Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Calling All Cars

Guys and Gals,

I just put this in another thread, coffee talk. But thought it could use one of it's own...

Guys, for all you with great and unique cars, like "the thing", I'm going to be starting a new business and it's all about great and crazy cars, your bike, my Dart, Chevy Shoeboxes, anything and everything. But the first thing I need to get started is a great "stable" of cars to show to people.

How'd you like to have your car earn it's keep, go out and work for a living now and again, with reputable people who know how to care for it, are insured up the wazoo, and will pay for you (or your stand in like a family member or trusted friend) and your car for the day(s) that you are there for them to use it? And they know how to care for these things, they do it all the time. Heck I hope someone picks my Dart now and again and I can afford to pay for her to get a few more nice things. Heck sometimes these people may even pay for a few minor but needed extras. Like if you have modern BFG's on an old car but period correct is like whitewalls or red stripes.

So I've got to get a few things in place but I would really like folks to start sending me a few good pics of their cars. Like front, back, side shot and perhaps one or two interior shots. Then I'll be the middleman, talent agent for the cars. I used to be an old stagehand in my former life and so I sort of have my feet in both sides of this thing. I think it would be the perfect man for the job, I love cars and trucks, and I know a lot about the theater, TV, and advertising, some old connections to warm up.

So you never know who needs what when or where. These things happen all over the place, in every state. So start sending me those cars and trucks, people. Ya never know who needs what when. "calling all cars, calling all cars" "See your ride up in Headlights".....

I've got to do something since obviously primary care is never going to pay a decent living again... What a waste of time and money that was. "She should have gone to Cornell...."

Paul

I have a 1997 Chevy Cavelier rotting behind my house. I'm sure that doesn't really count. But that's all I've got that's even close to being old.

Oldie but Goodie? Not that hunk of CCHIT! It's just old and crappy.

But Adam you're really not that far off. There is this other guy who does this but in a real elitist, art gallery type fashion in NYC. And he just has a basic here's my business website. He doesn't have it setup to show off the stable. And this guy didn't have any regular yet unique stuff. He was calling the president of the Mid Atlantic Full Size Jeep Club because he hadn't a clue as to where to get some nice but old Full Sized, SJ Wagoneers and Cherokees. So in the end Bill our president posted a thread and a few of our members got used in a dept store ad shoot.

So yeah, I really want some of those regular but unique, like that "thing", my friends Jeeps and other lifted and modified trucks, custom and mod jobs and all the rest. For me this is a natural, it's all I want to do is talk cars. Now perhaps I could make a few bucks doing it, and every run and every show I go to now become a write off instead of an out of pocket expense.

But your car sounds like what was becoming of my poor old Jack, sitting there rotting out more and more until he was beyond help. It is the fate of our rides here in the rust belt.... Makes me so sad to think of it and now it is happening again to our '98 Grand Cherokee. It's rocker panels are really starting to get very bad...

I have a 2007 Chevy Impala SS that I lease via my medical office. Makes for a nice tax write off.
It's 5.3L, smart V8 (shuts off 4cyl when cruising speed), all leather interior, black paint, tinted windows, street racing tires, cruise control, sunroof, Bose stereo speaker system, tuned dual exhaust pipes.

It's f'ing AWESOME.

It's not exactly Green, or Eco-friendly. But it's fun! And I wanted a fun, ballsy car to have before all the gasoline in the planet is used up. Soon enough, we'll all be walking or riding the donkey...

Everybody thought I was crazy for keeping donkeys, but when the gas runs out, Adam's going to pay me big bucks for a steed.

Adam, they are tan with black stripes, four-hoof drive, and they are definitely eco-friendly!

Brian,
What about all that methane? Definitly a greenhouse gas. But ya gotta love that 4 hoof drive, even Jeep is having trouble besting it. And when is the last time you were on the trail and found some poor soul stranded because his donkey got "high sided" trying to go up and over a sharp hill and so needed to be strapped out? Now I think many of those horses have a better and higher "lift kit" for even better break over angles than the donkeys but hey I'm just an old fashioned internal combustion engine kind of guy.

