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View Full Version : While I was getting new tires today


Buckshot
05-23-2005, 08:51 PM
..........I was forced to watch TV. To back up a bit, earlier this AM after getting home form work I broke out the yaller pages and started calling tire dealers for prices on good tires. Gone are the days when the first question is, "What's the cheapest...............". And no, I'm not stupidly paying the $231 each, one tire dealer quoted for his best tire.

I ended up calling 9 different places. Before calling the last place, the best deal looked like Goodyear Futuras @ $132 each (P255-70 R 16's) for the wife's Sport Trac. This was $11 bucks cheaper then the Goodyear dealer quoted. A 60K treadwear warrenty, road hazard $14 extra.

Called the last place and they had Cooper's with a 60K warrenty for $104, and it you bought the road hazard at $8/per they'd add another 10K to the treadlife warrenty. On top of that they's rotate and balance if required every 5K, discount if an alignment was needed. I got those.

The waiitng room didn't even have the usual beat to crap 5 month old magazines. Nuttin but a TV and a soda machine. So anyway it's tuned to CNN and this deal on kidnapping in Iraq comes up. The neat part was this guy (Iraqy) who is working with the U.S. and was a target and HAD been kidnapped. Obviously he'd been released after several days but many times he'd had a pistol or AK stuck in his ear.

As the segment came to a close the CNN interviewer and his cameraman were riding in the guy's car and the guy was saying about how he now watches cars behind him and those passing very closely, etc. The best part is that he said he no longer wishs to feel like a pawn to the corrupt kidnappers, and it will not be so easy for them. He has this big grin on his face and looks down between the armrests of the front seat. The cameraman pans down also and the Iraqy pulls out this (looks like) 1911 Colt 45 ACP!

I thought "Good for you dude!"

A bit later the talking heads mention this neighborhood in Oakland, CA I think it was (in the Bay area anyway) that is trying to clean itself of drug dealers and such traffic. It's mainly about this homeowner Patrick O'Donnell and his family who've lived there 10 years and have a 9 y-o son. Just in passing this is a black family. Seems Pat calls the cops whenever he sees the druggies out peddeling and stuff.

So things have really heated up for him like bricks through his windows and verbal harrassment. So Patrick arms himself, just in case. A good thing to come out is that Patrick is very well spoken, and a clean cut individual. To the interviewer's question about the pistol good ole Pat says he has the right to defend himself and his family. Oh yeah, before getting the pistol he'd been beat up by a couple locals.

Apparently one of the neighborhood toughs and his 'Crew' caught Pat out in his front yard and advanced up the driveway toward him, verbally abusing him. Ole Pat says he unlimbers the heat and suggests they depart forthwith. One kid continues to move forward, and Pat's testimony said the kid told one of his buddies, "Gimme the gun" and twisted slightly to his left with is hand out toward one of his buds.

Pat says he saw a pistol in the kid's hand so he shot and hit him high and at the left edge of the chest (the kid was black). The slug exited the side of his chest and then made a through and through of the upper arm. The shot was not mortal. The shot placement as reconstructed was consistant with the perp's position. Pat was charged and then released due to testimony by current beat cops and a couple former cops from that area, and a lieutenant who knew the area and who knew the people involved. Ditto several of his neighbors came forward.

Pat still has his pistol. Pat said he'd do it again. Pat's wife said they weren't going to be run out of thier home. The police have suggested that he might want to move. ADT security wired his house for home security for free (and some good publicity, but still!). Good ole Pat!

The interviwer was very good and was fair, not feeding BS to the camera or asking stupid questions. Back at the studio the well groomed male and female talking heads made some mention about vigilanteism, and some remark I missed about gun control. Maybe they said Pat had good gun contol, ya think?

Probably what they said would have meant Pat would have been shot as he might not have been able to have the pistol, and as a law abiding citizen............... Well, you know?

Several months ago in the Tombstone Epitaph (I have a subscription) they had an article about this mining town in Northern Arizona sometime around the turn of the century or somewhat before. Seems the townfolk finally had had enough and rounded up all the ner do wells, gamblers, prostitutes, ruffians and whatnot and escorted them out of town (I think at gunpoint) and suggested stongly that it would be in their best interest and continued good health if they not return.

Gee, could you see that today?

.............Buckshot

NVcurmudgeon
05-24-2005, 12:08 AM
I hope Pat has good neighbors who will arm themselves and show the same determination. The druggies of Oakland are highly organized. The areas of "turf" are much smaller than most of us could imagine, with one gang's bailiwick being within half a dozen blocks of the next gang's. Many, or for all I know all, of these gangs have designated shooters. It is a sophisticated and well-financed organization that can field so many "soldiers." One of the scariest aspects of this industry is that these hoods don't work. There is so much money floating around they don't have to, they are full-time defenders of their "business." The Oakland police that have crossed my path are exemplary human beings to a man, they need to be.

NVcurmudgeon
05-24-2005, 12:15 AM
The tire deal sounds good, and you got to bone up on the news, but the burning question to our members is, "Rick, did you score any weights?"

fatnhappy
05-24-2005, 08:16 PM
The tire deal sounds good, and you got to bone up on the news, but the burning question to our members is, "Rick, did you score any weights?"


First thing I thought was this was a "braggin" thread about how Buckshot scored a gazillion tons of WW's and had to rent a Uhaul to get them home.

