Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

^ Agree with that, even on planes, same thing applies :D
 
Yes. There is no such thing as too many tools.

This man speaks the truth. If I could I'd have a whole workshop filled with tools and machines. Alas, I don't have the money, so instead I will slowly amass my collection over time.
 
This is the Escalade my family rented on a recent trip to Colorado.
I must say for being a 10 tonne piece of crap it's a lot of fun to be in. Sure there's no brakes or acceleration and the interior is plastic made to look like chrome, but it'll definately put a smile on your face... provided you get to return it after a week.
http://img109.imageshack.**/img109/2144/img5017x.jpg

Where did you rent from? That one isn't a rental fleet vehicle... :blink:
 
This man speaks the truth. If I could I'd have a whole workshop filled with tools and machines. Alas, I don't have the money, so instead I will slowly amass my collection over time.

While I do believe more tools are always a good thing, sometimes the opposite is just as true. And the adapters I suggested are tools. Most peeps just won't get the use of a 1/4" torque wrench or a 1/2" wrench. I use a 3/8" drive torque wrench with adapters. It gets most jobs done with ease, and when I need more than it can handle, I borrow one(two or three times in my life).
 
A random thought (ok, rant) about the courtesy car we're lumbered with.

Your automatic transmission? Terrible. I feel like I should be breaking out into a Hail Mary everytime I'd like to accelerate, and I'm not even a Christian. Hills, nay, slight slopes? Forget it. You rev like a bitch and refuse to change up until the last possible minute. You eat fuel as if you're a 4wd, and quite frankly I'd much rather be driving one.

This experience has proven to me that once my dear little Corsa needs to go to the great car dealership in the sky, I won't be replacing it with a 2009 1.4 Design automatic, because it's rubbish.

there, rant over. What a cathartic way to start the new year...
 
Where did you rent from? That one isn't a rental fleet vehicle... :blink:

Hertz, and that is a rental one. Though it's the display model they have in front. The only difference between that and our was smaller rims and no roof racks, we even had the same colour. You can tell this is fleet from the interior features (ie. no sunroof, functionless buttons)
 
Hertz, and that is a rental one. Though it's the display model they have in front. The only difference between that and our was smaller rims and no roof racks, we even had the same colour. You can tell this is fleet from the interior features (ie. no sunroof, functionless buttons)

Actually that particular one isn't a fleet vehicle, I don't think they'd have rented it to you if you begged them because it's not registered as a fleet vehicle. In Colorado, fleet rental vehicles have a red license plate with FLT down the left edge. That one obviously doesn't have that plate so that's why it threw me off.

https://pic.armedcats.net/n/na/nabster/2010/01/01/Satellite.jpg
 
So wait, CO has gone backwards like 20 years and now you can tell at a glance who's a tourist driving a rental car? Wow, that's amazing. I haven't seen obvious indications of rental status since I was a tiny kid.
 
So wait, CO has gone backwards like 20 years and now you can tell at a glance who's a tourist driving a rental car? Wow, that's amazing. I haven't seen obvious indications of rental status since I was a tiny kid.

Every rental I've ever seen out of Colorado has been registered as such. They get to register them in bulk and at lower costs I believe, so most rental places do it. The rental places we have in town here are all based out of colorado, so even in town if you rent a car you get the red plates.
 
It's just very backwards from everywhere else. There were a lot of problems with carjackings of tourists in Florida when I was little that led to all the rental places I've ever seen taking stickers, tags, and other identifying characteristics off the cars. I've only seen a tiny e on Enterprise cars. Nothing else.
 
So wait, CO has gone backwards like 20 years and now you can tell at a glance who's a tourist driving a rental car? Wow, that's amazing. I haven't seen obvious indications of rental status since I was a tiny kid.

99% of the rental vehicles here have bumper stickers with the rental agency logo, makes it easier to tell whos going to jump across four lanes of traffic because they didn't know when to turn. It also makes it easier for druggies to find vehicles loaded with valueable luggage.
 
Actually that particular one isn't a fleet vehicle, I don't think they'd have rented it to you if you begged them because it's not registered as a fleet vehicle. In Colorado, fleet rental vehicles have a red license plate with FLT down the left edge. That one obviously doesn't have that plate so that's why it threw me off.

Well here's a picture of the car we actually had (blurry cuz i cropped and enlarged from a distance) and it did not have the red license plates. As far as my memory goes not once in the last 4 years I've visited have we had a red one and we've rented from Hertz, Budget, and Discount.

Also I find the easiest way to spot other tourists is to look for the Suburbans, Escalades, and QX56's full of luggage lol!

http://img193.imageshack.**/img193/2663/fglicense.jpg
 
About 8 years ago on a trip to Vail, Colorado, the rental agency accidentally gave us an Escalade. Our official confirmation said "GMC Jimmy or similar". :lol:

It was one of these, and it was really fun to be in also.
https://pic.armedcats.net/c/cr/crazyrussian540/2010/01/01/2000CadillacEscalade-5.jpg

Especially when my dad accidentally turned onto a tiny mountain road that was just as wide as the track of the SUV, not as wide as the body, a cliff face on one side, and a huge drop on the other.
 
It's just very backwards from everywhere else. There were a lot of problems with carjackings of tourists in Florida when I was little that led to all the rental places I've ever seen taking stickers, tags, and other identifying characteristics off the cars. I've only seen a tiny e on Enterprise cars. Nothing else.

Florida passed concealed carry and most of those problems stopped. Colorado (and other states) have also had concealed carry for years and as such rental company stickers (and other identifiers) are coming back in those locations. No significant increase in anti-tourist crime have been reported in such areas.
 
Anybody else see that kick ass jump Robby Gordon did at the starting platform of the Dakar. Can't find a link, but he's showin' those frogs how to do it.
 
Florida passed concealed carry and most of those problems stopped. Colorado (and other states) have also had concealed carry for years and as such rental company stickers (and other identifiers) are coming back in those locations. No significant increase in anti-tourist crime have been reported in such areas.

Hum, interesting. Just goes to show that things that happen when you're young make a sizable impression even when you're grown. Also reminds me I need to do some research on our local gun laws, specifically what needs licensing and what doesn't, what's "concealed" and what isn't. :yawn: Research is boring.
 
There's this man that's annoying me, he works as a DJ at a local TV station (well when i say tv station i say half-assed news channel that is the only one approving of that ex-presi of ours) he drives a Morris minor in bright yellow with ?only Morris in Honduras? written all over it. It annoys me so much that i would be willing to import a Ital just to print ?This is a Morris too? in one of those things you put on the windshield and park it next to his.

Then i would donate it to the beeb :p.

On other, more realistic (however the statement above is true) random thought, I have just found the hidden racetrack in honduras. Bad thing is, it has speed bumps in some parts of it
 
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