Posted by AnnaWhaat on May 10, 2008 at 6:43 a.m. (Suggest removal)

First off.......alot of people need trucks for work. Its not that simple just to try and replace it with a car which is no use.
I suspect since Katrina alot of those cars are being brought here and sold. And since the smog thing is totally different back there they need them on the vehicles here in order to pass smog to sell them.

Posted by cslaurie on May 10, 2008 at 8:06 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Patriotic car - hahahaha. Like what kind of car would Jesus drive? A Cadillac of course.

Posted by bill on May 10, 2008 at 9:10 a.m. (Suggest removal)

jw1000 - I agree with you. If only more people would buy those little fuel saving cars maybe the price of gas would drop a little so it wouldn't cost me so much to fill my gas guzzling pickup truck!

Posted by goldeneye on May 10, 2008 at 9:13 a.m. (Suggest removal)

You can thank liberal Ventura County judges for allowing thieves and drug abusers to commit property theft crimes over and over again with nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

Posted by kosmoz13 on May 10, 2008 at 9:24 a.m. (Suggest removal)

all our police officers and courts systems are too busy with all the seat belt and traffic violators.

Posted by zulumaster on May 10, 2008 at 11:12 a.m. (Suggest removal)

catch someone doing it and kill them!!! tell the cops he was reaching for a weapon!

Posted by insideedge on May 10, 2008 at 12:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)

With Platinum sttting at $2100 an oz. They probably made more than if they would of robbed a bank.

Posted by ironwoman on May 10, 2008 at 2:09 p.m.

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Posted by youknowit on May 10, 2008 at 4:24 p.m. (Suggest removal)

There are different reasons people choose the cars they do ex. Families, work, or just because they LIKE it. NOt because they are idiots or whatever- if you feel that way for us having our indivuality than obviously YOU'RE the idiot- get over yourself! How the heck can you fit your family COMFORTABLY in a small car?? Or tow something on your small "patriotic fuel efficient UGLY car"

Posted by mikesmason on May 10, 2008 at 6:54 p.m.

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Posted by techsavy on May 10, 2008 at 10:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Reducing our fuel consumption I seriously doubt will lower prices. Foreign countries like India and China are consuming more and more oil so the shortage is not going to go away. Also our government has gotten used to all the taxes on gasoline and you can be sure that once demand goes down and tax revenue goes down, taxes will go up.

Look at Europe - they have more fuel efficient vehicles there than here. SUV's are rare, they all have small cars and yet look at their prices.

Just like California's budget. The economy goes down, tax revenues go down but instead of scaling back on spending, they need to raise taxes to keep the current level of spending.

Buy smaller cars to reduce your cash outlay for gasoline, but forget about thinking that will reduce the price of a gallon of gas.

Posted by hapkid0tico on May 11, 2008 at 5:12 a.m.

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Posted by sparks240 on May 11, 2008 at 11:07 a.m. (Suggest removal)

techsavy: The taxes on fuel are calculated per gallon. It doesn't matter how high the price per gallon is, the tax is still the same.

Posted by techsavy on May 11, 2008 at 2:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Sparks240,
I know that which is why I said it won't make a difference to get a smaller car. Reduce the amount of gas we buy and the state and feds will receive less $$ and they'll start raising taxes to make up for the loss.

It's already happening with the housing price bust. Cities are making more $$ now than before the housing boom, yet as soon as the income drops they start raising taxes to maintain their current level of spending.

State and federal spending goes up - it never goes down. One way to look at the SUV's is that they're keeping the gas taxes down, they're really not making the gas prices go up (the weak dollar is doing that along with the price of a barrel of oil) and the SUV's are draining the pockets of their owners, not us with the small cars.

Posted by JuttyB on May 12, 2008 at 11:50 a.m. (Suggest removal)

uh JW, you must have a small family then. my immediate family of 4 is 5'10" or above...try fitting in a 4 door car comfortably with that. no thanks.

so buying an import makes me patriotic then right?

