest “canvassers” or scrapers.I love recycling our Boss swipes all the scrap from jobs now(He doesnt even like tp pay overtime)I used to gather up every little bit of metal I could find,would even clean dumps when the price was low’
What I wonder is,how many metric tons of copper have been produced in history?The copper thieves around here have gotten so bad-that if your house has suffered fire damage you have to guard it because the thieves will literally rip the wires from the walls and please I agree,the bureaucracy messes things up-can anyone please offer any solutions to the copper thievery(you dont put on low hanging copper gutters either)-Kevin
@BLE,the toll roads will come,agree free charging stations are not the solution.
One of my librarian friends(her Husband and Her live off the grid) She excitidly informed me that She was probaly going to acquire a small electric car and charge it with Her solar bank,actually it would work for Her ,the commute to the library and Farmers market is just a few miles.-Kevin