Philip,

Exactly. I remember when I started college, I was still living in a little town that was halfway between two bigger cities. Work was a good 30 minute drive away on roads where 50mph would get you a decent ticket. I started out driving what I could afford... a hand me down Lincoln (which was reliable but I could barely afford to do anything other than go to work and come home, thanks to 6-8mpg) to a $2K 1984 Tbird that got a regular 23mpg, but also taught me how to do a 15 minute water pump change, since it went through FIVE of them. Eventually I ended up in a $1K '91 dodge shadow that was someone's work car, a painter, and had been sitting with the windows open... I stripped everything out but the seats and drove that for a couple years, and am shocked I'm not deaf (you couldn't hold a conversation on the highway, even with the windows up, and the exhaust was in perfect shape).

If back in 1996 I had a shot at co-financing $4K and getting something like this, that I knew was going to be frugal and if not decently reliable then at least SIMPLE (I also got to learn quite a bit about what an EEC-IV does when the sensors misread, but not out of range enough to identify themselves) I'd have jumped on it in a heartbeat.

The world would have missed out on a system administrator that knows engines and control systems inside and out, but I'd have had a hell of a lot easier time with the college years. I'd have missed on dumping the entire transmission's worth of Mercon all over another evil employer's parking lot, having to change a broken belt on the shadow in the parking lot in my good work clothes, learning how to limp the shadow home from a long trip with a blown head gasket, stopping every 10 minutes to bleed the gasses out of the radiator, finding a dealership that was open on a saturday in the middle of nowhere Wisconson, willing to reattach the Tbird's power steering pump to it's mount, the day I figured out that the shadow had stuck one half of both rear slave cylinder pistons in their bores and forced the other halves out of the bore, figuring out that a "stuck" temp sensor on the EEC-IV will cause the car not to start when hot (flooding, car thought it was -20F when it was 80 degrees), learning that Chrysler 2.2 engines have a bad habit of rotten bushings tilting the alternator enough to throw belts... I'd have been peacefully tootling along in my tiny runabout instead, knowing that most days I'll make it to work or class without too much worry.

I'm still somewhat leery about having a car with no warranty, especially now that I live in a somewhat urban neighborhood and haven't the huge yard and garage space (and no neighbors to complain about a mess) to work on anything big anymore.

This will be a slam-dunk for the rural areas of the country. Little cities with scores of interconnecting state highways with speed limits of at most 55mph, where work can be 30 or more miles away, every day.... to be able to drop $4K on a car with a WARRANTY that gets 40 or 50mpg sounds like a no-brainer to this pragmatist.

Sign me and snuffalapagus right the heck up.

Seriously, been looking at hi-cap media players since the 80Gb iPods were introduced and I've finally started saving my pennies for one of the S9 models.

Ok Stan.

We should also put an end to operas and live concerts. They serve no purpose since people can get exactly the same thing from a DVD or MP3.

There's also no purpose for having a car that can do 160mph. All cars are now speed limited to 90mph and may not hit 60mph from a dead stop any faster than 8 seconds.

You pull a "no purpose" argument and you're dreading on very very dangerous ground, Mr. Stalin.

Please?

Oh, I'd *love* to get my hands on one of these.

I don't think the metal levels will be so high in american, or perhaps as well australian wines.

See, WWI and WWII weren't fought in our vinyards...

NO.

Look closely at the photos of the undercarriage in the rear... the leaves are bolted directly to the frame with allen-head bolts that look far too small.

One good sized bump at speed and the rear axle is going bye-bye.

Shallow, petty BS. And I'm not talking about the w(h)ine.

Well, if you've used the baking soda to loosen the shell, just roll the egg on the counter with some pressure to shatter the shell. It should peel off attached to the membrane easy-peasy, no picking.