From the Courier News:
New Jersey real estate trends don’t mirror national patterns
As the real estate market seems to be stabilizing nationally and the number of foreclosed homes across the country fell for the fourth straight month, according to Realty Trac, closer examination of local markets shows that New Jersey is not following that trend.
While New Jersey’s statewide foreclosure rate is 0.03 percent — a third of the national rate — Realty Trac, a national company that tracks real estate statistics indicates that the number of people behind on their mortgage payments is not falling every month. In fact, New Jersey figures for July through October are significantly higher than numbers for fourth-quarter 2008 and first-quarter 2009.
HARD-HIT PROPERTIES: While there are foreclosures in every town, communities with the densest populations and oldest housing stock – the more urbanized areas – have been hit hardest. In Central Jersey, the number of homes receiving foreclosure notices is about three times higher in Middlesex County than the combined number in Somerset and Hunterdon counties. Middlesex County also has more urban centers and a higher population than Somerset and Hunterdon counties.
…
Several reasons exist for the higher foreclosure rates in Middlesex County:First, the least affluent homeowners live in the most urbanized areas, where housing has traditionally been less expensive because the homes are older and built closer together.
“Those owners are the least likely to have savings if they lose their job,” Crivello said.
Second, when the economy weakened, the jobs that disappear first are the lower-paying service and retail jobs that these homeowners were likely to have, according to Jeffrey Otteau, chief executive officer of Otteau Valuation Group, an appraisal company in East Brunswick that also studies industry trends and market forces.
Third, many of these homeowners were given subprime loans or no-documentation loans, mortgages that carried significantly more risk.
…
ames Hughes, dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, pointed out that the key to stabilizing the housing market is a stable employment outlook — and New Jersey’s employment picture has been in decline for some time.The state’s unemployment rate, at 9.7 percent, remains just below the national figure, but New Jersey will this decade with fewer jobs than when it started in 2000. The recession has only worsened the situation.
“Since the recession started in January 2008, we’ve lost 179,400 jobs,” Hughes said.
The prospects for job growth in New Jersey are not good, either. The state is losing high-paying jobs and replacing them with very low-paying jobs. In fact, from 2005 to 2008, household income has declined here, at a rate 100 times greater than the national average, according to Otteau.
“New Jersey is not attractive to business because of our high cost of living and of doing business, our high taxes and our restrictive practices,” Otteau said. Some of those practices relate to environmental, zoning and building regulations, among others.
first???
FIRST!
Third!
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/12182009/watch.html
Matt Taibbi
Robert Kuttner on Bill Moyers
About 32 minutes
Nothing else matters when a state has proximity to NYC.
Lies! All Lies!!!
(I jest)
Crushing Burden of Debt
A crushing burden of debt threatens to sap America’s growth for years to come. Please consider Trillions Of Troubles Ahead.
Not too long ago, a billion dollars in a governmental budget was a lot of money. Then we got into hundreds of billions. People understood that this was a lot, just because of all the zeros. Now, unfortunately, the number has become small: the world “trillion,” as in $1.2 trillion for health care reform, seems so tiny. But it has 12 zeroes behind it, which is so easy to forget.
The total public debt is now at 141% of GDP. That puts the United States in some elite company–only Japan, Lebanon and Zimbabwe are higher. That’s only the start. Add household debt (highest in the world at 99% of GDP) and corporate debt (highest in the world at 317% of GDP, not even counting off-balance-sheet swaps and derivatives) and our total debt is 557% of GDP. Less than three years ago our total indebtedness crossed 500% of GDP for the first time.”
Add the unfunded portion of entitlement programs and we’re at 840% of GDP.
The world has not seen such debt levels in modern history. This debt is not serviceable. Imagine that total debt is 557% of GDP, without considering entitlements. The interest on the debt will consume all the tax revenues of the country in the not-too-distant future. Then there will be no way out but to create more debt in order to finance the old debt.
It assures a period of economic devastation. In a last, desperate attempt, politicians at the federal and local levels will raise taxes to astronomical heights to raise revenues. And that only assures destruction of the economy. Forget the fable of economic recovery. Unless there is a change in Washington by next year’s election, there will be no way to turn back.
Japan’s recession is now 19 years old. It has the highest debt-to-GDP level (227%) of any industrialized country. The Fitch rating agency is talking about a potential downgrade of Japan’s debt. Japan’s stock market is still down 75% from the high in 1990. We predict it will make new bear market lows next year. That will make it a 20-year-long bull market [bear market makes more sense – Mish] on the way to 25 years. The bulls in the U.S. should consider that possibility in the formerly great United States of America.
I do not believe the bullish theory that the U.S. situation is different than Japan’s. Ours is so much worse.
Second, when the economy weakened, the jobs that disappear first are the lower-paying service and retail jobs that these homeowners were likely to have
I don’t get it. How do people in lower-paying service and retail jobs even become homeowners, unless they’re buying in the more urban parts of Middlesex like Perth Amboy or New Brunswick? They certainly couldn’t afford to buy in any of the other Brunswicks or even Edison. The only way these people own homes is if they bought them a very long time ago.. in which case I presume they have equity.
Thanks Essex I should sleep well tonight.
Sync never presume, 2nds & refis
Cindy (4)-
I watched this Friday night and nearly puked on myself.
The liberal love-fest and softball questions Moyers lobbed at Kuttner were revolting. Even Taibbi got this “what the hell am I doing here” look on his face.
The problem with soci@lism is that it eventually runs out of other peoples’ money to spend.
If we have assassination teams and outfits like Blackwater working for us, why can’t we cap this schmuck?:
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) – President Hugo Chavez on Sunday accused the U.S. of violating Venezuela’s airspace with an unmanned spy plane, and ordered his military to be on alert and shoot down any such aircraft in the future.
Speaking during his weekly television and radio program, Chavez said the aircraft overflew a Venezuelan military base in the western state of Zulia after taking off from neighboring Colombia. He did not elaborate, but suggested the plane was being used for espionage.
“These are the Yankees. They are entering Venezuela,” he said.
“I’ve ordered them to be shot down,” Chavez said of the aircraft. “We cannot permit this.”
Clot the problem with our country is we are running out of other peoples money to borrow.
Clot 13 get SAS to get the job done.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qFiyjwMlP0Y/Sy5K_But6VI/AAAAAAAABR4/XNaI2tpAVHU/s1600/rman5247l.jpg
Hope this comes through we were on this a Year ago.
I like this one better:
http://www.peace4freedom.com/what_if.jpg
Grim delete 16. no can use.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn5EP9StlVA
Gawd I love this commercial…
…nah, we’re not seriously f*cked.
sl
Where’s my REinvestor… I so miss him.
sl
today’s Nikkei graph looks like a ventricular fibrillation arrest then flat line (asystole.)
http://www.bloomberg.com
sl
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/goldman-sachs-threatens-spanish-move-1845582.html
“Goldman Sachs has threatened the UK Treasury with plans to move up to 20 per cent of its London-based staff to Spain in a standoff over tax and bonuses.
It’s believed that the Wall Street investment bank, which paid more than £2bn to the Exchequer’s ailing coffers in corporation tax alone last year, has fired a warning shot across the Government’s bows in response to the tax measures unveiled in the pre-Budget report earlier this month.
….The Bank of England added fuel to the bonus fire last week when it said that the bailout of Britain’s banks might have been avoided had City bonuses been just one fifth less in the years running up to the crisis. In its Financial Stability Report, the Bank said: “If discretionary distributions had been 20 per cent lower per year between 2000 and 2008, banks would have generated around £75bn of additional capital – more than provided by the public sector during the crisis.”
Juck the Fets!
Looks like the ending of the title article had been inserted by the political editor (Komissar):
So, this may be the best time to buy a foreclosed-upon house for people who want a bargain price and are willing to put sweat equity into the structure by making various repairs.
Found this tidbit this morn.
Data Shows Aussie Economy Grew From Stimulus Alone, And Is Not Growing On Its Own. If This Signals Failure of Keynesian Stimulus to Spark Recovery in the BEST Economy of the Developed World, What Does That Signal for the Rest of the Developed World?
http://seekingalpha.com/article/179118-illiquidity-debt-woes-hover-over-pre-holiday-world-mark
Clot @ 11
At least it showed how disillusioned even Obama followers are. That Kuttner dude seemed to think O would come around in his second year…maybe pay attention to what it would take to save our country.
What a novel idea…
From the Star Ledger:
Investors return to buying N.J. real estate
Jason Lewis thinks it’s a great time to buy real estate in Newark. So great, the investor has bought about 15 properties in and around the state’s largest city, and he expects to make a ton of money on them.
“It is a buyer’s market, so we’re acquiring low, we’re renovating,” said Lewis, 32. “We’ll wait for the market to start to rebound, and we’ll unload them again.”
NaQueen Zaire, who at the height of the boom was buying, fixing up and selling about two houses a year, had been on the sidelines since the residential market collapsed. But since this summer, she’s purchased properties in Irvington, Union Township and Newark for about $60,000 each with the hope of eventually doubling her money.
“Once everything nose dived, I just took a little sabbatical,” said Zaire, 37, who lives in Maplewood. “Now, I’m back in the game.”
From the Star Ledger:
Another shaky year: New Jersey job market in 2010
One of the most dramatic consequences of the recession in the last year has been the loss of jobs — in excess of 173,000 in New Jersey — as companies struggled with slumping sales and other business difficulties.
And this year, workers are likely to remain vulnerable.
Few industries were spared from cuts: laborers, lawyers, journalists, retail workers. Even Wall Street traders and techies found themselves among the unemployed.
