I'll be out of the orifice March 12-17. I'll be in the Hill Country Home for Burned-out Car Salesmen. The usual request to buy/lease something new or used, Mercedes, Volvo, Aston-Martin, or Lotus before or after these dates is hereby made.
Starting with the 2000 model, Mercedes is adopting a negotiation-free process, or, as it is called elsewhere, "one price." The retailer profit margin has been cut drastically, meaning no retailer will be likely to discount his product. The goal is to remove adversarial negotiations from the buying process. Most Americans don't want to negotiate when they buy their cars. A small minority won't buy without negotiating, and I imagine we'll lose some of them. One has already told me if he can't negotiate, he won't buy a Mercedes again. I explained that Lexus could discount their car 9% and still match the profit margin of a 2000 model Mercedes.
Along with the new pricing will be several other changes to make buying and owning a Mercedes-Benz a very pleasant situation. Though I'm looking at the reduced margins with mixed emotions, negotiation-free pricing will allow me to concentrate on what I do best, client satisfaction. If the prices are the same, the need to buy from a sales rep who doesn't know how much horsepower the car has or how to tune the radio will be eliminated. I'll continue to study and learn the cars extensively so I know more about them than virtually any other sales rep, and I'll be able to pass this on to the clients.
This will become VERY important with the 2000 model S-Class.
The controls are quite extensive. You can do almost anything with the car.
But you'll have to be taught how to do it. Otherwise that neat COMAND system
will be useless. Most of my clients don't read the manual, so it's up to
me to get it across.
If we are what we eat, I'm fast, cheap and easy.
I hate everybody, and you're next.
In line with Mercedes' new One Price policy, the European Delivery price for 2000 model S-Class cars is the same as for U.S. delivery, $69,700 for a S430, $77,850 for an S500.
When I have told people this I've either gotten responses of, "Then why should I buy a Euro Delivery?" or, "makes sense."
To answer the question, for a great European vacation. You'll get 2 nights in 5 star hotels, with 4 more available for $1200, hotels which all are $400-500/night. You'll get to drive your Mercedes-Benz where it was meant to be driven, in Germany, on the autobahns and on wonderful, scenic, twisty secondary roads. You won't have to rent a car. Renting a car at Orly Airport one time cost me $593 a day, for a Chrysler Stratus!* What an S500 would cost I don't want to guess. (And I was a few minutes late turning it in, so they charged me for another day!)
And it does make sense. I've never understood why the car should be cheaper on European Delivery. But EDP prices reflected reality. When most Mercedes were discounted 5%, EDP prices were 5% off US list. The markup on the 2000 model cars is half that of 99s. There is no room for discounts any more.
*This isn't a misprint. Over here it's a Chrysler Cirrus or a Dodge Stratus. Over there it's a Chrysler Stratus. It has big brakes and V-rated tires, perforated leather interior, and power seats. It didn't blow up when driven across France at 130-135 m.p.h.
It was a Sunday, and I wasn't dressed up in the weekday monkey suit. I was driving down the left lane of the Katy Freeway at 70ish when I heard a noise like a helicopter flying low overhead. Since no helicopter was visible through the sunroof, I figured I had a flat. I started working my way to the exit as the noise got worse. Now I could feel it in the steering. But since it was a Mercedes ML320 and not an Explorer, I wasn't flipping end over end down the freeway, and, in fact, the truck wasn't pulling one way or another. I approached the Gessner exit and saw that if I exited there, the only sanctuary was on the grass inside the V of the exit. So I pulled off there out of the line of fire, emergency flashers on. When I opened the door, the smell of burned rubber hit me. It was, as expected, the left front tire. I glanced at it, definitely flat and ridden on, so it was destroyed. Since I wasn't dressed up, I decided to change the tire myself. I opened the hatch and put on my Wells Lamont work gloves I keep for such an occurrence. Then I opened the panel on the right side of the cargo area and removed the tire changing tools. Then I began removing the spare tire.
