Winsor,
I am a decent mechanic so everytime something fails on my car, I repair it.
Parts for it are generally cheap since I install them myself. It has 175,000
miles on it and runs great. My grandpa bought it new and was fanatical about
maintenance for it. I am too. It still looks like new too. These cars are
truly indestructible. If it were to fail so bad now that it couldn't be
fixed, my girlfriend would take me where I need to go until we could afford
another car for me. I came to New Mexico a year ago with nothing but that
old car, my clothes, and my cameras. That, Winsor, is ALL I owned at age 30
because I was POOR. I came here because as a person with an art degree
(read: unemployable in my home state of Indiana) I thought that with a
little hard work I could make a living in Santa Fe. I am now making enough
to live but I don't have enough savings to buy a car, and as I noted before,
my health problems have destroyed my credit. It will be YEARS before I can
borrow money for anything. I think my Caprice will last a few more years
till I can have enough cash saved to buy another car.
--
Chris Crawford
Photography & Graphic Design
Santa Fe, New Mexico
http://www.chriscrawfordphoto.com
http://www.plumpatrin.com Something the world NEEDS.
On 4/11/07 10:05 AM, "Winsor Crosby" <wincros@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Your point is well taken. Huge numbers of Americans are in
> increasingly precarious positions as the attack on the middle class
> continues.
>
> I will not presume to insert myself in your position. I am just
> suggesting some things to think about if you have not considered
> them. Sometimes people get locked into a way of looking at things.
> Your Caprice is not going to last forever either. What will you do
> when it fails? If you consider the answer to that, why not take that
> action now? Economical cars do not start at $20K. The three below
> will all consume 1/3 to 1/2 the fuel used by your present car?
> Regular gasoline here is about $3.25/gallon now. Depending on how
> much you drive you could save a couple thousand a year on fuel alone.
> Or move within walking distance of the public transit station and
> dump the car.
>
>
> Fit: $13,850
> Yaris:$13,325
> Versa: $12,450
>
>
> Winsor
> Long Beach, California, USA
>
>
>
>
> On Apr 11, 2007, at 1:29 AM, Chris Crawford wrote:
>
>> Yes, Europeans have good public transit, which is simply non-
>> existent in
>> most parts of the USA. We had none in my hometown in Indiana and
>> here in
>> Santa Fe the public transit doesn't run anywhere close to where I
>> live, and
>> doesn't go anywhere near my biggest client. So, I drive.
>>
>> I have a gas guzzler, a huge Chevy Caprice. My grandpa gave it to
>> me, and if
>> it weren't for him I wouldn't own any car. I can't afford to spend
>> 20,000 to
>> buy a new fuel-efficient car, or even $5000 on a used one. I spend
>> a lot on
>> gas, but I did the math and realized that if I bought a used car
>> that got
>> better gas mileage than my Caprice, the used car would fall apart
>> before I
>> actually saved any money because of the $5000 or so that a decent
>> used car
>> would cost me.
>>
>> This is a problem that faces a lot of working class people in
>> America. They
>> don't have the cash to buy a fuel efficient car, and can't borrow
>> the money
>> for one due to bad credit that is a result of not making enough to
>> live. My
>> credit was ruined by medical bills I couldn't pay. I have had a lot of
>> medical problems since childhood and have not had insurance since my
>> father's insurance told me I was too old to be on it at age 21. I'm
>> 31 now.
>> You Europeans have free health care. Americans don't.
>>
>> America's ecomomy WOULD be wrecked because the majority of
>> Americans (70% of
>> us make less than 40,000 a year) would have to choose between food
>> and gas
>> if it gets too expensive to drive to our crappy paying jobs.
>
>
>
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