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I liked what I did/do because it was all new sports cars and aftermarket modifications. Not changing the headgaskets on an old buick or whatever. The only problem was management. We had the owner of the shop (who started out as the mechanic and inherited it), just decided to take off and go work at a dealership during the day, leaving myself, the accounting girl, and the IT/web guy. So me and the girl are pretty much running the place, and it starts doing well enough for the owner to come back and sit in his office watching movies all day. About this time the girl left and we had a new mechanic so I wasn't working on cars often. But then for some reason he stops trusting all of us, trying to micromanage everything, and it suddenly became a really lovely place to work. So now I'm just in montana riding bikes and selling parts deciding if I want to make the commitment of moving to somewhere near race tracks and opening up my own facility.
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Feb 2, 2015 00:58
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| # ? May 11, 2024 17:06 |
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wallaka posted:"Don't stick your dick in the crazy" Frankly this is way more important than job advice because it's so tempting yet so devastating. Or so I've heard.
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Feb 2, 2015 02:11
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Motronic posted:Frankly this is way more important than job advice because it's so tempting yet so devastating. I want to buy a Biturbo.
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Feb 2, 2015 02:14
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OFFICER 13 INCH posted:I want to buy a Biturbo. This falls under some other advice I've heard. "You can't fix stupid."
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Feb 2, 2015 03:22
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A Melted Tarp posted:It's styling was polarizing Although it still only takes third place after the Fiat Multipla and Nissan Cube.
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Feb 2, 2015 03:59
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wallaka posted:I wonder that myself after watching my old man do it for almost 40 years now. The only two pieces of advice he ever gave me were "Don't stick your dick in the crazy" and "Don't be a loving mechanic." Your dad is a smart guy. I work on my own poo poo and sometimes my friends. Not doing that for pay ever again. At least quicklube work was hourly, and freelance stuff I did, I usually let my customers set their price, which meant everyone came out pretty happy since they didn't pay shop rate and I certainly made more than what shops pay. I will stick to selling 46re/47re/48re dodge horrible mechanical failure repair kits from now on - aka nv4500 manual transmissions to swap in  the profit margin on those ridiculous because after two or three slushbox rebuilds at a couple grand each, bro truckers often start getting a little more willing to blow a grand on a junkyard transmission to install so it never happens again.
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Feb 2, 2015 04:33
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Collateral Damage posted:That's a very diplomatic way of saying ugly as sin. There is a pretty amusing reddit thread which asked "PT Cruiser owners, what tragedy burdened you with your car?". Most of them were inherited. My grandfather loving loved his but my father and uncle sold that poo poo ASAP after he died. Nobody in the family wanted it.
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Feb 2, 2015 04:39
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Ugh, my 17 year old cousin crashed hers, and I was like "sweet, now you can get a car that doesn't suck." She bought another one.
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Feb 2, 2015 04:53
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jamal posted:Ugh, my 17 year old cousin crashed hers, and I was like "sweet, now you can get a car that doesn't suck." She bought another one. They'll have to run out eventually, right?
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Feb 2, 2015 05:01
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I flat out dont understand people who buy PT's and HHR's. It is what it is I guess. They break all the time which keeps me employed tho so I'm whatever about them.
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Feb 2, 2015 05:04
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They stopped making them in 2010, so it will be a long time before they disappear.
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Feb 2, 2015 05:08
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Teens buy PT Cruisers because they're cheap as dirt because all the sane people who have inherited one try to dump them.
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Feb 2, 2015 05:09
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I wonder how well the Fiat Multipla would have sold in the U.S..
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Feb 2, 2015 05:12
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Platystemon posted:I wonder how well the Fiat Multipla would have sold in the U.S.. Rebranded as a Chrysler of course.
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Feb 2, 2015 05:19
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Ron Pauls Friend posted:Rebranded as a Chrysler of course. Shhhhhh... Don't give them ideas to bring back the pt cruiser name. I laughed quite a bit when one (pt) made an appearance on breaking bad.
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Feb 2, 2015 05:48
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Shifty Pony posted:There is a pretty amusing reddit thread which asked "PT Cruiser owners, what tragedy burdened you with your car?". Most of them were inherited. Past Transgressions Cruiser is now my new favorite name for this shitbox. I'd also like to go on record as saying that Cruiser and HHR thoroughly disprove the ideal the Manual = Better. Holy poo poo are those extra lovely cars.
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Feb 2, 2015 05:54
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Slavvy posted:Why does anyone in the US ever bother to get a job working on cars? Seriously. The whole system sounds unbelievably dysfunctional. Don't work on cars, don't drive a rig, and don't loving cook for a living. Three bits of advice my Dad gave me, too bad I only listened to the first two.
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Feb 2, 2015 06:11
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ExplodingSims posted:Past Transgressions Cruiser is now my new favorite name for this shitbox. I ended up renting an HHR once. I decided that HHR was the noise you make while driving it. A sort of heavy, resigned, back-of-the-throat sigh of disgust.
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Feb 2, 2015 06:52
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ExplodingSims posted:I'd also like to go on record as saying that Cruiser and HHR thoroughly disprove the ideal the Manual = Better. Holy poo poo are those extra lovely cars. The PR Cruiser was classed as a light truck and brought up the fuel economy averages for Chrysler so they promoted the poo poo out of it to offset Dodge. Not sure if the HHR was the same deal for GM or not. Same guy was lead designer on both, though, Nesbitt left Chrysler and worked at GM.