Workers who escaped layoffs endured pay cuts and furloughs.
Everyone, it seemed, was rattled by a sense of insecurity as careers collapsed, incomes shrunk and the soaring number of people out of work soon included relatives, friends and neighbors.
The dismal numbers are the building blocks for sobering forecasts. Economists and labor experts, who base their predictions on patterns, sound more ominous than optimistic.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty,” says David Finegold, dean of the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University.
“We’re not seeing any reduction in the numbers of people continuing to claim unemployment),” Finegold says. “Where we see reduction, it’s because people have exhausted their ability to collect.”
One of the troubling aspects for anyone pondering employment is, Where will new jobs spring up? “There aren’t a whole lot of sectors creating jobs,” says Finegold. “What you’re more likely to see is entrepreneurialism.”
Or, what Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter called “creative destruction.” According to the economic theory, introduced in 1942, innovation provides the fuel for economic growth and transformation.
For example, during the 1970s and 1980s, the state hemorrhaged manufacturing jobs at large plants owned by Western Electric and Singer. Eventually, research laboratories and suburban office parks replaced the sprawling factories.
Investors emerge from housing market rubble
Monday, December 21, 2009 Sean Sposito STAR-LEDGER STAFF
Jason Lewis thinks it’s a great time to buy real estate in Newark. So great, the investor has bought about 15 properties in and around the state’s largest city, and he expects to make a ton of money on them.
http://www.nj.com/mobile/articles/paper1.ssf?/base/news-15/1261360505160050.xml&coll=1
U.S. Employment Figures Don’t Add Up
http://nyinvestingmeetup.blogspot.com/2009/12/us-employment-figures-dont-add-up.html
The November non-farms payroll figures are another government release indicating the U.S. economy is getting better. This one doesn’t add up either. Healthy economies don’t have major job losses in manufacturing and construction. Nor are jobs lost in retail during the holiday season (they are during depressions, but certainly not if the economy is improving). The big job gains were part-time, not permanent. The unemployment rate is improving because workers are so discouraged that they are leaving the labor force, not because jobs are being added. This doesn’t happen if the economy is getting better either. Furthermore private surveys don’t support the governments numbers. Investors should be wary. While markets can be fooled in the short-term, in the long-term they trade on reality.
From CNBC:
Beware Holiday Foreclosure Moratoria
Yes, in years past, even in good years past, banks always held off kicking folks out of their homes around the holidays. I always ask myself, do the banks truly have big, ungrinchy hearts? Do they just want the good holiday pr? Or do they just know that in a very practical sense, very few sheriff’s deputies are going to forcibly remove families from homes where presents sit wrapped under the living room tree?
I’m not trying to bah-humbug the practice, I just want to put out a warning: All this Christmas cheer is going to skew the numbers come January. Yes, we’ll see big dips in foreclosures and specifically bank reposessions (REO inventory as well), and I want to be sure we don’t all go decreeing that the foreclosure crisis is over.
We’ve seen the numbers dip throughout the fall, largely due to the modification programs that are working diligently to jam a lot of borrowers into new monthly payment programs. But a good number of these modifications will not end up as permanent solutions, and come February the sheriffs will come knocking again, and more often.
27
do investors expect prices to rise at %20 a year?
do investors expect prices to rise at %20 a year?
And if prices do, they win.
If not, they walk away, and we lose for them.
Wouldn’t you make the same bet?
sl (19)-
All that’s left is the debt. The “assets” have dwindled to nothing.
Cindy (26)-
Yeah. A bunch of card-carrying commies are disappointed that O hasn’t thrown all the “rich” (those families making over 100K/yr) into prison and redistributed their wealth.
I liked the part where Kuttner said that his fellow Bolsheviks were”projecting” their aspirations onto him. Typical liberal insanity.
beer (29)-
These “investors” are early, dumb money. They will be carried out on their shields.
The days when it’s attractive to live in Newark, Irvington, Paterson, et al are done. The only people in these cities are the ones who are trapped there.
A 60K house is a rip-off…especially when it should be priced at $1. No real diff between those cities and Detroit.
Got bulldozers?
In Scottsdale, AZ for a week.
This place is really amazing. All towns surrounding Phoenix like Mesa, Scottsdale, Chandler etc… overbuilt to the tilt. House prices have come down significantly.
Sometimes you wonder why we pay so much for housing in NJ, when other parts of US are 1/3 or 1/2 price with almost similar salaries.
The ass-kicking of the USD looks to resume soon:
“As from one Englander to another, so from one massive dollar short to another, we next shift to Steven Englander of BarCap and his daily “Dear USD” hate mail. The man who has been obsessively telling his clients to sell dollars as if he was a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs, must have booked some serious L on the recent, and very much expected, dramatic dollar retracement over the past 3 weeks. In his latest “FX for paranoids and hopeless romantics” Englander does point out one relevant item: that the Fed needs EM countries to keep selling the dollar in order to i) keep commodity prices higher, thereby benefitting these very EMs, and ii) to keep commodity price inflation high, in the absence of other forms thereof (wage, non-commodity price, etc). And that is why, Englander hopes and prays, both for his book, and for those of his clients, that Bernanke will keep on talking big all the while printing more and more dollars as ever more wealth is channeled from the middle class to both Wall Street and abroad.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/dollar-bashers-are-back-force
37. Sometimes I think we are suckers….
Happy Winter all!
I’m looking for suggestions on AWD cars/SUV’s. Does anyone own one they absolutely love? Why? Or do you hate it and why? How’s your gas mileage?
Thanks!
Lost….I have owned a Subaru which was very nice and efficient. We have a Volvo…also nice but overpriced. And a BMW…nice but expensive. All work very well in the snow and ice.
Subaru is the only car maker that has maintained consistent sales through this debacle.
42 Essex
Thanks for the input. A friend has a Forester that she loves and her husband has an Impreza? (the little one) which he loves as well. Subaru should be at the top of my list but for some reason I like the Nissan Murano.
My Legacy GT outperforms my BMW X3 in snow and ice by a very wide margin. When it gets bad out, the SUV stays home.
I have an 06 honda pilot- overall great car but just ok in snow/ice. has a 3rd row and plenty of room.
Cooper
I have a Civic. I’ve complained many time here now terrible it is in the snow/ice. I know I’m going to lose a lot on gas mileage if I get something that’s AWD. But for my safety and ability to get off this hill and get to work, I think I’m going to have to sacrifice it. At least work is only 5 minutes away so at this time, giving up on mileage isn’t a terrible thing. But if we do move, then I’m going to probably be pretty unhappy with costs at the pump.
Nice Ladies car, is it pink?
cooper says:
December 21, 2009 at 8:03 am
I have an 06 honda pilot- overall great car but just ok in snow/ice. has a 3rd row and plenty of room.
3 series bmw x drive convt.
Well, this real estate thing might be getting serious. The Jack Nicklaus designed golf course and clubhouse at Country Club of the South, a gated community of million dollar plus homes on the north side of Atlanta, is scheduled to go on the auction block on January 5.
http://www.ajc.com/business/country-club-of-the-246484.html?cxtype=rss_news_128746
Essex, #7 .. link?
#37,
“n Scottsdale, AZ for a week.”
How about you stay there?? Prices may drop in NJ when people like you move out, until them RE boom continues.
Actually, cars/SUVs that are good in snow all depend on your passegers. When I was single I drove my 20 year old mercedes convert with over 130K miles to Killington in a Blizzard and that was fine with me. I drove $100 dollar dodge darts with 4 bald tires in ice storms in college.
Saturday I had to go out with my little girls in the back seat. I had my BMW X drive in the driveway and my wife’s GMC XL SUV 5,200 pound truck in the driveway. NO way would I take a BMW all drive car out in the heavy snow with Sand Spreaders and Monster SUVS all out on the road. Who cares about it has traction. When you are out with Trucks sliding around all over the place you want a truck. My BMW as well as every Jap little AWD car are nancy boy vehicles in two feet of snow. I looked at Honda Pilot and for anyone with 3 or more kids it is a death trap. The so called 3rd row when in use only leaves a few inches between the back of your head and a sheet of glass. The Pilot is a good foot shorter than the big GM and Ford SUVs so in a rear end accident the only thing between the bumper of that Ford Expedition and your childs head is a window. The Expedition will not hit the Pilots bumper as its bumper is a foot higher. The pilot is a good car for someone with two or less kids. That third seat is good for short car pools etc. But not on the NYS Thurway in a snowstorm, it is the death seat.
Brittany Murphy, a good girl from Edison…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYS732zyYfU
#33 grim Does FHA underwrite investor mtgs?
Goldman is bullish on Bull Shit
Goldman Sachs bullish on Potash
Goldman added Potash to its conviction buy list, saying it was taking advantage of a sharp sell off in fertilizer stocks last week to get more bullish. “Our view of a fundamental demand recovery in potash in 2010 remains unchanged, and we believe a near-worst-case scenario on 2010 potash pricing is now discounted in stocks,” Goldman said. “We believe that confusion and uncertainty dominated trading this past week and note that the market entirely ignored bullish comments from the same sources that drove the negative sentiment,” it added.
I bet the morgue workers did her at least three times last night.
chicagofinance says:
December 21, 2009 at 9:00 am
Brittany Murphy, a good girl from Edison…
Anyone familiar with Westfield RE market?
Why are the prices keep going up? Where are the Wall St. layoffs?
I would think the prices would drop by 70% by now.
#51 The only boom is that loud banging noise in your head.
