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Eventually, they're all too young for sports at the moment. @Skinner - taillights I dunno about, but window tint for sure. It's a giant greenhouse with a Mazda3 air conditioner. Apparently tint is a necessity.

I went from having a combined total of around $3000 in credit limits to a combined total of over $30,000 in a period of a few months thanks to some creative negotiating, and my credit score shot up over 100 points. YMMV, but I'd leave it be. eta: According to the advice I get from myfico.com, Austin is right. One of the key indicators is % of available credit used.

For reals! Thanks!

I think my other wheels thread got deleted. The one where I was talked out of some ugly wheels and into these: http://steronz.com/random/mazda3.jpg http://steronz.com/random/mazda4.jpg http://steronz.com/random/mazda5.jpg Thanks to the Kevins @ Clifford Auto for opening up the center bore on these and mounting the tires. Everything's worked out great.

^ lol

Ford Escape/Mazda Tribute are a decent, cheap alternative to the CR-V. But I'd look at Subaru. Since they've been making the same car for 90 years, you can always find one with the size/age/mileage/engine to suit your needs and budget.

lol I need to do work...

The thing is, no left-leaning American is going to watch that ad and suddenly say, "Gee, I never thought of it that way, but now that I see hypothetical Chinese students laughing in a classroom I guess that everything Republicans have been saying for the last 3 years is right, even though they've presented no new evidence for their position." It's absurd to think this will convert everyone, and that's not the point. Because converting people is hard, and Bush proved in '00 and '04, and Obama confirmed in '08 and inadvertently in '10, that converting people isn't the way to win an election. No, you win elections by pandering to the lowest common denominator and getting people who already agree with you to go out and vote. Some apathetic rural voter might be a staunch conservative, but he's also lazy, and if you try to explain to him that you disagree with some nuance of Obama's fiscal policy, it's not going to motivate him to get to the poles. But FEAR FEAR FEAR CHINA and he'll fire up the 'ol F150 in November. So I hate this ad, I can see why it was made, I know it will be effective, and it makes me sad.

NA & NB = 4x100 15" wheels, NC = 5x4.5 17" wheels. I prefer having access to cheap(er) wheels and tires, which is one reason I like the NB. Just something to consider.

Condensing the varied possibilities for the future of the US economy to a 30 second ad is dumb and serves no useful purpose.

Just out of curiosity, do conservatives realize that they actually need to make a case that the stimulus bills and the health care bill are going to cost money in the long run? That's it not enough to just point out that we're spending money on these things? Let's step back from ideology for a bit and pretend that we're all co-owners of a house. As a house, we're in debt. Part of the problem is that we have no income, and we have a hole in the roof over our bed that's constantly causing us to buy new mattresses. So we've been charging all these mattresses on our credit cards. The democrats in the house decide that they're going to invite some roofers to come live with us. These roofers will get free rent and cost us some money for food and stuff, but in the long run they'll save us money because they're going to fix our roof so we can stop buying new mattresses. Meanwhile, Guillermo, another freeloader in the house, says that if we buy him a Taco Truck he can go out and make us some money. In a few months he'll have paid off the truck and we'll be enjoying a positive income. Now, the Republicans can make valid arguments against both of these plans. They can argue against them financially; they can say that the roofers we hired aren't any good and won't actually be able to fix the roof. They can say that the roofers will end up costing more money in lost rent and food than if we just paid some professionals. They can say that Guillermo doesn't make very good tacos. They can argue that, ideologically, our house is better off in the long run if we don't reward freeloaders like the roofers and Guillermo, because once word gets out that we're giving out room and board and Taco Trucks, we'll have too many people sleeping on our lawn. Furthermore, conservatives can argue that we have no business owning a house, and maybe we should just bail on it before we get even more in debt. All of those are potentially valid arguments that may or may not be borne out by numbers and a realistic discussion of their probability. What the conservatives shouldn't do is to just run around saying "You're spending money on roofers and Taco Trucks and we're in debt! That's bad! Case closed!" Because it's completely ignoring the fact that, right or wrong, the roofers and Taco Truck are part of a comprehensive plan to reduce debt. They have to argue why those are bad ideas, and they have to be convincing. 30 second ads like this just frustrate me to no end. Democrats are just going to roll their eyes and ignore it, and Republicans are just going to nod along and feel reinforced in their existing beliefs. It completely sidesteps the issue that stimulus packages were designed to boost the economy and (consequently) make sure future tax revenues stayed high. The idea was that we'd spend money on a Taco Truck now and reap the rewards in the future. The health care bill was designed to fix the hole in our roof that is Medicare/Medicaid. We'd spend money to fix a problem so that it didn't end up costing a lot more down the road. I'm not going to take the time to argue that either the stimuli or the health care bill are right, I just want to emphasis that there is a logic behind them, and it's not enough to point that they exist and call all liberal policies a failure. Conservatives, IMO, haven't made a convincing argument that the Democrats are wrong, and 30 second FEAR ads and all the chest beating and back patting in the world don't make that argument any more convincing. Step up the level of the discussion, and drop the shitty scare tactics. (Exhausted now, can't proofread, deal with errors).

http://www.949racing.com/server/15x9_6UL_nickel_6.jpg http://autox.i-55.com/forums/uploads/1224287778/gallery_5_2_127919.jpg

Buy Miata, take to road course. Fin. I'm partial to the NBs myself. They can look mean as hell with just a drop, 6ULs, and a roll bar: http://www.949racing.com/images/99_Rental_949.jpg

FEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEAR

I've got an aluminum engine block, some cast iron manifolds, old brake rotors, etc. Don't want to drag all that stuff over there and sound like an idiot. Do they buy that stuff?

Lol, I like it.

So what'd he do? Adjust your coilovers?

lol. I know in 2005, when they finally killed it, it was grossly underpowered even at a potentially underrated 290hp, but I think people forget that it was developed in the 80s and wasn't really all that expensive. Sure beat the crap out of a 1990 C4.

Yeah, it should have put out 500hp like all the other $70k cars in 1990...

lol. you're probably right. Shutting it down

morning bump

Thanks!!

I know! I'm so close yet hopelessly far away. Bump for the new ante!

On my calendar.

W00t! Will do!