Scruit

I got ripped off by a shop that pretended my wife's Jeep's brakes were 98% worn and wanted me to authorize $1k in work to repair them. I declined the work and bought new brakes on autozone on the way home. Went to install them - the brakes were less than 50% worn, still had years left on them. I went back and complained, did me no good. So should I refuse to trust ANY shop from now on?

Depends on what you need them for.

See all the youtube crash video out there? Very few people post videos of cars driving normally and NOT crashing. They give a false impression that the majority of car journeys end in crashes. Same thing with police interactions - 98% of cops out there are honest people doing good work, and 2% are power-hungry bullies who should be off the force. So does that mean 98% of youtube video showing police interactions show normal interactions where the cop is being professional? Not even close. People like drama, so they prefer to watch videos of bad cops, ergo disproportionately more bad cop videos are posted and create a false impression that the majority of cops are bad.

Speeding typically does not cause accidents until you reach speeds that other drivers aren't anticipating - but it does make accidents worse. Ask anyone that has to clean them up - it can get pretty gruesome, and *someone* has to tell the families of those killed. Why do people call it a "tax"? Like speeding fines are a tax but DUI fines are not?

Hardly anyone posts videos of cops being nice.

Are they required on new cars now?

My Subaru needs new summer tires and this time round I want to add tire pressure monitoring if I can. Anyone know of a *good* aftermarket system I can add?

As far as I'm concerned, Subaru is the Japanese word for "winter", and Suzuki is the Japanese word for "summer". The fun never stops.

Just bear in mind that two drivers headed towards each other, both effectively blind, is not an ideal situation. I use my left hand to cover their headlights and stare at the fog line on my side of the road. No value in making things worse. They get a quick double-tap of brights, then a longer burst, but I go back to low beams again in time for him to pass safely.

Managed to get out for a short blast. Was fun.

I love it when they spontaneously volunteer an explanation which proves they KNOW what they are doing in lazy... "I'd normally walk but I am carrying a coffee!"

Even worse when they are going DOWN one floor...

I'm going to live forever. :wackit:

The key here is "assured clear distance". That is dependent on speed, traction, braking characteristics of your vehicle, etc. It's the responsibility of the driver to process all those factors and set his distance appropriately. If you CAN stop in time when the driver in front of you emergency stops then you DID have enough distance. If you CANNOT stop in time, then you DID NOT have enough distance. That's not measured in feet. From a purely legal/ACDA perspective, it's measured in "collision" or "no collision". Would the cop yell at the biker if the biker stopped for a kid running out into the street? Looks like the biker may have seen the cop getting close and figured he'd scare the cop using the merging car as cover. There was no reason to stop completely. REGARDLESS: The cop was too close. There was a collision, therefore he was too close. It's really that simple.

Investigation under way now... http://www.8newsnow.com/story/21479236/youtube-video-shows-metro-officer-rear-ending-motorcyclist

Absolutely I would argue duress. His chocies were to report it as an accident and get a bunch of tickets, or ride away and pretend I never rear-ended you. Cop had the advantage of a huge power disparity and that was not a choice he should have given the rider - it should have been to simply report the accident or not. Tickets are another matter and should not be used as abargaining chip to save yourself the embarrasment of an accident report. Having said that - it may not even have been an accident. Doesn't there have to be damage or injuries for it to be considered an accident? Was the bike dagames, or was it pushbar-to-tire? If it was the latter, no reprotable "traffic accident" occurred.

Or maybe used his fingers to make little antlers? "10-point buck over the hill? Thanks for the warning bro-chacho!"

That's me.

Bear in mind the "DUI Plates" are called "Family Plates" are assigned to a person who is given limited driving privileges while under suspension for any cause, not just DUI. They are also intended to allow the family members of an offender to still be able to drive the car while the offender's plates are impounded. Chances are you're doing your hand signal to either an innocent person, or someone convicted of something other than DUI.

Are you watching the same video as me? He was passing the whole time, not hovering on the blind spot. He started level with the vehicle behind the caddy.

Not proud. Just not surprised either. At-fault drivers rarely tell the truth.

We'll see. She's not in any pain, not incontinent, can still get around the house and her eyesight is apparently ok so I'm sure her quality of life is good right now.

She's got about 2 ounces of meat on her entire body. She'd probably make two McNuggets and that's it.

I'll evaluate her when I get home. Will have to see how she is doing. Like I say, she has not declined in the last 8 months except for this weird thing this morning. And she apparently went back to normal within a few seconds so I don't get it. I asked if it was just a heavy sleep, but my wife said she wasn't breathing. But if she wasn't breathing then she'd be dead within minutes, right? Was it just good timing that she was found? How can she go from being "dead" to being normal within seconds? I don't get it. We're making an appointment to have her evaluated at the vet. Right now her quality of life is good other than the usual old age complaints, and the vet said 6 months ago that although he didn't expect her to live more than a year or two, there was no reason to put her down back then.