Harry P.

I also like that interior shot. You did a great job on this model.

Some of those photos are over a year old! What took you so long to post this? Beautiful work! The engine looks great, as does the whole model.

Have you tried this? http://www.google.com/#q=Krylon+Rust+Preventative+gray+primer&safe=off&tbm=shop

Plus it's darn cute!

Whether an extended warranty is a smart idea all depends on what they charged you for the warranty, what it specifically covers (and doesn't cover... watch out for the fine print that works in the dealer's favor), and whether you added the cost of the warranty into the purchase price (and loan amount). If you did that, you're not only going to pay for that warranty, but also pay interest on the warranty for the life of the loan.

https://store.usps.com/store/search/new-search.jsp?_DARGS=/store/navigation/gadgets/navCatalog.jsp

Remember, don't post any hints or answers here! I had to delete hints last time. PM me with year, make, and model (need all three for credit). The answer: 1996-98 Tatra 700

And it has mirrors, just like a real car! Nice job.

Every individual case varies, but in the overall scheme of things the odds are heavily in the dealership's favor. That's why they offer extended warranties in the first place! They're money makers for the dealership. Sure, someone here and there will actually save money overall with one, but it's like in Las Vegas... sure, people here and there win and win big, but overall the odds are in the house's favor. If they weren't, the "house" would go out of business. In the end it's a gamble... basically you're betting that your car will break down and would cost you more to fix than the warranty costs you. If an extended warranty makes you sleep better at night, more power to you. But overall, extended warranties benefit the dealer, not the car owner.

And proving that is next to impossible, because you have to prove there was intent to harm. It'll never happen.

There's way more than just that one...

Most experts will tell you that extended warranties aren't worth it. The advantage is to the seller of the warranty, not the car owner. From Consumer Reports: The sale of the (extended) warranty is a profit item, with the dealership serving as the middle man. The premise is that the customer will not need repairs in excess of the warranty cost, minus profit to the dealership and the warranty plan provider. Since extended service contract pricing is not regulated, dealers charge whatever the market will bear, and a 50-percent cut for sales commissions is not unusual. In other words, an extended warranty is usually not in the customer's interest. A few years ago, Consumer Reports proved the dubiousness of this pitch by surveying 8,000 owners of five- and six-year-old vehicles that had been covered by extended service plans. Sixty-five percent of those surveyed said they spent significantly more for the contract than they got back in repair-cost savings. Respondents said their extended warranty cost them $1,000 on average while providing an average benefit of $700. That means the average loss was $300. A big reason: 42 percent of extended warranties in our survey were never used, in most cases because the vehicle didn't need repairs or the standard manufacturer's warranty sufficed. Another reason people were dissatisfied was because the repair was not covered. Clichés about reading the fine print are especially appropriate when talking about extended warranties. The brochure may present the service plan as "comprehensive," but the contract will likely have numerous limitations, such as requiring documented service at in-network shops and covering only certain parts, rather than whole systems. But, if you're heart is set on a model known to be unreliable, an extended warranty can provide some protection. Just approach with caution, negotiate the price, and be aware that if you roll the cost into your financing, you'll be paying interest on it for years to come. According to many experts, a better idea is to take the money you would spend on an extended warranty and put it into a savings account. That way, if your car needs major repairs years from now after the factory warranty has expired, you will have money available to pay for the repairs. And if your car winds up not needing major repairs, that money is still in your bank account... not the dealer's.

Well gee, that's not very big.

Nicely done. The paint looks beautiful.

I'm amazed that there are still "undiscovered" E-Types sitting in barns! What a find.

Ooops. Fixed it.

That's all the bike anyone needs for the casual sort of biking Ray is talking about.

So how big are you?

So it's important to own a car that can go 115 mph so that you can do that one time? Really? I used to own a Dodge Stealth RT (the Dodge version of the Mitsubishi 3000GT). I took it out one morning like you, Skip... very early morning on a deserted interstate with no cross streets or pedestrians or even other cars. I went to 126 and started thinking "gee, what if there's a big pothole up ahead? What if there's a cop behind the next billboard?" So I quickly slowed back to "normal" speed. In the 7-8 years I owned that car I never again did that. So the fact that it could do that was completely irrelevant 99.999999999999% of the time I drove the car. And I didn't buy the car for its top speed... I bought it for the looks. If its top speed was only 90 I would still have bought it. BTW... I seem to remember that I was in 5th gear (that's all there were) but still far from redline... so the car would have gone even faster if I hadn't chickened out!

Exactly. That's what everyone has said all along. Recalls are not the issue. Congress isn't investigating the recalls, they're investigating how and why GM covered up a problem that they knew existed and did nothing about it for ten years.

Maybe you need to change your screen name to Retro-Garageguy... or at least Old Skool...

No point in having a car that does 120 if it's a street-driven car. You'll never drive that fast anywhere. I'd much rather have a car that handles well and gets decent gas mileage than a car that can do 120 or 150 or whatever, because that max. speed is irrelevant to how and where I drive my car (not on the track, just on the street in normal everyday traffic). It's the same with Z-rated tires... I have no intention of ever driving on the street at speeds where I would need a Z-rated tire.

The original switch was ok'd by a GM engineer (since fired) who knew the switch did not meet GM specs. Check my previous posts where I quote the story from Bloomberg. I assume the replacement switches have been redesigned to fix the problem, otherwise it makes no sense to replace faulty switches with faulty switches!

Right. Like I said, they're raising prices to make up for lost volume and all that goes with it.

Ok, not a new movie. Not even a "movie" movie, but a made-for-TV movie, and an old one at that. Last night I watched "The Legend of Lizzie Borden" on youtube. Not the newish one with Christina Ricci, but the old one from the 1970s starring Elizabeth Montgomery. Yes, Samantha! Wow... talk about playing against type. If you only know Elizabeth Montgomery as Sam from Bewitched, check out this move. She's absolutely terrific as the creepy yet sweet (and mysterious) Lizzie Borden. The movie is really good... could easily have been a theatrical release, it's that good. There's a whole version on youtube, but it was so dark I could hardly make out the images. I watched a version that's chopped into seven approx.15 minute segments. Kind of a pain to have to keep clicking on part two, part three, etc. but no worse than commercial breaks, I guess. Definitely worth the effort, especially if you've never seen Elizabeth Montgomery in a dramatic role. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GILnT9JHsBo