Sick of Amateurs (Page 1/2)
Dukesterpro MAY 30, 09:35 AM
Please read to fully understand what I mean. The title can come off as rude.

To me an "Amatuer" is not someone who is learning skills and actively working to better themselves and there car. To all the folks out there who don't know much about cars, this is your first time working on one, and you are actively learning how to care for a Fiero. This post is NOT directed at you.

To you out there that bite off more than they can chew and pass the car on to someone else who can or can learn to care for it. This post is NOT directed at you.

To you out there that buy an otherwise perfectly good car. Get flustered and decide to part out said car, destroying the title. Just know you are part of the reason the hobby is struggling.

Don't get me wrong, their are cars out there that are really only good for parts. (Rust Buckets, Collision Aftermaths, Flood Debris). But perusing the cesspit that is FB Marketplace and almost once a day some moron is listing their otherwise perfect Fiero for parts because "It has a bad fuel pump, for parts only, wont sell whole car"

I am only ranting over this since my lovely neighbor decided to cut up his CJB car because it blew a clutch. Literally took the body panels off of it, cut up the space frame with a torch and hauled it to the scrapper. Wouldn't sell me the whole car because he didn't want to deal with the process of titling it. When all he had to do was effing hand me the title. (Open Titles are legal in WI).

*Sigh*
Frenchrafe MAY 30, 11:55 AM
Here in France, it is nearly impossible to sell a car that has no valid inspection (MOT, CT etc...)
So yes, the idiots part out their cars piece by piece!

(How I wish I still lived in the UK and I could buy a clunker for a few hundred pounds.)

------------------
"Turbo Slug" - '87 Fiero GT. 3800 turbo. - The fastest Fiero in France! @turboslugfiero
https://youtu.be/c4Cu7_2OgYc

armos MAY 31, 02:19 AM
California has it's own "cash for clunkers" program that uses the taxpayers' own money to deplete the supply of inexpensive, serviceable old cars. They basically outbid what people of limited means would pay for a car that needs some work to pass an emissions test.

Cars out there are usually in great structural condition, and many older models aren't that hard to fix up for somebody who knows what they're doing. It's very frustrating how many cars get condemned and destroyed when there's nothing significantly wrong with them. California junkyards are a monument to politically created waste, in a state where the non-rich have been leaving in droves because of economics.
Craig71188 MAY 31, 07:36 AM
Ohio has worked very hard to close the "open title" flip program (taxes are like crack). Yes, lots of "no title" cars that I have heard become "state property" without a valid title are on FB (because Craigslist now charges $5 to list a car). That said, many are shown tagged and were being driven prior to being listed for sale (per the ad). Of course, if laws aren't enforced, they're really just suggestions aren't they?
Notorio MAY 31, 12:59 PM

quote
Originally posted by armos:

California has it's own "cash for clunkers" program that uses the taxpayers' own money to deplete the supply of inexpensive, serviceable old cars. They basically outbid what people of limited means would pay for a car that needs some work to pass an emissions test.

Cars out there are usually in great structural condition, and many older models aren't that hard to fix up for somebody who knows what they're doing. It's very frustrating how many cars get condemned and destroyed when there's nothing significantly wrong with them. California junkyards are a monument to politically created waste, in a state where the non-rich have been leaving in droves because of economics.



This is just part of the state's master plan to eliminate ALL fossil fuel cars. To the 'people of limited means' they say, let them take public transportation. (Unless there is a program to get electric cars into these folk's hands, that I don't know about ...)
armos MAY 31, 03:39 PM

quote
Originally posted by Notorio:

This is just part of the state's master plan to eliminate ALL fossil fuel cars. To the 'people of limited means' they say, let them take public transportation. (Unless there is a program to get electric cars into these folk's hands, that I don't know about ...)



It's a huge state with large rural areas, but the politicians represent the cities who elected them and not the whole state. It's a classic problem of CA politics that they apply city-attitudes statewide, ignoring areas which are politically irrelevant. Those are just viewed as camping zones for the city folk.

