O the Times They Are A'changin'

[stetto]

The old green Ram gave me 20, that's actually all I expected.

Bought her on May 2, 1998, the day my boy Dylan was supposed to be born (he actually came in February). Other than tires, gas and oil the old girl was like a best friend, though she could have been more four wheel drive.

Can't really ask for more from a fleet truck with crank windows and push-pull locks, eh?

She dumped the clutch this morning, LOUD and scary and in traffic. I went ahead and picked up some groceries, but the other errands on my list got referred to She Who Must Pick Up My Slack.

The drive out of town was the most self-conscious act I've committed in memory. I stopped traffic, held traffic up, all holiday traffic, which means heavy traffic, and t took me till I was out of town to get the feel for no-clutch shifting, about 2 and a half miles. I never could get her into 1st.

This is a lousy month for this. I have a PuddinFace to move into her first apartment at the end of September and not a dime for a new truck. Maybe I should start a GoFundMe...

The real bee-atch is that I filled AND topped off the tank this morning on the way into town. That and the brand new set of tires I just had put on.....

[Onepoint]

Thats usually how it works isn't it?   

I just love car shopping, its almost as fun as shopping for clothes, or shoes with the wife.

[jetmex]

I feel your pain, Stetto.  The Mighty Purple Power Ranger will be 16 in a few months and is letting me know it.  She ate a radiator three weeks ago, and now the power window motor on the passenger side is going out.  Did you ever notice that those always fail with the window open?  And that you can't get hand crank windows anymore?  The only saving grace is that new parts are cheaper than new car payments, which will hold me over until I can afford new wheels in a couple of years.  And all the daughters hooked up with auto mechanics, so I don't even have to fix the thing half the time.  All I need to do is feed the mechanics....

[stetto]

Yessir, My ol' green just had $280 worth of new radiator installed about two months ago.

Went truck shopping yesterday. Gad I hate car salesmen.

Found a '11 Ram 4x4 Bighorn quadcab, a real Quonset queen, not a nick, scratch, square centimeter of dulled paint, 54,000 miles, under $20,000. It's just too pretty. No, it's JUST TOO PRETTY.

https://www.nelsonfergusfalls.com/used/Ram/2011-Ram-1500-aca9df8d0a0e0ae87ad66e995129b0a1.htm

Then I drove another 60 miles and drove a half dozen newer Rams, all Crew Cabs, all felt exactly the same, perfect for me. So now my brain has glazed over. T thinks I want the quadcab, because it looks showroom new. They all have 5.7l v8s, but pumpkin and tranny gearing is different in all of them, some had more spunk than others. None, even the 2016s, looked as new as that 2011. Only the 2011 did NOT have

All I know for an absolute is that they don't build 'em like they did in '98.

I told T that if I'm going to spend the coin I don't have on one of these monsters I'm going to have to break it in on a nice, oh, say....900 mile road trip.

So Honcho, how's that Ram of yours been treating you?

[jetmex]

Funny thing about radiators these days - you can't repair them anymore because the side tanks are plastic.  They didn't even want my core back, so there's a old radiator sitting in the garage I can't do anything with.  Maybe it's aluminum and I can haul it off to be recycled.

Jess's boyfriend threw the new window motor in last night.  Cost me $75 bucks for the part and a case of Dos Equis for the labor.

I'm torn right now as to what the new ride will be.  Part of me really wants a muscle car (Mustang or Challenger) so I can get my ya yas out before I get too old to enjoy it,  but then I still need a truck, though not one of those road behemoths that full size trucks have become.  Damn things wouldn't fit in my garage...

[stetto]

I'm torn right now as to what the new ride will be.  Part of me really wants a muscle car (Mustang or Challenger) so I can get my ya yas out before I get too old to enjoy it...

Gitcha one dem Hellcats, Jaime. 840 ponies in a compact straightferthelakeoffire muscle type car.

Then YOU can go on a road trip.....

[Onepoint]

Thats a pretty one. 