It is called old money for a reason.
frank says:
December 21, 2009 at 9:09 am
Anyone familiar with Westfield RE market?
Why are the prices keep going up? Where are the Wall St. layoffs?
I would think the prices would drop by 70% by now.
John
Since the vehicle is for mostly just me, occasionally the husband and the dog, I don’t need a giant monster on the road. Something that doesn’t feel like a big sled in the snow is good enough for me.
Lost we have my truck 2000 Frontier 4×4, an A4 wagon and a Honda Element AWD(for the dog/skiing). My truck for obvious reasons is the best in any condition, the element had poor tires and has been a disappointment so we have to put real shoes on it. The audi even with tires that are a little more performance oriented has been awe inspiring. nothing makes that car go squirrelly when driven appropriately. We have had 40K trouble free miles with it but some here know the ridiculoous expense of fixing one if something goes wrong.
grim: Can you please get me an address for mls #2951880. Thanks.
John,
Idiots in big vehicles on the roads year round. I saw a Suburban completely demolished by a full cement truck that skidded through an intersection and t-boned it.
I’ve owned big SUVs, I’ll take my chances in the Nancy boy car, where I know I’ve at least got some chance of avoiding an accident via defensive driving.
We have a Pilot and an Acura RDX. RDX is a fancy Honda CRV, for my wife. I would buy Honda CRV if I could do it over. I would love to get an element because it’s small and I move a lot of stuff. One of my travel rentals was a Jeep Liberty and I liked it.
We have a Ford Mustang GT that never sees the snow.
START SAVING YOUR TIME AND MONEY!
Discount Pharmacy – Online Drugstore
http://dopharmacy.weebly.com
I’ll second Grim’s thoughts on traction in the snow. I left NJ about 3 yrs ago and relocated to the snowbelt of upstate NY (yeah, we’re that area north of Syracuse that consistently gets snow totals measured in feet).
The first thing that struck me was the lack of Giant SUV’s up here. I presumed everyone would have one up here. There are far more Suburbans in Millburn than my hometown (I’m sure economics plays a role here as well. The average income up here is about 1/4th of what it is in NJ).
The key to winter driving is a set snow tires. They don’t make much sense in NJ for 1 storm/year, but it’s an annual ritual up here. Both cars go into the shop the week before Thanksgiving and the Blizzaks go on. They hurt your gas mileage and your handling on dry pavement a little, but the ability to stop in the snow is unmatched.
Sometimes on the road and in the bedroom size matters. Was in a full sized 80’s Buick once that nailed a tree at 60mph. Other than a few stiches, fractures adn bruises everyone got out fine and was laughing about it the next week. Hit a tree at 60mple in a japanese car the tree wins. Japanese cars are build on the theory of kamakazi pilots and US trucks are built on theory of B52 Bombers.
grim says:
December 21, 2009 at 9:22 am
John,
Idiots in big vehicles on the roads year round. I saw a Suburban completely demolished by a full cement truck that skidded through an intersection and t-boned it.
I’ve owned big SUVs, I’ll take my chances in the Nancy boy car, where I know I’ve at least got some chance of avoiding an accident via defensive driving.
FDIC closed on 7 more banks this past week.
First Federal Bank of California, Santa Monica, CA
Imperial Capital Bank, La Jolla, CA
Independent Bankers Bank, Springfield, IL
New South Federal Savings Bank, Irondale, AL
Citizens State Bank, New Baltimore, MI
Peoples First Community Bank, Panama City, FL
RockBridge Commercial Bank, Atlanta, GA
Thats 16 banks for the 1st 3 weeks of December. Total assets are north of 30 billion but dont worry the FDIC is flush with cash.
We have a Subaru Legacy & Subaru Imprezza. As others commented, good to change the OEM tires to high snow rated tires. OEM’s are soft dry highway tires. The AWD is very effective. Regarding North of Syracuse living, I spent three years on Dry Hill in Watertown NY. A 58 Nash Metropolitan rear drive three speed, took the hills, when 57 Chevy’s were in ditches. That car nimbly danced over the snow. loved the Lucas Pull Start Ignition and Austn Healy Sprite engine.
Do snow tires help when you car is stick? All I do is spin my tires and make them bald.
Anybody have Brittany Murphy in their deadpools?
“Anybody have Brittany Murphy in their deadpools?”
Does career count?
John,
Couldn’t agree more about the driver and the passenger. Years ago, I shared a ski house in Killington and I drive up with a friend with an SLK320 whose car couldn’t make it up to the second tier in the driveway while a honda civic went straight up right after him. No duh, he brought up the car to impress the chicks in the house which we had plenty of.
On the way back on Sunday, we’re in a whiteout for about 20 to 30 minutes and I’m driving the car back to the thruway slow and steady and then get on the thruway and see several SUVs upside down in the middle over the next ten miles before the weather got better and he took over the driving (done with his nap). The point is slow and steady wins the race in bad weather even when you’re in the wrong type of car at the moment.
ruggles (72)-
I’m starting to think Abe Vigoda outlasts us all.
Cars
Ford Explorer. The mileage may be less than what you are looking for but I think the inventories are deep at some dealers. Doesn’t feel that big and has enough comforts where you don’t feel like it’s a truck.
I’m leaving for the dealer now to buy a Jeep Unlimited Sahara (4dr). Some friends have them and they really like them. I had to overcome the ‘will I look like I’m trying to relive my youth’ syndrome. You can actually get them pretty fully loaded with both soft and removable hardtops. Great all season car and I got the dealer down to 17% off MSRP.
Most stay-at-home moms have large SUVs because they are on the phone while shuttling kids around or making trips to spa and salon. Accidents are common and better to be in SUV than any small car, japanese or not.
lostinny says:
December 21, 2009 at 9:57 am
Do snow tires help when you car is stick? All I do is spin my tires and make them bald.
Easy on the clutch…
Left as a former jeep owner (AMC vintage 1987 1st year of the Wrangler) Do not do it unless it is a third car. If you buy it as an every day driver you will rue the day you purchased it.
Jeeps suck out loud. I’m not even into cars, and I know that much.
There are a scary amount of people on the phone and texting in the car everyday. Watch the cars go by at the light. It will keep me out of a regular car for some time.
Pain-
Same can be said for my Mustang GT. Everybody that sees it likes it. it’s a terrible car for everyday driving.
I hate to say it (sorry kettle)…my stupid Audi A4 is the fcuking balls. And I know a good mechanic, so I don’t have to put up with the sick bullsh!t repair costs so much. The only time I have ever had it skid out on me was when I was at the Steelers/Jets game and I was doing doughnuts in the parking lot in 2003.
Schump, jeeps are not great cars but are pretty much by far the most capable US made SUV. Pretty much anything Chrysler makes is junk but they are good in snow, considerable better than the nissan pathfinder I had, better than a four runner, plain old good in the snow, junk, but good off road and in the snow.
I have a Range Rover and it is really good in snow, arguably the best car I have driven in snow, better than my 99 LR disco II. Pop the air suspension up and it plows throw 2 ft of snow and slop with road tyres. For cars with awd Audi, then Suburu, everything else is not as good. Audis and Suburus keep up with SUV’s only limited by clearance, but for around here more than sufficient. Snow tyres are always a good idea, I’ll probably replace my tyres with something more aggressive when they go because the stock tyres slip, but the computer in the car maintains great control. Gas milage is terrible in any land rover, lucky to get 19 mpg highway, 12mpg local, 14mpg highway with a ski rack.
Thanks everyone for all the input. Say what you want but I will never buy another American car for as long as I live. I have had nothing but problems with any American car I’ve ever had. I was interested in a Jeep for a long while but I won’t do it as I like my pocketbook without the hole in it.
I wish Mini’s had AWD. I really wish I could move somewhere warm where there is no snow. I wouldn’t even be thinking about another car if that was the case.
In my inbox this morning from left-leaning Firedoglake…
The Senate’s health care bill must be killed.
It is an ungodly mess of errors, loopholes, and massive giveaways. When the American people find out what’s actually in this bill, they will revolt. Congress and President Obama have no choice but to do better for health care than this bill.
Sign the petition: the Senate health care bill must be killed.
How bad is the bill?
Forces you to pay up to 8% of your income to private insurance corporations — whether you want to or not
If you refuse to buy the insurance, you’ll have to pay penalties of up to 2% of your annual income to the IRS
After being forced to pay thousands in premiums for junk insurance, you can still be on the hook for up to $11,900 a year in out-of-pocket medical expenses.
Massive restriction on a woman’s right to choose, designed to trigger a challenge to Roe v. Wade in the Supreme Court
Paid for by taxes on the middle class insurance plan you have right now through your employer, causing them to cut back benefits and increase co-ays
Many of the taxes to pay for the bill start now, but most Americans won’t see any benefits — like an end to discrimination against those with preexisting conditions — until 2014 when the program begins.
Allows insurance companies to charge people who are older 300% more than others
Grants monopolies to to drug companies that will keep generic versions of expensive biotech drugs from ever coming to market.
No reimportation of prescription drugs, which would save consumers $100 billion over 10 years
The cost of medical care will continue to rise, and insurance premiums for a family of 4 will rise an average of $1000 a year — meaning in 10 years, you family’s insurance premium will be $10,000 more annually than it is right now.
I could go on, but it should be clear: this is not reform. This is a con job.
Sign our petition: kill the Senate bill.
Make no mistake, we need health care reform. But the Senate’s idea of reform is a disaster, and will make things far worse than they are today.
We must kill this fake reform.