First you pull the cover from the middle of the bumper. Then insert the tire changing wrench in the bolt visible in the lower center. When it is loose, push the lever to the right while holding the rack up to relieve tension. Then the rack will drop down. If you pull it to the rear, the tire will be in your lap, so to speak. Don't pull too hard, as I'll explain later. Remove it, and re-collapse the rack. This is where I began to have trouble. I couldn't re-collapse it. A Good Samaritan who stopped couldn't re-collapse it. The owner's manual was silent on the problem. I called 1-800-FORMERCedes (not 1-800-4MERCEDes, which, thankfully, Mercedes has acquired. If you get it, you are directed to 1-800-367-6372, or 1-800-FOR MERCedes). I asked how to collapse the rack. After being put on hold for some time the gentleman came back and told me just to push it back closed. I explained that two of us had been pushing on it for half an hour, and that dog didn't hunt. So he called our technician on call, Fidel, who happened to be only a few blocks away. Meanwhile the Good Samaritan found that if you stuck a screwdriver in the plastic clamshell device over the end of the tubing part of the rack and twisted, on both sides, you released whatever was binding it open. So we collapsed the rack and remounted it so the car could be driven.
Then Fidel arrived and finished changing the tire.
The next morning I called Roadside Assistance to explain that they didn't give me proper instructions for closing the rack. The gentleman who answered argued with me that all you had to do was push. When I explained that mine wasn't the only one with this problem he insisted I was wrong. (A client drove into the store with his extended and tied up to prevent dragging.) The man swore he had worked at the factory and had worked on the first 6500, and they all worked. Mine is number 5471, so he missed one. So I put the car in the shop Monday to have the rack checked.
Mine's an early model and has the original wrench, by the way. It has corners on the outside of the wrench. If you have one of these, check it. See if it fits in the wheel without scratching up the wheel (test fit it carefully. Don't scratch the wheel.) If it looks like it'll scratch, either grind off the outside corners on your handy bench grinder or bring it in. Current production is properly rounded off.
If you have a flat in your M-Class, don't try to change it. Call Roadside Assistance. It's no fun.
I could say the depreciation curve and the payoff curve reached a happy point, and it seemed like a good time. I could say I was ticked off at the tire blow out (not its fault. I wasn't.) I could say I was ticked off that the control unit in the transmission went, leaving it sans top gear intermittently (but I wasn't particularly bothered by it. This is why we have warranties. We know how to fix this). But the truth is I just wanted one.* I traded the ML320 on an ML430. For those of you in line waiting for an ML430, your wait wasn't increased. I bought a black and sand one that no one seemed to want.** I didn't take a white or a silver one, the ones with the longest wait.
The ML430 is obviously faster than the ML320, at the cost of fuel economy. I'll let you know how much after it's broken in and I get an idea. The first tank was 15.2 mpg, more than acceptable for a big, heavy honker with 275 hp. Most of my idle-time I-10 Katy Freeway driving averaged in the 16 mpg range dividing miles driven by gallons used. The trip computer usually showed higher numbers. On the first tank of the ML430 the trip computer agreed with actual.
Other than that it seems to ride better, which I attribute to the 17" wheels and BIG tires, 275/55R17H Dunlop Grand Treks. Handling better I would expect with that bigger tire footprint, but I wouldn't expect a better ride if I hadn't felt it.
There isn't much different about it. Being a '99, it has HomeLink garage door openers built in, and ESP, Brake Assist, and BabySmart, all Mercedes exclusives. Being a ML430 it has a burled walnut shift knob. Being a black ML430 it's all black, too, no dark grey metallic trim. It looks good, quite sinister and not the least little bit puppy-dog like.
The ML320 is a good Urban Survival Vehicle, able to outrun most pursuers or go off road to elude them. The ML430 is better. For a big, honking truck, it's awfully fast and very agile, and it has off road capabilities which are unsurpassed. Anyone who can catch me on the street I can lose off road. Anyone who can catch me off road*** I can lose on the street. The 60-100 m.p.h. acceleration is impressive. The bigger tires make for impressive braking.
