July 31st, 2006
Sunday I got a chance to sneak out and look at the 1999 Firebird for sale (for $5,700.00)Â in East Hanover. A beautiful car if there ever was one.
However, there is some bad news: The car has a dent in the front-right rim—estimated cost for a new rim $214.99. The car will also need new tires, which go hand in hand with the bent rim. You can assume that the tire will lose air once the seal on the original 1999 tires are replaced (due to the broken seal that was formed between the original tire and rim). New Goodyear Tires–estimated cost per tire $105.00–125.00 (x 4).
The car is definitely drivable and handles extremely well regardless of what I just stated. Taking that into account, I would see it reasonable to deduct $730.00 from the asking price of the car—making it a total of $4,970.00. I am not including any average wear on the car or any of the existing scratches (there is one on the right front fender and a scratch on the door, along with normal road wear). I would probably max out at $5,000 or $5,100.00, but I know my mother would kill me.
July 28th, 2006
The closer and closer I come to buying a 4th Generation Camaro or Firebird the more it slips away from me. The white 1998 Pontiac Firebird sold two days after the ad was posted on Auto Shopper. Cross that one off my list. It was manual anyway. I would have sucked at it, making the poor car buck and ruin more than just my pride at a stop-light.
Yesterday… I came across a car post on autotrader.com. A 1999 Pontiac Firebird with 98,000 miles on it. It’s also one owner thanks to a carfax report—never leave home or buy a car without one. It had no picture of the car, so I was kind of blind as to what to expect, but I decided to call on it anyway. No answer, so I left a message. I checked out the ad this morning to see if the car was still for sale, to my surprise there were 9 new photos of the car. Absolutely beautiful. Now, where is my return call? You updated the ad, now return my call. I know you got my message. The good part about this car is that it’s only 19 miles from where I live. I have a good shot of seeing this car if I just head north a little more than I already am.
. . .
She called me back at 11:02 PM today. It turns it belongs to the son of the lady selling it. He bought a 2002 Firehawk (damn him!) in Long Island. Raved about how she does not like the style of the car, nor the power of the car because 460 HP is way too much. As I’m thinking to myself… insurance! Anyway, 10 Oxford Dr is where the car can be found. Yes, tomorrow I shall look.
July 23rd, 2006
I got an email a few days ago telling me to read this article, but I didn’t get a chance to read it till now. It turns out they finally clocked the speed of an exploding white-dwarf. The explosion occurred on February 12, 2006 in the RS Ophiuchi binary star system (consisting of a white-dwarf & a red giant). They completely wiped each other out as it’s shockwave raced through space at an amazing 4 million mph.
July 23rd, 2006
In the words of Bruce Dickenson (Christopher Walken), “Guess what? I got a fever and the only prescription is more cow bell!” I am now the proud owner the complete discography of the Blue Öyster Cult! Man, now I wanna see them in concert. It’s a shame they are only playing in England this month. Anyone want go with me to England to see the Cult?
Upon getting my hands on this collection I decided to look up more things about the band. I received some interesting results back from my searches. It turns out there was a missing band memeber behind the cow bell, Gene Frenkle. Frenkle died in 2000. May he rest in peace. Poor soul.
July 22nd, 2006
I’ve been searching high and low for a new car for some time now. I think I finally found one—a 1998 Pontiac Firebird, white, v6 (insurance man!) with t-tops, but it’s standard. I guess that’s good and all, as my Uncle Scott taught me a while back. However, I’m a little confused. There are two articles for this car online. One ad is on New Jersey Automotives for $3,999.00, and the other is on Auto Shopper (magazine/online) for $4,995.00.
M.S.R.P. for this Firebird is $7880.00! What’s wrong with this car? Anything this cheap with low miles has to have something wrong with it.
Given my past experiences with car dealers, such as this one, I have little faith in car dealers and their online Ads. They are all a scam. As you can tell it’s on Auto Shopper Online for $6,995. He also had the ad in the paper for the same price. Once I got there it was for sale at a high $8,995. The dealer would not sell for the advertised price stating he never placed the AD for this car before. Even eBay is a scam at times. Win a car, seller refuses to sell, hence why there are reserves… idiot, but that’s another story.