Extra Vehicle Capacity

[Wyldesoul]

Originally Posted by maximilian

This thread's never getting back to improving the rental system, is it?

Hehe! Not with the post you just did, no!

[GasSavers_maximilian]

See? Not being able to resist going off-topic: I'm free to do it, but it's certainly not admirable! hehe

[GasSavers_NovaResource]

Something like you suggest does exist in certain areas of the country:
http://www.zipcar.com/
http://www.citycarshare.org/
http://www.phillycarshare.org/
http://www.carsharing.net/
http://www.austincarshare.org/
and dozens more. Do a Google Search on "carshare"

[GasSavers_maximilian]

Thanks! Craigslist has a rideshare section, although it's really basic (just an online classified ad, really).

[theholycow]

Originally Posted by dkjones96

I am, however, 23 and unable to rent without paying big fees on top of the outrageous price for a days worth of renting an SUV.

I was unaware that you could do that. I thought no amount of extra fees made it possible for someone under 25 to rent.

Age milestones...
12: Buying black-market/illegal drugs
14: Age of sexual consent in some states
16: Trusted not to kill others, with any amount of horsepower in vehicles weighing up to 26,000 pounds
18: Allowed to buy cigarettes and guns, drive any kind of vehicle and operate any kind of equipment, tried as an adult for any crime, trusted with military-issued machine guns/airplanes/artillery/trucks/tanks/etc
21: Allowed to drink alcohol
25: Allowed to rent a car

I see that our priorities are in order.

It would probably be good for the economy if age discrimination for car rental was made illegal. How many people get married under 25 and go on a honeymoon in Bermuda or Aruba instead of Florida or Hawaii because they couldn't rent a car in the US?

[theholycow]

Originally Posted by VetteOwner

its the suburbia USA people who are afraid to go thru a puddle in thier 4wd huge suv thats its designed to do and then some

There is a moderately large frost heave (bump in the road caused by expanding ice) on my commute. It's smooth except at its peak and not so large that I catch air going over it or worry about damaging the VW. Imagine my surprise when a person driving a Ford Expedition (SUV built on full-size pickup platform) comes to almost a complete stop to get over it...

I hate that. Speed up, when you fly over it you'll feel it less. Don't slow down, especially in a TRUCK! Big, soft tires and loads of ground clearance...

[dkjones96]

Originally Posted by theholycow

I was unaware that you could do that. I thought no amount of extra fees made it possible for someone under 25 to rent.

Most larger chains say 25 and won't let you rent under that but there are a couple who will let someone in their early 20s rent for business use. Independently owned rental places are usually your best bet for renting a vehicle under 25.

We have a Zipcar system here. They have 3 Honda Civic Hybrids, a Toyota Sienna, and a Mini Cooper. It's a really cool system and if I was a full time student that only worked part-time near the school and such I'd do it in a heartbeat.

[GasSavers_BEEF]

dk,

you are exactly the candidate that I am talking about. you have your SUV which is fine but you use it for your daily commute. if you were to buy a $1500 car for your daily commute, several things would happen.

1-the cost of gas would go down as the car would possibly get twice the mileage
2-your SUV would (in theory) last longer because of less mileage
3-the cost of upkeep would go down because the upkeep on the car should be less than the SUV.
4-if you did want to make the SUV a HP demon, you wouldn't have to worry about mileage on it as you use is secondarily (my new word for the day)

there is the having to put a tag on it and get insurance for it thing. if you play your cards right, it may not cost that much or may even be cheaper. if you have full coverage on the Rango. put the crap car as your primary vehicle with liability only and the Rango as your secondary vehicle with full coverage. it may actually come out cheaper.

just a suggestion.

[VetteOwner]

Originally Posted by theholycow

There is a moderately large frost heave (bump in the road caused by expanding ice) on my commute. It's smooth except at its peak and not so large that I catch air going over it or worry about damaging the VW. Imagine my surprise when a person driving a Ford Expedition (SUV built on full-size pickup platform) comes to almost a complete stop to get over it...

I hate that. Speed up, when you fly over it you'll feel it less. Don't slow down, especially in a TRUCK! Big, soft tires and loads of ground clearance...

oh dont get me started on that, in my area theres a stetch of exremely expensive houses(like $400,000+) and people were driving too fast on thier street so they got the city to put speed humps or traffic calming, its like a huge flat speedbump. the speed limits 30 and you can take them doing that and then some but no people in the tahoes exlorers and whatnot slow down to 15 slowly creep over em and then gun it...

[VetteOwner]

Well, if you have a family or become so injured that you wind up on public disability or just have large medical expenses that raise other people's health insurance premiums, then it wouldn't just be your problem, right?

isnt that true with huge suv's hitting economy cars too?

Imagine if everyone had to independently verify which medicines did more good than bad and that snake oil was still legal to peddle. It'd be chaos. In fact, we don't have to imagine: it WAS chaos. Throw in the fact that parents might give dangerous things to their kids and the issue of personal responsibility becomes much more thorny.

lol dont they still? look at all the drugs that cure a simple thing then have side affects of death...

lol anything can be dangerous to a kid, if it can be put in mouth, over head, be light enough to pick up and throw, fall over, fall on, fall down, etc...its called being a parent and SUPERVISING your kids, not just tell em to go do this while your off in another room or outside doing stuff (untill a certian age when the kid knows right from wrong) speaking of which, they need to bring back paddling i think...getting a detention is like saying you did bad now sit here and think about what you did (which was probably hilarious). now if a threat of getting smacked on the *** with a 1X3 board wellll

There's also a false assumption that we should not impinge on access until there is iron clad evidence that something is harmful, but this is not how rational risk management is done. What matters is the expected harm, which is probability * consequences. If you wait until it is 100% likely that the flood waters will come, it's too late to build the levies. You cannot pretend that uncertainty does not exist. This is the real world and uncertainty must be managed.

speaking of levies and PREVENTATIVE maintenance...(New Orleans 2005 ring a bell? lol)

Please don't overgeneralize what I'm about to say and take it as a personal attack or anything. I think there's a little confusion between being free to do something and being admired for doing something. People are perfectly free to talk with their mouths full, eat junk food and never exercise, work a job they hate to buy crap they don't need, wear tacky clothing, not bathe regularly, neglect saving for the future, believe in Santa, or just be rude. That doesn't mean other people have to respect them for it. They're free not to!

lol and were free to sue whatever the heck we want when we hurt our retarded selves
some of the ones i remember is:

the lady who burnt herself with coffee then sued mc donalds (no crap its coffee its HOT)

burgler who sued the homeowner whos house he was robbing because he cut himself on a broken window that he broke (he won the case)