nc211

OK.... I'm in now too! Those damn Iranians are to blame! OK...I'm out...

Thanks guys! We just can't seem to walk away from the 4runner very easily. At 95k miles, it's still just as buttery smooth and quiet as you'd expect a car with 1/4 the mileage to be. The key really is that 4.7 V8. It's just an effortless matchup, barely ever needing to rev past 2,500 rpms, I can see why they last forever. I take a lot of comfort in knowing much of the mechanicals in the V8 setup are the same in the Land Cruisers, which seem to command a ridiculous price premium. I'm still shocked at how the 4runner has held it's value. We bought it used in 07 with 53k miles. It's an 05, nothing special, just the SR5 model with sunroof and tow package. Paid around $18.5k for it then. 4 years and 40k miles later, KBB trade-in value in "good" condition is still north of $14k. Only vehicle I've ever seen to give me any real equity value. Closest one I've owned like that was a 99 Outback, bought in KS, sold in Bama 2 years later for maybe $1,800 off from sticker in 99'. Think Bama played a big part in that though, as it was not a popular car in the south. If you wanted one, you were paying for it. I really love this new Tahoe design though. But...not enough to go through this hassle. Not when the motivation behind it was more of a "want" than a "need". Want to enjoy it, shouldn't need a 6 pack and gun to do it though!

Thanks guys! We just can't seem to walk away from the 4runner very easily. At 95k miles, it's still just as buttery smooth and quiet as you'd expect a car with 1/4 the mileage to be. The key really is that 4.7 V8. It's just an effortless matchup, barely ever needing to rev past 2,500 rpms, I can see why they last forever. I take a lot of comfort in knowing much of the mechanicals in the V8 setup are the same in the Land Cruisers, which seem to command a ridiculous price premium. I'm still shocked at how the 4runner has held it's value. We bought it used in 07 with 53k miles. It's an 05, nothing special, just the SR5 model with sunroof and tow package. Paid around $18.5k for it then. 4 years and 40k miles later, KBB trade-in value in "good" condition is still north of $14k. Only vehicle I've ever seen to give me any real equity value. Closest one I've owned like that was a 99 Outback, bought in KS, sold in Bama 2 years later for maybe $1,800 off from sticker in 99'. Think Bama played a big part in that though, as it was not a popular car in the south. If you wanted one, you were paying for it. I really love this new Tahoe design though. But...not enough to go through this hassle. Not when the motivation behind it was more of a "want" than a "need". Want to enjoy it, shouldn't need a 6 pack and gun to do it though!

Thanks fellas, it was an interesting experience, one that I doubt we'll forget for quite some time. The main reason I was interested in replacing the 4Runner was to give my wife something nice. While my wife and kids were at the beach in nc recently, I got word that our plans to escape Chicago for DC fell through. One of those moments though when you get lucky and don't quite realize it. Long story, but ultimately had the right ending. However, my wife really had her hopes up, and I knew I had to break the news to her. I waited until she got back, so that drive wouldn't be harder on her than it already is. To ease the blow, I told her I wanted her to pick out any car she wanted, practical or not, for under $32k. Wanted her to have some "luxury" in her every day routine of taking care of two little kids alone. That PoS saleman blew a golden opportunity and tainted the whole process from start. But...NC trying to be a good husband, had a back-up plan. It involves the grand parents, and 4 days of Mojitos poolside in Vegas, minus all diaper bags and all things "Mommy". Our flight leaves OHare at 10pm on August 2nd.... Watchout Elvis, the Griswalds are coming to town, minus Rusty and Audrey. AND this time, Clark had him a little surgical procedure to make sure only two of us come back, unlike last time!!! Love my kids, but two is enough for us!!

Be safe big guy!! Trust no one you don't already know before deployment!

Thanks fellas, appreciate the input! We won't be replacing the 4runner any time soon. our first experience yesterday with the prospect of buying any car in general, turned us off completely with the process, especially given the nightmare I went through last year to replace my GS with my VW. Life's just too short to put up with this crap. Going to do the service on the car, and buy either a rack via the hitch, or a roof rack, for some additional packing space of kid gear for our drives to NC. I just don't think I've got it in me to deal with this right now, without ending up with a new car, and a court date for assault charges. Really really really really hate these car salesman here in ChiTcago.

Had the nerve to say I owed him my name and contact info. When we pulled around to the front of the showroom, with his manager standing there watching, I gave him the one-finger sign of approval...if you catch my drift. Insult ms all you want, I rarely respond. Insult my wife, and you'll get a direct response, I promise you that!