Lost 84 – You can move to Tampa. Be careful what you wish for…
For the Legal Eagles, further down the rabbit hole of change we can believe in.
http://chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1887-dred-scott-redux-obama-and-the-supremes-stand-up-for-slavery.html
Lost in NY –
Audi’s Quattro system is the most sophisticated all wheel drive product on the market today. Depending on how large of a car you need, the a4 in terms of pure traction is a good product but unfortunately, they are expensive to purchase and maintain. If you lease one, then you are only on the hook for oil changes which are done every 10,000 miles.
Subaru is a good product too (although the ’10 outback wagon is already having issues with the drive train – lots of vibration).
As far as snow tires, will make a world of difference in an auto trans or manual trans vehicle.
You can buy the blizzaks online from tire rack and they can ship them mounted on steel wheels for you. If you buy them from the dealer, cost will be 2 – 3 times greater.
If you want a pure brute of a vehicle that will handle the snow and offer safety, get the Chevy Tahoe or GMC Yukon. Both have very good engines and transmissions so reliability is not as big of a concern as it would be on other domestic auto products.
lost – I like Subarus, ended up with the Hyundai Santa Fe due to the cost($10k less). Awesome in both wet weather and the snow. Surprised me as that wasn’t high on my list.
Tuscon is probably comparable.
frank 51
You are sucker who bought at height and did not even see this coming. This is for you,
http://thehamptons.files.wordpress.com/2006/11/deer_in_headlights.jpg
Gator – agree, the left doesn’t like the HC bill. It’s a gift to the big insurance companies. Without a public option it’s worthless.
WTF is it with Jersey women?
They have absolutely no problem taking a parking spot someone else spent over an hour cleaning. Knowingly.
F%$#@! b!tches.
Need to go puncture a tire or two….
Gator
Tampa is on the list- due to DH’s family living there. Unfortunately, I’ll only move to Hyde Park or Redington Beach. For the prices there, I might as well stay here. :)
My 1976 Jeep CJ7 with a 302 V8, three inch lift kit, winch, push bars, 3 speed manual tanny, trailor hitch was the balls in snow. No floor mats just bare metal on floor, seats were made out of Levi Jeans material. No radio, no power steering, no power brakes, after you were done beating it to death you just took a garden hose and hosed down the car including inerior. I could have hooked a tow rope to your audi or land rover popped the clutch and ripped your front end off.
Got rid of that thing after six months. Was like taking a baseball bat and having A-Rod smack your bladder when you drove it. It really only snows heavy every one to three years, it ain’t worth having the ulitmate snow vehicle when you have to suffer through 1,000 days of good weather to get to that one day of two feet of snow.
Also very few foreign SUVs can even do off road stuff. They have Jeep Jamberees now and then and Range Rovers are prohibited from most activities, they can’t clear a dune on the beach or a log as they get hung up as length between front and rear tires is too long, they are too high and wide to go down a trail in the woods and the paint and interior is so nice the things sit in the garage on bad days.
I agree about the wrangler, I had an 1988 Wrangler, loved it to death but still bumpy, took one or two girls to a wedding in it and watching them get in with there dresses was riceless.
87: And to think, for this you get a Nobel.
Nomad
My brother had a Denali. He loved it.
[87] sean
Wow, he is rapidly becoming the 3rd term of GWB.
Change we can believe in. Yup.
Most ….. (people) have large SUVs because
They are attempting to establish pack dominance and convinve everyone else (themselves included) they are big and important, not the cubicle dwellers they really are. They may not be aware of this.
[85] gator
When an out front socia1ist like her calls for the bill to be killed, well, it says something.
[89] lisoosh,
We don’t agree on much, but I have consistently said that no bill is better than this bill.
Better to have the public option, and two-tier health system, than the Senate bill that taxes all, raises costs, and provides very little in terms of anything new (except for the aforementioned costs).
Don’t forget Howard Dean as well. when the real liberals are screaming, it must be a real stinker. Hell even the corrupt repubs can’t get on board for the bloated pile of steaming dung giveaway. They know it is political suicide. Steal from the pleabs a little at a time not all at once.
[73] danzud,
“Years ago, I shared a ski house in Killington and I drive up with a friend with an SLK320 whose car couldn’t make it up to the second tier in the driveway while a honda civic went straight up right after him.”
Last time we had a Killington ski house rental, we had a car story. Will tell you sometime, after the statute of limitations runs out (and I recently learned that the protagonist in that story, who I aided and abetted, if that is the right term, became a cop).
I have my car for the escape from Hudson County scenario, Hoboken flooding scares the bejesus out of me. I figured since I drive less than 10k miles per year and like to go skiing in VT the gas mileage wasn’t so super important. It helps that I got a good deal because every one was freaking out about fuel prices at that point.
Had a bmw with x drive and it felt like a tank. very confidence inspiring in the snow. Only problem was the Turanza rft’s (run-flats) only lasted about 8k miles before they started “scalloping” and made a head-splitting drone like noise at speed. Won’t go back to bmw until they improve or remove the rft’s.
It is weather like this that I miss my Hummer……
lost,
The tire rack deal is the way to go if you are willing to go the snow tire route.
My Firestone mounts tires for $12 each, so I always buy the tires at the Tire Rack. I save upwards over $300 of what the dealer would charge and about $100 over what Firestone would charge. Plus, I can get whatever tire I want. Firestone’s selection of in-house tires are a joke.
Keep in mind, we have the Sport Xterra so our tires are larger than normal. 275/70s I think.
k-ton is never a driving experience try some of the gap roads off 89, killington and rutland actually clear the roads and have been for a while. Besides Audi, most german cars suck in the snow, my experience is based on Mercedes, and VW(2WD), never tried a BMW in the snow.
On that note anyone have a post 2006 BMW with run flats? Any issues?
[57] frank
I don’t think Brigadoon is that dependent on WS, not like a Summit or Chatham. I do know folks who found themselves out from WS jobs, but most folks I meet there are not WS connected.
[61] pain
“We have had 40K trouble free miles with it but some here know the ridiculoous expense of fixing one if something goes wrong.”
Oh yeah. An audi can become a money pit real fast. I figure you have another 20K before you have to start worrying about that.
re: Killington
I have fond memories of picking up many chicks from beantown in the Wobbly Barn, seems they had a thing for the NY Accent and blue eyes.
Stu – best value I’ve found on tires was at Costco.
So why did the CFO of Microsoft quit to be the CFO of GM?
98 Tosh
I always thought it was because they have little d!cks.
re: #113 – John – $$$$$ Fast track to big bucks. The new GM will have an IPO sometime next year.
$$$$$
lis, 92
shhhhhush. Rule #1 never advertise!
sl
Confused,
Dry Hill! That’s part of our summer bike ride loop. That’s a bear to climb in the winter. I’m actually a little further north on St. Lawrence. Beautiful place for about three weeks every year :)
You’d be amazed by all of the wind turbines dotting the area just south of Dry Hill now – Lowville, etc.
We only have one natural resource up here — steady, strong winds (and they always seem to be headwinds when I’m on the bike).
#114 – Lost – The older I get the more I realize that they do, only in the figurative rather than literal sense. It’s a substitute for what they believe the peenor repersents, which is power.
Stu
Can’t do snow tires. I have nowhere to store them. New tires must be all weather.
118 Tosh
Spot on. Have you thought of a career in psychology? You can have my job. Just wear hockey goalie gear to work and you’ll be fine.
I say 90% of people in my neighborhood with a big SUV are women with kids. The only reason my wife got it as she needs a third row as she car pools and often has 5 kids in backseats. She was going to get a minivan but I hate minivans and the gas mileage also stinks. Funny part in my white trash blue collar town most GMC SUVs including my wife’s are 2005 models back in the days of “employee pricing” or late 2001 and 2002 zero interest, nothing down GMC SUVs . The GMC Third Row vehicles that were like 38K full price were going for 24-28k while the similar Honda and Toyotas third row vehicles going for 40K. That is a huge difference. Even bigger by the fact most people finance and the Japanese were not doing cheap financing. So someone with 10K to put town was financing 15K at like 1.9% at GM and at Toyota was financing 30K at 6%. That is a huge difference in payments. Plsu housewife SUVs that go mainly supermarket to school hardly get any mileage on them. My last ten year old wagon had 35K when it got totaled. People make fun of blue collar USA minivans, cars and SUVs but for middle class people unless GM or F did occassaional cash for clunkers, employee finanacing or zero down/zero interest they would never ever have a new car. Sad but true, BMW, Mercedes, Toyota and Honda is never going to firesale cars.
toshiro_mifune says:
December 21, 2009 at 11:25 am
Most ….. (people) have large SUVs because
They are attempting to establish pack dominance and convinve everyone else (themselves included) they are big and important, not the cubicle dwellers they really are. They may not be aware of this.
Love the rally today. Must be supercomputers at GS, C and JPM.
Regarding health care bill, I would still prefer that it gets passed. If it fails, nothing further will get done for at least 20 years. Whereas, if it passes, there is at least the chance of improving it.
#121 – People make fun of blue collar USA minivans, cars and SUVs but for middle class people unless GM or F did occassaional cash for clunkers, employee finanacing or zero down/zero interest they would never ever have a new car.
Yes, and this is exactly why the vehicles are huge. If you want to get rich sell something to the sheep that lets them believe they are pigs (apologies to Orwell).
#120 – You can have my job. Just wear hockey goalie gear to work and you’ll be fine.
Lost, I have no illusions about my inability to handle that sort of work.
The end is nigh….