Have a great night....

Brian,
Those donkeys sound kinda like zebras.
I think that would be so cool! Ride a zebra to work.
Realy changes that old medical proverb: when you hear hoofbeats, think horses not zebras.

Did you guys notice I'm only 6 posts away from the #7 spot and only 19 away from #6 spot?

Make that 5 and 18.....

4 and 17....

3 and 16....

ok this is cheating....

wait a minute Paul, is this ok? or are the AC authorities going to deny me these post counts?

I have a lot of Amish friends and when I left a big group to go solo 11 years ago they begged me to set up a practice in their community. I came very close to becoming a real "country doctor". I already had a Doctor's Buggy and the horse to pull it and, if I only had a moustache, I would have made a terrific Doc Adams. But, I was forced to decline because I just could not figure a way to make the mortgage payments on my farm with an income consisting entirely of chickens, quilts and rocking chairs. But won't they have the last laugh when the oil is gone and the country is in a deep recession. I might just change my mind and relearn German.

Leslie

Leslie,
I don't know what the heck you're talking about... Don't let those old fashoined clothes fool ya, those Amish folks are great business people and great craftsman. My brother-in-laws who are darn handy and half german too, tried to start a custom home rehab, cabinet and other great hand made stuff for the upper middle class type business, down in Lancaster PA. And do you know why it didn't take off? Because the my BIL Tom was the only person who didn't understand that two regular boys from NY would never be able to compete up against the likes of those Amish carpenters. Now granted Tommy is no business wizard and I tried to give him and Jon some advice on marketing, but none the less, those Amish and meninite folks are simply awesome at what they do.

I think you could have made a killing in a cash only, private practice that consisted of mainly those folks. Most are private contractors and other small businesses with little or no insurance who actually apperciate the old idea of a good days pay for a good days work.

And as for you Adam..... As an officially regisitered USA Hockey both Ice and In-Line official, yes this is certainly cheatching. I believe this falls under "unsportman like conduct", first offense is a two post penalty for the actual minor and a 10 post misconduct, this could also be ruled as "hitting from behind" which at open ice is also 2 and 10 under USA rules, or 5 and a game if into the "boards" or goal frame, second offense for unsportman like conduct is a five post penalty and a game misconduct which means you are ejected from the rest of the game and comes with an automatic next game suspension. So Vinny if you would, please dock Dr Adam 12 posts on the offical score sheet......

I'm gonna get running now as I'm sure Bert has already given you the short cut to my house so you can beat the snot out of me... Oh, and fighting is also five and a game with next game suspension too..... Now learn how to "earn" your post count young man! Bye!!!!!!!!!!!

Adam, don't you know it's not the quantity, but the quality (of the posts)????

It's not how you float your boat, it's the motion of the ocean.
It's not the size, but how you use it.
Size does not matter.......but everyone know that it DOES.
Silly girl

I know... we women have been using that line since time began, just to soothe your masculine egos! What we have to go thru to get a free dinner!

Get a thread you two... lol Hey what about actually getting me some decent cars for my new idea? Since Primary Care medicine obviously doesn't pay squat, Nancy and I certainly do need something to feed the kids and pay the morgage. Baby needs a new pair of shoes...

Come on out of all your docs out there, none of you have some really decent cars??? I'm even thinking about things like Adam's modern small block. You just never know who needs what, when and where...

Going back to the post. I used to always have a couple of cars, because at any time one of them was not running. I had a Dodge Dart, until some one ran into it. I had a Bug. But my favorites was the 240Z. A rust bucket, but a lot of fun. Had it for about 5 years. Bought the bug to drive in the winter but it was a mild winter and the Z had better heat, better gas milage and was a hell of a lot more fun. Later I had a 280Z but that one had problems. Got rid of it after a couple years. I have always yearned for a 300ZX and last year found one on EBay for a cheap price. I'm back in love again. My other cars are Hondas.