This is the exact reason why my wife an I decided to keep our 4runner and skip the Tahoe yesterday. We found one nearby that we liked at a Chevy dealer. Put the kids in the car and drove over to take a closer look. Got there, and it wasn't 5 minutes before he had insulted us to the point of not wanting to reenter the car buying market, period. This guy kept trying to pull us into the showroom. When he realized we had two napping kids in the back, he actually said "they're safe here, besides, nobody wants to mess with a Toyota anyway." My wife and I looked at eachother, then at the 4runner, then back at eachother and said "what are we doing??" Wife got in the car, the salesman said "we'll be right back sweetie, we've got some guy talk to do." That, *BLEEP*ed me off. I said, "only talking you've got on your plate is to your manager standing in that window watching us when he asks you what happened". The guy actually

Anyone have any real world, personal, experiences with a 07+ Tahoe? 4Runner is getting a bit tight for the family, and thinking about the Tahoe as its replacement. Plus, 4Runner has 95k miles now, facing the timing belt an the sealed transmission fluid change...$1,700 all in. Tough to spend it, when interest rates are where they're at. Always lived this new design of Tahoe.

Nice Smooth! Hey, you went car shopping, and bought a car! Sort of went to LA from San Fran via Omaha to get it, but it all worked out for everyone!

Yeah....leave that for your TV cable company! I've got both AT&T (personal) and Verizon (business via Blackberry). I live in the 3rd largest city in the US. I work in one of the most famous areas of that city (Oak Park). I have an AT&T tenant in this office who teaches newbies how to sell the services. And when I try to call my wife on my personal phone...it might as well be a CB Radio, if it works at all. 3rd largest city and market in the country...can't get service worth a damn. My blackberry (aka nag-berry), which is on Verizon, works everywhere....dangit. Our AT&T bill every month, $120 for both phones, one of which is an iPhone with the required (you're my drunk prom date) data plan. My Verizon bill every month = $250, for something that is used 99.9% of the time for emails. I'm with Lenore on the data plans. Wanted my wife to have instant access to the internet where ever she and the kids go. Me? Wifi. And if I can't find Wifi, then I don't need to know what I'm looking for at that moment. For the record though...McDonald's has free Wifi that reaches out to their parking lots. Buy a 32gb Ipod Touch from Costco for $200. It's all you'll ever need.

Jezz, Dixon, who pee'd in your Cheerios this morning? I'm not a very religious man, but when everything that lives on this planet has the ability to procreate, right down to the flies in the dog !Removed! out back...I think it's probably "meant" to be this way from the ultimate source. Plus...it can be pretty darn fun to do!! B) Smooth - watchout for the sprinkler heads, they're a booger on tires, especially the metal ones! 2+ year in ChiTcago traffic...I'm pretty crafty on how to get from point a to point b! Probably a reason I can't keep those 18' rims on the VW properly round though... They're a lost cause anyway.

This is a simple fix: (1) buy a 4x4, and (2) hire an attorney.

Just a little support to my rant in post #10. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Exhibit A - the agency responsible for responsible investment activity in the capitalistic world we all make our livings in. Better raise that national debt ceiling boys, rent's due on the 15th! http://www.globest.com/news/1950_1950/washington/311853-1.html

By the way...I'm a little "Reagan'd" these days. The Military channel has been running a series called "Decisions that shook the world" about tough calls Presidents have made that turned out right. FDR and Reagan have been on this week. My kind of leaders! And I'm left at home alone for the past two weeks....wife and kids at the beach back home in NC. Drove them down about 10 days ago. 900 miles in 18 hours, straight, in the 4runner with 90k miles. Spent fathers day in the airport coming back to *BLEEP*cago. Flawless SUV! God bless the inventor of the portable DVD player, and curse the inventor of Thomas The Train cartoons! I nearly lost it somewhere around Winston Salem. So....I'm left to my own entertainment, that's sitting in the fridge. Let's just say, when the garbage man empties the cans on Monday mornings, mine is the loudest, by far Consider you newbies lucky on here that I haven't been preachin' too much! This is usually about the time I solve the world's problems. Guess I've got one too many of my own to fix to give a rip about all the others!

