Topic: What do you think of saving this solstice?

[chuckdoc]

Am I being too harsh, please check this thread on the big board and post answers here.  I can take it if you think I am unfair to this guy.

http://www.solsticeforum.com/forum/f11/save-my-solstice-52996/

[Fred]

IMO......No!

[DeepBlueGXP]

I had a brother I gave up a few grand to to help out and all it did was drain my bank account and cause him to ask other members of my family for money.  Chuckdoc has sound advice.  We don't know what the individuals reason for being jobless much less with out funds.  How can he create a web site to help others when he doesn't even know how to manage his own .   

[Cheers]

In a word: NO  Chuck provided good advice, but like a number of people who worked for me, before I retired, they were all about having things and going places and not thinking about the future.  I worked for over 40 years (a copuple of time three jobs at once) and saved. Paid cash for my Solstice as my retirement present.  One of the very best investments I have ever made.  More fun than I can stand most of the time, wonderful new friends, places to visit, and things to do.  It is NOT about what you "deserve" but about what you earn.

[Sly Bob]

Nope, you are right on the money on this one. I put a posting on the big board saying that he should get rid of the car and get something like an old Cavalier to get around. He clearly can't afford to keep the Solstice. 

[Sol Asylum]

This country's economy for that matter this global economy is in the state that it is in because people want everything now and want to pay for it latter.  Well guess what its latter.

This guy obviously doesn't know how to manage money he has an 07 GXP that cost in the low $30k's max if bought brand new and he still owes around $30k on it!  What was his down payment?  Nothing?   He is paying $470/month, he doesn't say what his interest rate is or the term of the loan.  Assuming he has paid for about 12 months on this car with no down payment he has paid $5640.  Who knows how much of that was interest.  I don't know who is dumber him for taking the loan or the bank for loaning him the money.  He should have just waited a few years put money aside each month and then used that cash to buy the car.  If he had done that for say three years he would have been accruing interest on his money instead of paying interest and would have around $17,000 that he could have put down on the car.  If he had bought a used GXP he probably could have paid for it in full.

How can he say that his little assistance program would be a non profit organization?  He is trying to get some one to pay off his car for him, isn't that some kind of profit?  I am sure the IRS would like this little scheme.  Whats next his non profit legal defense program?  He wants to get the money he needs with as little work as possible apparently he doesn't realize how much work will be needed to set up this web site thing.  What he needs to do is get up off his lazy a@# and get a job to pay for the things he needs like food and shelter.  Most said he needs to get a second job but what it sounded like to me he needs to get a first job.

Lets face it none of us bought a Solstice because it was a practical car.  We bought them for the fun factor/enjoyment of how they drive, handle, or look, not because it was the most cost effective way to get from point A to point B.  The point is that those of us who could afford to help people like this out if we choose to are in that position because we are responsible with our money.  Part of knowing how to be responsible with our money is knowing not to waste it on fools like this.

He is in this position because of his own foolishness should we feel bad because he's a dolt?  We didn't tell him to get himself into this position why should we have to come to his rescue?  Most of us would be to embarrassed to even ask others to help us pay for our cars because we got ourselves into a bad financial situation due to our stupidity.

You were most definitely not too harsh with this guy.

[Critterman]

Chuck I think you were totally out of line, harsh and hard and kicked him when he was down.  What exactly was it you said to him anyway the only thing I got out of the entire thread and everyone else missed it was the fact that you drove a forklift and got paid for it.

Just kidding, I think you gave great advise.  You have to earn your way or you will never get off the ground

[chuckdoc]

Actually my fork lift story did not start out well, was fun in the middle and ended two years later in a catastrophe.  I hate to admit this but it is all sad but true.

