@ok4450 Sounds like there’s more than a few bad apples in that barrel . . .
“he’s a lazy d-bag. He entered seminary school to get a religious deferment to avoid Viet Nam, smoked weed, and lost his religion when the draft ended.”
“a traveling judge from a medium sized city”
He sounds like a real winner . . . maybe this “medium sized city” is glad on those days he’s out on the road. They probably can’t stand him either, and hope he never comes back . . .
No; he’s got it made there too as a municipal judge. About 25 or so years at it. The small town traveling judge is a side gig where these small towns pay them 4 or 500 bucks a month to hold court for a few hours each month.
I worked with him and got along fine with him BUT I would never trust him or hire him.
He cut me a break once when I got ticketed for a state inspection sticker that was expired and due the month before. The policy on that is to get the vehicle inspected and the ticket will be dismissed.
When I showed up for court after getting the car inspected I found my buddy the judge presiding.
He chit chatted for a minute, looked the paperwork over, and dismissed the ticket even though the town cop was throwing a minor fit over it.
Break or not, the judge is still a twit. The cop is an even bigger one because that cop had a long history in several other towns including not being sharp enough to advance in the medium city PD.
There were also rumblings after he became the cop in an outlying small town that he looked the other way when that small town new car dealer burnt to the ground one night due to a combination of low traffic and arson. He left the town soon after and became the cop in the small town where he stopped me. He’s now gone from there to who knows where.
@ok4450, the impound business here is similar to what you have. IT IS LICENSED CAR THEFT. Several towing companies are on the city’s approved list to haul off abandoned cars. I had one stolen a few years ago. Luckily I have a friend on the police force who patrols my neighborhood at night. He knew about the theft, and heard about the recovery on his radio. Instead of calling me at 3:00AM, and simply leaving the car where they found it (It was in was a motel parking lot.) they towed to an impound lot where it cost me $137 to bail it out six hours later. Had my friend not called me, the impound lot would have had 30 days to find the owner through state records. They could do it in two or three, but they are allowed 30. They charge $30 a day, so that a cheap car becomes worthless to redeem after a month. Then the impound lot has an auction. One might get lucky and buy their car back for less than $900, but the lot that impounded the cars ONLY PAYS 10% OF THE BID. That’s how they get paid for the initial tow. Some of the impound lots also own salvage yards, so you see how they are able to stock up on cars to sell for parts.
Several years ago impound employees in Pittsburgh were busted for a scam. They had friends bid cars way up over market price, so legit bidders would back off. They would then process the title at very reduced prices. All getting a cut of the action afterwards. One of the employees was the son of a local politician This went for several years. Not sure how the authorities got tipped off, but good that they finally stopped this.
Don’t be ridiculous, mustangman. Everybody knows the abominable snowman has retired to Ft. Lauderdale. {
hey guys, wow a lot of replied, I didn’t get an email so I didn’t check (you don’t get emails for replies it seems) I told a customs officer I tried pot, so he banned me for life… I thought it was legal for people from other countries. =/
and the estimate to fix the ding (and mirror which I fixed myself as new) was around 1800, I bought the car for 2k, the insurance company told me they would pay me out instead and let me keep the car $-400
anyway. when I was trying to buy a Taurus wagon this was the best I could find at $1900 (cheapest was 1600) so I thought that the price was reasonable. for just a ding (repaired salavage means nothing really, only you cant insure it fully) so I don’t get why that’s a put off, as I said I can prove the whole thing was only from the ding, above the front right arch, I bet you can push it back to look 90% better but I cant be bothered. I’d be satisfied with even 1k, decided to sell it in Vancouver.
the car runs very smooth and is very clean and well looked after, I don’t want it to go to scrap. it was the best condition taurus wagon I could find for $2400< at the time. =/ the only put off being high miles…
I’m just about to try and sell it. will post my final results for anyone who is curious.
"repaired salvage means nothing . . . "
How right you are . . . it means the car has far less value, versus the same car with a clean title
So, in this case, it literally means “nothing”
The car is worth nothing, in its condition and with that branded title
Don’t take this personally
I’m just pointing out the reality of the situation
Just stating the facts, if you will
If you can squeeze 1500 or more out of this car then consider yourself lucky and all is good.
Dang; border tactics seem a bit harsh just for admitting to trying a little weed. That’s as bad as the judge here in OK a few years ago who sentenced a young woman to 12 years in prison for selling 31 dollars worth of pot. A lot of crap broke out over that nationally and the woman was released early.
@madarashi, you can change your settings to notify you when you get a reply to your thread by clicking on the link to your profile at the top of the page in the shaded bar and click on “notifications” on the left-hand column in your profile page. It may be late to be very helpful on this thread, but it may come in handy someday.