The sound is superior, too. The engine is allowed to make good V-8 engine noises, strong noises of an engine having fun, not straining noises of an engine working hard. These are noises I like
We named it Mr. Mistoffelees after the black, magical cat in Cats.
*This is the best reason for buying a Mercedes. A Geo Prism will get you to work and back. Mercedes are the safest vehicles in the world, and they're reliable, and those are good reasons, but life is short and usually doesn't end well. Sometime you should be able to get what you want. You've earned it.
**This, of course, makes no sense. Black ones have been the most back ordered, and black and sand wasn't available until the 1999 model, causing even more pent-up demand. For resale, of course, black is one of the magic colors, despite its impracticality in Houston. What the hell, good looking redheads are high maintenance, and I'm not planning on trading in the redhead on a plainer version that's low maintenance.
***Maybe a Hummer depending on the off-road conditions. I don't know what else.
I have finally gotten some copies of Drive to Survive! to keep at the store for people who don't want to mail/phone/internet order or to go to a bookstore. I intended to get into the book writing business, not the book selling business, but several people want to buy it from me. So now I can handle that. If you drop by the store, I'll sell it for $14.95 drive-out. If you mail order it, $14.95 + $2.00 shipping. Make checks to Curtis R. Rich. The bank won't take checks made to Curt's Newsletter or other variations. No credit cards. If you want to use a credit card, www.motorbooks.com or www.amazon. com, or a nearby bookstore can do that. Amazon.com keeps a daily tally of sales ranking, and at one time DTS got as high as 2516. It ain't the NY Times best seller's list, but it ain't bad.
Mercedes builds the best collection of low profile fast vehicles on the road. The political climate in Germany is such that conspicuous consumption is dangerous. Just as people wearing furs are attacked by extremists in New Yawk City, people driving high-powered cars are attacked by green extremists. This will spread to this country when Ozone Al becomes president. He has, after all, declared the automobile the greatest enemy this country will face in the 21st Century, which must make Saddam's nukes and anthrax seem pretty insignificant.
So Mercedes sold in Germany often don't have anything on the rear fender indicating the engine size. The small engines seem to be marked on the fender, but it doesn't mean anything. An SL280 might be a 280, or it might be a politically corrected SL500. An SL with nothing on the rear might be anything. A long-wheelbase S-Class could be a politically correct S280 or a Green-target S600, and only the dealer would know for sure.
And Mercedes makes 3 of the greatest stealthmobiles going, the C43, the E55, and, to a lesser extent, the ML430. When the ML55 comes out, it will be king of the stealthmobiles. Take the trunklid emblems off any of these, and you have an invisible Mercedes. Yes, the aficionado will know by the extra lights on the front that a C43 is not a C230 with big wheels and tires, but he'll wink and smile. No one else will know.
C43
This is a C-Class modified by AMG. It has deliberately near stock bodywork. Wheels are 17" AMG wheels with low profile tires, 225/45ZR17s in front, 245/40ZR17s in the rear. The suspension is stiff, stiff enough that a few dilettantes have traded theirs back in with low miles. The seats are unique, with aggressive side bolsters and adjustments for length, lower lumbar, upper lumbar, and lateral support. The black and silver interior isn't very stealthy, but no one looks inside. Those interested in stealth can get the all black interior. It also has the AMG steering wheel, probably the most ergonomically correct ever to be put on a production automobile, and ivory AMG gauges, very readable in daylight or night.
Under the hood is an AMG modified 4.3 liter engine. The stock 4.3 liter in car form gets 275 hp. This one does 302, with 302 lb.-ft. of torque. In the lightweight C-Class, it makes for a car which will go 0-60 in the low 5 second range and is governed to 155ish m.p.h.. But like all Mercedes, 0-60 is not an important factor. 80-120 and 100-150 are more important to German drivers, and these excel at that sort of driving.
To match the acceleration and handling are AMG racing front brakes, SL600 rear brakes, with, of course 4 channel 4 wheel ABS, Brake Assist, and Electronic Stability Control.