Catherine flashes the audience
Catherine Zeta-Jones gave well-placed fans at her Broadway show, “A Little Night Music,” a little something to remember by inadvertently flashing her boobs onstage. Zeta-Jones stars with Angela Lansbury in the revival. In one scene, her character is reunited with her long lost lover and opens her kimono to show him what he’s been missing. But audience members on the left side of the orchestra the other day also got a spectacular view. One told us, “I couldn’t believe it. No wonder Michael Douglas looks so happy. The couple sitting next to me also saw it and poked each other.” Expect a rush for left-orchestra seats.
All Hype, 122
You been hanging around Zero Hedge again? :)
sl
ps: how’s married life?
It is weather like this that I miss GETTING A Hummer……
Sean says:
December 21, 2009 at 11:35 am
It is weather like this that I miss my Hummer……
…and you complain about big hair???
lisoosh says:
December 21, 2009 at 11:51 am
Stu – best value I’ve found on tires was at Costco.
Stu,
Caught the tail end of this but Tirerack dot com is the only place one should be shopping for tires. Drop ship to your installer of choice, swing by at your leisure and have them put on.
With Costco, you’re limited to certain brands and models. Tirerack offers the gamut and if you’re really lucky, you’ll catch a 50% off sale on a decent tire in your size.
I’ve never used tirerack but know a few people who have been very happy with it.
I’ll also note, from personal experience, never EVER EVER buy cheap tires. Get the best you can, seriously.
#121: Minivans generally get better mileage, are safer and are cheaper than SUVs along with better passenger access and cargo flexibility. They do not look as cool as SUVs.
So if you all use tirerack, where do you get the tires put on and how much does it usually run? I see I can save a good amount on the cost of the tires themselves but putting the tires on will still cost something.
Thanks!
kumho tyres best and cheapest period, there really good for the money. Otherwise michelin all the way, bridgestone aren’t bad either. Changed my pos continentals on my vw with Kumho, they had better traction, wore better, and were $300 less than the contact tyres. The Koreans are moving into all businesses and doing exceedingly well.
Tosh (131):
“I’ll also note, from personal experience, never EVER EVER buy cheap tires.”
Sometimes cost should actually be ignored. The tires that came on our Xterra (GENERAL GRABBER) were so loud that our bluetooth through our Garmin GPS was pretty much useless. They also didn’t grip for shite. Did a lot of research and found these Continental CrossContacts that absolutely rock. They are quiet, last forever, grip great in the rain and were $503.04 complete shipped. The same tires in Goodyear or Michelin would have been closer to double that.
The point I’m trying to make is that price and quality don’t necessarily match in the tire world. As a matter of fact, some of the cheapest tires I have purchased have been the best. BT-70s with Uni-T are/were godsend for my tiny Civic. Before them, everything spun on wet roads, regardless how light I was on the clutch. I’m well into the 60,000 mile period on my last set and they still have lots of tread and grip. Unfortunately, they have been discontinued (like 5 years ago). Who knows what I’ll try next?
I have tried everything from Pirelli, to Yokohama, to Michelin to Good Year on my little Civic and nothing comes close to those cheapo BT-70s.
lost,
Call up your local Firestone/Bridgestone and see what they charge to mount tires. Mine is $12 per tire. Some local gas stations will do it dirt cheap as well.
Jcer,
Continental tires do suck, except for the CrossContacts. Only place I’ve found that even carry ’em is the Tire Rack.
ChiFi 82
Re cars in the snow. Audi Quattro is the SH1T!!!! That being said. my car and i have a love hate relationship. My car was one of the first B6’s off the production line (very much not a good thing. Unfortunately i did not realize that when i bought it. Later B6’s even 6 months down the line didnt have nearly as many problems as the first run or 2 of B6’s did.
I will say that unless you drive like a complete tool, you can beat an audi with quattro all wheel drive. it will easily handle conditions that would stop most cars or trucks in their tracks.
However i would only ever get another Audi if money wasnt an issue and was willing to toss it the first time it gave me crap.
Sometimes cost should actually be ignored
Sorry, I should have been clearer. Never buy tires solely because they are the cheapest you can get (Think Bob’s cheap a** Radials). You will most likely get something with absolutely no grip or stopping ability. This will lead to problems.
is the Subaru all wheel drive system a version of quattro? I thought i read somewhere that subaru leased the tech from audi?.?.?.?.
Thanks Tosh!
Still_Looking:
Married life is just fine. No complaints here. How you doin?
my wifes car is a subaru, it rocks in the snow as well!
Remember all wheel drive is not four wheel drive. Some guy out in LI a few years ago was attaching his boat to his hitch on an all wheel drive car and told driver to back up an inch or two to connect hitch. Well rear tires were on slick algee and moss and only front tires were on dry concrete as soon he hit reverse and all wheel drive disengages he broke the guys legs and ruined his boat. Other problem with all wheel drive is rocking, anyone who every lived in Queens and parked in street knows you get plowed in, AWD only works when car is drive not in reverse so hard to get out of a spot beween two cars in the snow.
kettle1 says:
December 21, 2009 at 1:45 pm
is the Subaru all wheel drive system a version of quattro? I thought i read somewhere that subaru leased the tech from audi?.?.?.?.
“Never buy tires solely because they are the cheapest you can get”
lets see, what else does this concept apply to?
sushi
prostitutes (i woulddnt know but a cheap one doesnt sound like a good idea)
stock and bond investments (john… ahhem)
defense attorneys
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/19/education/19yale.html?_r=1
This is a great parenting job. I’m sure Mom didn’t take a 75K job and pay for babysitting.
John,
J-E-T-S…rhimes with M-E-T-S…always find a away to loose or colapse.
John,
i am well aware of the difference between all wheel and 4 wheel drive. i meant it is very good, not rocks literally.
#143 – John – Remember all wheel drive is not four wheel drive
Depending on the car, yes, it is.
#144 – what else does this concept apply to?
Probably just about everything. I was in grad school at the time and absolutely couldn’t afford anything decent. Learned my lesson and had to buy a new (used) car.
JJ: for you from the archives…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXWo6jXmRO8&feature=related
I used Tirerack a couple of years ago to buy Goodyears. Worked fine but this time around found a deal at Firestone. Would use Tirerack again though or at least check the site to compare.
Slow housing day at the NJ Health and Tire Report. I may have to make Grim another donation since we’re basically declaring victory at this point……..
Lost,
The tirerack website has a list of approved installers (places where you don’t have to be afraid of stepping foot in) and their prices.
Personally, I prefer a small shack in Brighton Beach, top notch equipment and rock bottom prices. I like to spend installation time observing the heavy foot traffic of ArmaniExchange clad gentlemen coming and going out of the gate in the rear of the shack leading to the basement.
It’s true that I pay for installation but I get to choose a specific high performance tire. And, I’ve never been impressed with Costco’s tire choices and prices.
I pay no more than $15 a tire with balance and disposal. Prices vary from 12-25. However, if you have 16″ rims or lower prices are halved.
I drove around Bergen County on dedicated snow tires last year and I gotta say it’s a world of difference (and confidence) from all season rubber.
[146] make
Mets, Jets, Nets. Hmmmm, I am sensing a theme here.
Danzud,
It’s a slow motion freight train wreck. (the freigh cars are carrying jugs of kool aid)
I am a true bandwagon fan. I figured with season tickets if Jets make play-offs I don’t need to see last three games as I am at play-offs, if Jets suck last three games are worthless. I sold my last three games a few days after Jets beat Pats. As they say in wall street buy low sell high.
make money says:
December 21, 2009 at 2:03 pm
John,
J-E-T-S…rhimes with M-E-T-S…always find a away to loose or colapse.
“Sean says:
December 21, 2009 at 11:45 am
re: Killington
I have fond memories of picking up many chicks from beantown in the Wobbly Barn, seems they had a thing for the NY Accent and blue eyes.”
Fact that there were bombed out of their gourds at the time probably helped.
If Tom Seaver or Dr. J were throwing Sunday we might have won.
Comrade Nom Deplume says:
December 21, 2009 at 2:14 pm
[146] make
Mets, Jets, Nets. Hmmmm, I am sensing a theme here.
I have a Suzuki SX4 AWD crossover and I have to say that I like it quite a bit.
It goes pretty well in the snow, although the factory tires are not great. It has a “lock” mode that makes the car work more like real 4WD which is good for busting out of snow drifts and such. Lock mode only works below 38MPH. You can also switch to straight 2WD for normal driving to save on gas.
It was a good choice for me, since I have a decent commute, but I also need the AWD since I have to be at work when I’m scheduled to be there — even if there’s a blizzard — no excuses.
The Wobbly Barn.
The only nightlife Between Killington and Rutland. I saw many a terrible cover band play there over the years. I don’t know if they still have it, but they used to have one of those boardwalk arcade cranes where $5 would get you a lobster if you knew what you were doing. The key was to go after the smaller ones as the heavy ones would always fall out of the cranes tines. Before partying, I would always have a $5 lobster which is really a steal since the barn was not cheap! Of course my buddies, who would always go for big bertha, would end up spending $25 and would usually end up with a little one as well. The antics of the lobsters attempting to snap at the crane with their claws banded shut was well worth the $5.
strumpet confessional:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqI7kcfcSqk&NR=1
‘Twas as tough 2009 for njrereport cognoscenti.
As part of his September 2005 blog launch, the moderator forecasted emphatically “that housing prices in Northern NJ will fall upwards of 40% in the next 5 years.” This forecast has never appeared less accurate. The latest figures from the S&P/Case-Shiller index – an indisputably rigorous measurement of metro area home price changes – show that single family home prices in the New York City area have declined by a measly 15% since the moderator published his doom-and-gloom forecast.