Better yet, a thread about how someone with a spine and self-determination. I had a Captain in the Army with whom I used to argue constantly about the 2nd ammendment. He grew up in the barrios of LA, ran with gangs and straightened up his life. He graduated from West Point and has since gone to Boston College and received a law degree.
His old man owned a bar, and had to use deadly force to defend himself twice. For some reason his take on the issue was the need for gun control. I never could understand how he could come to such a ludicrious conclusion. Pat is a well grounded smart fellow, IMHO.

nvbirdman
05-24-2005, 09:38 PM
Anybody remember an incident in Missouri about 10 or 15 years ago?
Some guy was terrorizing a small town amd nobody could do anything about it. His lawyer always got him off, and/or witnesses would not testify.
Finally one day in the middle of town about a half-dozen guys just blew him away and nobody in town saw anything.

Scrounger
05-24-2005, 10:24 PM
Anybody remember an incident in Missouri about 10 or 15 years ago?
Some guy was terrorizing a small town amd nobody could do anything about it. His lawyer always got him off, and/or witnesses would not testify.
Finally one day in the middle of town about a half-dozen guys just blew him away and nobody in town saw anything.


-I read the book. It was very good. It happened in Skidmore, Missouri.

In Broad Daylight
by MacLean, Harry N.


for $4.45
(used softcover, see detail)*

Ships within 2 to 3 days

Ken McElroy terrorized Skidmore, Missouri for 10 years. With crime after crime, the town grew more frustrated at the law's inability to stop him. Finally, the entire town took revenge. One July day, McElroy was shot to death on the main street, with 45 witnesses present. There were no indictments and no trial. The citizens of Skidmore have remained...
buy used: from $3.30!

wills
05-25-2005, 05:28 AM
[QUOTE=Buckshot]..........And no, I'm not stupidly paying the $231 each, one tire dealer quoted for his best tire.

.............Buckshot[/QUOTE

So, do you drive a Rolls or a Bentley?

Buckshot
05-25-2005, 10:34 PM
[QUOTE=Buckshot]..........And no, I'm not stupidly paying the $231 each, one tire dealer quoted for his best tire.

.............Buckshot[/QUOTE

So, do you drive a Rolls or a Bentley?

Naw, these were for the wife's 2001 Ford Sport Trac. She drives 84 miles round trip each day and 95% is on the freeway in dense traffic. Neither I nor she need any problems with tires. The tires that were on it were General's the factory put on. They had 65K miles on'em and some left to go but one had a tread seperation, so I figured it was time.

Now for cheap tires, I owned a Ford Fiesta for many years. Put 228K miles on that little 1.6L pushrod 4 banger, so there were no flies on it so far as I was concerned. Anyway it had 12" tires and they'd go on sale for maybe $12.98 each. I could get 4 new tires for like $63 installed. Disc brake rotors were $15! One rotor for our 77 Chevy 3/4 Suburban was $168 by comparison.

.............Buckshot

wills
05-26-2005, 05:33 AM
2001 Ford Sport Trac - that one of those little things that looks like it is trying to be a pickup?

I had a little front drive mazda at one time and I put 110,000 on the back tires. Parts were expensive though - I think Mr. mazda must have brought them over from japan himself.

Ed Barrett
05-26-2005, 07:49 AM
[QUOTE=wills]



Now for cheap tires, I owned a Ford Fiesta for many years. Put 228K miles on that little 1.6L pushrod 4 banger, so there were no flies on it so far as I was concerned. Anyway it had 12" tires and they'd go on sale for maybe $12.98 each. I could get 4 new tires for like $63 installed. Disc brake rotors were $15! One rotor for our 77 Chevy 3/4 Suburban was $168 by comparison.

.............Buckshot

I have an '89 Ford festiva, I paid $4,000.00 for it new in Republic MO. I have put 211,000 miles on it. It's still peppy. I always liked putting new tires on it because it takes the tires that the "Starting at" prices show in the fine print. a couple of times they had to have the tires shipped in because they never sold any of those "little doughnuts" before. I was getting 40 miles to a gallon when gas was cheap and it felt good, now it's great.

NVcurmudgeon
05-26-2005, 08:12 AM
Ed, When I was an Exxon dealer, our sales reps taught us that the "start at" tire was "nailed to the floor." Their business depended heavily upon stepping the customer up to a more profitable tire. Salesmen who sold too many of the "start at" tires soon found themselves unemployed. It wasn't too difficult to compete with the big ad tire shops with oil company tires, but the biggest difficulty was getting the customer to believe it!

felix
05-26-2005, 08:14 AM
Ed, in my situation, using 4.9L Caddies the gas cost is minor compared to labor cost of repairs. I currently keep my mainstay total capital cost down to 500 bucks per year per car by buying these "new" tanks on ebay from folks having passed away in retirement homes for around 5K each. My three "new" cars have 40K miles on them and drive like new, but they needed new brakes, tires, radiators, etc. I havn't bought a new car since the 70's. Biggest drain on the pocketbook there is. I cannot possibly fall in love with the damn things. Worthless, all of them! But it beats living on the subway lines. ... felix

Poygan
05-26-2005, 08:54 AM
Felix,

I'm of the same mindset. I have a '92 Chev 4wd that, even with a six, only gets maybe 17MPG. But I only drive it 2500-3000 miles per year. And a truck is so handy.

When I was a budget counselor, one of the most difficult tasks was getting clients to see that the vehicles they were buying or leasing was killing them financially. I'd often quote from one of my favorite books, "The Millionaire Next Door", "Only 23.5 percent of millionaires own new cars". Perhaps there is a lesson here??

felix
05-26-2005, 10:02 AM
Poygan, I just figured it out from day 1 (1964), starting with my first car. Total is $1530 per year on average, and I currently have 6 cars running, 4 caddies, 1 trans am with 400, 1 cutlass with 403 (a hot wiskey running car for river excursions with a trunk full of guns and whatever). Four of these cars are 100 percent maintained.... felix