I'll tell you what I'm going to enjoy watching, is how Obama and his team approach the Wall Street firms and banking community for donations... you know, the whole "it's me or the pitchfork, boys" comment he did to them a couple of years ago, and going on Leno saying the banking and investment community is basically nothing but a bunch of thieves and dishonest folks, and don't encourage your kids to grow up to be a banker, but an engineer instead.. "something that makes a difference, that matters to American lives..." Long memories when it comes to lost revenues.....long memories indeed. I recall somewhere on here me saying he was making a huge mistake by attacking the "clearing house" of the US economic engine "Wall Street". Love 'em or hate 'em....you've got no choice but to accept them, if you like and want a capitalistic economy, which is what we are, and have been since day one! I'm not saying throw out the rule book and let the economy run wild. But dang man, get your foot off the brake long enough to let the private sector to get the car through the innersection before we get run over. We're playing in traffic here! Oh...and to liven up the place a bit around here... A little throwback to the days of NC211 before he got married and had kids and started losing his hair..... Libya? What the heck is that all about? This thing just came out of nowhere. We don't even know who we're supporting, and if you think those rebels are our friends....you're crazy! You know there are dudes in 1984 Bayliners running across the Gulf with the weapons we're providing them...straight to Yemen and the like. Why are we trying to kill Whacky Quacky? I thought he was "reformed" to the western ways. Guy attacks Bush year after year about Iraq, said the Surge would fail "um, wrong", and yet, Libya? Can you imagine what would've happened if Bush went after Libya like this? Heck, we didn't even want him to hit Iran, who has constantly been saying they're going to wipe people off the planet once they get a chance...and we refused to believe that Bush was telling us the truth about their intentions with nuclear energy development, said it was a lie to get us to fight them... Anyone see the news lately? Akwad-on-a-wall is saying they're not affraid to develop nuclear weapons, and now are firing off their latest missles as a show... But, we need to get Whacky Quacky instead. He's the threat...