A highly-educated poster explained confidently to a national television audience in 2006 that he was a “bubble sitter” with a plan: sell high, rent for awhile, then buy low. He sold his Hoboken condo for $272,000 then rented. What happened to the identical condo in late 2009, he prefers you don’t know – it resold for $375,000, 38% higher than he got for it. Perhaps his plan should be redefined: sell low, rent forever.
One angry poster disclosed in late 2008 that he was “building the position of a lifetime” in SRS. He paid in the 120s for a real estate investment worth in the 7s today, a 94% drop in value. If he had bought CLI, a REIT that owns a portfolio of New Jersey office buildings, he would be pouring the Cristal instead of hitting the whiskey bottle. CLI has generated a triple-digit return since his retirement-destroying SRS position was announced.
I wonder if Summers scored higher than Shaw’s Mexican quants.
“As part of Shaw’s rigorous screening process — the firm accepts perhaps one out of every 500 applicants — Mr. Summers was asked to solve math puzzles. He passed, and the job was his.
In a rare interview, David E. Shaw, who founded the firm in 1988 above a communist book shop in Greenwich Village, put it simply: Mr. Summers is “a brilliant, brilliant guy.” That is from a former computer science professor at Columbia who now spends his time researching areas like treatments for cancer, while others run his hedge fund day-to-day.
D. E. Shaw does not like to talk about what goes on inside its modish headquarters near Times Square. There, esoteric trading strategies are imagined, sketched on whiteboards and modeled on supercomputers by an elite corps of math wizards and scientists, most of them unknown to the outside world.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/business/06summers.html
lurk (161)-
I sleep tight at night, knowing that dopes like you are lined up on the other side of my trade.
Note to self: short CLI.
Orin Kramer? Top fund manager? So, the parameter for success is now single-handedly destroying one of the biggest state worker pension funds in the US?
We are so fcuking fcuked. From the article referenced in #162:
“Mr. Summers reached out to Mr. Brosens in December to discuss the Obama administration’s economic priorities. This year, he campaigned to have him run the federal office overseeing the $700 billion bailout program. Mr. Brosens withdrew his name from consideration last month.
Others in this inner circle include Nancy Zimmerman, a longtime friend and hedge fund manager in Boston; Laurence D. Fink, the chairman and chief executive of BlackRock, a large money management company that hopes to play a potentially lucrative role in the administration’s bank rescue plan; H. Rodgin Cohen, the chairman of the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, who was briefly considered for a senior Treasury post; and three other top fund managers, Orin S. Kramer, Ralph L. Schlosstein and Eric M. Mindich.”
Bednar – since you’re a big car guy, what are your thoughts on the Range Rover?
Surprisingly, i’ve seen a lot of them for cheap (less than 10 years old, less than 100 k miles, less than $12,000) and since we dont have anything to drive in the snow, we’re in the elementary stages of research.
reports/reviews seem mixed on the Range Rover. the keys: driving in snow, cheap to fix/service, and gas mileage.
A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.
Friedrich Nietzsche
#161 Gee in my blue ribbon Bergen train town house prices are down 25% from peak. Oh and property taxes are up 40%.
John says:
December 21, 2009 at 9:07 am
I bet the morgue workers did her at least three times last night.
chicagofinance says:
December 21, 2009 at 9:00 am
Brittany Murphy, a good girl from Edison…
john, still waiting for the story you’re about to pull out of your rear about the time someone walked in on you banging a corpse …
Thanks all for the tire info. I’ll check out the tire site. And continue to wonder about an AWD car or SUV.
lisoosh says:
December 21, 2009 at 11:13 am
WTF is it with Jersey women?
They have absolutely no problem taking a parking spot someone else spent over an hour cleaning. Knowingly.
F%$#@! b!tches.
Need to go puncture a tire or two….
during the 95 blizzard, we lived in a neighborhood that was mostly on street parking. My bf, now husband and I spent 12 hours digging our one car out of 3 ft of snow plus plow mess. It got real wild wild west, people put up threatening signs and blocked up spaces with trash cans. People who disobeyed got tires slashed and paint jobs ruined. Police looked the other way. There were fights daily.
lurkerd says:
December 21, 2009 at 2:34 pm
‘Twas as tough 2009 for njrereport cognoscenti.
dude: give it up…..do you know what I have been doing in lieu of pissing money away on real estate? Buying shares of my employer…..you put forward prick argument with about 30% of the fact pattern.
I guess you have been Googling me too. I guess you also have been gawking at my sister’s nude photos? Pure weirdo…..go back to your hole Murphy….
Going to work along Green Village Road one year on my way to Mt Kemble Ave in Morristown I entered a curve with my then 1995 Subaru Legacy and it started a clacking noise. As I looked in the rear view mirror I saw the Dodge behind me spiral into 360’s. I then realized the clacking noise was the Intelligent All Wheel Drive shifting power between the wheels that slip and the wheels that grip on the black ice. Since then I replaced the 1995 with a 2003 and then a 2008 Legacy. Never had a lick of mechanical difficulty except the 1995 had an electric antenna that gummed up. Later years it was in the glass. I generally take the extended warranty and trade in at expiration. Never broke down. Forty Five degree hills like Snake hill in Chatham require you go to 1st gear going down, as breaking is a no no, else left tires off the road to get purchase
Post #171 is why I think it would be a better world if everyone were armed.
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/mansion+sells+after+price+slashed+million/2363522/story.html
Who says that high end market is hurting doesn’t know that old money will never give away a home and will stick to it’s asking price.(sarcasm is dripping)
Here’s a great incentive toward civil behavior:
“If you mess with me, I will shoot you.”
Chi [172],
Funny, there was no lurkerd on this site, back in 2005. Sounds like Pret-A-Hole to me. If yes, simply the work of a wimp with zero backbone. There is noboby that has been more off the mark, on this site, than Pret. Now, hiding behind the veil of different logon name, on a freaking blog? Just a pitiful coward.
The end is nigh….
* Villanova-Fordham, Saturday, on YES. A camera found a sweet picture of a kid, 9 or 10, holding ice cream. The kid gave the camera the finger. . . .
“They have absolutely no problem taking a parking spot someone else spent over an hour cleaning. Knowingly.”
I would need more info here. Why did you spend hours digging yourself out and then just drive out of your spot?
did you put a sign up or a cone or garbage can indicating your situation? and if so do you really think someone is going to pass up a badly needed, beautifully shoveled spot while you are at the store getting milk?
And if the person was very rude and deliberate, you may consider shoveling the snow back in time for tonights freezing it into solid blocks of ice. that could be a fun way of getting her back without having to go to jail. good exersize too.
Among a number of items and parallels, there is a good amount of evidence to suggest it is pret. Although, there also happens to be several other people I pissed off at the HTB, so it really could be anyone. Lurkerd seems to be king of the specious argument…..
BC Bob says:
December 21, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Chi [172],
Funny, there was no lurkerd on this site, back in 2005. Sounds like Pret-A-Hole to me. If yes, simply the work of a wimp with zero backbone. There is noboby that has been more off the mark, on this site, than Pret. Now, hiding behind the veil of different logon name, on a freaking blog? Just a pitiful coward.
Bost: to be clear; grim could out him/her if he wished, but he is a really fair guy and goes beyond the petty crap…excepting news reporters and RE people.
Veto,
if we had wanted a civilized suggestion we would have asked for it, thank you very much!!!
Genuinely neat stat, Saturday, from NFL Network: Tony Romo’s 11 touchdown passes to Miles Austin are the most in a season between undrafted players (Romo played at Eastern Illinois, Austin played here, for Monmouth).
#180 veto: Sorry I do not buy that. Of course since it is a public street, one can park anywhere. But there should be a common courtesy that if you a are in front of someones house,and the spot has been shoveled out, the spot belongs to the person living in the house;morally if you will.
Here’s a great incentive toward civil behavior:
“If you mess with me, I will shoot you.”
it would have saved a lot of a#@holes a lot of money, for sure
Here is something cool for grandma this christmas, a ten year “step-up” FDIC issured CD from JP Morgan. This is a case of Belts and Suspenders.
JPM CHASE NA 3.000000 12/30/2019 12/30/2009
Coupon End Date Coupon Yield to Maturity
12/30/2013 3.000 0.000
12/30/2017 4.250 0.000
12/30/2018 7.000 0.000
12/30/2019 8.000 0.000
Ket sorry you are right. i should know that the canned response should include motivational lectures to get that car up on cinder blocks immediately.
I shovel the snow into the street, make nice piles and park my 4×4 on top of it like a NJ version of king of the hill. The local idiots take my space at their own peril. I have had to pull a few of them out, needless to say my moron neighbors don’t like me very much. Saw a woman chasing her boyfriend with a shovel yesterday. Ahh Garfield, where the stupid go to breed.I can’t wait to get out of here.
“the spot belongs to the person living in the house; morally if you will.”
Maybe but we would need to know/see the density of the street situation to figure out if it was rude or random mistake.
I should say that i was very cognizant about someone stealing my spot after shoveling for an hour yesterday and i knew if i left it would become finders keepers.
Veto, Shore
Caltrop.
I had an explorer in Hoboken and Jersey City. You shoveled the front and the back of the spot and then drove over the ridge of snow to the side. That way when you came back only a 4×4 can make it back over the ridge into the spot. After a few days of melt/freeze, melt/freeze the side ridge is solid ice and hard to shovel your space will be safe for a week or so.
