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Old 06-30-2009, 08:44 PM   #72 (permalink)
RoadDad
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mopho View Post
Additionally, such old cars are really just a drop in the bucket in the whole scheme of things.
That depends on where you are. Come hang out with me for a week. I will give you a pen and paper and you can count the cars that are older than 25 years vs younger than 25 years that we see driving around. If neither of us are sure about the age, we'll just plop it into the younger category. We'll then see if it is really just a drop in the bucket or if in some places the junkers out number the newbies .

We had a local antique car show here last weekend. The evening before the show there was an unofficial "drive" for anyone who wants to participate even if you aren't "showing" your car the next day. 15,000 "old cars" drove down that street (no I didn't count them, but a local newscaster did -- the same guy that counted them last year and the year before that, as a matter of fact.). The street is not closed to regular traffic for the "drive" and wasn't particularly more congested than normal. Perhaps 3% were really what I would call "road worthy." They were all registered (or at least had some VA plate on them). Of those 97% that weren't "road worthy" I'd say I have seen at least 50% of them driving around town regularly.



Quote:
Originally Posted by mopho View Post
Now if you were not being so cynical and anti-govt, you might see that keeping costs down for insurance companies keeps the cost down for the consumer
I know that keeping company costs down can keep down costs for the consumer. In the case of the 2.5mph bumper mandate, however, it was originally driven solely by insurance company "profit" issues not cost cutting, solvency, or protecting the consumer's pocketbook issues. Insurance rates did not drop because of that mandate and they also did not slow in their rate of rise because of it.

We are, OTOH, seeing the opposite with the Elise/Exige in that the lack of a "bumper" and people requiring a full clam replacement for repairable cracks has driven the insurance rates up for these cars...
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