When the 240Z came out I had such lust for that car. I had a small savings and a serious need of more reliable wheels. I sat down with my Dad, in our living room, I can still picture him looking at me over the top of the paper. I built my case for that beautiful car. Ferrari inspired styling cues, the well balanced chassis, a resale value that would surely be so strong that I was assured I would double my money in 10 years. I thought I had him. He asked, "How much?" "$2,400" "And How much do you have?" "$1,700" And with that he said, "You don't have enough." and he raised the paper back in front of his face, ending the conversation. 2 months later I had a brand new 1970 Fiat 850 coupe which was I believe $1,600.

My 1st car was a 1984 subaru sedan. That's back in the day when the entire body of the car rusted out within a year but the engine would go for 300,000 miles or more. 4 years later, my second car was a 1983 subaru sedan. This was a Southern USA car and therefore its body was mint.

Howerver, the Maine winterized salty roads took care of that in short order. A couple of years later, I could touch the ground with my foot (and the doors were closed!) Also, the front seat rusted away from the floor boards. Heck, when the seat won't even remain stationary I guess it's time to dump the thing.

Sounds like what is quickly becoming of our first '98 Grand Cherokee right now. The passenger side rocker is in seriously bad shape. I was thinking of using a cutting wheel to cut out the entire rocker panel and then doing a reasonable POR-15 job in there, but now that it is able to show me the truth in there the stuff on the other side is dying too, so I'm not sure there is enough there to pull off a decent salvage, extend it a few more years kind of job.

I really wanted to wheel and winter rat the hell out of this one so as to 3 season the "newer" cleaner one of the same year and model I just scored. This new one look so nice and clean I shudder to think of driving it reguarly in the brine up here....

They say the cost of living here in CNY is very good which at first glance it is, but when your add our some of the highest property taxes in the country together with the fact that your cars last half as long as they could, it really is still mighty expensive to live here. Just looking at this new Jeep as compared to my first one, Same year and basic model; one is still solid as a rock while the other is starting to look like swiss cheese. At 30K for a new SUV, if you break that down over 5-6 years it really adds an extra 5K to your cost of living expenses, no less extra heating expenses too. And in Primary Care we can't afford another new car even if we wanted to, with two school aged kids, morgage, school and business debts to eat our meger earning. Sometimes I really do yearn to get the heck out of here, especially when I read some of the mid-western posts about all the wildlife and great scenary all while just driving to work....

Heart broken over our first new car's painful slow death,
Paul

Well, I bought my 240Z (in 1983) well past it's prime, paid $800 and ran it for 5 years, primarily because I found a good welder who kept the frame together despite the rust.

I too had several Subarus (remember I said I had 2-3 cars at a time) wonderful cars. Took then engine out of one when it rusted to pieces and put it in one of the others.

My 300ZX that I bought last year is a 1993 with 160K on it, runs better than a lot of 3-4 year old cars. My Honda's are 4 and 6 years old but unlike my 1977 Honda, they don't rust and they just keep on running.

I'm in Chicago and we use enough salt to turn Lake Michigan into an ocean. Lately the cars have been holding up to it well.

What ever happened to the "rich doctors" that traded cars every 2-3 years?

Rich (in money) doctors are the cardiologists, anesthesiologists, cardiothoracic surgeons.

Truly rich (in spiritual reward, good works, and morality) doctors are the FP's, IM's, and Ped's who are holding the hands of the masses. We don't need the traded in cars, the big homes, the outward signs of financial success. Sure it must be fun to be financially well endowed, and who wouldn't refuse loads of money? But those who have more, have more to lose.

Really, who can boast for making money from the medically ill and emotionally vulnerable? Some in our profession need some humility. Maybe some of those "rich" doctors could walk in the shoes of a PCP-->Primary Care Physician (not Provider, I disdain that term). Maybe if they put in the long hours, and the small monetary rewards.....perhaps, just perhaps they would remember what medicine is about.

At risk of ostracising my specialty colleagues, they really do not understand what it is like to be a PCP. I have encountered rare exceptions who were actually in primary care then later became specialists. These folks can actually understand our lives.