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Feb 2, 2015 07:20
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Midjack posted:The PR Cruiser was classed as a light truck and brought up the fuel economy averages for Chrysler so they promoted the poo poo out of it to offset Dodge. Not sure if the HHR was the same deal for GM or not. Same guy was lead designer on both, though, Nesbitt left Chrysler and worked at GM. Both were built on the respective company's compact econobox platform, just imagine what he could've done if he had gone to Ford instead... 
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Feb 2, 2015 07:35
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Root Bear posted:Both were built on the respective company's compact econobox platform, just imagine what he could've done if he had gone to Ford instead... The Focus already had a hatchback and ugly wagon, he wouldn't have had anything to do.
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Feb 2, 2015 07:56
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Preoptopus posted:I flat out dont understand people who buy PT's and HHR's. It is what it is I guess. They break all the time which keeps me employed tho so I'm whatever about them. The HHR is essentially a stretched out Cobalt, which is actually a reliable, if not really boring, car (certainly far better than a Cavalier). But the HHR is definitely WAY too heavy for the engine, suspension, and well, the entire platform. The Cobalt/Ion/G5 don't have much power to begin with (~140 hp for most years with the most common engine [2.2L]); stick a faux truck/van body on it and it's even slower. ExplodingSims posted:I'd also like to go on record as saying that Cruiser and HHR thoroughly disprove the ideal the Manual = Better. Holy poo poo are those extra lovely cars. Nobody ever accused the Getrag F23 they stuck in the manual HHR (and Cobalt/G5/Ion) as being "refined". More like "rowing through a box full of gravel for every shift". The F23 is already pretty close to its limit in terms of power and weight before the HHR's extra heft. I've driven an automatic Cobalt, and it was miserable in every way possible, with a transmission that just hated doing what you actually wanted it to do. I own an Ion now, which is basically the same car, but with a 5 speed manual, and it's... not the most exciting car to drive, but far more fun to drive than the rental automatic Cobalt I had. Not defending the HHR, just defending the engine/gearbox combo on the manual. I can't really speak for the automatic, I assume it's the same lovely 4T45 GM used in every other GM 4 cylinder of that era.
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Feb 2, 2015 08:01
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Root Bear posted:Both were built on the respective company's compact econobox platform, just imagine what he could've done if he had gone to Ford instead... Volvo 40-series utes. 
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Feb 2, 2015 08:10
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Preoptopus posted:I flat out dont understand people who buy PT's and HHR's. It is what it is I guess. They break all the time which keeps me employed tho so I'm whatever about them. I have a friend absolutely adores hers; she's a yoga-vegan-hippy freak (who's somehow actually really tolerable and sweet) so I guess a terrible piece of poo poo car that she has formed an attachment to just makes sense.
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Feb 2, 2015 16:58
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My wife ( Girlfriend at the time ) bought a brand new PT cruiser in '07. It had a penchant for randomly going into limp mode after about 2-3 hours of operation. We even went through the lemon law steps yet the dealership people never seemed to find the issue. Ended up trading it in and getting reamed.
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Feb 2, 2015 17:24
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Feb 2, 2015 21:07
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Where is that?
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Feb 2, 2015 21:09
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Norway, I believe. http://www.newsinenglish.no/2015/02/02/bridge-collapses-on-e18-highway/
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Feb 2, 2015 21:11
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Platystemon posted:I wonder how well the Fiat Multipla would have sold in the U.S.. New from Pontiac - the Aztek II! Little known fact - this was the title of the last ever press release from Pontiac before they were abolished.
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Feb 2, 2015 21:41
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Saga posted:New from Pontiac - the Aztek II! The production like that made the Aztek was re-tooled to make the
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Feb 2, 2015 21:45
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Saga posted:New from Pontiac - the Aztek II! My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Pontiac forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.
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Feb 2, 2015 21:47
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Wasabi the J posted:I have a friend absolutely adores hers; she's a yoga-vegan-hippy freak (who's somehow actually really tolerable and sweet) so I guess a terrible piece of poo poo car that she has formed an attachment to just makes sense. Stockholm syndrome.
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Feb 2, 2015 21:54
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I loving love my Multipla 
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Feb 2, 2015 22:07
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I for one welcome Chrysler's new Italian overlords. They can't make the brand any less reliable after all.
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Feb 2, 2015 22:14
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Yeah you guys are doing some major conflation here. The multipla is a good car, especially by Italian standards, it's just ugly.
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Feb 2, 2015 22:15
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Slavvy posted:Yeah you guys are doing some major conflation here. The multipla is a good car, especially by Italian standards, it's just ugly. I don't mind it. It has a front bench seat. Outside of a Falcon ute, how many vehicles can say that these days?
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Feb 2, 2015 22:42
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Honda Edix and competing vehicles have front benches too. They're all 3+3 from what I've seen.
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Feb 3, 2015 00:37
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Geirskogul posted:Wait, there's people that like the vulcan I like the one in my ranger. 
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Feb 3, 2015 00:59
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Cakefool posted:I loving love my Multipla Remember how the design and tooling were all sold to a Chinese company a few years ago? Well that project actually came to fruition and there's a fleet of electric Chinese Multipla taxis in the town where I live. I ride in one almost every day and they are pretty spacious. The sliding doors don't really hold up to taxi duty though, and the electric drivetrains a pretty awful, but none of those are the Multipla's fault.
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Feb 3, 2015 01:07
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| # ? May 11, 2024 17:06 |
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  Snow + Violent Wheel Hop + Stuck under a trailer + Power Divider = Goodbye U-joint. It was a fun day at work!
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Feb 3, 2015 01:13
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