Its not the same Canada that it used to be. Used to be you could go up there to hunt and fish and enjoy the fresh air and wilderness. No fun anymore with their heavy regulations on everything. Some years ago my nephew bought a used car that supposedly made regular banking road trips from Sioux Falls to DesMoine. They went through the Canada border a few weeks later and the dogs tagged the car. Apparently there was residue under the back seat from those regular runs. Residue or their explanation with sales receipts and so on got them over the border and not put in jail but they take a lot of things seriously now that they never used to.
I’m not so sure they never used to. In '71 a buddy and myself decided to take a drive to Winnipeg for the weekend. We went in his '70 Camaro, canary yellow with flat black spoilers and mirrors and loud sidepipes. Upon going through the border, they looked closely at the car, even opening the hood and checking the air cleaner canister (a common place to put drugs). My buddy had recently thrown away his air dirty cleaner, not replacing it. They apparently “tagged” his car, because on the way back over the border they pulled us over and damn near tore the car apart looking for drugs. We were clean, but clearly they were taking seriously the drug problem.
Border officers are trained to look for non-standard behavior as well as the type of car you drove. If, upon inspection they find something odd or missing, the car is immediately tagged.
Some years back I crossed the border at the Thousand Islands bridge, just behind a Jaguar sedan with NY plates. I had some items to declare, but getting back to my car I witnessed the Jag being torn apart with the owner in designer clothes looking on. There was obviously a tipoff somewhere
We were in business suits driving a plain Chrysler.
Advice; don’t say or do anything odd when crossing the border. And don’t lie on the declaration form. I watched a program yesterday an border security and an Asian couple returning from China said they were not bringing in any food; but inspection proved otherwise, with all sorts of prohibited items. They had the food confiscated and were fined $800.
When driving to California you will likely be asked if you are bring in any citrus products or “seeds”. I was once asked that exact question and was very temped to answer in a FASETTO voice a la Tiny Tim: “What , me??”. But I held my tongue and simply said “No”.
“Border officers are trained to look for non-standard behavior”
…and, I can tell you from past experiences that they will try to find “inconsistencies” in your responses.
On three separate occasions while crossing the border from Canada to The US, when asked “How long were you in Canada, and where did you go?”, as soon as I gave my responses, the agent supposedly parroted back my answer, but with incorrect information in place of what I had actually said.
Example
Agent: In which state do you reside?
Me: New Jersey
Agent: So, you are a resident of New York?
Me: No, I live in New Jersey!
Agent: How long were you in Canada, and where did you visit?
Me: I was in Canada for 5 days and I visited Montreal and a few other places in Quebec province.
Agent: So, you were in Canada for the last two weeks, visiting Ontario?
Me: No, I was out of The US for only 5 days, and all of that time was spent in Quebec province!
The other two exchanges were at different border crossings, and–naturally–involved different itineraries and different responses on my part, but in each case, the agent seemed to be trying to trip me up or confuse me into giving a different response the second time.
ok, so this story is true and I was in legit need of some advice of peoples opinions, and i get downvoted twice. The comments are nice atleast. anyway. I ended up selling the car for 550 USD in vancouver. we agreed 600 but he asked for less when arrived and i just wanted to sell it. the person who bought it sells used cars. he is going to make a nice profit on it. I had a second person lined up willing to fly in 2 days after if that failed also. there was many interested people and about 4 shown full commitment and ready to travel for the car.
thanks for your help. I’m back in Australia now and only expected 1-3 comments on this thread.
So you were able to get back into Canada after being banned after all?
I remember going to winnipeg years ago. As I awaited in my car/in line, I noticed a beautiful girl in a Toyota Paseo be asked to get out of her car and the entire car was unloaded.
I waited there patiently because this girl was a looker, and she wore something that exposed her midriff before that was even common.
I’m pretty sure the agents wanted the same thing I was getting, a great look at a beautiful girl.
All of her belongings were slowly repacked and she was sent on her way. Sometimes delays aren’t always bad.
Am I the only one doubting that 4 people were actually willing to travel to buy OP’s car . . . ?
No db4690 you are not.
A plane ticket would cost as much as a high miles, salvage title, aged Taurus is worth. Must be a real hardcore Taurus enthusiast… 
It would take a real masochist to put up with several hours in coach for a flogged Ford.
I’ll go a little off topic . . .
When we charge out parts at work, we naturally charge them out to a repair order. The repair order asks for vehicle unit #, repair order #, make, model, and year
In our fleet there is no Taurus and Explorer
There is only Toreass and Exploder
Actually, I can’t wait to work on the FWD Exploders. I hear they’re much more reliable and comfortable than the older models