As for the b1tch that stole your spot. Head out tonight with a couple of buckets of water. Flood the spot and then a few buckets over the windscreen and door seals.
check out this….
Date:xxxxxxx
Timeline (tentative):
5:45pm: MSG representative to meet guests at 4 Penn Plaza entrance
6:00pm – 6:15pm: Guests meet in Donnie Walsh’s office (MSG representative will escort group)
6:15pm – 6:30pm: Guests watch pre-game shoot around and game day preparation from courtside seats
6:30pm – 7:30pm: Guests enjoy pre-game reception in MSG Board Room (TBD)
Attire: business casual (TBD)
Anyone know of a good auto body repair shop in the West Orange to East Hanover area?
#171
Even if you clean it, it’s not your space.
RE: parking
What you are describing would only be a foul if it occurred on a very small street. I used to live on a block with four houses and broke out in hives every time someone parked their car in front of my property. However, on a densely packed street your argument does not fly.
How am I supposed to know that the spot outside of someones house was previously occupied by the owner/renter?
“As for the b1tch that stole your spot. Head out tonight with a couple of buckets of water. Flood the spot”
Lish, Being from Hoboken, where bumpers are more pock marked than Viktor Yushchenkos face, PGC is obviously a person more versed and experienced in parking spot warfare. I would take his advice here.
If you want to kick it up a notch, you might look for a garden hose (or fire hose) and simply stand out in front of the perpetrators car for about an hour watering it down non stop in the 15 degree night. (hint: Make sure you get in the rims.) Im pretty sure this wont get you arrested either but dont quote me there.
Safe,
Millburn Collision too far from you?
I should add that one time I actually wrote a note to one particularly discourteous driver…. on his windshield ….with an XXL tipped permanent marker.
What you are describing does not warrant buckets or sidewall damage.
Combine this with the Japanese 20-something males are wimpified or marrying virtual brides and they’ll be falling before we do…..
Japan Still Lacking Sense of Crisis, Says Asia Society’s Parker
Posted Dec 21, 2009 03:30pm EST by Heesun Wee in Investing, Recession, Banking
Related: ^n225, FXI, EPP, EWJ, SNE, TM, JEQ
Japan’s central bank last week kept interest rates steady, as the country continues to battle price declines. As the world’s second-largest economy struggles against flat domestic demand, an aging population and pervasive sense of pessimism, prospects look grim for it to emerge from a 20-year economic malaise anytime soon.
“That culture of dynamism and energy in the economy, and forward looking, they don’t quite have that yet,” says our guest Emily Parker, senior fellow at the Asia Society.
Parker, who has written extensively about Japan and Asia for The WSJ and other publications, says Japan still faces major hurdles including:
Mounting public debt. Japan’s public debt is nearing 200 percent of GDP, and room for fiscal expansion is small, as Reuters reports. The government not surprisingly is scrambling to cut spending for the next fiscal year.
Aging population. With the country’s rapidly aging citizens and strict immigration policy, Japan is struggling to shift to a domestic-demand led economic expansion. “They need to shift their model from being so dependent on exports,” Parker tells Aaron and Henry. But what’s going to replace that export-led economic model remains unclear, she adds. “And the resistance to immigrant is very deep,” with the topic not even on the table for discussion.
Finally a crisis? Overall, what may be most troubling is Japan’s lack of urgency. “Japan has been very successful at going forward at the current level,” Parker says. “One of the issues in Japan is that there has not been a sense of crisis so it has been easier for people not to do anything about it.”
Learn more in the video about Japan’s relationship with powerhouse neighbor China.
Earlier:
“on a densely packed street your argument does not fly.”
I lived and parked on a very packed street in weehawkend where parrallel parking into any super tight spots that could be found was part of the daily routine and a royal pain in the @ss. The one neighbor used to try and claim the spot in front of his house on a public street. He would give dirty looks, ask people not to park there, argue and tell them their car doesnt fit.
Are you kidding me or what?
Hi all
RE question…
what does this mean?
SALE OF THIS PROPERTY IS CONTINGENT ON ACQUISITION OF LEGAL TITLE BY PROSPECTIVE SELLER
thx Cooper
195.
joeker1 says:
December 21, 2009 at 4:05 pm
#171
Even if you clean it, it’s not your space.
SUre, but taking that stand might cost ya. Street justice.
“one time I actually wrote a note to one particularly discourteous driver…. on his windshield”
Here is another territorial spot claimer, well versed in parking spot warfare. You have to be willing to stoop to this level of petty, trite, infintile tactics or else you will not survive parking lot wars. And if you take the high road, you automatically lose so start filling up those buckets.
also, and this is the most imprtant rule, you must make sure your car is a lot crappier than your adverary. lol.
Kettle,
Got me wondering, will steel wool remove perm marker from glass?
Parking spot.
If it was me, i would call all of my friends over and give them shovels so we can completely bury her car in a huge mountain of snow.
And then set up a sleigh riding course down the face.
zieba, acetone will remove it, nail polish removed. Just don’t use it on anything but clear glass.
#198 danzud,
Millburn Collision is not too far. Did you have a good experience there?
“will steel wool remove perm marker from glass?”
Zieba, no. But that is why you won that round.
And a little cola in the gas tank would have earned you bonus points.
Veto,
You need to know your facts before you spout. It was a delivery van. The guy parked it dead in the middle of two spots for over a year in a very densely populated section of Brooklyn. Circling for for 30 to 45 minutes at a time in a 9 block radius was par for the neighborhood. This guy would wait for the phone call, go downstairs and move the van over to facilitate the parking his other car.
I think you misread my message. I argued against spot claiming.
You all got me thinking now.
Lish, do you happen to have a bowling ball?
Mall Report
Short Hills Mall was packed at noon today, only a few spots on the upper parking deck, everyone else jockeying below for a spot and there was a long line at the valet. Line to visit Santa was around the corner and old Saint Nick looked like he will be hooked up to a defribulator by Wednesday. I say the smell of dirty diapers has been driving him to gurgle vodka on his break.
Frank is correct “what recession” when I can get 3k off a 6k diamond without even trying to wheel and deal. Only three days before the fat man shows up, soI will wait till the 23rd and go back and ask for another 15% off.
Gotta love the recession specials.
Zieba, im trying to think of a circumstance where perm marker to another persons car is the right decision but can’t unless of course you were you in high school when this happened.
You really dont need to be in the right when you are in high school. you can just walk around with a huge permanent marker and write on everything.
Do you guys ever get together to hash out stuff in person? Maybe for dinner?
Go old school on the NJ Girl, I like a ping pong ball covered in nail polish. Open gas cap insert ping bowl, car will drive 10-20 feet shut off. Ping Pong ball gets stucked in and cuts off gas, as soon as engine is off balls moves back up and car runs another 10-20 feet, again and again and again, drives you nuts, or the old potato in tailpipe, car won’t turn over as it can’t get air. The two gags are mostly harmless.
Another favorite is crazy gluing wipers to windsheild. Another fun one is gluing gas cap closed. Imagine low on gas pulling into station and finding gas cap is permantly sealed shut.
One other fun one from school is spraypainting the headlights black.
Or wait till a freezing cold night, drill small hole in floor board into tail pipe, insert glass tube, upon impact glass tube breaks and no eveidence.
Oh one more thing, take plates off car, put ad on cragslist in free section. Car on street no plates, free and give location and description.
193…Tedium.
172#, don’t worry. you are a professional and you know past performance is a poor indication of future return.
193: That would be fun. 10 years ago.
re: #215 – since it is nearly Christmas you might just want to add some Holiday Spirit to you parking revenge.
Spray “snow in a can” on all the windows, then write something like “Happy Holidays” in the fake snow. It’s really hard to get off.
If you cannot find snow in a can, go out with some water and cotton balls you can achieve the same effect, dip the cotton balls into the water and arrange in a colorful holiday phrase like “Merry X-Mas.”
Safe,
Yes. They nailed the repair a couple of years ago but they needed two extra days.
If you’re looking to go cheaper, I went quote shopping back in May for a small repair on my wife’s Mini and Maaco in Fairfield on Route 46 was hundreds cheaper so we gave it to them and they did the work in the time they said they would.
If going through insurance, use Millburn Collision but if you’re looking for a lower cost, I thought the work at Maaco was good enough and at a lower price.
Re cars
was always a fan of the styling and handling of the audi allroad. Roomy too! Tobad they went to the suv
is the Subaru all wheel drive system a version of quattro? I thought i read somewhere that subaru leased the tech from audi?.?.?.?.
Ket,
No licensing, in fact they are worlds apart.
Audi is without a doubt the more sophisticated system. However, you get into arguing details at this point. Better is subjective.
Why? It’s considerably more expensive (I’m talking about the cost of the drivetrain components and associated systems, not the car), and much heavier. With complex sophistication comes more ways to fail. If pure handling in 10/10th driving is the only gauge, Audi’s system is the best.
That said, Subaru has probably half a dozen different AWD systems built off the same general platform. They differ based on the 5mt/6mt and auto variants. The high performance models come with limited slip differentials in some of the 3 positions (front/center/rear), and some come with user adjustable front/rear bias (computer or driver controlled center diffs), etc. The AWD system in the newest 6MT STI with driver controlled center diffs and LSDs isn’t really the same as the system in a slushbox Forester. Although if you looked at the design, you’d see they share the same heritage.
Veto,
Some of my tricks from the Philly parking wars:
1. Found some scrapped traffic barriers in the “sawhorse” style and kept them in my back patio. Also had some temporary parking ban signs that I covered with clear tape so I could write and re-use. If a spot was open during the day, I stealtily “claimed” it, ostensibly for utility or tree work, or for a future dumpster site (very common).