I needed money and the warehouse was hiring fork lift drivers for the night shift.  I found out it was a union job with great pay and benefits.  So I applied and got the job.  I might have made them think I actually knew how to drive one.  Showed up on the night shift and was given a list of pallets to move from anywhere up to 4 big tiers high and move to the loading dock for AM loading.  We are not talking about little propane lifts, we are talking about huge MFer fork lifts.  Went right to the night foreman and confessed I had not only never driven one, but actually had never seen ones that big.  Lucky for me he found that hilarious that the dumb management would send him a driver that did not know how to drive.  Well, after a couple months I really got good.  I mean really good, I would zip down the center while raising the forks, slam into a 4th tier storage area and slide the forks right under the pallet, tilt them back while backing up at full speed and lower them babies right before I came to the low center beam that held up the warehouse.  They loved me cause with no management around, I started forklift olympics.  This include racing and lots of crazy stuff.  We also had these electric hand jacks.  Well I figured out that if you put a pallet on the forks and turned the handle around backwards you could stand on the pallet and drive them around.  So I organized slalom races.  Lots of great stories.  Then came the sad ending.  As most know I do not hold my booze well and two beers makes me dizzy.  Well one day everyone decided to celebrate a birthday so we snuck out of the warehouse and went to a place called the Sandman bar and grill in Bordentown NJ.  I kept telling them I do not drink well but alas many many many beers later I returned to work.

Not a pretty story, but I had two tons of porcelain light fixtures from a top tier and heading down the center of the warehouse and forgot to lower the forks.  Well I hit that beam so hard it turned the porcelain (the kind you screw a light bulb into in an unfinished room) into snow flakes.  I just got down, took my time card and clocked out.  Never went back.

See, I can also be a screw up.

I really have never told this story and will never again.  But it may warn others away from the evils of drink

Chuck   

[Sol Asylum]

We have a guy at work that actually rolled a forklift a few years ago, he claimed the steering must have been defective, yea that must have been it!  The guys in the machine shop took an add for the local implement dealership and photo shopped one of the tractors upside down and then added the text "if you can guess which one Bob X was driving you get and extra $500 off the sale price"

We still have that forklift and if you look you can see where the roll cage leans to the one side.

We give him crap all the time about how talented a drive he is because how many people do you know that have rolled a forklift?

[chuckdoc]

So many more stories.  I can tell you, never race forklifts around a warehouse in 100 degree weather.  You see these suckers are heavy and they will sink in the soft asphalt.  Do not ask me how I know this.

Chuck

[baconbits]

Are you saying you were .. too drunk to fork properly....

Bacon

[chuckdoc]

 Dooh!  I think I proved I was.  Now that was funny

[Critterman]

I put a forklift into the Indian Ocean, but it wasn't my fault.  I was working the flight deck taking pallets from the elevators to the landing pads for the hellos to pick up in a storm.  we were taking heavy rolls and it was raining cats and dogs.  I dropped a load off and started backing out when the ship rolled.  i started sliding sideways, dropped the forks but still kept sliding.  About a foot from the edge I jumped off, engaging the dead man seat.  I hit the deck and rolled over the side into a safety net.  The lift slide into the net in front of me and went right through it never to be seen again.

The brought another forklift up on the next evelator and I continued staging, just made sure I dropped my loads from the middle and not the sides.

[baconbits]

Funny how alot of us have forklift stories.. I put a fork through a 36" 400 psi stock pipe line at a paper mill.. it didn't leak until I pulled the fork out then there was about 6 feet of liquid paper in about 30 seconds..bit messy.. So anyway back to the thread ..I think you'll see alot of special purpose cars for sale in the next year or so..and alot of them will have more owing than actual worth ..for some who have money or who haven't been nearly wiped out by Wall Street steals are going to abound.. I'm taking up a collection to buy this poor disadvantaged Canadian (Bacon) a nice winter retirement property somewhere warm please give till it hurts..
Bacon

[Whip]

Chuck, to answer your question.....no you are not being too harsh.  That was an inspirational story by the way.  You are to be commended. 

Love the forklift stories.  I used to operate a forklift during the summer between college semesters.  Unfortunately, I don't have anything funny that can compete with these stories.    

[stuck]

I think you were way too hard on him. If he does set up his site, I'm making a major contribution because everyone deserves to keep their car. Wait, what? Yes, Nurse Ratched, I'm typing again. Oh, it's time for my blue candy and sleepy time? OK then, I love sleepy time...

[KWhale]

I felt sorry for him, so I sent him $6,000.  The jokes on him though.....it was Canadian dollars ROFL!!!!

[Deep-GXP]

Stop it guys !  Now all I get are stupid FORK LIFT Ads !! 

[DeepBlueGXP]

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[spicy3480]

Gees this economy is bad.  We can't even afford our own car...LOL.