Base price is $53,000.
E55
The E55 is the same concept in an E-Class. A beefed up 5.5 liter engine producing a prodigious 349 hp. is installed, with a heavy duty transmission and stiff suspension with 18" wheels and 35 series tires and huge racing brakes. Car magazines have been getting 0-60 times of 4.7-4.8 seconds, much lower than what we claim. It, too, is governed to 155ish. Car and Driver got 158, for example. The interior treatment is similar to the C43. Outside it's just an E430 Sport with 18" wheels. Remove the AMG emblem, and it's invisible. A white one came through and looked positively dull. But if you're into unobtrusive performance, this is the finest car on the face of the planet.
ML55
The ML430 qualifies as a stealth vehicle. Most people don't know the difference between it and a ML320. The bigger 17" wheels and 275/55 tires make it handle and brake better. It is remarkably stable and agile at 100 m.p.h. and accelerates fast enough in the 70-110 m.p.h. range to make back road berserking a delight for a truck. It still tows 5000 lb. and has a cavern in the back for transporting all your "stuff."
In the fall we'll have a few, very few ML55s, with the E55 engine and transmission and a bigger wheel and tire package and suspension mods. Inside it will have a more luxurious interior than the M1 package on the current ML class. It will be a SUV which does 150 m.p.h. and does 0-60 in 6 seconds. These were recently supercar numbers. Now we have a truck that does them. The most recent photos show a prototype which looks pretty much like a ML430. We'll see how distinctive the final version will be, but I'll bet it'll come out in stealth mode rather than exhibitionist mode.
Americans seem to care more about looks than performance. Witness the Hondas with gold trim. As the world gets more and more dangerous, inconspicuous performance is going to get more and more popular.
I have seen the future, and I don't like it. We had an armor-plated E430 here after the armoring company, Anaheim Ballistics, finished with it and was sending it to a client in Mexico. This car was seriously armored. The doors were VERY heavy on their hinges. The glass was over an inch thick all around. Even the windshield was thick armor glass. Cars armored in the United States, except for gumment vehicles, must leave the windshield unarmored on the theory that the police have to have something to shoot at. This, obviously, is a regulation which needs to be changed. People who aren't gangsters buy armored vehicles now.
I've been following the trends for 20 years or so. If you look at what's happening in South America today, it's what'll be happening in North America tomorrow. Drive-by shootings were first a political tool in South America, as were carjackings. They've worked their way up here. Kidnappings have worked their way up to Mexico. Now it's too dangerous to drive in Mexico in some areas unless you're in an armored vehicles. Honest citizens are disarmed in Mexico. Only criminals have guns, kind of like Washington D.C. and New York City, and they don't attack with piddling little handguns. They have .308 rifles and AK-47s. So armored vehicles are very popular.
They're no fun. The 800 lbs. extra weight makes them slower in acceleration and mushy in handling. The windows, being so thick, make you kind of seasick because the view is slightly distorted.
But the threat of kidnapping is too real. People desperate for money will kidnap for chump change.
How long before armored vehicles are de rigeur here? I don't know, but there is a trend toward them.
Of course I don't look busy... I did it right the first time.
The U.S. may lead the western world in murders and rape, but Great Britain has a higher rate of other types of violent and property crime, according to a new report.
Reuters reported Oct. 11 that a study by a Cambridge University professor and a statistician from the U.S. Justice Department found that rates for assault, burglary, robbery, and car theft were all higher in Great Britain than the U.S. "Common sense says America is the most crime-ridden country on earth, while Britain is an oasis of peace and tranquility," said London's Sunday Times newspaper in an editorial. "Common sense is wrong. We urgently need to reexamine our cozy assumptions about law and order."
For example, there were 20 assaults per 1,000 people in Great Britain, but only 8.8 per 1,000 in the U.S. The British government is expected to release its own crime statistics this week.
The Printers Full Employment Act
Wonderful. We have 10-digit dialing now on all local calls. What's next? 13 digits?
