posted
How old is that Pepsi cup in your front seat?
I just bought a brand new Pontiac Vibe this weekend. It's nothing special, just the base model with very few options, but it's my very first and likely only new car.
I say only, because I'm terrified to take it out of the garage. Someone will scratch it, pee on it, try to break into it... whatever. Now... I keep it in my garage, so the odds of anything happening to it along the lines of little piss-ants breaking into it are remote. But yes... people are moronic and will somehow find a way to bend us all over.
posted
I bought a 2005 Toyota Corolla S and I've had a mad mom in a mini-van ding the back passenger side door already in three places. Imagine my joy...
I would suggest that next time LOA that you leave nothing inside your car... keep it spotless and perhaps people will think twice about breaking into a car that looks to have of nothing in value. Then again if you have a custom stereo or head unit that might not work.
-------------------- "It speaks to some basic human needs: that there is a tomorrow, it's not all going to be over with a big splash and a bomb, that the human race is improving, that we have things to be proud of as humans." -Gene Roddenberry about Star Trek
Registered: May 1999
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posted
For the record, the car was NOT messy like that when I left it that night.
That cup was from dinner on the way home that night. And it was in the cupholder when I left the car.
The red bag is a gym bag.
I had a migraine that night, and didn't take everything in with me like normal. That's why I didn't wake up when they did it... normally I would have heard ALL of the noise they made, but i was on narcotic strength pain medication that night. It wasn't the stuff in my car that attracted them though. Like, not the stuff on the seats - I had my flute and my piccolo in the car, worth THOUSANDS of dollars, and the thieves didn't touch them.
They knew what they wanted, and it happened to be my stereo. And normally my car is spotless. It HAS to be! With the amount of money I've put into that thing, there's no excuse for a mess, and if I let it slide even a BIT, one of the stereo guys in town is all over me about it...
Colorage: I have $2500 worth of rims and tires on my Protege, and custom painting on the inside. Anyone can tell that time and money has gone into the car, whether there are personal contents in there or not.
TSN: If I'd had a good alarm that was harder to disable, then *I* would have heard it. Even if no one else cared. I mean, it was parked right outside of my bedroom window. Even with the medication, if the alarm had gone off, I'd have heard it. But the one I had only had one wire to be clipped, and they did that quite well.
Okay, lunch. Food is good. See yas!
And congrats on the new cars, those of you that have purchased! Enjoy!
posted
I love my garage. I will never own a home without a garage. Never ever. When I was in college, I never had a garage and it was hell on my car. And my nerves. We'd have people walk through our parking at night slashing tires and busting windows and all kinds of other worthless crap.
posted
Just out of interest, how easy is it to remove the stereo unit from the dash? We're selling our car this Thursday and we want to keep our Xplod CD/radio. We have the little key things, and I assume it's easy enough to disconnect the wires once the unit's out. . . Or should we just pop into a car audio place and get them to whip it out for us?
It's pretty easy to take the deck out, if you have the tools to do it. I mean, every car is different, but most of the time there's just a trim piece that goes around your aftermarket deck that you'd want to pop off to get to where the deck is attached. Some decks use keys, other decks just "click" in, and some have little levers you push to eject the unit from the dash. However yours is set up, you just eject it, and then unplug the wiring harness and any aux input or RCA's you have plugged in, and you should be set to go. The tricky part is if you want to put the factory deck back in.... you'll most likely have to change the wiring harness, which will require some slicing and splicing...
If that's the case, take it to the stereo shop. It'll probably cost ya about $50, but they'll have all of the stuff necessary and be able to hook ya up with very little trouble.
posted
Well, we still have the original Mitsubishi stereo. Thing was, this car was a new Jap import, and the frequencies on the stereo were different. Plus we didn't exactly have any tapes to play anymore, so we thought we'd just replace it with a new CD player. Turns out the original had had a converter fitted. . . We'll likely just leave the original in the boot, er, trunk, and leave it up to whoever buys it if they want to re-install it or put something newer and better in themselves.
posted
I'm not sure why people act surprised when insurance companies give them a good hard fucking. I mean, that's what they do. They get you to pay them as much money as possible, while they try to pay out as little as possible. That's the very nature of an insurance company. They exist, not to protect you, but to make a profit. Seriously, you don't need to be nearly as cynical as I am to understand that.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I understand them being in the business to make money, the problem is, they're mandated by law. If you want to drive in the US in most areas, you *have* to have insurance. The goverment requires you to purchase the service, but gives little to no assistance in making sure they provide what you're forced to pay for.
"The goverment requires you to purchase the service, but gives little to no assistance in making sure they provide what you're forced to pay for."
Well, good luck trying to change the government. As of three weeks ago, we've proved they can do pretty much absolutely anything, and the same people still get elected.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
A necessary evil. I've given Progressive enough money to repair my car, but if I go to a body shop and get a quote to tell Progressive they'll inform to shove it up my ass since there's no way they will use the money I've given them to pay for the damage. Begging the question, "What exactly am I paying insurance for if I can't use it?" And then again, as I said before, if your insurance company actually does work for you, they raise your rates as if to say, "How dare you try to use a service you've paid for! Just for making us use your money to pay for damage to your car we're going to start asking for more!"
As you can tell, I have such a low regard for insurance companies.
-------------------- I'm slightly annoyed at Hobbes' rather rude decision to be much more attractive than me though. That's just rude. - PsyLiam, Oct 27, 2005.
Registered: May 1999
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