But I maintain that OUR rewards will not be of this earth: "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:19-21.

Your last line resonates with me so much. This is what I keep saying. I was haunting the NAGCA website for about 9 months waiting for the right one to come along. There were a few really nice looking 5.9 limiteds that came along, and those are the absolute top of the breed, made only that final year of the first generation ZJ models. But they were all fairly far away and so the amount of lost time and the expense of traveling at least a whole day each way just to kiss a possible frog kept me from really moving on any of them, until this one came here to me here in CNY but an hour away in Rochester.

But I was haunting that website forever competing with kids almost half my age who were shopping for a decent daily driver that they could lift and wheel. Meanwhile I'm the spouse of a real working doc who is many years out of school and residency shopping for our other second regular car. Most of the time now when I see a ZJ Grand Cherokee the person driving it is between the ages of like 17 and the mid twenties. This is the car that mom and dad are handing down to their seniors in high school or their college aged kids as their first real car. And here I am as both a fan of the breed as well as the spouse of a struggling solo FP driving the same darn thing... This should be one of my "hobby" cars, not what I almost have to get to replace a slowly fading daily driver....

It was really nice to find a Jeep that was just exactly what I wanted, but I also found it very depressing and dishearening too. It's like Nancy and I haven't really made any progress at all. These are simply the well appointed, modern four wheel drive version of our old Dodge Darts that I used to buy real cheap (about $500 bucks) throw about the same into them tightening up a few of their issues and then drive the wheels off of them until the engine had so much blow-by and the plugs fouled so regularly that it just wasn't worth it. Just better to get the next one.

We too tend to own more than one for each of us too. And part of the reason I always like to have at least one extra is it is way cheaper to keep an extra vehicle so one can be laid up now and again until I can find the time or the parts to fix it myself, then to have to make payments that are way out of your league because we still have at least that much med school debt to pay every month, no less business and morgage too.

I think one day many, many years from now after the collapse of the American Empire we are going to look back on days like now and see them like the industrial revolution, the railroad barrons, and other dark days that we think we are so far ahead of now. Back in the early 21st century when we all blindly served our multi-national and Insurance industry corporate masters, when doctors had to buy 10 year old used cars with over 100K on their clocks and send their spouses to the driveway to repair them. This is simply unreal, really remind me why Nancy and I postponed so much and did without, for the absolute lie of some payday sometime off in the future...

Well the future is here now and we are barely much better off than we were before this whole dance started back around 1991. We own a decent home, but it is much like our cars, many years old and needs just about everything, half a roof, a fence, siding and better insulation, windows the whole nine yards, and we have no idea how we are going to afford to pay for any of this. We just hang in there and try to hold on day by day. "She should have gone to Cornell.....

PS: this should be post number 999, sort of makes me feel a little like "The Great One", I'm on the verge of reaching a proffesional milestone....

Congrats Paul
Welcome to the coveted Millenium Club.

(The Mile High Club is still better though),

Yes but are you really congradulating me or are you simply trying to boost your own post count while trying to look like a good sport???

I'm dead, definitely dead for sure... Everyone hates the refs....

But seriously thanks for the thumbs up...
Have a good night....

Paul,
I'm not trying to boost my count.

Seriously, I'm not.

I mean, really I'm not...

Totally serious, I'm not trying to boost my numbers

I'm not sure you believe me Paul.

How come? Why won't you believe me Paul?

O.K., O.K... I'm sure this isn't looking so good, but I'm not boosting numbers.

You aren't worried are you?, You've only got a 700 point lead on me. It will surely take me a few years to catch up. Won't it?

Oh, I was far from complaining about the life of a PCP. Thus is the path we have chosen. Besides, I have my 300zx, I just waited 14 years to get it. I never seriously considered it at 35K anyway.

P.S. Congratulations Paul
I only have about 920 to catch up with you.
And no, I'm not padding my numbers either.

Sorry Wendell, I did not mean to imply you were complaining. I am so passionate about family medicine and Osteopathy, that I look for venues to talk about these topics or primary care medicine in general.

No hard feelings, I hope.