The Stamp Act
Anyone in any doubt as to the gumment's competency to handle Y2K should remember the shortage of 1¢ stamps when the US Postal "Service" raised the rates to 33¢ in January. They had planned this increase for years and had several previous ones for practice, but every post orifice was out of 1¢ stamps. Their Head Bureaucrat In Charge got on TV and blamed it on the customers buying too many stamps. On Jan 2, 2000, when another HBIC is on whatever TV station still works blaming the power outage and crashed airplanes on right wing extremists or Santa Claus, remember that.
Garage Parking Light
For those who liked it when they saw it at my Christmas party (yes, part of the party was in the garage), that neaty-keen device for accurately parking my cars in the garage was purchased from Griot's Garage (1-800-345-5789). Here's their blurb on it:
"I got tired of my wife occasionally missing her parking spot in the garage, driving through the den, running over my collection of automotive books, and pulling up just shy of my leather reading and research chair. Now I can enjoy my automotive journals in peace as this parking light lets her pull up in exactly the same place each and every time. Easy to install and easy to use. No messy cords to plug in or searching for an outlet. Works on four AA batteries (not included) and includes four mounting screws. It even lets you know when the batteries are low by flashing the red light. Pull into your garage and the green light illuminates as you get close, the yellow light cautions you to slow down, and the red light lets you know where to stop. Avoid costly bumps and scratches or trips through the den." 36816 Garage Parking Light$79.95
Fire Extinguisher
For those of you trying to duplicate the halon fire extinguisher as fitted on my ML320, there is a source. Be aware that like "assault" rifles, high capacity magazines, and freon, Halon has been banned by our wunnerful federal gumment. As a result, like a magazine for your Glock, the remaining stocks are expensive. This fire extinguisher is available from Truechoice (1-800-388-8783) at $110.00, part DPAH2.5. It is a handheld portable fire extinguisher with a metal vehicle mounting plate. It is filled with Halon 1211, UL approved, and rechargeable. The nozzle is metal, too. Since I said in Drive to Survive! I didn't know where you'd get it recharged, people have informed me that if you look long enough, you'll find a fire extinguisher recharging company which deals with foreign ships. They'll be able to recharge it if no one else will.
Dangerous Trend
I've long thought the People's Democratic Republic of New Yawk uses the Constitution of the United States for toilet paper. They just struck a new low. If you're charged with driving while intoxicated there your vehicle is confiscated, read stolen by the revenue collectors. You get it back, perhaps, if you're acquitted, after it's set out with the windows down and a dead body in the back seat for 13 months. This matches Denver's unconstitutional confiscation of property for having a gun in the car which would be legal in the rest of the state. (If you're driving a truck or other vehicle with no trunk, there is no way you can comply with the law.) Similarly a couple of parishes in Louisiana are busily stealing nice vehicles left and right under an unconstitutional drug seizure law. It's one thing to confiscate property from someone convicted of a crime. Confiscation of one suspected of a crime is theft, period. Don't tell me it's for the war on drugs. We could win the war on drugs in 6 months if we wanted to.
This is a trend which must be stopped. We simply cannot allow the gumment, any gumment, to steal property from citizens not convicted of a crime. As George Carlin said about school uniforms, "I've seen newsreels on this sort of thing before from the thirties, but they were hard to understand because they were in German."
Fuel Gauge Inaccuracy Cures
There are 2 possible fuel gauge inaccuracy problems on early ML320s, in one it doesn't read full when the car is filled up, and it shows empty when there are several gallons left. The low fuel light should go on at about 15 gallons of fuel usage, not 13. If you can only get 13 gallons in after the third shut-off of the gas pump, and the low fuel light is on, you have this problem.
The second problem is the gauge won't show full when the car has been topped, but is accurate later on. There are bulletins for both fixes. If you bring the truck in for either, tell your service advisor about the bulletin, so he won't come to me expecting me to fix it.
