This will probably get locked up but....

[Squelchtone]

Here in Australia, the Department of Transport for each state is connected with the others in the country. Through the databases, it means anything that goes missing in one state and surfaces in another is instantly picked up when re-registered.

Bummer about the friends car. I'd say tow truck job, though surprising that they'd take a 05 Corolla in the first place.

As a Corolla owner, I can tell you why they took a Corolla in this day and age:

32 Miles Per Gallon

In my area you can't even find a used Toyota Corolla or Camry, because everyone is buying them up. A well made car and good on gasoline? It's a sure winner.

To those of you in the UK and Australia, I'm not sure what your petrol situation is, but here in the states we went from $1.79 / gallon just a few years ago to today's price of $4.09 (last week it was $4.27) where I live in New England. That may not seem high to Europeans, but it's sticker shock to Americans who for 30 years have been driving on plentiful and cheap fuel.

I feel bad for the guy who has a work van and has to fill up $100 / week just to drive around and give customers free estimates.

Squelchtone

[parapilot]

fuel is silly here. costs $250 to fill up my van. was £1.39 a ltr for diesel.

[Squelchtone]

fuel is silly here. costs $250 to fill up my van. was £1.39 a ltr for diesel.

ok, I'm dusting off my TI-86 calculator for this..


1 Gallon = 3.78541178 Liters

£1.39 * 3.78541178 Liters = £5.26

£5.26 converted to dollars = $10.10 US


I believe I paid $4.75 US / gallon for diesel yesterday.

What really blows my mind is that if you were filling your van up here in the states it would have cost you $479.83 US



Squelchtone

ps. I'll be outside fixing up my old bicycle

[Afisch]

Yea petrol over here has been higher than the US for a long time. Most American cars have horrible MPG though.

[Jaakko]

It is about 1.55 EUR per litre here, so for US that means like 8.5 USD per gallon. And it ain't stopping...

PS: Google Calc can do some nice converts when you type it in and hit enter

[blake1803]

Yea petrol over here has been higher than the US for a long time. Most American cars have horrible MPG though.

Yep. Try Googling the words Chrysler GM and Ford and I bet you'll find that things aren't looking too good for American automakers. As such they've tried to make improvements in the past couple years but I think it's a case of too little too late.

For a while there it seemed like American automakers weren't even trying. They took a real blow when SUVs stopped selling, which they all had essentially bet the farm on. While they were busy trying to figure out how to recoup their losses in the aftermath of all that, companies like Honda were working hard on the future. The FCX is looking very impressive.

[Scott_93]

Regarding the vehicle theft problem-the uk police have invested heavily in ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Readers) and have tracking device locating recievers fitted in most, if not all, panda cars.

[prag]

Scott_93 wrote

Regarding the vehicle theft problem-the uk police have invested heavily in ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Readers) and have tracking device locating recievers fitted in most, if not all, panda cars

This is a true story. My mom,who is 70 yrs old and still drives, noticed her front number plate missing. She kept on postponing it and eventually forgot about replacing it.

Two weeks later, at about 3am she hears a pounding at her front door.
She first checks who it is and was astonished to see a whole "department" of cop in her yard.

They question her about her whereabout at around 12 am-2am. Now picture and old lady partying at that hours. "Why?" she asks. The cop realising that she's not a suspect, then ask about her vehicle. Which is incidently a Toyota Corolla. And she replies that it has been parked with her steering lock on the whole night but now remembering that her number plate were stolen a few weeks back.

Eventually, the cop tell her that somebody copied her number plates and the same make,model and colour car was used in an armed robbery.

Did she get her number plates sorted out after that incident. The criminal mind is alway thinking ahead.