My ram has been OK, had to have a little done to it,  like the wobble joint on the drive shaft and a the instrument cluster of all things, but hey, the one I replaced it with had less miles!    

But its definitely a horse, it plays with all but the heaviest loads, gets decent mileage empty, though diesel is more expensive.  It gets used pretty hard when its used most of the time unfortunately.

On labor day I went down to CO and car shopped with my mother to replace here totaled Sante Fe, had a hard time choosing between mid level Honda CR-V or Ford Escape, the Ford won out with their rebate and 0 percent interest and could actually choose a color that wasn't silver or black. We looked pretty hard at some used 2015 ones with around 30k miles, and $10K less, but with interest they were quoting and all in costs it was getting close to a wash just to go new.   Real coincidence how that works. 

My cousin just leased a Taurus SHO,  he said its  way fast.  But looks like a regular old Taurus.

[jetmex]

Gitcha one dem Hellcats, Jaime.

You have no idea how much I've thought about that!  But then reality sets in - do I really need 700 HP and can I afford all those ponies and premium gas on a retirement (four years, eight months and seven days to go) income?  A V8 Mustang is probably more in line with what I want, though the Challenger comes with a pretty decent 300 hp V-6 which I can get with the sport suspension and a few other goodies for less than the Mustang.  The base Mustang is now a 4 cylinder turbo, but I just can't bring myself to do that one. 

My Ranger has been reliable to a fault, but I'm not too excited about the new version coming out.  If I end up with a truck, it will probably be a Toyota Tacoma.

I hate new car shopping, too, but having an accountant wife is a great thing because the auto finance guys aren't going to put anything over on her!

[Onepoint]

Heh, I just saw a hellcat advertised on Facebook locally, 48 grand. 

And I thought the Taurus SHO was overcompensating with a mere 400hp.  But honestly if you are going to have a car that turns 12s in the quarter,  it should look like it will.  Although they kind of have that transporter vibe.

[balsum fractus]

I'm done with fast cars and sport cars......now I like to see where I am going, and not feel every crack and pothole on our deteriorating roads. Crew cab fits the bill nicely. The new truck gets better gas mileage than our little SUV, and rides smooth as a Caddy, and carries more lumber than a TransAm!

[Onepoint]

Heh, I have never had one, besides family trucksters, I have never owed a sports car, anything low and sleek get peeled apart on the WY dirt roads, or stays parked half the year.  Probably going with a newer escape of CR-V when we shop again for us, but thats about as cool as I get.

[zrct02]

Jaime,

1983 El Camino with 5.7L Crate Engine. Got it a couple of weeks ago.

Previous owner had two sets of pipes installed. Push a switch and it bypasses the muffler.

[jetmex]

Sweet, Roger!  Enough power to haul ass and some beer as well!   

I do however, much prefer "350 cubic inches" over "5.7 litres...."

[jetmex]

So I got curious and decided to price a Challenger Hellcat just to see what it would be like.  I didn't load the car up, but I couldn't pass up the orange brake calipers and the red five point seat harness, which were the only options I added.  With all that in place, the selling price was $61,425, which is about $1500 more than I paid for my house, though the car isn't big enough to live in.  Monthly payments would be $1136 over 60 months, which would drop to about $1000 if they let me go 72.  The 240 cid V6 in the base Challenger is 305hp, the 392 Hemi in the Hellcat is 702.  The extra 400hp of the Hemi costs $37,721 over the V6, which basically means I could buy a V6 Challenger for Pat and me for what one Hellcat costs and have a little left over for gas.  Those extra ponies ain't cheap.  A 1970 Challenger R/T with a 426 Hemi was about $4500 new, depending on options.

O, the times they are a changin'......

[Onepoint]

Even with inflation calculated in, they want twice as  much as they did back then,  but then the old R/Ts that have been restored or kept garaged most of its life have brought into the $200k area.   I suppose its an investment. The problem with those is I don't forget I have it, and tend to use them, and too often use them up.