Real Offroading
A client called to complain he had gotten his ML320 stuck in a mud bog in a tree farm and wanted to know if his traction control wasn't working. I asked a few questions, and it sounded like he managed to high center the vehicle. While the General Grabbers aren't the best mud tire going, they're great road tires, and thus appropriate for most ML drivers. If you're going to frequent mud bogs, I'd suggest different tires. Only 5% of MLs get taken off road, so the tires are compromised toward road usage.
When you are off road remember it's not like it is on TV. Off road driving is a constant, never-ending search for traction. Always go V-E-R-Y slowly, in low range, and aim for the high points. That's the dry terrain. You should stay out of ruts where possible. Go off to the left or right to put one set of wheels between the ruts and one on the high edge. The traction control on the ML is the best in the business, but it can't create traction when there is none. I've seen enough tanks and military Jeeps get stuck enough to know that. They're pretty good at finding traction. If you're going to go off road a lot, you need a winch or at least a cable comealong. Sooner or later you'll get stuck.
When going down steep hills, don't brake. Let the traction control do its thing. When you brake, it's disconnected. Then you'll start sliding and fishtailing.
And tread lightly. If there's no trail, don't go there.
Excite Internet News Service
Carjacking investigation now murder
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 11 (UPI) Los Angeles police say an investigation into the carjacking and kidnapping of a former high school football star has turned into a murder probe. Chris Rawlings, 30, was mortally wounded when he was thrown from the trunk of his Bentley after being carjacked at his home in the. Woodland Hills area. The two carjackers fled the scene after crashing the expensive car into a power pole, ending a wild chase that sometimes reached speeds of 100 m.p.h..
The crash Monday knocked out power to a 20-block area as police searched in vain for the two men.
The former Crespi High School football star was in critical condition for more than a day after two men snatched him from the garage of his home, stuffed him in the trunk and drove off as police were arriving on the scene.
Police are trying to determine whether the attackers followed Rawlings from a supermarket where he had gone to pick up diapers or lay in wait at the home that he and his wife, Barbie, 26, were leasing.
With the death of Rawlings at 6:01 P.M.. Wednesday, the investigation turned into a murder probe.
Drive to Survive! was written to prevent situations like this from happening. Avoiding carjackings and kidnappings and surviving them was covered. The Color Code would have enabled the victim to avoid being kidnapped in the first place, and, failing that, utilizing the Trunk Survival Kit would have enabled him to escape the trunk and stop his kidnappers.
Seminars Available
People have asked whether I plan on teaching courses based on the book. I'm not planning on competing with Bondurant or BSR, but I can do seminars for groups interested. If your corporate executives are a kidnap threat, or if you have a group which would benefit from a seminar, contact me. The first 3 seminars will be given for expenses only (which, of course, involves each participant buying the book.) The seminars will be tailored to the audience, and, if you have the facility of a large, open, uncurbed parking lot, can include in-car training in evasive techniques.
If your company's problem is accidents, a new and useful system for avoiding them is the core of the seminar.
The basic classroom seminar requires two hours minimum.
85% of baby seats are installed improperly according to a recent study.
There are three types of child seats:
Infant Seat-rear facing, for a child from 5 to 20 lbs. and under 1 year of age. Before moving the child to the next seat he should be over one year old and over 20 lbs. A one year old weighing 18 lbs. should stay in the infant seat. A 20 lb. child of 11 months should stay in the infant seat.
When mounting the infant seat you should, of course, be well versed in the instruction manual. Put your knee in the seat to push it deep into the car seat and attach the seatbelt. On a recent Mercedes or 99 Volvo, extend the seatbelt all the way out. It will ratchet audibly. Now pull it tight. It will stay tight now. Loose infant seats are dangerous.
Make sure the child is restrained properly in the seat, with the harness per the instructions.
The next seat, the Toddler Seat, is for a child of 21-40 lb. It faces forward. Again, use your knee to make sure it is installed tightly. The harness should be connected high, even with the child's armpit. Children have come out of child seats.
