John in LA writes….
My neighbor tried trading in his $67k 2007 Escalade (showroom perfect with 12k miles on it) for a $32k Prius, no dealer in LA would give him $32k for his Escalade – no matter what else he tried to buy.
Older Prius values hold up 100% of original value. Currently Prius owners refuse to sell. And a new Prius takes about 2 weeks before you take delivery – showrooms have no inventories left of older or newer.
Seems like Detroit has disastered itself – how can anyone expect to sell used models in a gas-crunched environment? This is an ENORMOUS hit to consumers not to mention consumers are being forced to pay off ridiculous car loans as they are. So between homes and vehicles gone upside down add on highest gas ooperating costs and governments trying to invent new fees and taxes…Whaa??
Sounds like a doomsday scenario — add in any form of natural disaster and expect evacuation routes to be free of ordinary congestion so you can speed away at 60 mph — fahgetdaboutit — u will die in place — even governemtal aid vehicles can’t get through all this stuff on the road – remember Katrina’s scenario or even Charlie in Florida? Insurance companies won’t save you either..your premiums are being paid to deaf ears, my friend.
We are totally stalemated and checkmated — whole families, communities, local governments, can all perish like fish shot in a barrel. You CAN’T move. Traffic that can move with little or no refuel stoppings at already-dry gas stations is a “maybe best” scenario until enough bozos clog enough roads with accidents then alll fails. Even hospital emergency generators run out of fuel including your Honda geberator in your garage.
Congress voted their biggest pay raise ever over 2 years ago – instead of a 5 day work week they scaled it down to 3 — yup, THREE! And maybe a little bit of real work is done on Wednsday which amounts to only about 50 congressional workdays per year and not what the public would expect for their tax dollars = 250 workdays per year.
Another doomsday scenario carefully contrived by our own federal government! Think I’ll just go outside and stare at the sun….