Tag Archive for 'corvette'

When Should Boomer Drivers Begin Re-taking Driving Test


Liberty Mutual, the insurance company, has this online driving test called Driver’s Test. Caution, annoying music starts to play.

meant to simulate some of the challenges that elderly drivers face when they’re out on the road.

Yeah, if you are driving your car using arrows on a keyboard. You know up arrow for accelerate, down area for stop, right for right, left for left. I HATE games that use keyboards. drivingtest

“The Driver Seat Game is a great conversation starter,” Greg Gordon, senior vice president of Consumer Marketing at Liberty Mutual, said in a statement. “Most families are simply not addressing the very important issue of senior mobility, perhaps because they feel ill-equipped on how to approach it.”

Yeah, I started a conversation with myself, muttering under my breath how I HATE using arrows in a game and then muttering that Liberty Mutual must have a bunch of idiot Xer’s in their marketing department that convinced the Trophy Generation at their advertising agency to develop a game that uses arrows. At least let me use my mouse. So of course, then it became a game like Pac-Man, the cars were like eaters, meant to be devoured when they change color and the people were bonus points.
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I always sucked at Pac-man too. I was trying to drive to the church and ended up at the diner. I guess I got a lot of points for driving like a bat out of hell the wrong way down one-way streets.

Boomers should start to retake driving tests at age Sixty, and then re-take the test when ever the state requires a new license.  If you have an opinion on this topic, here’s a poll.

According to A A A findings, with the exception of teenagers, seniors have the highest crash death rate per mile.

I was lucky, my dad gave up his keys very willingly. I think he scared himself!  I scare everybody that rides with me because at low speed, I “tailgate.” Here’s my rationale: I can see at least two cars ahead by looking through the windshield of the car in front of me.  I’m paying closer attention to the road than she is. I also incur the wrath of drivers when we stop. I pull right up on their bumper. What? Are they going to suddenly throw it in reverse and back into me?

If she pulls up annoyed, I pull up.

If she flips me off, I blow her a kiss.

If she pulls out a revolver, I duck.

By the way, Friday is Drive Your Corvette to Work Day.

Want to Buy a Collectible Car? Think Plain, Simple, Ugly and Odd


Jay Leno owns dozens and dozens and dozens of highly desirable vehicles: * Muscle Cars * Supercars * Sports Cars * Classics * Antiques * Vintage * Custom Built * Motorcycles * Hot Rods * Duesenberg * Bugatti * Bentley * Fixed Engines * Trucks * Hybrids * Electric * Steam Cars * Aircraft * Corvettes * Ten years ago, Leno’s Garage first showed up in Popular Mechanics, so they asked him what cars today would interest him as collectible in 20-30 years.

McClarens? Mustangs? Corvettes? Sure!

About 10 years ago, I had the chance to buy a McLaren F1. A new one was almost a million dollars. This was a secondhand car with less than 2500 miles, and it was $800,000. I thought, it’s crazy to spend that much money on a car. So I talked it over with my wife. And she said, “You’ve worked hard. If you want to get it, get it.” And I thought, ohhh … kaaay! So I bought it. Last year, a McLaren F1 sold at auction for $4.1 million! I now realize this is the greatest investment I’ve ever made. In less than 10 years, I more than quintupled my money.

But Leno’s advice is to buy a car because you love it, not because you think you can make 5 times the investment in a few years. I still love to ride the back roads and rubberneck looking for “barn finds.” I’ve inquired about a few, but the owners always have the image of their beat up 1987 Corvette selling for enough money to pay off the mortgage on the double wide. Or the 1952 Dodge coupe that has no interior and no glass paying for their next set of dentures. It’s discouraging because I know those cars will 1. continue to rot away, or 2. eventually be hauled to the scrap yard.

What are Leno’s picks from the current crop of cars to be collectible? Think ordinary, plain, average, simple, even ugly!

That’s why I think the Mazda Miata will be the ultimate affordable collectible by, say, 2025. The first-generation Miata was extremely simple, and that’s part of its charm.

Miata made a cute car! But how about the Ford Taurus? Cute? Not really, but collectible because of it’s roundness which was unusual for the time and lots of people owned them. Would you buy a Pontiac Aztek?

Not many people did.

Nancy thinks they resemble a tennis shoe on wheels.2001 Aztek GT Leno likes it because it is “odd and weird” like the old Pacers and Gremlins.

How about a Chrysler LeBaron K-Car with the fake wood? (we had one which was broadsided with oldest daughter driving.) Collectible according to Leno.

Here’s a car I didn’t even know existed: Cadillac CTS-V with a six-speed standard transmission. Easy to know why that will be collectible. Hardly anybody drives a standard transmission now, in 20 years, nobody will be driving sticks.

Leno even likes Hummers and blinged out Escalades for future collectibles!

One last collectible? It’s any car your girlfriend thinks is cute. A ’79 Ford Fiesta? “Oooh, look at that little thing!” It’s seen as a cute, desirable city car. The new Smart cars will always be collectible. Minis too. Things don’t change. If a woman was cute 20 years ago, she’s cute today. The same is true for cars.

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My cute girl in her cute car! Both highly collectible. One will be collecting Social Security in July.