Straight from the horse's mouth. "...don't want to shrink government." http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/geithner-taxes-small-business-must-rise I'm all for raising taxes on certain people in a realistic manner. I think we don't have a choice anymore. But, if I'm going to feel the pinch, then I want to make sure government feels the pinch as well. As many of you know, I am in the commercial real estate finance game. I do the big & sexy stuff around the country, mostly in DC. I can tell you, point blank with absolute honesty in an undeniable and proven manner - government is spending a TON of money on their real estate holdings and leases...a friggin' TON! They have been on a leasing spree for the past 2 years for all departments of government. Infact, one of those entities, the one that many believe caused much of this economic mess by being lazy, is currently in a lawsuit for a transaction worth hundreds of millions of dollars for a lease on a trophy quality asset in DC, that they didn't need. These leases are top of the market in rates and structure. Many are non-cancellable. Gone are the days of the plain-jane cheap government building, replaced by true-trophy quality assets, with price tags to not only match, but exceed. Don't get me wrong, as a lender myself, I love it when I get one of these leases (approved by congress might I add), they're considered "investment grade". But, if you think for one minute that Mr. Government is trying to keep hot meals for kids at school on the table by taxing your local barber shop...think again... In fact, two years ago I denied a transaction that included a TON of rental space for Geithner's crew just to admin the TARP program. A 3 year program, for a 15 year lease. Wasteful spending you want to see? There ya' go. Vote for the guy who cares the least about your life! Give yourself some credit, give the private sector a chance to recover. I know many of us hated Bush. I know that won't change either. But, I do think it is time to point blame in a more centralized fashion on what happened three years ago. We had an SEC asleep at the wheel. We had a banking regulation industry made up of lawyers, not bankers, who could not understand what they were reading when it came time to understand the two key components that wrecked the economy...cross-default swaps, and collaterized debt obligations (CDO's). These two financial instruments are the cause of the collapse. The CDO's fueled the relaxed housing finance world that created the sub-prime market. Subprime lenders had an "easy out" with the CDO market waiting in the back parking lot with a bucket of cash to buy the loan. The cross-default swap world tied it all together like a spider's web. One web breaks, and it's linked to all the others. Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers and what happened very quickly thereafter.... We need to focus our regulations better. It's time to put down the ax, and pick up the surgical scapel. And, it is TIME to stop listening to the fear-factor chatter coming from guys like Geithner! Our own confidence in ourselves is being held hostage by this type of talk. You can do nothing...and I mean NOTHING, if you don't have confidence. Don't believe me? Look at recent history. We were attacked by terrorists in the most spectacular fashion. We had the national guard in airports. We had anthrax in the mail system. We had beheadings on national tv news. We had, what looked like, the entire arab world wanting to kill us. Yet, we were confident (from our blood thirst for revenge)...and we had unemployment of below 5%, and an economic boom that hasn't been seen in decades. It wasn't entirely a "shell game" either. It was real. Out of the 100 or so elements it takes to make that happen, 3 or 4 slipped through the cracks and brought it all down. 3 or 4 that should have never been allowed to happen in the first place, and wouldn't have if we had properly regulated the SEC, the American Banker's Association (ABA), and a few others. Commercial Real Estate guys knew it, and that is why you've seen that sector being the very last slice of the economy to fall....and the very first to get back up. $3 trillion dollars in CRE investments done from 02-07, and that's just the Wall Street avenue for financing, that doesn't take into account the portfolio lenders in the country (me) that hold their investments in-house to maturity. Of that $3 trillion, true delinquencies has never popped over 7% ($210 billion). Now, that sounds like a lot of bad loans, and it is, but taken in context of all the bailout money to auto makers and banking institutions...no so much. Many report higher numbers of deliquencies, but don't understand what they're talking about. Many investments are considered "deliquent" because they couldn't pay-off the existing mortgage at maturity with a refinance. Why? Because lenders can't figure out what regulations are coming from DC to feel CONFIDENT to write a new mortgage on that asset type (mostly hotels). These loans are still performing fine. They make their payments on time, without issue, and more than capable to qualify. They just can't find a lender willing to refinance it, other than the existing lender who is forced to "extend" the loan. These are not deliquences in the true term. I, work for an institution heavy on golf courses. Nobody in the US or Canada is willing to lend on a golf course (consider a luxury item). They are still performing fine, but we have to "extend" the loans. You want to talk about a "shell game"? This is it. Why has the CRE weathered so well? Well, we caused the last recession in the late 80's early 90's. We learned that if you don't understand what you're reading, you don't allow it. Let me give you another example of the "fear-jacking" going on by our government to keep the private sector spooked and scared - We had the rating agencies in our office pouring over our portfolio. They down-graded us. We have NO deluiqencies, none, nadda. And, not only that, our investments are performing 5x's better than our peers. When we asked why are you down-grading us? They said you've got a large exposure to the "luxury" segment...aka golf and luxury resorts. When we said - yes, but look at our position in those investments, no issues, no high leverage, more than enough safe-guards. They said, yes, no issues today, but tomorrow will be another story. Our response - well, then you're obviously planning to do something stupid then. Guess what folks...they are. I, for one, will be voting for the guy who cares the least about how I live my life. The damage has not only been done, but publically so, which will prevent the SEC and other banking regulators to make this mistake again (for 15 years or so anyway). Time to get our wealth back from the government. No, I will not vote for Sara Palin or her crowd. I want a smart business man, period. No social organizers, or popularity contests. This time, it's ALL business, proven, not spoken. OK - NC211 Rant complete. Have a nice weekend!

I second the ice-picking of the gas tank. Heard it's been happening here in ChiTcago quite a bit. Also, keep a watchful eye for catalytic thieves. They've been cutting cat's out of trucks and suv's for the metal contents inside. Talk about a dirty job, but they've got it down to a science. I've heard the 4runner is a favorite pick, so i'm sure i'm next.... You know, the fact that you did't have a cap lock might've saved your gas tank though.... Somebody clearly had to park next to you and dump the fuel straight into their tank. Probably a truck or big SUV, since cars usually can't hold 30 gallons of gas, and I'd like to see the person strong enough to carry 30 gallons of anything. Somebody obviously knows the Dodge trucks don't have locking caps, saw your truck, and knew it was an easy target. Maybe another Dodge truck owner...

37, and feeling every damn bit of it :chairshot: :cries: I have a feeling 40+ isn't going to be good on me... Do yourself a favor, you 20-29 bracket...take care of yourself...it pays dividends later..

Coral Gables, Florida is not a PUD, therefore it is not allowed the same rules and regulations that a HOA would be allowed to subject its population to. Coral Gables is a town within Miami proper. I use to live in Coral Gables for about a year in 1987...very interesting time in my life. 14 years old, from Oklahoma...it was like Brian Bozworth meets Sunny Crocket...Only thing more interesting was 1988, when I arrived in B'ham Alabama. It was like Sunny Crocket meets Bear Bryant. Yeah...I had an interesting childhood at times.. I'd be willing to bet every lawyer who lives in Coral Gables is standing in line at Hertz right now trying to rent a pick-up truck to park in their own/private/tax paying driveway... I know I would be. Not to mention, many houses in Coral Gables are big and fancy, but many are not, and don't have garages....or how about all of the condo owners with surface parking, not garage parking... Slicked back scum bag lawyers....mount up...it's game time.

