Have you seen the new cars coming out next year? It won't be long before $2000 will only buy a used one.
Pat
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Have you seen the new cars coming out next year? It won't be long before $2000 will only buy a used one.
Pat
Well don't go look a t a new truck. I paid more for my F250 than I did for the first two houses I owned.
They're offering $2000 off on some Prius packages. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
Jim, Thanks for the advice but you are a tad late as I bought a crew cab diesel 2008 F-250 Super Duty last week and am still working up to the 500 mile break in prior to towing.. The original post of this thread was a 1950's comment.
I have purchased two residential properties in my life. I paid $17,500 for the first, a two on one, and for a time lived in the smaller of the two houses, a one bedroom one bath 800 sq ft sharing a postage stamp sized lot. The first new car I bought was a 1966 Sunbeam Tiger which after dealer options cost $5000 and would go 165MPH. It got about 20MPG if you drove it semi sanely. My second new car was a1972 rotary Mazda 4 dr sedan for $4007.
My actual first new car was purchased and given to me by my mom, a 1962 VW bug and it cost about $1600 and got about 30-32 MPG.
Pat
Gary, Garrison Keeler said that Toyota has even more production capability now and the wait times for a Prius are getting shorter. We are only 2200 miles away from our 30,000 mile oil change on our 2004 Prius. We still love it. I am not amused by the 14.x MPG I register on the readout in the new F-250 diesel crew cab (300 miles)
The Prius is just so neat!!!! IT remains to be seen how many years it will last before maint and operations costs drive us to get rid of it. So far we just change oil and rotate the original tires. and let them do updates. (oil changes are free as long as we own it)
My wife wanted to know if we could get them to put the backup camera in ours. She doesn't understand about car dealers.
Pat
Well Pat I must a little older than you. My first car was a 1951 ford coup cost $300. My first new one was a 1965 mustang about $2000 or so. First new truck was 1975 ford I think it was $1800. I bought my F250 about 6 months ago when they were dumping all of the 06's. I don't like the way it drives but it sure huals the old horse trailers like they weren't there. Had a nice BMW Z3 up until we moved out here to middle of nowhere. It could not make it down the dirt roads so traded it for a Chev Alvalanch that my wife drives thats the best driving truck I ever drove. better than some sports cars I owned.
Older than me???? Next thing you will claim to be older than Bird and that the big rocks were still hot when you were a kid.
Pat
I didn't think anybody claimed to be older than me. And my first car was a 1946 Chevy with 90k+ miles on it and Dad gave $75 for it. If I remember right, Oklahoma title back then showed what it sold for new and I think it was about $1,046 or so. And my first showroom new car was the '62 Austin Healy Sprite that cost me $2,200. My first pickup was a new 1969 Chevy, cheapest short bed stripped down model you could get with a spare time and rear bumper and it cost me $1,948.10.
I give up no way i as old as BIRD
Hey Bird, You got one of he new modern sports cars with roll up windows. I had an older Sprite (Bug Eye model) with no windows. Side curtains if you wanted to plug the pneumonia holes like my '59 MG model A roadster. The stock sprite was something like 849cc displacement and could get 40 MPG. Mine had a racing cam, headers, and did well for such an itsy bitsy thing. At 6' 2" and 225lbs I didn't get into the car so much as put it on like a car suit.
Pat
I had one too. A MG Midget I think it was a 1962 not sure had no windows and I did not have top. No need here in AZ. Mine had an 1080 engine that had been bored to the max clearenced and extra large carbs on it. I auto crosssed it all over this part of the world untill they started disqulaifing me for all sorts of petty reasons jsut to keep me out of the race. Traded that for a 1974 fiat x19 Now that little sucker would corner with the best of them. It had a 1300 engine I put a head off of 1100 on it, a 9000rpm cam and headers. It was a torquless wounder up to about 5000rpm and then just exploded up 7500 and better.
Jim, You had the fancy version with more chrome and contrasting colors of piping on the seats and an octagonal MG medallion. My Bug Eye was pretty well maxed too and drove like a go cart. The hood was modified to open differently and hinge at the bumper like the little Lotus. Great access to the tiny engine. Yoiu could sit on the front tires to work on it while whiling away the hours balancing the SU side draft carburettors and monkeying with the oil level in the dashpots.
For a time there was a guy in San Diego doing engine conversions in the bugeye. Out with the little 4 banger and in with a rotary Mazda engine, tyranny, shortened drive line and narrowed axle. Get to 130MPH in a wink but needed brakes. The stockers would overheat first or second sprint and stop (or sprint and try to stop.) With good disks all the way around it was an awesome little machine. Primitive suspension but still pretty good handling. My Tiger could not corner with one, not even close. The only thing I had on one of those was top end.
