{"id":2173,"date":"2012-05-21T17:00:07","date_gmt":"2012-05-21T21:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/?p=2173"},"modified":"2012-05-21T16:05:06","modified_gmt":"2012-05-21T20:05:06","slug":"baby-let-me-drive-your-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/2012\/05\/21\/baby-let-me-drive-your-car\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby, let me drive your car"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mercedes Benz SLS AMG, at the top of Mike's most expensive list.<\/p><\/div>\n

This is a short entry about cars–of the extreme variety: either very (VERY) cheap or very (VERY) expensive. The two extremes are represented by a father, NCPR’s Chief Engineer Radio Bob Sauter, and his son, a 247wallst.com reporter\/editor Mike Sauter.<\/p>\n

Mike’s article, The Ten Most Expensive Cars to Own<\/em><\/a>, might not have leapt off the page so<\/p>\n

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Nissan GT-R, at the "low" cost end of Mike's list.<\/p><\/div>\n

dramatically if not for his father’s renowned penchant for the least expensive cars. <\/em>Granted, Mike takes into account the cost of maintaining these high-end chariots, but I’m going to guess that Bob’s maintenance costs are minimal, dealt with at the local auto parts store, and that’s about it. In other words, nothing to throw the equation out of whack. Mike’s cars still=mega-bucks. Bob’s cars=cheap to buy and fix.<\/p>\n

So, I asked Bob, “How many cars have you owned through the years and what do you estimate as the average cost?”<\/p>\n

He said, “98 cars, average price $100, highest ever $2,200.” Grand total spent for all 98 vehicles: $8,799.<\/p>\n

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Radio Bob says: "This 1956 Jaguar XK-140 drophead coupe cost me $175, and I sold it (after blowing the engine) for $125." (Editor's note: yes, that's Bob.)<\/p><\/div>\n

What was your best or worst car deal? Do you miss the vehicles of your youth? Are you saving\u00a0 for a hybrid or electric car (but dreaming of the hot wheels in Mike’s article)? Do you love or hate cars? Some of both?<\/p>\n

I’ll start with this: my favorite car was an old Saab, 4 on the floor.<\/p>\n

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Bob reports: "A fully restored XK-140 on ebay now featches upward of $75K...I suppose I should have kept mine."<\/p><\/div>\n

Only problem: the ignition was next to the shifter, so the key was beside the driver, between the front seats. In extremely cold weather, one could exert a lot of leverage on the key to start the car…and break off the key (which I did twice).<\/p>\n

But that was back when winters brought us -30F nights on a regular basis.<\/p>\n

Okay, your car stories…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a short entry about cars–of the extreme variety: either very (VERY) cheap or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[96,6293,5473],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2173"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2181,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2173\/revisions\/2181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}