Where I used to live, public transportation doesn't even exist. Even if it did, people who live in the country are much too proud of their self reliance to reduce themselves to sitting around at a bus stop every time they need to go somewhere. They want to buy a vehicle they can afford and repair/maintain it and provide their own transportation. It's just basic human dignity.
Cities are a full service economy, the country is not. That leads to a very different psychology and culture of it's residents that, unsurprisingly, politicians don't respect or appreciate.
82-T/A [At Work] MAY 31, 05:45 PM

quote
Originally posted by Dukesterpro:

To you out there that buy an otherwise perfectly good car. Get flustered and decide to part out said car, destroying the title. Just know you are part of the reason the hobby is struggling.

*Sigh*




I almost / kinda did that many years ago. Although I don't think it really fits into your description here... but I bought a 1987 Pontiac Fiero SE/V6 5-Speed back in the day, in order to strip it for parts to upgrade my own 1987 Pontiac Fiero SE/V6 Automatic.

I had wanted to convert my Fiero into a manual transmission car, but was having a hard time finding all the parts I needed, so I thought it best to just buy one. I got the car for about $300 bucks, delivered to my house. There was no title for it, and the guy had purchased it at auction.

It wasn't in great shape mind you... the interior was ratty, the engine had a hole in it where a piston went through, and it was missing both the front and rear bumpers because the person who sold it to me used them to upgrade his 2m/bumper-pad style Fiero... but the car was a SOLID car. No rust, everything was there. It was a hard-top car (no sunroof), with the SE package, and a 5-Speed manual. Other than what came stock with the SE package (interior / aero body / gauge cluster), it had no options. I think it had like a rear defroster or a trunk release or something like that, but otherwise had no options. Would have been a perfect track car. I took everything off of it that I could possibly need, gave a lot of parts away to people who came to pick it up, and then cut it in half and left it out for bulk pickup.

It was like... almost 15 years ago though... so the cars were SUPER cheap back then... and lots of them available.
Dukesterpro JUN 01, 09:25 AM

quote
Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]:

It wasn't in great shape mind you... the interior was ratty, the engine had a hole in it where a piston went through, and it was missing both the front and rear bumpers because the person who sold it to me used them to upgrade his 2m/bumper-pad style Fiero... but the car was a SOLID car. No rust, everything was there. It was a hard-top car (no sunroof), with the SE package, and a 5-Speed manual. Other than what came stock with the SE package (interior / aero body / gauge cluster), it had no options. I think it had like a rear defroster or a trunk release or something like that, but otherwise had no options. Would have been a perfect track car. I took everything off of it that I could possibly need, gave a lot of parts away to people who came to pick it up, and then cut it in half and left it out for bulk pickup.

.



The car didn't go to waste. You bought a parts car, with the intention of using it for parts. The car had no title and a blown motor. Nothing wrong with this. I am not suggesting we save every Fiero that's still in one piece.

I am talking about folks who throw out a whole CJB car over a burned out fuel pump. That's just sickening. When they shred a title and part out an otherwise good 87GT over a no crank/no start issue because they don't feel like transferring titles. Thats a problem.
82-T/A [At Work] JUN 01, 10:49 AM

quote
Originally posted by Dukesterpro:

The car didn't go to waste. You bought a parts car, with the intention of using it for parts. The car had no title and a blown motor. Nothing wrong with this. I am not suggesting we save every Fiero that's still in one piece.

I am talking about folks who throw out a whole CJB car over a burned out fuel pump. That's just sickening. When they shred a title and part out an otherwise good 87GT over a no crank/no start issue because they don't feel like transferring titles. Thats a problem.




Yeah, that is absolutely crazy... makes no sense at all. I can only imagine what they were thinking.

But to be honest... if I had purchased that parts Fiero today... I'd probably not have cut it up. I mean, it was a completely perfect and rust-free frame. A hard-top no less with a 5-Speed Getrag. Would be a perfect SCCA car. But at the time, Fieros were really cheap, and they were plentiful. I likely COULD have gotten all these parts from the junkyard, but found it much easier for me to just have a whole car that I could take parts off of as I removed, cleaned, and transferred them over.
fieroguru JUN 01, 11:48 AM

quote
Originally posted by Dukesterpro:
I am talking about folks who throw out a whole CJB car over a burned out fuel pump. That's just sickening. When they shred a title and part out an otherwise good 87GT over a no crank/no start issue because they don't feel like transferring titles. Thats a problem.



We don't have to like it, but the owners of the vehicles do have the right to do whatever they want to them. That is the benefit of ownership.