2. Would reconnoiter the street before spouse returned home and give a parking spot report by cell phone.
3. (my favorite but least used): put some empty cardboard boxes and other objects in the street to look like a mound of sand, covered with a tarp, bricked the edges down, and tossed sand around the edge to make it look like a mound of sand left there for masonry work. Real mounds were common, so it did not look out of place.
chi (193)-
Do they force you to watch the actual game?
Wow fighting like this over parking spots is crazy. Where I live, spots are nearly impossible to come by without the snow. No one thinks the spot closest to their apartment is “theirs”. If someone did think it was their spot, and did anything to my car like the suggestions made here earlier, I’d take their f@cking head off with my shovel.
cooper (202)-
A flipper is under contract to buy from the seller & wants to flip it to you as soon as he’s able to close with that seller.
A great remedy for the parking issue….buy a home with a garage….gee ours even has a two car garage. Just sayin.
#227 IMO only applicable to those outside the neighborhood/block, An example, commuters parking their cars to catch train or bus.
sx (229)-
You forget that this is a board full of bitter renters. :)
For those who would like to involve their kids in Winter mischief, I’d suggest toilet Papier-mâché!
Get a couple of empty sprayer bottles, fill them with hot water.
Grab a few rolls of toilet paper.
Find the guy who took your spot, confirm that it is below freezing.
Spritz the car, apply the paper, taking special care to ensure that any joints are well covered. Be sure to let areas freeze before re-application.
For best effect, be sure to thoroughly cover all doors with multiple applications.
For those engineers, be sure you lay up your matrix material in opposing directions.
I rented in Chicago for five years…talk about SNOW and parking issues. Of course in places like that shithole you usually drive a crapheap so whatever happens to it is not an issue.
[159] stu,
It was pretty much the same over at the Pickle Barrel.
One night, my friend Frankie, a very smart and decent guy, and not what one would consider a hunk or hottie, asked me to “bless him” so that he would score. Apparently, he believed some of my studliness would rub off on him (okay, so he wasn’t THAT smart). As the evening wore on, he was doing okay, but no closer to doing the Horizontal Boogie. So he asked me to refresh the bless. I did, and said “Go forth my son, you will score.”
He did, and with a really cute chick too.
Damn!
Apparently it kept too, because he eventually married a very hot blonde with her own hair salon.
Double damn!
Remember all wheel drive is not four wheel drive. Some guy out in LI a few years ago was attaching his boat to his hitch on an all wheel drive car and told driver to back up an inch or two to connect hitch. Well rear tires were on slick algee and moss and only front tires were on dry concrete as soon he hit reverse and all wheel drive disengages he broke the guys legs and ruined his boat.
Are you trying to say an idiot auto manufacturer went out of their way to engineer an AWD system that disengaged itself on reverse? By default, all of these systems would work, regardless of the gear selected in the transmission. To do anything other than this would have required that the engineers build some way to circumvent this and actively disengage.
I’d love to read the story.
clot ty
i’m slow :(… who has title if not the seller? bank? what else would the buyer need other than c/o?
Nom, good stuff. You are a master.
Lost, i agree with the shovel.
The funnest thing about parking lot wars is that you are automatically in the wrong just by participating, which is what makes it any fun at all. So basically if you get caught doing any of the above you volunteer to be body-slammed onto the cold, icy concrete by a really mean, angry driver who doesnt know how to park very well.
Go old school on the NJ Girl, I like a ping pong ball covered in nail polish. Open gas cap insert ping bowl, car will drive 10-20 feet shut off. Ping Pong ball gets stucked in and cuts off gas, as soon as engine is off balls moves back up and car runs another 10-20 feet, again and again and again, drives you nuts, or the old potato in tailpipe, car won’t turn over as it can’t get air. The two gags are mostly harmless.
I call mythbusters on this one, it’d never work, regardless of the car.
Are you saying the fuel pump would develop so much suction that the ball would clog the intake? Right, they car would literally need to consume the entire tank in seconds. And still, I’d argue the ball would float.
This wouldn’t work today.
1) You’d need to get the fuel door open.
2) The ping-pong ball wouldn’t fit down the filler tube.
3) Most every modern car has an in-tank fuel pump that has a filter-pickup that would prevent anything but a pail of dirt from blocking flow.
92: You have to be sufficiently motivated and committed, but there’s always the Malkovich/Dangerous Liaisons route.
Short Hills Mall was packed at noon today, only a few spots on the upper parking deck, everyone else jockeying below for a spot and there was a long line at the valet.
Kohls was packed at 9pm last night, few if any spots in the lot.
This comment doesn’t reveal too much about our socioeconomic statuses, does it?
“I don’t know if they still have it, but they used to have one of those boardwalk arcade cranes where $5 would get you a lobster if you knew what you were doing. The key was to go after the smaller ones as the heavy ones would always fall out of the cranes tines.”
Captain Cheapo Strikes Again.
Hey, I have a good wine tip for Captain Cheapo, and the assembled:
2006 Monte Antico (Tuscany), generally around $10. Got a 90 from WS. Had a bottle this weekend, and while I have a hard time seeing 90, it was still pretty good.
Comparable to the 2006 Coastline Cabernet from last year.
note to self never meet John in person or tell him what I drive. Crap already did that!
grim pre and early seventies rides it works, did it to a friends gremlin in high school. Couldn’t figure out what was wrong with it for a month
241: More wines for cheapos:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704869304574596053517235842.html
240: Went to GSP Friday night. Packed as always, not a lot of people at registers or holding many bags.
Any reports from christmas tree shops? bet there’s gonna be a lot of flammable plastic goodies under the christmas tree this year.
Good cheap wine 9.99 a bottle Snow line Pinot Gris had it at my brothers turkey day like it.
[244] relo
Brancott is okay, but I like the Kim Crawford better for a couple more bucks.
Chalone–I remember when they were private distribution only and I used to have a client who was a heavy buyer. That got me into the club.
[242] pain,
not to worry, you will never meet John in person. I guarantee it.
John: The man, the myth, the legend.
(Well, two out of three anyway, and we’ll let John say which two.)
John is a character he plays on the interweb…
Like shooting fish in a barrel for retailers this week. I would think that everybody will be busy this week.
macy’s nanuet,, very sad mall is empty
No permanent damage, but I can remember several large Polish guys in Brooklyn putting someones Volkswagon Beetle on the sidewalk between two trees. Unfortunately, he was also Polish and had no trouble finding large friends to put it back in the street.
Lost you got mail
Chi -Costco is NOT big hair. The big hair goes to Sams Club.
Costco is popular with Asians -they like the free samples.
You should look into them, they carry a lot of organic stuff.
Tire rack IS good and we always price them out but the last time I bought tires (all weather Bridgestone) Costco beat out both them and the wholesalers.
My husband installs them.
Fire at the Guinness Factory, eh?
Parking –
I live in a townhouse, the spot is the one directly facing my front door and the one I ALWAYS park in. The b!tch is my next door neighbour who always parks in the space next to it except when it snows and her and her lazy a$$ husband can’t be bothered doing more than the minumum to get out. Totally passive aggressive.
I have noticed the habit more in Jersey than elsewhere though.
Like some of the suggestions though. The water one is excellently suruptitious.
One good snow storm everybody going parking-space vigilante.
“Totally passive aggressive.”
Lish, from what you have described, this sounds like all out war. Keep in mind that you have absolutely no legal basis for retaliation but someone obviously needs an attitude adjustment.
gather these items and let me know when you have done that so we can proceed to the second step.
1 – 2 rolls Duct Tape
2 – 1 xlarge Ice Pick
3 – Steel Tip Boots
4 – Chain Mail body armor suit
5 – Ice Hockey Mask
6 – Two 24 Gallon Heavy duty garbage bags
7 – Megaphone
8 – Car Battery with Jumper cables
9 – Bowling Ball
10 – 64,000 candle flash light
11 – 4 Iron Bear Traps
12 – Dirt Ditch Shovel
Veto by the looks of your list save time & shoot them!
Veto – good list but you forgot the thumbscrews.
Just a trashy family, their son is the school bus bully too. Unfortunately completely incapable of anything up front and honest. I do believe my husband, who is the sneaky one, has plans and he is one ingenious MF.
concerning lisoosh’s sitch
I like the pooring water over car on a freezing overnight the best. Best revenge for the lazy.
Johnny, do you have any spiteful pranks that dont require $1,000 worth of damage or outright fraud?
Note to self: never play parking lot wars with NYers.
lis,
I’d just help them by melting the snow under their car for them….with, you know…stuff that makes a whole lot of heat in a hurry.
(ahem, Ket?)
sl
” like the pooring water over car on a freezing overnigt”
Back in the day, I knew someone who used a toothpick (to open the little doors) and a water pistol (for obvious resaons) to squirt water into a car lock to freeze it solid. Talk about a pain in the tail to deal with on a frigid morning before work.
“Some of my tricks from the Philly parking wars”
Nom,
It sounds like Ocean Grove.
How did this discussion switch from NJ housing market to parking wars?
I just wanted to mention that many of the markets that are beginning to recover are fueled by strong business and improving economies. Major cities play a large part in attracting businesses and creating new jobs. New Jersey is in a place where its largest cities (NYC and Philly) are actually fueling other state’s economies. Although they might be a short distance away, there is a state line, and these states are taking their taxes and money. It will be a long time before NJ recovers if it relies on other states for income.