The next seat is the one most unused. Airhead Perky Katie Couric admitted on the Today show that she didn't use hers for her children. The purpose of this one is to enable a child to properly use the seatbelt. The Mercedes/Britax version is the best I've seen. It adjusts as the child grows. When the child is small the booster bottom pushes him up so he can see out. The back has a hook for the shoulder belt, so he can wear it properly. A child sitting in a seat without this will put on the three point seatbelt and put the shoulder harness behind him or under his armpit. The former will make the child a paraplegic in a crash. The latter will cause massive internal injuries. Someone on TV said the seats were expensive, at $150 each. No, caring for a paraplegic child is expensive. Living with the massive guilt of knowing you've crippled your child for life is expensive.
When the child outgrows the back, it comes off, and the base stays until the child outgrows it. The adjustable height seatbelts on Mercedes will handle a 90 lb. child with just the base in place.
The Mercedes/Britax seat, in all three sizes, will turn off the right front air bag so your child can ride in the SL or SLK, or, if you have a need to put your child in the front seat of your 4-5 seat vehicle, you can do so.
ONLY a Mercedes/Britax seat will turn off the right front airbag, and only in a Mercedes-Benz equipped with BabySmart. BabySmart was first factory installed in the 1998 SLK. It is in all 1999 Mercedes-Benz models and many 1998s. If in doubt, when you start the car, a light will go on either in the dash or on the console indicating "AIRBAG OFF." The light will stay on if a BabySmart seat is installed. The light does not indicate that the seat is PROPERLY installed. You have to make sure of that yourself.
I've given away perhaps a dozen booster seats with new cars since I started the crusade to try to get at least everyone I come into contact with into them. I'm not keeping a score. Parents have gotten angry at me for mentioning them. Non-parents don't want to know, but I've had children in my car, and I have no children. If I had allowed their parents to put them in improperly and then crashed, I'd have a) felt awful, and b) been liable. So even if you don't have children you should know about child safety seats.
I'll keep harping on this subject until every child is properly restrained and protected in automobiles.
60 Minutes attack was really aimed at former GM lawyer Ken Starr. Dateline brought back the old "unintended acceleration" bugaboo. This time they were aiming at Ford vehicles with cruise control, citing several cases of drivers, some professionals like Secret Service agents, who suddenly found themselves in a devil-possessed Ford. Fatalities have resulted. An engineer paid by the plaintiffs came up with a theory blaming the cruise control, and Dateline exploited this for half the show. At the end, however, they mentioned that unintended acceleration doesn't occur any more frequently on cruise control equipped Fords than non-cruise control equipped Fords. The gumment, which is one of 3 which has studied unintended acceleration, studied Dateline's new evidence and refused to reopen the inquiry. But I expect Ford to lose a few liability cases now anyway. Juries, as O. J. knows, aren't confused by the facts.
If your car becomes possessed with the acceleration devil, stand on the brakes with both feet. This might get one of them off the accelerator. Turn off the ignition. Not one of the witnesses did this. It's simple. It isn't brain surgery. Their claim was it took 175 lb. of force to overcome the engine on the runaway Fords, and that's more than many drivers can exert. Yes, it is, if you don't turn off the ignition. Be careful. Don't turn it far enough to lock the steering. The car will stop then. Then have the demons exorcised.
Why didn't Dateline think of that?
(stolen from an e-mail)
1. Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joy ride.
2. Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure ecstasy.
3. When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.
4. When it's in your best interest, practice obedience.
5. Let others know when they have invaded your territory.
6. Take naps and stretch before rising.
7. Run, romp, and play daily.
8. Eat with gusto and enthusiasm.
9. Be loyal.
10. Never pretend to be something you're not.
11. If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.
12. When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close, and nuzzle them gently.
13. Thrive on attention and let people touch you.
14. Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.
15. On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.
16. When you're happy, dance around and wag your entire body.
17. Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.
18. No matter how often you're scolded, don't buy into the guilt thing and pout. Run right back and make friends.
19: NEVER bark-let alone growl-unless you're prepared to
bite.