Posted by venturapagan on May 12, 2008 at 12:23 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I can accept that there are a lot of ppl driving big SUVs around town that never haul or tow anything, and only have one or two kids and these ppl could/should be driving something more economical. AnnaWhaat is right; some of use NEED a vehicle that large, and until they come out with large hybrids or electrics that go further than 30 miles, some of us are going to keep our SUVs. Try camping for a week with a Honda....NOT. At least I bought American-Ford. My Honda was a piece of junk that the manufacturer would not back up. But hey, it got great gas mileage (when it was running)!

Posted by Relvd98 on May 12, 2008 at 3:56 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Bruce & mmshoot..you two continue to be hilarious ;)

Posted by ridered00 on May 12, 2008 at 7:26 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Great idea jw, Im going to run out right now and trade my truck in for a patriotic fuel efficient car. Im sure my work stuff or dirt bikes will strap down nicely on the roof! Those cars are great in accidents also, you get rear ended by someone going 10mph and you DIE!

Posted by jfurt on May 13, 2008 at 5:50 a.m. (Suggest removal)

A reputable welding and fabrication company in Toledo, OH has a new patented theft deterrent designed just for catalytic converters. It makes too much work for thieves in a hurry. The Catclamp is the only security system on the market designed exclusively to fight catalytic converter theft. It was in Newsweek Online on January 09, 2008. Go to Catclamp.com, the Catclamp is much cheaper than repairing a vehicle after catalytic converter theft.

Posted by Relvd98 on May 13, 2008 at 11:06 a.m. (Suggest removal)

So...where would I put my three four year old nephews and two year nephew along with their car seats? Oh boy, I'd have no clue where...wait, is it legal to strap them on the roof?

Posted by venturapagan on May 13, 2008 at 12:31 p.m. (Suggest removal)

mmshoot; not sure how much for a cat-converter, but it's about $500+ for a throttle body, so I'm sure it's just as obscenely priced. If ya steal Hondas, you could piece them out and make a fortune!!! I'll keep my Explorer, thank you.

Posted by Ms_California on May 13, 2008 at 2:03 p.m. (Suggest removal)

have any of you with SUV and large trucks tried to trade them in or sell them recently, not one auto dealer I have checked with comes even close to low blue book on my SUV. BTW it is only a few years old too & in great condition. For some of us who have large families with tall children, the thought of trading in the ole family wagon can't be done even if I wanted too.. I would lose my a$$ on it as a trade or sale. So what do you do? run it off a cliff and get the insurance money? Let's be logical here, not everyone can just jump up and buy a brand new car especially right now. Did you stop to think also that the price tags on the smaller cars are going up in price because of the demand and the Hybrids are so over priced on the sticker that it would take years to actually make your money back that you would save in gas. By that time the cars has depreciated and you end up really losing out on it. People need to look at what is right for them, how to conserve gas and the best ways to function in this time. How about you so called "patriotic people" do you carpool, walk or ride your bike to your destinations? Hey there's a thought! I am sure us "unpatriotic people" are trying our best to cut down on gas as well.

Posted by Relvd98 on May 14, 2008 at 11:27 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Good one Bruce!

Posted by axel718 on June 6, 2008 at 11:49 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Hey JW1000 I guess we should buy smaller PATRIOTIC compact cars that are made in Japan and Mexico.......yeah real PATRIOTIC

Posted by hutchtechusa on June 7, 2008 at 6:38 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Check out the CATCUFF. It's a quality, American made product that locks up a catalytic converter to the frame of the vehicle so that it simply cannot be removed. It's a one-size fits all product that is easy to install with household tools. The CATCUFF is tougher than nails and is only one-eighth the cost of other catalytic converter anti-theft products, but with even more metal-thief thwarting deterrence and no annoying rattling or vibration. You can learn more at http://www.catcuff.com