If you are too good you start failing tech inspection or they start making strange demands on your rollbar, belts, and such. A guy was dragging his VW powered Dune buggy and everyone was laughing at him till he smoked them in the 1/8 mile, then he started having problems with tech inspection.
Pat
Pat,
I have almost 115K on mine and my third set of tires. Michelin Hydroedge this time.
Gary, Of the various tires you have had on your Prius, did you see much variation in MPG? Folks at Priusonline have reported distinct differences. I wanted a comment from a reliable source as some of the folks over there are pretty fanatical.
Oh, and about the MG Midget/AH Sprite.... If you are over 6 ft tall the upper windshield rim is in the way of your vision unless you slump a bit or lean the seat way back or yo are way taller than 6 ft and look out over the top of the windshield.
Pat
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Hey Bird, You got one of he new modern sports cars with roll up windows.
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Nope, I'm not sure but think it was the first year after the bug eyed version. But it had the removable side curtains (you could slide open the back half) no outside door handle, and of course, the removable soft top. The MG midget, that year, was the same car, but with a little fancier trim; things like a chrome grill instead of stamped aluminum, pretty colors in the instruments instead of black & white, etc. I usually got about 38 mpg, but pulling Dad's boat would cut it to 26 mpg, and it would do a flat 100 mph, according to it's speedometer. One of the mechanics at the dealership was into racing and wanted me to enter my Sprite. He said it was the fastest one he'd ever driven; even offered to let me drive his car in the races if I'd enter mine with just me driving.
I don't know what ever happened to that dealership. It was called Overseas Motors in Dallas and in Ft. Worth, and they sold the Austin Healy, MG, Jaguar, Bentley, and Rolls Royce.
Overseas motors still in business they sell Jags and Lotus.
http://www.dallasjaguar.com/
Cool story, Bird. I recall in the late 50's seeing TV advertisements for the Sprite and an Austin mini-station wagon. They were about $2K each. My impassioned informative speech fell on deaf ears, my dad's. I touted the advantage of getting two vehicles for the price of one (Buick), the increased versatility, increased mileage, and on and on without ever mentioning that in a few years when the NEW was definitely worn off I would be old enough for a drivers lisc and the little Sprite would be a neat first car.
Oh well... He bought my mom a 1959 Buick 4 door sedan (about $4K) with tail fins that started out as chrome headlight surrounds. Looked like the Batmobile and got named that.
Pat
Jim, I didn't know Overseas Motors was still around; don't know when they put in that place; just knew they disappeared years ago from Cedar Springs Road.
And Pat, I certainly remember the '59 Buick and that price of $4k is about right, of course. Back then we had a Buick dealership across the street from my Dad's service station and auto parts store, and we also had an Olds dealership a half block south of the store. The Olds dealer gave his mother a new car each year, carried it on the books as a demo, and sold it when the next years model came out. My parents were driving a '53 Buick Super (V-8 instead of straight 8), and then when the '60 models came out, Dad bought the '59 Olds the dealer's mother had been driving. She had put 7k miles on it. Mother and Dad moved to Alaska in the Fall of '65 so that Olds went with them and they had it until '66 when a Buick dealer in Anchorage went bankrupt, the bank was liquidating the stock, and Dad bought a new '66 Buick and sold the '59 Olds with well over 100k miles on it.
Bird, the Batmobile came with a factory mistake engine. The heads were milled a tad too much and it had more than stock compression. It was virtually impossible (OK pretty tough) to find gas that wouldn't ping at least in some conditions of load etc. It was definitely NOT a candidate for drip gas. The dealership got extra thick head gaskets from the factory parts outfit and passed along an offer to install them for free to help alleviate the problem but my dad declined. That sucker would sure run with good gas!
When it was about 2-2 1/2 years old I discovered that you could drive it about 25-30MPH and then simultaneously turn the ignition switch off and floor the throttle and it would accelerate up to about 35-45 with no spark. Must have been a little glowing carbon in the cylinders to act like glow plugs. IT sure made stinky fumes when you did it though. Anyway it was a curiosity I liked to demo to the unbelieving. That and betting a rootbeer float that I could get in my dads pickup, start it, drive to a destination, using all 3 forward speeds and then park it and never at any time touch the clutch.
Pat
Pat,
Not too much of a difference. The tires before these were Michelin Harmonys and I didn't care for them at all. Traction OK, but lots of road noise.
The Hydroedge are pretty quiet and are pretty well rated for dry, snow, and ice traction. My current milage runs about 47-49 per tank. Not too bad considering much of my work commute is at 75-78 MPH on the interstate.