well i dunno about anywhere else but all the posh/ritch people that live round here all drive porche boxters or the porsh 911 carera. then theres the well off businessmen that driver there BMWs. and the ritch mum on the school run driving a X-trail or a X5( i think its the bmw x5 anyway)
Once I graduate and I start working, I am definitely getting a 4WD. And most people hate hummers etc because they will never own one. Not because they are concerned about the environment or any such BS. Sports cars are fun, but at the end of the day, comfort and space is more important.
there are certain times when it helps to have a 4x4. like when the plows come thru in winter after a 2 foot overnight snowfall and completely block in your driveway. or your mom keeps on skidding into ditches in the middle of BFE (thank god i didnt pay attention when she was teaching me to drive) yes, i have a gas guzzling 4x4, but it only drives when i need to rip something out of the ground, haul large items, or plow snow. its not like i need to ride around with a 42sq ft bed trailing behind me when i go over to mums for dinner in summer i bike to work unless its raining, then i take my car (30 mpg, not great, but better than when it was manafactured tho) personally, i say raise the price of gas in the states, and use to money to improve mass transit. a vehicle is a LUXURY item, but even the poorest people who keep on having kids despite the fact that they are on welfare have one. make the people do something positive for their health and for the environment at the same time. i dont see any adverse effects of walking a few miles a day. otherwise theyll just keep on driving the 3 blocks the store to get hot cheetos and pepsi to feed their kids for breakfast. for christs sake, why should i pay taxes so they can sit at home and relax, while i work my butt off and actually know how to use a condom. bah! im going to stop now.
dad: ya it's illegal ... fortunately in ohio to get pulled over in a volvo you have to be going 85 in a 35 with a mailbox on your bumper and a bald front tire ... ive been extremely lucky that ive only ever been pulled over once, and the bmv doesnt require that you show proof of insurance when you buy your regisration.. you just sort of sign a paper saying that you know that it is illegal to drive without insurance. 1337modderdude: why exactly shouldn't i drive? i know people that have driven without a lisence for over 20 years. only about 55% of the drivers in ohio are insured. public transportation to school is not only not an option, it's non-existant. does. not. exist. so either i continue to break the law while safely driving my very safe car to school and back every night, or i can drop out, wasting quite a bit of the government's money in the process, and go back to a dead end food service job. what do you think im gonna do? im not some punk fresh out of high school. I have been driving for 14 years. no wrecks, no tickets - 1 citation for going 31 in a 25 that i thought was a 35 ... im just too old to not take my schooling seriously ... driving is a necessity for me, not a luxury.
I had to drive with no insurance for a while...as well as no registration for almost a month. Not a big deal if you have the full intention of getting registered and getting insured first chance you get. Here, when your insurance company drops you or you cancel the policy, the insurance company sends that information to the Department of Motor Vehicles and then they send you a letter asking for proof. This is in Arizona, USA.
inmate, they do that too. around here, if you live close to ohio, insurance is rediculous. fortunatley, i live bout an hour away and pay a whole $117 a month for full coverage on my new car. pretty cheap for my age. actually, extremely cheap, i have every discount know to man. ubermich, where do you go to school? please don't tell me it's one that corinthian colleges own. i got to one of their schools, actually, i finish up in december. and it cost an assload of money. now, i iwsh i hadn't gone. it was a waste of my money and time because they have teachers who don't know what the hell they're teaching. =[
insurance over here is nasty aswell but thats because of people driving without insurance they have to up the preamiums to compensate for it. i had to take out 1 month temp insurance @ £63 for 4 weeks now im gettin quotes for the year and they range from £1300 - £2000 for my car 1.2 punto 60 team but no one round here would risk there licence for driving with no insurance. 6 points for no insurance (so that would be my licence gone and if i had been driving 3 years i could get away with it twice then licence gone then you have to start as a leraner agen.
Over here third party damage is included with registration. I drive an Alfa 33, and believe me for a 17 year old driver it is not worth it to ensure your car, they cost is so high, but I pay for third-party property damage, so I don’t have a $10000 bill if I hit a rich persons car, or any car for that matter. But yes I get annoyed when I see all these big cars like 4wd's with mums concentrating on the 1 little brat in the back, not watching the road. I used to live opposite a small catholic primary school, and it sucked. There where heaps of good people we where friends with form there but then there are those that think they are rich and as such think they can break rules. The stupid ladies in their big beamer 4wd's would park in front of our driveway making us late to school, they dint care it was their right... However, now that I am at high school, I live less than 15 minutes walk so I walk everyday, it is to expensive for someone on part-time work like myself to pay for petrol given the current prices.
lets put it this way.an uninsured driver hits your mother's car puts her in hospital.who's going to pay for it? yes you might be a good driver but it only takes a second's loss of concentration to change someone's life forever.
My dad's durango's trip computer gives him ~17MPG and most of that is highway. It goes about 10-13 in traffic. And suburbans are much worse than durangos.
Not that it makes that much difference but an American gallon is 1/5 smaller than an Imperial gallon iirc.
Imo, the only vehicles allowed to do the school run should be cars with 35+mpg, and the dimensions of a foord fiesta in the UK. And yes, the fiesta is a safe car. Look up the ncap ratings. I managed to get 45-50mpg out of my mums 1.2 1990 vauxhall nova over the summer, and I still ended up putting £50 a week in for the mileage i was covering. In the UK, the only 4x4 that justifies having a 4x4 is the landrover defender. It goes where goats can't, thats why 4x4's were invented. Ok, I admit there are others that are good at covering tricky ground, but they end up on the school run regardless. It is pointless trying to justify british points of view to an individual american, or vice versa, the cultures are so different when it comes to cars, that neither side can fully understand the other.
Thats utter ******** ... I wouldnt want such a tiny car even if I was the only person in it. I would want to drive a car, not half of one.
Good lad You ever see the documentary on the test driver of the wildcat, he dislocated a lung during testing, talk about impacts.... On topic... people who live on the same street and feel they each need to drop their precious kids off to school should be publicly flogged. Car pool, reduce traffic, make everyone elses life more pleasent... I had to walk 2 miles to school and 2 miles home, when I got a bike I cycled it... didnt do me any harm... make your fat bloater kids do something... bah. I just avoid it all by getting to work for 0730 and leaving at 1930
My parents have a 5dr Toyota Rav4 and a Volkswagen Golf. My mum uses the Rav4 since she normally has to pick up some stuff for a charity shop, and every week she gives myself and 3 friends a lift from school. Some weeks we go in one of my friends mother's BWM 2dr Saloon which is a very tight squeeze in the back for 3 of us (more lengthwise). Meanwhile, at the weekend my dad will use the Rav4 off to cross a farm on his way to shooting. He has tried using the golf for this and athough VW should market it as offroad it's low floor means it can be troublesome in the wet/mud and we think there is quite a lot of damage to the bottom of the chasiss because of rocks etc. As for mileages the Rav4 will average about 25-30mpg whilst the Golf is about 30-40mpg(estimate, no trip computer in this model) so there isn't that a big a difference though. When I pass my test next year, I intend to get a fairly small, economical car (would love a original Mini) to drive myself to and from school etc as the bus service is pretty poor in our area compared to others.