Take two magnets, one bigger than the other. Put them + to + and slide the bigger magnet towards the smaller magnet. The closer the bigger magnet gets to the smaller one, the faster the smaller one wants to get away. This creates motion, which is energy in it's simpliest form. You take enough of these magnets and place them on a "T" structure that allows the arms to move closer/further away from eachother. Take your gas peddle and tie the cable to the "T" in a manner that translates into pressing the peddle brings the magnets closer together. Hook the base of the "T" to a transmission......and you've got the perfect source of free and polutionless engery. Think about it... You can hook it up to a car transmission, or a generator. Just turn the dial to how fast you want the magnets to chase eachother. If you know anything about "earth magnets", then you know how increadibly strong they are. I orded some off of the internet back then. A magnet the size of a quarter can pick up 40 pounds. I kid you not! I still have three of them stuck to my tool chest by accident, and smashed the living hell out of my finger tips on more than one instance. Google "earth magnets" and see for yourself. They're simply amazing!! I pursued this idea in college for a contest to win a grant from some european venture capitalists. I not only won, but stunned the entire room, and had the capitalists drooling. It was for a project called CERMIT, a device the size of a beach ball that would hang on a chain under the docks of marina gas stations, with little arms that extended out about 10 feet that would float just under the surface of the water. The arms would pull in the spilled fuel into the beach ball, which in turn would seperate the pollution from the sea water through centrifuge technology "spinning". The pollution would be sent to a containment tank, and the clean water would be released back into the ocean. The idea of the magnets came from the way to make the centrifuge design work w/o the need to have electricity run to the dock. As the project evolved, the idea shifted away from CERMIT and focused strictly on the magnet idea and all of it's applications beyond. Kevin Costner's brother came up with something very similiar recentely that was used to help clean up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. I read his plans on his device. It's similiar in principal, but lacks certain elements that my idea had that didn't require a massive cargo ship to use. I ran into one small problem though....Mr. Newton seems think that engery can't create energy, kind of like water can't flow up hill. Life came calling, and I had to get a job and never returned to this idea, but it has always stayed in my mind for the past 10 years. Someone smarter than me will finish this idea one day. I believe in my heart of hearts that it could work and solve so many problems of current. Granted, will probably cause other problems...but that's just life.

There is simply no such thing as a tax that replaces another tax.....just another tax. If we keep making more and more difficult for folks to meander beyond their own neighborhood, and we'll keep locking down the capital flow of money that keeps this country alive....and really cause a problem. Jack up the interest rates for 18 months, like Reagan had to do in the early 80's, lets suffer two more years, then let's head into another decade of happier times. The more "involved" we allow our government to become in our lives, the longer it's going to take to remove this bandaide. 3 years now... just rip the darn thing off and let's get over this hump. Stop the presses at the Treasury department, and stop ramming me in my debt hole! Cost me over $50 fill up my car yesterday.... a VW with a 2.0 4banger engine... obscene!!

You know when Election Season is getting close, when every other news article/report you see is about how bad you life is supposed to be, and how much worse it's about to get! Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't we supposed to get nuked by Iran, run out of oil, contracted typhoid fever, and lost our ozone layer by now? I could've sworn I heard this....36 months ago... :whistles: Hey, here's a joke for ya: A politician named "Weiner" (with a wife who worked for Hillary Clinton in the 90's) and a stripper from Hazzard Georgia named "Ginger Lee" walk into a bar..... Just my own opinion here - but do yourself a favor and vote for the person that has the least amount of interest in having anything to do with you!

Yeah, but Lexi, there is a bit more "motivation" for a $900/Mnth payment on a heavy SUV when you're an S-Corp. You've been talking with your accountant haven't cha'... B) In the business banking world, the "Decemeber to Remember" slogan tends to trigger a date to the business owner....A date in April of the coming year..

Nice! Sure beats NY huh! Just your friendly reminder (I KNOW I don't have to tell anything about this) - make sure you rinse those driveshaft seals really well after hitting the sand. It's a grain, it don't break down, and it likes to chew on things that are rubber that move. After one summer back in the 90's with my GMC Jimmy on the NC coast...tore my seals to shreds... 'Course....I might have been hot-dog'n a bit too...but you haven't any pictures of proof, so I won't confess to Automotive Abuse... :whistles: